Thesis (S.M.M.O.T.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, Management of Technology Program, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 62-63). / Entrepreneurship, with all its attendant ingredients, is one of the best means of triggering economic and social development in developing countries like India. There are several staple and mandatory ingredients necessary for the nourishment of entrepreneurship such as capital, labor, management, and several others; and several milestones in the evolution of an entrepreneurial opportunity such as funding, recruitment, and so on. As entrepreneurship ideas and opportunities take form and substance, the prevailing process for entrepreneurship in a country results gradually guides an entrepreneur past numerous milestones. The value of entrepreneurship as an economic development tool lies in the compression and/or acceleration of the overall process of entrepreneurship in a country by providing pinpointed assistance in three areas viz. idea development, capital and skills procurement, and organizational growth. This is best achieved by an organizational entity committed to accelerating the entrepreneurship process. This thesis follows through on the above idea specifically in the context of India. India is a durable democracy with a long legacy and history of entrepreneurship dating back to the first century B.C. Modern India features political and economic policies that favour global trade and business, a reliable yet evolving regulatory and legal framework, a resilient financial system, an educated and English-speaking labor force that offers tremendous cost advantages and a growing educational infrastructure of education institutions that offer excellent higher education in technology and business. In summary, as developing countries go, India offers an excellent milieu for aspiring entrepreneurs. A summary country analysis detailing this forms the first part of the thesis. The thesis then identifies candidate business models that could effectively support the one-point agenda of catalyzing entrepreneurship. These four business models differ with respect to the organizational form of the entity concerned, the metrics for success, the measurement of the metrics, possible conflicts of interest, and the estimated overall risk of the venture in the Indian context. The most viable and effective business model is selected. Finally, the thesis builds on the model selected and presents a comprehensive business plan for accelerating entrepreneurship in India. / by Shivram Venkatasubramaniam. / S.M.M.O.T.

Thesis (S.M.M.O.T.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, Management of Technology Program, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 66-70). / In the research and development (R&D) organization of a firm in a high technology industry, because of the needs for innovative and complex tasks in the rapidly changing environment of technology and market, the design of efficient organization would be one of the most important things. Many researchers have concentrated on the questions: How should teams or unit organizations be organized in terms of demographic diversity? What are the key variables associated with better performance? More technically, should a functional team be formed by the people who have similar experience and tenure, or, alternatively, should it be composed of people with a wide range of demographic characteristics? In this perspective, using the data collected from the 31 project teams and 191 individuals at four corporate-level research and development laboratories at a global electronics company in Korea, this study investigates the impact of demography diversity on project team performance. Particularly, this study moves beyond previous research by broadening the demographic variables to the education characteristics such as major, school, and educational level as a group. The results of the study suggest that, like the other demographic variables, the educational background also is strongly related to the team level performance. While each demographic variable has a certain operating direction, in this unique organization, the more homogeneous team in terms of diversity of school is likely to have better performance through the group process. / by Myung-Jin Soh. / S.M.M.O.T.

Thesis (S.M.M.O.T.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, Management of Technology Program, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 69-72). / Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), at their core are a set of technologies that employ the processes developed in the integrated circuit (IC) and semiconductor industries to construct electro- mechanical devices. In the case of Microopticelectromechanical systems (MOEMS), optical elements are also integrated into these devices. MEMS technology holds the promise of significantly miniaturizing, reducing the cost of, and enhancing the performance of many sensors and actuators, evidence its widespread use in the manufacture of accelerometers, ink jet printer heads and various chemical gas sensors. Despite its stellar success in these "killer-applications," MEMS technology has failed to realize the widespread success many had predicted for it. Nonetheless, this technology has recently been explored extensively for new electro-optics applications, specifically in telecommunications for dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) and optical switching. This thesis examines various models of dynamic technology adoption and explores how they apply to MEMS technology. Furthermore, by way of historical comparison to the development of application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), it will identify various developmental similarities. Finally, a unique model outlining the critical driving forces behind the adoption of MEMS technology will be constructed. / by Alan M. Then. / S.M.M.O.T.

Thesis (S.M.M.O.T.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, Management of Technology Program, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references. / Inkjet printing has proven to be a remarkable disruptive technology. From its humble beginnings in 1984 it has grown to become the dominant technology for personal computer-based printing. However, after almost two decades of strong growth, the Inkjet printing market is maturing. Companies large and small are now beginning to explore use of inkjet in a diverse range of new applications ranging from manufacture of next generation flat panel displays and low cost circuits to generation of biochips and fast-prototyping of 3-D objects. These new applications present existing inkjet players with exciting opportunities to leverage their knowledge and assets to exploit these new markets. This thesis explores the opportunities for inkjet technology in two emerging industries: 1) next-generation flat panel displays based on organic light-emitting diodes and 2) low cost, disposable circuits required for products such as radio-frequency identification tags and smart cards. These are likely to be the two biggest opportunities for non-traditional applications of inkjet technology. In both cases, inkjet provides a flexible, low cost manufacturing method that is a very compelling alternative to the expensive wafer fab processing required to produce today's flat panel displays and circuits. Each of these industries is analyzed in considerable depth to provide context for assessing the disruptive potential of inkjet. The potential of inkjet to become an important enabling technology is then analyzed using ideas and frameworks from the management ofteclmology literature. Both organic LED displays and low cost circuits appear likely to become disruptive technologies. The best early opportunity for non-traditional application of inkjet technology appears to be in display manufacturing. Here the technology fit with Inkjet capabilities is good and the strength of competing manufacturing technologies is relatively weak. Establishment of inkjet as an important production method for low cost circuits appears more challenging. The technology fit is not as good and competing low-cost technologies are further along in their development. It is recommended that existing inkjet players first address the display opportunity to gain experience with transitioning inkjet from a consumer printing technology to one well suited to high-volume electronics manufacturing. Once this capability has been demonstrated the bigger challenges in circuit manufacturing can be addressed. / by Todd A. Cleland. / S.M.M.O.T.

Thesis (S.M.M.O.T.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, Management of Technology Program, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 109-112). / Disruptive innovations in network systems are forcing mobile carriers to manage difficult network software development. Within the limited development time, mobile carriers are required to develop large scale, high quality and robust network software, and accomplish smooth transition/upgrading. In the drastic transition of the network architecture, network carriers often fail to develop platform network software. Compared with KDDI, NTT DoCoMo (DoCoMo) has been coping with network migration problems. The critical difference in both mobile carriers is whether the platform-based approach was applied sufficiently in the network software development. DoCoMo's insufficient platform-based approach led to migration difficulties. On the other hand, the consistent platform-based approach allowed KDDI to enjoy successful migration. In order to identify the critical factors in network software development related to this problem, this thesis (1) explores the characteristics of network innovations and (2) analyzes the platform innovations in mobile network software. The ultimate goal of this thesis is to (3) suggest how incumbent mobile carriers can avoid the potential threats and develop the platform network software in future disruptive network innovations. In the future, management of telecommunication systems design and development will face more challenging and more complicated migration because the network concepts and architecture will be completely different from those in the existing 3G networks. The lessons learned from the case studies DoCoMo and KDDI suggest ideas that mobile carriers can utilize to address tough situations. / (cont.) The platform-based approach definitely will help the migration strategies of mobile carriers and reduce the potential threats in current and future network systems. / by Yujiro Mochizuki. / S.M.M.O.T.

Thesis (S.M.M.O.T.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, Management of Technology Program, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 85-86). / Over 99% of enterprises in US and Japan are of small- or medium-size. Some will enjoy successful growth whereas most will suffer from poor growth, though all have started from being small. Analogy exists between those successfully growing start-ups and people who want to leverage the days spent in noted universities to a better job and to leverage the experiences in the better workplace to their further business career. Even in a world of business, it seems to be very essential in the growth of firm to leverage resources acquired. When searched in the Google.com, 'leverage' hits 2,640,000 pages and 'by leveraging' hits 220,000 pages. Also, words of 'leveraging' as abundant as stars in the sky are found in speeches, presentations and brochures. Nevertheless, there are no comprehensive frameworks or papers on the corporate strategy about leveraging, though a lot of papers refer to a portion of it through, for instance, resource-based view and financial leverage. Hence, attempted in this thesis was to develop a basic framework for leveraging business strategy, Leverage Driver Model (LDM) first. LDM consists of three parts: 1) product lever, 2) reputation driver, and 3) market lever, with consideration, with the consideration of dilution with time. Chapter 2 reviewed the past studies related to strategic leverages or related to growth paths of firms. In chapter 3, a basic mechanism of leverages in business was analyzed by introducing the Leverage Driver Model. In chapter 4, the scope of the LDM was expanded to applying itself to leveraging between products and between firms. Chapter 5 consists of case analyses on the practical leverage approaches some firms actually employed along their growing paths, and discussion was made to the / (cont.) attributes of leverages to the current success of some firms. / by Kenji Yamanami. / S.M.M.O.T.

Thesis (S.M.M.O.T.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, Management of Technology Program, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 134-136). / For firms entering new markets there are numerous variables impacting the focus and the scope of the new venture. For foreign companies entering the US biotech space this is even more so. Getting early relevant data is critical towards mission critical decisions and tactics. The firm in focus, Axis Shield, is launching a new point of care device to attract practitioners all over the US. They have been meticulous in getting secondhand data from various surveys and research reports. The focus of this thesis is to assist them in their primary data gathering testing assumptions and dimensions carved out to be instrumental for commercial success. Thus, the main thesis focus is concerned with the identification, structuring, collecting and analysis of these primary data. The company will eventually use both the second hand and the primary data to complete their overall market analysis. Hence, the market survey will give the firm valuable data on which to base their US launch in 2004. Finally, the thesis will give personal insights regarding the complexity of planning and carrying out a marketing study for novel products in an inaccessible market. / by Jone Smedsvig. / S.M.M.O.T.

Thesis (S.M.M.O.T.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, Management of Technology Program, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 95-99). / Japanese banking firms have been in a turbulent period from the last decade due to deregulations and bad loans from collapse of a bubble economy. As a result, there have been many bankruptcies and merger & acquisitions (M&As) among Japanese banking firms. On the other hand, U.S. banking firms have already met with similar experiences from the 1970s to 1980s. After these turbulent eras, U.S. banks revived by restructuring and focusing on their core competence. They are strong from the viewpoint of profitability, size and stability. In this sense, it is generally said that U.S. banking firms are 10 years ahead from Japanese banking firms. Therefore, I think it is useful for Japanese banks to research and learn how U.S. banks corresponded to turbulence situations and how they revived. In this thesis, I focus on knowledge management in banking firms, because human resource and both internal and external knowledge is one of the most important assets for banks. Even though banking firms have many business fields for which knowledge is useful, I pick up and examine following aspects by using comparative analysis between Japanese and U.S. banking firms. 1. Employment System and Organizational Structures: The employment systems and organizational structures of banking firms are key to how they manage their knowledge because knowledge belongs to the employees and organizations. 2. Customer Relationship Management: How to make the best use of customers' knowledge is important for banks, and banks need to focus not only on internal knowledge but a!so external knowledge. 3. Outsourcing: Acquiring knowledge and skills from outside sources is becoming more and more important for banks because of innovations in information technology and severe competition among many rivals. / by Kazunori Yamagata. / S.M.M.O.T.

Thesis (S.M.M.O.T.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, Management of Technology Program, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 44-45). / This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections. / In the technology centric businesses disruptive technologies displace incumbents time and again, sometimes to the extent that incumbents go bankrupt. In this thesis we would address the issue of what strategies are essential to prepare for and to manage disruptions for the affected businesses and industries. Specifically we will look at grid computing that is poised to disrupt (1) certain Enterprise IT departments, and (2) the software industry in the high-performance and web services space. In this thesis, we will present an analysis for addressing this disruption on a segment by segment basis across the distributed computing and application software value chain. / by Vidyadhar Phalke. / S.M.M.O.T.

Thesis (S.M.M.O.T.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, Management of Technology Program, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 146-148). / This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections. / Problems are occurring in the digital business economy as companies try to realize a tangible profit. As network infrastructures improve, the value of information becomes less and less since marginal costs for digital goods is practically zero and searching the cost of goods is also extremely low. How, then, can the media industry remain profitable in the digital business economy? One way to retain the value of digital goods is through the use of firm governmental regulations, but this is still insufficient because of the ever-expanding network infrastructure and the growing threat of piracy. This thesis discusses potential strategies to be used in today's digital business economy based on current difficulties. It proposes an integrated business model for an on-line contents distribution business and an electronic payment business which complement each other. It is well-known that content distribution businesses are facing severe threats from piracy. By providing content for free as a complementary service for profitable businesses, it will be shown that media distribution companies can maximize the value of their contents library, which would otherwise be worthless in face of growing piracy. The thesis also discusses the migration process in an integrated business model by utilizing a System Dynamics approach to the analysis. The electronic payments business is regarded as a profit driver that can be complemented by the attractive value proposition of free online contents distribution businesses. For an infrastructure-oriented business like electronic payments, broad acceptance of such a service is critical to reducing customers' perceived risk. By introducing free content downloads, a business strategy is proposed that accelerates customer penetration and rapid migration to a profitable and integrated business of online contents distribution and electronic payment. By combining these two potentially successful two business models, a profitable business integration is proposed in which each business supplements the other in the digital business economy. / by Hideaki Tomikawa. / S.M.M.O.T.