Thesis (S.M.M.O.T.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, Management of Technology Program, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 74-76). / Consumers are constantly demanding better products, at lower prices, along with better overall services and customer support. Organizations, on the other hand, are struggling with shorter product life cycles, increased product variety and lower profit margins due to fierce global competition and faster commoditization of products and services. In a new, global world, targeting local markets does not seem to be enough for long-term company survival. Good supply chain management and design is becoming a key factor for resource optimization, overall user experience enhancement and to achieve a competitive strategic advantage in order to gain sustainable growth ratios. This thesis analyses how current trends in Supply Chain Management are affecting the global wine supply chain, and builds on the specific case of Argentinean wineries that sell their products in the U.S. market. I start by analyzing each tier of the supply chain using Porter's Five Forces model in order to understand the characteristics of each tier, how these forces impact the supply chain as a whole, and how companies interact between tiers. While doing so, I also analyze how current trends in Supply Chain Management are affecting the current state of the supply chain. Finally, I describe possible changes in the supply chain configuration due to the adoption of these new trends by organizations along the chain, and describe some of the major aspects that Argentinean wineries should take into account in order to gain a better competitive advantage along the chain. / by Cristian Adamo. / 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 80-83). / We would like to propose two critical dimensions for strategy: "Industry Scope Shift" and "Reverse Strategy Trace." Recent changes in the progress of information technology and economic globalization raised the importance of these dimensions. Rapid progress in information technology requires firms to respond to the changes of scope including market and product. The execution speed is increasingly becoming critical to keep uniqueness of product and service offerings. Industry Scope Shift helps the capturing of these changes into strategy. Economic globalization demands the organizational challenge to manage conflicts between local market responsiveness and global operation efficiency. Reverse Strategy Trace gives a clear perspective to analyze emergent strategy to accumulate organizational learning from business operations. We will examine the importance of these two dimensions and provides answers when and why these are critical in the strategy planning process. / by Yasuhiko Kiuchi. / 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 89-93). / I expand Christensen's concept and classify two disruptive technologies, company disruptive technology and product disruptive technology. The company disruptive technology is Christensen's definition itself. The product disruptive technology is the disruptive one outside his definition, for example the digital still camera (DSC). I will discuss about some cases, such as a case of high-end disruption, in this expanded definition. Company disruption follows product disruption. Targeting "company" is useful for making strategies, but it is not enough to target only "company" disruptive innovation because the product disruption sometimes badly damages or kills companies. Complementors, such as other products, law, environment etc, are also very important when we consider the disruptive technology, because they change the value criteria of the product performance. It is very important for us to take advantage of complementors in order to grow the disruptive technology. Disruption is a process and it does not always disrupt everything. The disruption is limited in the case of value-change disruption and another disruption is usually required to disrupt a product which falls outside the immediate influence of the first disruption. The disruptions must be happen one after another to disrupt all in the case of the value-change disruption. Circumstances also limit the impact of product disruption. Therefore, it is very useful for one to check and consider a disruptive technology from the viewpoints of both the value criteria and the circumstances. / by Mitsuhiro Kameda. / 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 140-142). / Customer power is growing, and customers now have tools that inform them of the true state of affairs. This power enables them to avoid the pushy messages of marketers, make their own decisions, and determine what to buy. A company advocates for its customers and earns their trust. It may not be a strategy for everyone, but innovative companies are following this path. The marketing paradigm is shifting from traditional push-based marketing to trust-based advocacy marketing. This research identifies and summarizes the key elements needed to create customer advocacy. It considers the following research questions: What are the key elements to creating customer advocacy? What means or types are there in each key element? Which elements are influential on advocacy marketing in each company and industry? The author sent out requests for interviews to many firms and received affirmative replies from about thirty. Based on the data gathered by the author, twelve new key elements were identified, and several means for realizing these elements, which can be distilled in several ways. These key elements and means are effective for firms in a variety of industries and categories. In addition, the author introduces a new framework which can effectively identify a firm's position in terms of two dimensions: push and trust. This framework is useful for confirming differences between competitors and validating corporate strategies for building and maintaining competitive advantage. Few firms can afford to ignore advocacy marketing as a marketing strategy. Advocacy marketing is associated not only with customer marketing, but also with overall corporate strategy. This research will focus on enriching practical knowledge for the / (cont.) real world, and be a useful reference when a company launches its advocacy marketing campaigns. / by Takashi Yamaoka. / 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 91-94). / This thesis presents research about the potential business impacts of the Semantic Web. The concept of the Semantic Web is an expansion of the Web for computers, enabling them to comprehend the meaning of information. In addition, Semantic Web Services (SWS), the emerging convergence of Web Services with the Semantic Web, is the next major generation of the Web (and of the Internet), in which e-services and business communication become more knowledge-based and agent-based. The study arose out of a technology review of the Semantic Web and its current adoption. Following further analysis and research into business cases involving Semantic Web applications, the author focused specifically on the system integration business in an effort to understand the potential business impacts of the Semantic Web for system integration. In the system integration field, there are various trends for companies thinking about adopting the Semantic Web into the real business world. In this thesis, I offer answers to two questions: Why do system integrators need the Semantic Web, and how they should go about adopting it? / by Akio Saita. / 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 78-80). / As China becomes more global, Mergers & Acquisitions (M&As), have been increasingly attracting the attention of China. This thesis investigates M&A theories and practices of valuation and integration in China on the basis of the analysis of the current trends of M&A market in both the US and China. Some related studies are reviewed to identify the research gap and applications in the Chinese context. A practical framework of using an active M&A strategy for corporate growth is presented, along with a case study. / by Jun Chen. / 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 (p. 66-67). / China has placed the commercialization of science and technology innovations as one of the nation's most important long-term development strategies. In the birthplace of venture capital (VC), venture investment has been the fuel of high technology entrepreneurship development, which transformed US economy from a manufacturing- to a knowledge-based economy. By examining the formation and operation of China's venture capital (VC) industry, this study attempts to discover the role of different types of venture capital in China's technology entrepreneurship development. Four categories of venture capital operations, government funds, government leveraged funds, State Owned Enterprise (SOE) funds, and foreign funds, are identified by their sources of funding. Four venture capital operations, NewMargin, Business Incubator of Zhongguancun Haidian Science Park, Legend Capital, and IDG Technology Venture are examined as the base of analysis. The cases are chosen because they are the leading firms in their respective categories. Case studies show that the government is not only the regulator but also an active participant in China's venture capital industry. The active involvement of the government has both positive and negative impacts on the industry, venture capital funds, and entrepreneurial firms. The government's early involvement provided seeds for China's venture capital industry, but its regulations on financial market that are skewed towards the reform of state owned enterprises suffocate the growth of the venture capital industry. The case studies indicate that the bigger the government stakes in a venture capital fund, the greater the correlation between the fund's portfolio and the country's long term technological development goals. Distinctions between US and Chinese venture capital firms are also discussed. / by Juming Chen. / 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 113-116). / Knowledge Management (KM) has become a strategic business practice that is credited with providing and sustaining a firm's competitive advantage. Organizations skilled at knowledge management evaluate their core processes, capture insights of their findings, combine their skills and experiences, innovate, and apply the newly refined ideas quickly. Herein lies the competitive advantage. Organizations that excel at maximizing corporate knowledge, such as consulting firms, tend to be the ones that 1) value their employees, 2) have a culture of learning, and 3) have processes for sharing information. This thesis focuses on the KM strategies of consulting firms. In consulting, knowledge is the very cornerstone of the services a firm offers its clients. An extensive literature review, combined with interviews of a crosssection of the consulting industry, provides insight into the KM systems and organizational culture of successful firms. The knowledge gained from this research will be used in the development and implementation of a KM system at the National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA.). NASA is facing the possibility of losing fifty percent of its civil service workforce through retirement over the next five years. Capturing and storing technical and institutional knowledge for future use will help to assure the success and continuity of the nation's space agency. Although several areas emerge from the research as being key to the success or a firm's KM system, one theme outweighs all others - organizational culture. Information technology alone is inadequate to perform the tasks of managing a firm's knowledge. The firm must create a learning and sharing culture where personal networks and information technology combine to create an environment that maximizes corporate knowledge. In this thesis, I outline a framework, with suggested diagnostic actions, to assist managers at NASA and other organizations in the assessment of different cultural aspects most likely to affect critical knowledge-related behaviors. Using this framework will allow for more informed decisions concerning the realignment of the firm's culture to effectively support the goals for leveraging organizational knowledge. / by Sherry L. Buschmann. / 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 (p. 129-131). / This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections. / Technology-based entrepreneurship tends to cluster in certain regions. The most famous examples include Silicon Valley and the Route 128 area of Boston. The results of this study provide insight into why and how such entrepreneurial clusters have evolved to generate more entrepreneurial opportunities than others. With a proposed framework, the thesis first examines their evolutionary dynamics along with the System Dynamics models and the Silicon Valley case. The results show their self-reinforcing characteristics and the implication that those clusters won't start their self-reinforcing process easily at the beginning of the evolution. Subsequently, the thesis compares three case studies of Cambridge, Munich, and Tokyo, in addition to the case of Silicon Valley. The results show a similar pattern of a series of abnormal events in the history of each cluster that prompted the start of the self-reinforcing process. Throughout the study, the framework demonstrates its usefulness to streamline many factors involved, state the conditions of the entrepreneurial clusters, and extract the characteristics of the evolutionary dynamics of those clusters. / by Mitsuyuki Ueda. / 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 89-94). / Trust Management is a growing problem in large corporations today. In industries like financial services, firms need to comply with constantly changing regulations, security requirements and business policies. Information technology is often the backbone of the processes that are regulated by such policies. Traditionally fine-grained Trust Management has been attempted by embedding policies within business logic of silo software applications. This practice leads to high total costs of ownership, minimal interoperability, potential security vulnerabilities and low management visibility into policy specifications and enforcement, which complicates compliance challenges with regulations like Sarbanes Oxley. This thesis makes several new contributions. First, it evaluates trust-policy related applications in the overall financial services industry that can benefit from rule technologies. A second contribution is proposing SCLP RuleML, an emerging semantic web rule language, for representing trust policies (SCLP = The Situated Courteous Logic Programs knowledge representation). A third contribution is providing several financial application scenarios in SCLP that demonstrate the effectiveness of RuleML, including credit card authorizations for electronic transactions, Check 21 processing in banks and account access control in brokerage or mutual fund systems. Finally we provide a rationale and a proposal for RuleML to be a reference implementation of extensible Access Control Markup Language (XACML), an evolving OASIS standard for digital authorization. / (cont.) Potential benefits of such standardization include lower cost and more effectiveness of policy administration; better governance and coordination through centralized ownership or interoperability; and reduced system development costs over the full life cycle. / by Chitravanu Neogy. / S.M.M.O.T.