Thesis (S.M.M.O.T.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, Management of Technology Program, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 80). / Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) comprise a set of technologies for the micromachining and electromechanical integration of sensors and actuators. MEMS allow for the radical miniaturization of such devices, as well as for significant improvements in performance and cost over conventionally fabricated mechanical and electrical components. In this thesis, I attempt to assess the value inherent in MEMS innovations and to understand how companies have tried to capture that value. In doing so, I assess the pathways and prospects for the commercialization of MEMS-based devices. I have chosen to focus on two classes of devices: (1) micromachined accelerometers for crash sensing and subsequent air bag deployment in automobiles, and (2) microfabricated chemical sensing and analysis devices for detecting and quantifying gas phase molecules, analyzing complex molecular mixtures, and carrying out high throughput screening of chemical compounds. Accelerometers are an example of a MEMS-based sensor that has almost completely displaced existing electromechanical substitute devices. Applications of MEMS to chemical sensing and analysis, however, are less mature and widespread adoption is less assured. In both cases, I evaluate the opportunities in the new technology from several different perspectives: (1) the factors that affect the transition from innovative technologies to marketable products; (2) the economic, market, and strategic forces that influence the adoption of these products; and (3) the business models of companies that have attempted to profit from MEMS innovations. I conclude the thesis with a chapter on potential strategic market barriers to successful commercialization of MEMS-based devices. / by Gary N. Robinson. / S.M.M.O.T.

Thesis (S.M.M.O.T.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, Management of Technology Program, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 104) and index. / My thesis covers the electronic procurement currently existing, mainly the nonproduction purchase part of it. Since all companies make non-production purchase, this thesis reaches different sectors of the industry. Non-production procurement includes maintenance, repair, and operation, common called MRO, as well as service and outsource purchase. This work is also recommended for those who are interested in a general e-procurement, in an integrated supply-chain management over the Internet, in a Just in Time application, in a vertical and virtual integration, and in a business-to-business e-commerce application. My main goal is to help those who are interested in using e-procurement understand what the industry is doing, what kind of technology is available, and provide a model for implementation. In order to achieve those goals this work is divided into two main parts: An Industry Analysis and an Implementation Plan. The industry analysis covers the three major software providers in the actual US market: Ariba, Commerce One, and Oracle. The work is illustrated with a case study in order to provide a better understanding of the benefits and challenges faced by those who are deploying e-procurement. The implementation plan focuses on a strategy to be followed in order to install eprocurement in the service industry. A Brazilian bank, Itau, is used as an example to develop the plan, since Itau is a large corporation with national presence in South America. / by Carlos Henrique Tiezzi Marcondes. / S.M.M.O.T.

Thesis (S.M.M.O.T.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, Management of Technology Program, 2001. / "June 2001." / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 66-69). / The petroleum industry is a mature commodity business and a high- technology business characterized by a relatively high rate of innovation. Probably the world's largest industry even today, the petroleum industry has an interesting history that has shaped the dynamic energy landscape. The petroleum industry is composed of two groups of companies: the petroleum companies and the oilfield service and sμpply companies. Through mergers and acquisitions BP has grown to the third largest petroleum company and the world's 17th largest company. Statoil is a middle tier petroleum company. Both Statoil and BP are integrated oil companies. This thesis studies the technology strategy and innovation management practices in the two petroleum companies Statoil and BP. A literature review presents the central concepts and models that have been developed in the fields of general strategy, technology strategy and innovation management. The main strategy features are alignment between business, technology and research, underpinned by processes, structures, incentives and culture, and an intelligent user strategy focused on cost reduction. The management of innovation emphasizes cooperation across organizational boundaries, a free and effective market approach to ideas, innovation and technology, and a low appropriability regime for technology. The thesis points to weaknesses and problems related to the present strategy. The present strategy is weak in competitive advantage. The free and effective market that underpins the user strategy is vulnerable. The alignment strategy can lead to strategic and organizational inertia and preclude necessary change. Alignment must be combined with adaptability to be sustainable. The strategy of internationalization through technology leverage requires an ambidextrous organization. / by Trygve Laegreid. / S.M.M.O.T.

Thesis (S.M.M.O.T.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, Management of Technology Program, 2002. / This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 116-121). / As our world becomes more complex and information-rich, the effort needed to share and create knowledge is increasing greatly. Transformation from Industrial Age to Information Age organizations is not simple. But there are strategies managers can use and emulate, to make their organizations more successful in sharing and creating new knowledge, to achieve better performance. Knowledge loss is a significant issue. Demographics may cause the "first-of-type" implementation pioneers to retire, or events such as those of Fall 2001 may cause people to be no longer available -- or no longer able to reach their knowledge support systems, as seen when anthrax attacks closed Congressional offices for weeks. Strategies can be implemented for the different kinds of knowledge -- explicit knowledge, meta knowledge, and tacit knowledge. Processes can be used to enhance knowledge sharing, extending the number of people who know and reducing the risk of loss. The US Army is a learning organization which has spent the past decade becoming "knowledge centric and network centric." Techniques, processes and knowledge lessons learned are presented, including a case study of the Project Management Office for Bradley Fighting Vehicle Systems, as it transformed its people, organization, and vehicles being developed from Industrial Age to internet-work Information Age systems. Rather than focusing on knowledge management, which has become synonymous with archiving what is already known into digital databases, I am focused on the strategies real-world managers can use for knowledge. The goal is to help the organization achieve better performance by sharing knowledge. Technology can help, when supporting instead of driving the goals. Networking, both in person and virtually, can overcome the isolation of knowledge. Many of my examples tap into the experiences I had or observed in the US Army product development community -- but I believe they are valuable and generalizable to other high- performance organizations. "Hope is not a method" -- knowledge sharing is a better technique. / by Lisa M. Shaler-Clark. / 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 84-87). / IT offshoring is the practice of acquiring Information Technology capabilities, usually from an outsourcing service, but also through company-owned, dedicated centers, in remote lower-cost locations. The goal of this thesis is to develop a strategic framework to help companies succeed in the offshoring process. The framework assesses the five essential factors: strategic factors, to check the proper alignment of the off shoring venture with the overall company strategy; internal factors, to check the readiness of the organization; as well as operational factors, to assess the implementation part of the offshoring project. To evaluate the whole process, some metrics such as productivity, quality and flexibility are proposed (outcome factors). Finally, the framework assesses some contextual factors that influence companies before, during and after they decide to offshore. Based on Michael Porter's five-forces model, the industry analysis indicate that customers have the most power in the industry and vendors have little pricing power due to low barriers of entry and exit. Despite the fact that it is a growing industry, there is a high level of rivalry and it is not attractive. The market demand and supply analysis focused on the larger players showed that India, China, Russia and Eastern Europe are providing the bulk of the contracted services originally performed in the U.S. and U.K. The latest trends in the market are the shifting roles of the agents, the role customers take of being vendors and building their captive centers, the industry consolidation for companies to achieve scale and organize the market, and the need of the vendor to provide broader services such as BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) to better serve their customers. It is exhilarating to be able to spot opportunities both in the supply and demand side. Winners will be the ones who benefit the most from the industry changes, and they will also be the ones who are able to capture most of the value created by the industry as a whole. / by Ricard Huguet i Galí. / 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 (p. 153-155). / Most of family-owned enterprises start their operations in the traditional businesses such as manufacturing, trading, or providing services. Some of them are very successful and become major global players in the industries, for example, SC Johnson, Coming, and Li & Fung. However, technological changes often have impacts on the behaviors of the market. New technology can add tremendous capacity for a firm to pursue economy of scale or it can reduce marginal cost to zero. Moreover, in the globalization era, multinational companies expand their business territories by entering to the new markets. They exploit the advance in technology, which allows them to provide better products/services than those of local firms. Technology becomes key driver for the increase in competition in the market because the firms that adopt the technology tend to have competitive advantage over firms that did not. It also drives customers to demand more comprehensive products and services. In order to survive and be forefront in the industry, these family firms need to transform themselves or adopt some technologies to enhance and regain their competitiveness. Not all companies realize the importance of doing so or know how to do so. But still, there are some companies that are able to transform successfully. This thesis will analyze keys to success for these family businesses in transforming themselves to maintain competitiveness in changing markets. / by Thitipong Srisomburananont. / 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 (p. 98-108). / The costs to produce and utilize hydrogen are extremely high per unit of energy when compared to fossil fuel energy sources such as natural gas or gasoline. The cheapest hydrogen production approaches today are also the most polluting, as they use fossil fuels in even more inefficient ways than cars do. Renewable approaches to hydrogen production are- at best- three times more expensive per unit energy than the cost to produce the same amount of natural gas. The production of hydrogen through biological systems is one area of particularly promising research. There are countless biological systems that produce energy from sunlight, and countless others that produce energy from the metabolism of organic molecules such as glucose. Many microbial organisms produce hydrogen under certain conditions. Optimizing their innate ability to produce hydrogen and developing biohydrogen plants whose economics compete with current commercial plants are key hurdles that must be overcome. Economic models for the production of hydrogen through biological systems are examined in detail in this thesis. The key technical hurdles which drive the capital and production costs are identified. Fruitful areas of potential research are suggested to bring biological hydrogen production to commercial scale as rapidly as possible. / by Richard J. Resnick. / 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 45-47). / Past event-studies on the impact of Information Technology (IT) on organizations have focused on the different types of IT initiatives from various perspectives, for e.g., an organizational perspective (joint venture, outsourcing, appointment of Chief Information Officer), type of business model (828, B2C), comparisons of returns between conventional and e-business firms and between initiatives involving digital and tangible goods. This thesis however, focuses on how industry structure can influence the firm's performance and the value created for shareholders via IT initiatives. It will study how organizational structure and management changes enabled by IT influence the performance of firms. Current literature suggests that the potential impact of such organizational structure and management changes on future firm performance has not been fully explored. The results of the study show that industry structure does affect the variance in firm performance and certain organizational structure changes resulting from the IT initiative such as management change and creation of a new IT group can generate higher reliability and value of the firm's future performance. / by Kim Sai Toh. / 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 (leaf 76). / The rise of the commercial genomic industry and the broadening application of genomic techniques in biology and medicine together with the growing availability of DNA sequence information have created a new industry: The Bioinformatics Industry. This thesis analyzes technologies, applications market and competitors in this industry and explores potential changes to the business models that are being used today. The technology and market information indicates that this is an industry in a very early stage. On the other hand, the business models being used are very similar to the ones used traditionally in the hardware and software industry: licensing, ASP (Application Service Provider), joint developments and hardware/software solutions. The actual market size is relatively small, estimated in no more than $300M. Only by implementing strategies of horizontal or vertical integration, a company in this industry might be able to boost revenues in the long term. / by Carlos Benaim Jalfon. / 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 150-153). / This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections. / In last decade, the world was bewildered by the dazzling array of choices and offerings of digital technology. While digital convergence has created new possibilities in digital media, it has also created great uncertainty, fragmentation and threats to traditional media. This blossoming of innovations, as I will examine in this thesis, originates not only from the conversion of analog media into the digital domain, but more from a convergence of industries which results in a clash of technologies and cultures. This thesis explores the phenomenon of digital convergence and divergence and examines their impact on digital media. The questions this thesis seeks to answer are: What exactly is digital convergence? Is digital technology a kind of unifying glue as some may claim, or is it turning out to be a catalyst for greater differentiation? What kinds of dynamics will emerge when traditional industries play in each other's familiar turfs? And what kinds of strategies should digital media producers adopt in response? Observations seem to point towards a trend of initial chaos, greater divergence and severe technological fragmentation in the market. However, in that light, the results of this study suggest that collaboration between industry players to establish common standards, as well as the production of content to fit the locality, context and the consumption experience will be the keys to success in the world of digital convergence. / by William Chee-Leong Lee. / S.M.M.O.T.