Innovation requires an ambidextrous knowledge creation strategy, which is defined as the simultaneous pursuit of both exploration and exploitation. A temporal ambidexterity strategy is one in which an organizational unit dynamically balances its investments in exploration and exploitation over time. This thesis provides new insights on various factors which should be considered when developing and executing a temporal ambidexterity strategy. In the Essay 1, I empirically examine the impact of exploration, exploitation and learning from cumulative innovation experience on the likelihood of successfully versus unsuccessfully generating a breakthrough innovation. The data sample, based on patents in the biomedical device industry, is drawn from the National Bureau of Economic Research patents database. I demonstrate three important tenets for developing a theory of temporal ambidexterity. First, I confirm, as conceptually expected, that when pursued independently, exploration and exploitation have opposing variance-generating versus variance-reducing impacts on innovation performance, respectively. Second, I find that when pursued jointly exploration and exploitation have a negative interaction effect on innovation performance. Third, I show that the benefits of ambidexterity accrue in the long-term, as a result of learning from prior failure experience. However, I demonstrate that prior failure experience and exploitation are jointly necessary, but not independently sufficient, for learning from failure to occur. In Essay 2, I introduce a dynamic optimization model of temporal ambidexterity. I examine the optimal sequencing of exploration and exploitation knowledge creation activities throughout the innovation process. I consider how an innovation manager’s optimal dynamic investments in exploration and exploitation are driven by the innovation team’s knowledge creation capabilities and prior innovation experience, and by the manager’s short-term and long-term innovation risk objectives. The results demonstrate the conditions under which various temporal ambidexterity strategies endogenously arise. Finally, in Essay 3, I extend the single firm model introduced in Essay 2, to develop a model of temporal ambidexterity for two firms jointly pursuing knowledge creation and knowledge-sharing under co-opetition. Here, I consider how co-opetition, that is, cooperative knowledge-sharing with a competitor, impacts a firm’s optimal ambidextrous knowledge creation strategy. I consider two-way knowledge sharing, and I assume that each firm freely reveals its knowledge to its competitor, without receiving compensation. The dynamic analytical results contribute to the open questions regarding optimal knowledge-sharing strategies under co-opetition, by demonstrating under what conditions knowledge-sharing with a co-opetitive partner is beneficial. Importantly, I also analytically examine the factors which drive empirically observed alliance dysfunctions, wherein organizations delay knowledge-sharing and withhold information from their alliance partners.

Novelty is a widespread notion that has not been given commensurate critical attention. This research is an ethnographically-inclined exploration of practices surrounding the accomplishment of novelty in an institution for which novelty is a central notion: the patent system of the United Kingdom. The research is based on interviews with patent examiners at the UK patent office, interviews with patent attorneys at various legal firms, and documentary analysis of legislation and numerous legal judgments. The thesis brings to bear themes from Science and Technology Studies and ethnomethodology to assess the extent to which they can account for the practices surrounding novelty in the UK patent system. As a fundamental legal requirement for the patentability of inventions, novelty is a central part of the practices of patent composition, assessment and contestation. Rather than being a straightforward technical criterion, however, novelty is shown to be a complex and heterogeneous phenomenon emerging from interwoven legal, bureaucratic and individual practices. The local resolution of whether or not a given invention is new, and the cross-institutional coherence of novelty as a practicable notion, raise questions concerning ontology, accountability, scale and inconcludability, and provide an opportunity for empirically grounded engagement with these longstanding analytical concerns.

No description available.

No description available.

Diss. Univ. Frankfurt am Main, 2006.

Zugl.: Diss. Univ. Freiburg, 2005.

Zugl.: Diss. Univ. Duisburg-Essen, 2006.

Thesis (M.B.A.)--Naval Postgraduate School, 2006. / Title from title screen (viewed Oct. 10, 2008). "MBA professional report"--Cover. Advisor(s): Deborah Gibbons, Doug Brook. "December 2006." "ADA460410"--DTIC URL. Includes bibliographical references (p. 215-216).

South Africa has been experiencing several challenges regarding access to higher education, quality of higher education, effectiveness of higher education course delivery, and funding for higher education. In the higher education sector, the bulk of the burden is placed on traditional higher education institutions, most notably universities, in providing higher education to a growing youth base in dire need of education that supports their individual learning needs. With these challenges facing traditional universities, online higher education provided by both public sector higher education institutions and private sector education providers can act as a valuable alternative and solution to access for some of the population. Online education and face-to-face education differ considerably in how they deliver courses to students. Many have argued that these differences are in some cases attributable to strengths in face-to-face education and drawbacks or limitations in online education, large enough that they should serve as the criteria for selecting the former over the latter as the better mode of delivery. While there have been examples of online programmes that have failed to deliver courses successfully by underutilising or misusing the tools and techniques available, there are positive examples where these programmes perform equally as well as face-to-face courses. The defining difference is ultimately and often the management of these courses’ resources, activities, people, processes, and practices. Considering the above, and with examination of the available literature, a conceptual and theoretical framework was constructed and a quantitative research study was undertaken to prove the significant correlational relationships between elements of course delivery and a management framework to govern those elements. The sample consisted of 115 students from a postgraduate degree programme presented in two formats, online and on-campus. The findings provide evidence of significant relationships between the core functions of management as well as between aspects of course delivery, such as opportunities for interaction, opportunities for feedback, and course content in achieving learning outcomes for students and contributing to engagement. The findings also indicate positive perceptions from students in relation to the delivery of the courses.

This research sought to investigate how appropriate the Continuous Assessment (CASS) and Common Task for Assessment (CTA) are as assessment models for the General Education and Training Certificate (GETC) with specialization in Economic and Management Science. It examined the appropriateness of quality assurance mechanisms that were used in CASS and CTA at Grade 9 level, with specific reference to Economic and Management Science. The research question further examined how valid the CASS tasks are and how reliable the CASS and CTA marks are at Grade 9 level, with reference to EMS? The qualitative research approach was used within a case study research design. Thus purposeful sampling was used to select the five participants of this study, namely; two EMS educators, two EMS departmental heads and the District facilitator for EMS. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews, document analysis and observations, and triangulated to support the conclusions and to make the findings more reliable. The results indicated that teachers lacked the skills to construct tasks of high quality, assessment plans, and assessment tools. As a result, they resorted the use of tests as a dominant form of assessment. The study further revealed that moderation of Grade 9 School-Based Assessment occurred at various levels of the education system, namely at school, cluster and provincial level. The study showed that there was a corroboration of concepts used in the conceptual framework based on the open system theory, as teachers’ qualifications contributed to the effective development and implementation of the learning programmes in Economic and Management Science. However, the procedures used in conducting moderation were not regarded in a favourable light. The difficulty of CTA was attributed to the non-coverage of all assessment standards during the implementation of CASS. Copyright / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Curriculum Studies / unrestricted