Globalization provides all business players with equal threats as well as equal opportunities at the same time. Information can be obtained with low cost through wire, wireless technology, learning by themselves and partnership of strategic alliance. High technology and special know-how may take more time to be built than buy. Now the global market is open and flat. Competition which normally erodes profit of firms is taken for granted and can’t be avoided. Joseph A. Schumpeter believed that entrepreneurs would do “creative destruction” to avoid from stationary state of economy and to seek new profit opportunities, and he considered the concept of innovation to be new products, new method of productions, new markets and environment which can change rules of the game of business players. Many Korean firms have jumped into international competitive markets to expand their presences to pursue both profit and growth. Creating competitive advantages by low cost or differentiation of strategy and products in the competitive business environment are very important factors. Innovation is one of the competitive advantages. Innovation may be categorized into three parts; technology, manufacturing process, strategy and marketing. Here in the thesis, I take technology as vehicle of comparison, and use the number of granted patents as the degree of technological innovation. This thesis will make comparison among the firms which have more number of patents and less number of patents to see if technological innovation contributes better financial performances. Patents are used as barrier against new entrants and defending vehicle in the time of patents conflict with market competitors. This thesis will analyze and verify whether the more a firm is innovative in technology, the better financial performance it may enjoy in the severe competitive environment.

The production of biogas via anaerobic digestion is an effective technology for converting organic waste into renewable fuel. Using the Technological Innovation System (TIS) theory for assessing emerging technologies a comparison between the British and Swedish biogas sectors is carried out. There are seven components to a TIS allowing the sector to be broken down, a potential scheme for the connection of the functions is illustrated. The Swedish biogas sector is at a more advanced stage of development due to long-term governmental support both financially and through stringent environmental laws. Overall the Swedish government has been an effective system builder allowing the Swedish biogas sector to expand. The British biogas sector is conversely less advanced due to lack of this long-term support, although the scene is beginning to change as the government positions itself as a more effective system builder. Several lessons can be learnt from the Swedish biogas sector; longterm financial support for renewable energy is required and stringent organic waste disposal laws both encourage the development of biogas.

Innovations in the public services have become mandatory to provide more efficient and secured services to the citizens. In today&#039 / s fast changing technological environment, the sustained management of innovation is the most vital executive task for the organizations. Identification of the technological innovation process is required in order to manage innovation in the public organizations. This thesis study aims to build a technological innovation model for public organizations in Turkey identifying technological innovation process, stakeholders of the process, sources of innovation, obstacles of innovation and driving forces of innovation. In this research study, strategically important organizations, including all ministries and the pioneer public organizations that perform technological innovation projects are analyzed. In the research study, case study is used as a research strategy and interviews are used as data collection methods. Using collected data / data sets are produced and presented in tables. Data analysis results enable to identify technological innovation process, stakeholders of the process, sources of innovation, barriers of innovation, and driving forces of innovation. Consequently, in accordance with the findings of the study, a new technological innovation model that may pave the way for technological innovation projects and enable successful management of innovation process is constructed. The proposed model lights the way of managers for their innovation projects by means of determining unclear innovation process and identifying the inputs and outputs of the process. Moreover, this study is a guide for managers in public organizations identifying possible obstacles and offering solutions, identifying driving forces to accelerate the innovation process, emphasizing the importance of interaction between the stakeholders.

Technological backwardness is the common problem for all developing nations. The acquisition and creation of advanced technologies are the common dreams of these catch-up economies. How to build up the adequate technological innovation system for high-tech industries is the major challenge to all catching-up economies. Because of the success of technological development, this research will investigate the technology innovation and diffusion system by taking the IC industry in Chinese Taipei as a case study. The purpose of this research is the provide a guide for the future direction of technological innovation and diffusion systems and of share experience on the development of technology in the IC industry of Chinese Taipei with other catch-up economies. This paper first presents hottest study topics: Knowledge Management and National Innovation System (NIS), next introduced two analytical frameworks --- the technological trajectory framework and the multiple cooperation framework --- which are used as tools to describe the evolution of technological development in catch up economies. It will then propose a technological innovation and diffusion system for catch up economies. The structure and components of the system will be discussed and a questionnaire survey designed for the IC industry in Chinese Taipei. The results of the survey will be discussed and future development of the technological innovation and diffusion system of the IC industry in Chinese Taipei will be proposed by this research.

Sin dalla fine degli anni 90 la Corea ha iniziato a basare la propria strategia di sviluppo economico sull’importanza delgli investimenti in R&D e oggi il paese puo’ essere considerato tra i paesi OCSE con i maggiori tassi di investimento. Tale risultato e’ stato raggiunto principalmente attraverso una forte specializzazione nei settori ad alta intensita’ di tali investimenti. Ciononostante sono recentemente emersi alcuni problemi cruciali legati alle politiche per R&D. Tra gli altri la disoccupazione giovanile legata all’effetto labour-saving delle innovazioni, la forte specializzazione in industrie ad alta tecnologia, e l’eccessiva importanza attribuita alla ricerca. Le tre questioni vengono analizzate in questo lavoro utilizzando dati a livello di impresa. Il primo contributo tratta degli effetti di R&D sull’occupazione. Le evidenze suggeriscono che tale effetto e’ inesistente nelle imprese Coreane. Il secondo conributo prende in esame la produttivita’ degli investimenti in ricerca. I risultati mostrano che tali investimenti hanno effetti non solo sulle imprese ad alta tecnologia ma anche in altri settori. Nel terzo contributo si studia il comportamento innovativo delle imprese prestando attenzione alle imprese giovani. Per queste imprese, infatti, le evidenze mostrano che investimenti in ricerca fatti internamente non sono cosi’ importanti per la produzione di innovazione. / Since 1990s Korea has started to ground the strategy for economic growth upon the role of R&D and nowadays the country shall be considered among top R&D investors in the OECD countries. This result has been achieved mainly through strong specialization in R&D-intensive industries. Nonetheless some critical issues related to R&D policy have recently emerged; Among others the problem of youth unemployment related to the labour-saving effect of innovation, the excessive specialization in high-tech industries and the magnified importance attributed to R&D. The three issues are accordingly investigated in this work by using data at the firm level. The first contribution concerns the effect of R&D investments on employment. The aim of the work is to test for the existence of a labour-saving effect of R&D investments. The evidence suggests that such an effect does not characterize Korean firms. Second contribution examines the productivity of knowledge capital. The results indicate that R&D affects firms’ productivity not only in high-tech industries but also in other sectors. In the third contribution the innovative behavior of firms is studied paying attention to young firms. In these, in fact, the evidence reveals that internal R&D is not as important for the production of innovation.

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Blogging continues to get attention in the field of communication studies for reasons such as its differences with traditional media and its various effects in societies. The first part of this dissertation provides the reader with a background of the use of the Internet in Zimbabwe highlighting how it has offered individuals a platform to publish their own content, thus increasing the documentation of the 2008 Zimbabwean elections. This research analyses how national identity and the construction thereof emerges from online personal narratives. The research also investigates the discourses shaping the country‘s identities such as humanitarian, anti-Mugabe and democratic discourses that emerge from the blogs and how these blogs communicate events that occurred during the polls. This dissertation is primarily concerned with how citizens have arguably become recognized as sources of information and how Zimbabwe is perceived. Finally, the blogs are critically examined for how they create spaces of resistance. I argue that the blogs challenged and destabilized the older patterns of identity creation within Zimbabwe. Whereas national identity constructions have been largely a result of the majority or ruling class, the production of counter discourses in the blogs suggests that at an individual level, citizens use the Internet as a platform to express their dissent and do not automatically internalize these projected national identities. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2011.

Thesis (D.B.A.) -- University of Western Sydney, Nepean, 2001. / A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Business Adminiistration, University of Western Sydney, Nepean, 2001. Includes bibliographical references.

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