This study investigates how knowledge is created in a small business organization. Knowledge creation refers to organizational learning which results in innovation. The research design was a qualitative, single site case study of three firms in the point of sale industry. Data collection took place during a six month field study and employed multiple methods including participant observations, interviews, document reviews, and field journal entries. The study was informed by a conceptual framework which focused on the importance of both tacit and explicit knowledge forms, multiple modes of knowledge conversion (socialization, externalization, combination, internalization), and a knowledge spiraling process. Six themes emerged from the data. The first theme, "the people are the business" indicated that individuals become a knowledge creating structure that transcends office boundaries. A second theme, "we just spend tons of time talking", emphasized the importance of dialogue and informal communication structures to the sharing of tacit knowledge. A third theme, "there hasn't been a new idea in a million years", illustrated the predominance of incremental rather than radical innovation, the strategy of mimicking concept successes, and the importance of learning with other organizations through strategic alliances. A fourth theme, "you learn from your mistakes", represented the experiential nature of learning within the firm. A fifth theme, "it's one of those crystal ball kind of things" depicted the intuitive nature of personal knowledge and its limitations. Finally, the sixth theme, "a day late and a dollar short" explored how time and money pressures both enhance and hinder knowledge creation within a small business context. By comparing the themes to the conceptual framework the study concluded that small business organizations create knowledge in accordance with the nature of interpersonal interactions as they occur in context. The theoretical knowledge spiral was reconceptualized as a web structure in order to accommodate more diversity of approaches to knowledge creation and the complex nature of innovations.

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The author calls into question the primacy of the optimism/pessimism split within modern discourses on technology and suggests rather that the dominant thematic division in these discourses is that between mastery over and enslavement to technology. Each of these is criticized with respect to the faulty conception of control it implies. The author concludes with a view of technology as a social practice in order to move beyond mastery or enslavement.

Despite the predominantly negative perception that resistance adversely affects a change process, understanding it may be used to successfully implement many changes in organisations. This qualitative study identified inhibitors and enhancers, as perceived by employees with respect to the proposed implementation of a Human Resource Information System technology, at the adaptive and high-adaptive change levels. This issue was examined in the context of large-scale manufacturing company Hulett Aluminium. Based on a review of change theory, innovation diffusion and technology adoption models variables known to relate to technology change were identified and used to formulate a research framework. A quantitative computer attitude survey was initially used to identify a more representative sample frame, after which semi-structured interview techniques were utilised to collect data from eleven general employees and seven Human Resource employees. Qualitative data was analysed using content analysis, domain analysis and the constant comparative concept taken from grounded theory. The findings of this study identified clear communication and employee participation as crucial factors in implementing change at any level. The technology characteristics relative advantage, compatibility and complexity were prominent between both samples. Relative advantage was found to mediate time availability and social influence. Respondents believed trialability allowed them to become familiar with the technology. The support factor training was also dominant and found to mediate respondents' anxiety and uncertainty. The theme that computer experience mitigates anxiety was also evident. Owing to experience of poor technical support, respondents' cited it as an important variable in resistance to technology, which is evident of how experience influences perspective. This study allows researchers and change agents to understand the role individual, technological, propagation and external factors have in employees' perceived resistance to adoption of the proposed technology. By accurately gauging resistance in advance, change agents can anticipate the likely response of the organisation and thus implement appropriate strategies. The research also adds to the expanding base of research investigating resistance to technology adoption in general. / Thesis (MBA)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2004.

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This thesis studies the role of learning as a mechanism of economic change. Two areas are considered where this would seem to be important. First, how firms learn about new technology; and secondly, how agents learn to behave in interactive situations. A model of research and development is presented which models the process by which firms solve specific design problems. This may be by individual experimental search or by partial imitation. In the latter case, a close parallel is drawn between biological evolution, based on genetic reproduction, and technological evolution, based on firms blending existing technologies. Some economic implications of these processes are explored, including their application to stochastic learning curves, patent design and the transfer of technology to developing countries. The thesis continues by critically assessing the analogy between biological and cultural evolution often used to model how agents learn to behave in interactive situations. It is argued that the methods used by economists exploiting this analogy are often ill-suited to an economic context. Models are presented which deal with specific issues in the transition from a biological context to an economic context, including models of partnership formation, models of imperfect imitation, and models without payoff-monotonic dynamics. The issue of imperfect imitation is expanded upon in an evolutionary model of the infinitely repeated prisoners' dilemma, where it is shown that the problem of inter-generational copying fidelity may allow one to restrict attention to strategies with a very simple stochastic structure.

This research examines how companies adapt to more unpredictable environments by developing dynamic capabilities that help sustain innovation and change. The key explanatory construct is modular architecture - the intentional decomposition of systems (products or processes) into relatively independent sub-units with standard interfaces. The dissertation is structured as three semi-independent papers plus an introduction and a literature review. The literature review describes current theories of modular systems and discusses the similarities and differences to related concepts such as nearly decomposable systems, loose coupling, and vertical decomposition. The literature review identifies three gaps in the current literature. First, there has been a limited degree of theorising on the concept outside the field of technology management. Second, the current literature is based largely on anecdotal case studies and there is little quantitative evidence of the strategic value of modularity. Finally, there is a lack of understanding concerning the implementation of modular architectures. The first paper generalises from product to organisation design and derives five principles for modular organisational architectures. A hypothetical example is developed to illustrate how a large home appliances company might apply these principles to create a process platform consisting of reconfigurable building blocks. The chapter also proposes some extensions of current theory to more realistically adopt modularity concepts in organisation design. The second paper is based on a study that explores the current product and process architectures at three leading manufacturers of vacuum cleaners. It identifies some of the key barriers to increased flexibility among companies in mature industries. It also considers the relative value of modularity for established companies pursuing incremental innovation versus entrepreneurial companies introducing more radical innovations. The third paper presents the results from a survey questionnaire study of companies in the home appliances industry in the UK. and US. The relationship between market context, product and process architecture, strategic flexibility and firm performance is examined by means of structural equations modelling. The results show a positive relationship between modular product architectures and performance, with product model variety as a mediating variable. The thesis makes the following contributions to the existing literature: It complements extant theorising by generalising modular principles to organisation design. It contributes to methodology by developing a questionnaire for assessing modularity in product and process design. Finally, it provides one of the first empirical studies of the effects of modularity on strategic flexibility and firm performance.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 56-58). / xiii, 58 leaves, bound ill. 29 cm

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 207. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 82-84). / x, 84 leaves, bound ill. 29 cm