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This dissertation addresses three topics on the implications of firm behaviors in creating and adopting knowledge of production, choosing international location for production and market access, and using informative advertising in a market competition with multidimensional product characteristics. The first study investigates the empirical evidence of local knowledge spillovers in Indonesian medium and large manufacturing industry. The second study looks at the link between the patterns of trade revealed comparative advantage and net inward foreign direct investment in five developed countries: France, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The third study seeks to determine the effects of informative advertising in a market with two-dimensional, vertically differentiated products. The results of the first study show that the extent of knowledge spillovers depends on both geographical and technological proximities. In addition, the extent of knowledge spillovers seems to depend on sector-specific characteristics and the presence of foreign investment. The results of the second study reveal a significant role of comparative advantage in determining inflows of foreign direct investment in developed countries, especially in the services industry. Finally, the results of the third study show that with informative advertising, the firm with the 'better' product will charge a higher market, have a larger market share, and advertise more. In addition, even when advertising leads to higher market prices, the full-prices that the consumers must pay are still lower than in the case of no advertising. / Graduation date: 2004

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Idaho, 2006. / Abstract. "April 2006." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 171-179). Also available online in PDF format.

The core competency of the most effective organizations will be their capacity to learn in an increasingly complex and unpredictable business environment and HRD should expand its role to become a partner in the transformation of the entire organization. Organizational learning style, therefore, is an important research topic for the field of HRD (human resource development). This study had four primary purposes, which were germane to the corporations in the Republic of Korea: 1) to identify what organizational learning styles exist; 2) to identify the factors that differentiate the organizations with different organizational learning styles; 3) to identify the roles of HRD to facilitate organizational learning within the organizations in each organizational learning style; and 4) to identify the differences in the roles of HRD to facilitate organizational learning among the organizations with different organizational learning styles. The population for this study was the key informants at the corporations in the three industry areas: wholesale and retail trade; manufacturing; and hotels and restaurants. The survey instrument was delivered to 353 key informants, i.e. HR persons, at 240 corporations and 237 key informants at 166 corporations returned the survey instrument for a return rate of 67.1%. The findings of this study revealed the followings: 1) there are four types of organizational learning styles and the characteristics of each type of organizational learning style is determined by the combination of the organizations?? learning orientations, i.e. Knowledge Source, Learning Content, Dissemination Mode, and Learning Scope; 2) types of organizational culture, industry classification, and the size of an organization are the factors that differentiate the organizations with different organizational learning styles; 3) all roles of HRD are necessary for facilitating organizational learning; and 4) there are not differences in the roles of HRD to facilitate organizational learning among the organizations with different organizational learning styles.

Information technology (IT) is considered as a driving force in the development of organizations but earlier research has shown that technology is not enough to build, improve and increase organizational capabilities and performances. This means that organizational learning (OL) is an effective theory to capture and nourish knowledge in order to create knowledge driven competitive advantage. IT, however, plays a major role to create and share new knowledge to promote organizational learning. In today’s competitive environment it is an urgent requirement that organizations must develop and utilize IT based applications or systems to create a learning environment so that both employees and organizations can learn in an innovative ways, but the question remains how IT impacts OL in such a way that organizations can improve performances and capabilities complying with organization’s strategic goals. This thesis deals with the use of IT in organizational learning at both levels; 1) learning at individual level to know that how individuals learn in an organization and how IT support learning at this stage and 2) learning at organizational level that focuses on how an organization learns and how IT affects it. The purpose of this study is to identify the relationship between IT and OL and describe the role of IT in promoting OL through the study of two selected companies, Accenture and ABB, employing the OL concept. To achieve the purpose of this study a qualitative approach has been used as it provides a thorough understanding about the role of IT in OL. The analysis presents a thorough insight of organizational learning dividing it into learning at individual level which is based on the Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995)’s SECI model for knowledge conversion and learning at organizational level using the Huber (1991)’s learning processes to develop as well as facilitate the organizational learning. The role of IT is analyzed through the knowledge management strategies from Hansen et al. (1999). The results show that information technology has an impact over organizational learning as IT facilitates OL at both the individual level and the organizational level in creating knowledge which ultimately enables organizations to improve capabilities and enhance performances to cope with change. Companies are using various IT application or tools to promote OL either through knowledge depository database, online training, staff rotation planning or various IT based communication channels. The use of knowledge management strategy and the role of IT on OL coincide with the strategic objective set by the company. Companies also use different combinations between tacit and explicit knowledge in respond to the strategic goal. Both tacit and explicit knowledge are always used in all companies but the mixture produces different results. It is the management that has to determine the right combination between them to create the maximum impact on OL. IT can be a tool help managing tacit and explicit knowledge but people are more important in the process of knowledge creation as it is individuals who possess the critical minds led to learning. It is important to realize a fact that organization will never learn if its people do not learn. The work is of great interest to the parties involved in organizational learning using information technology.

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Organizational learning is a research area which has grown rapidly in importance the last decade. It is often argued that modern organizations have to increase their ability to learn in order to survive in rapidly changing environments. The literature on organi­zational learning is characterized by a normative bias. Lot of emphasis has been put on giving sound advice on how to create a learning organization. Less emphasis has been put on the actual conditions for learning in different types of organization. The purpose of this study is to answer the question how organizational learning arise, and how it is affected by the institutional conditions the organization work under. The research strategy is based on in-depth case-studies of 6 organizations. The organiza­tions have recently implemented large re-orientation projects, which make up the empirical focus for studying learning. The organizations come from two different organizational fields - municipalities and technical consultancy firms. The two fields are characterized by different insti­tutional conditions, which makes the learning processes vastly different in the two fields. The concept of learning-cultures is used to capture the different institutional conditions in the two fields. The municipalities are characterized by bold re-orientation ideas from the top mana­gement. All three organizations have started projects inspired by the "new" ideas of market orientation. In that sense they seems to be learning from each other which projects are legitimate in the field. On the other hand they have difficulties imple­menting the ideas internally, due to heterogeneous conceptions in different sub-groups. The learning-culture in the municipalities is summarized as reformative-split. The technical consultancy firms are characterized by more conservative attitudes towards re-orientation. The firms are using established techniques in the field, thus learning which projects are appropriate. Internally they are characterized by homo­geneous conceptions among subgroups. The learning-culture in the technical con­sultancy firms is summarized as adaptive-unified. A major finding in the study is the organizations from the two groups use different mechanism for learning, both externally (that is, from the field) and internally. / digitalisering@umu

¡@¡@While an organization facing a dynamic environment, the only way to survive is to learn as soon as possible. Therefore, organizational learning becomes more and more important. Age of knowledge economy is coming, human resource becomes the key of the competitive advantages. Does learning-oriented human resource have positive influences in organizational performances? In this thesis, the study will discuss this topic from the aspect of learning-oriented human resource and try to find the relationship between learning-oriented human resource and organizational performances and as well as the relationship between the system of learning-oriented human resource and organizational performances. Moreover, the indirect impact of human resource practices intertwined with human resource and competitive strategy as a moderator is also under scrutiny. ¡@¡@This thesis is conduct through opinion survey, relied by the directors of human resource and core department in each company, the findings of the thesis can be summarized as follows: 1. ¡§ Control ¡¨ and ¡§ performance appraisal ¡¨ of the learning-oriented human resource practices impact the organizational performances positively. 2. There is no evidence to show that the system of learning-oriented human resource impacts organizational performances either positively or negatively. 3. The relationship between ¡§cooperation¡¨ ¡§cooperation within departments¡¨ and ¡§training¡¨ of learning-oriented human resource practices and organizational performance will be contingent on an organization¡¦s competitive strategy.

The field of organizational learning (OL) has been characterized by a wide diversity of opinions, definitions, and conceptualizations. After the publish of Senge's ¡mThe fifth discipline¡Gthe art and practice of the learning organization¡n, OL becomes a biblical important management topic after 1990s. In Taiwan, many business enterprises have been continuously accumulated OL management practices for near 20 years. However, the researches about how to build learning organization or OL were inadequate and insufficient empirical studies are made. This paper is an exploratory research employs mainly the ¡§case study¡¨ method to study the OL activities and processes in a Taiwanese company (C Company), an OL pioneer of practice, which has been continuously establishing OL for over 10 years without stop even facing the financial crisis. In C¡¦s case, 2-stage OL transformations are demonstrated with different learning strategy, value, structures, mental models, and results/consequences The major findings of this study are summarized as following: 1.The C company leader¡¦s personal experience is the key influence factor to C¡¦s OL. 2.The reform in the OL evolution of C company shows as practical example/model how organization can adapt and unlearn from single-loop learning to double-loop learning then deutero-learning eventually.

As the number of employee retirement grows, the enterprise inevitably faces the manpower change on a large scale. In order to reduce the cost of the knowledge inheritance from senior personnel to junior personnel to the minimum, it is necessary to evaluate the feasibility of establishing an educational mechanism based on ¡§organizational learning¡¨ and ¡§knowledge management¡¨, under which the junior personnel can learn effectively. Based on the experiences, methods as well as the implementation skills accumulated by the senior personnel in the long term, ¡§Knowledge Management¡¨ constitutes the mechanism of expertise acquisition, integration and accumulation by tutoring and practicing. With the mechanism, the knowledge inheritance is brought into full play and furthermore, develops new expertise unceasingly. By ¡§Organizational Learning¡¨, organization can acquire the persistent competitive advantage. Therefore, the research goal includes the following: 1. Comprehend the application of ¡§Knowledge Management¡¨ and ¡§Organizational Learning¡¨ on corporate organization and educational training. 2. Discover the possible latent problems in the existing operation mode adopted by TPC training unit. 3. Intend to establish an operation mode by setting up a corporate university based on ¡§Knowledge Management¡¨ and ¡§Organizational Learning¡¨. To improve the operational effectiveness of TPC training unit and to enhance knowledge transfer and talent development. Based on the material obtained from the comparison between the existing theory and the empirical information, results of this study draw conclusions as follow: 1. Corporate university operated by the mode of ¡§Organizational Learning¡¨ and ¡§Knowledge Management¡¨ can achieve enterprise goal. 2. Corporate university can build the learning-friendly environment that is favorable for constructing a learning organization. 3. Corporate university not only teaches expertise and workmanship but also organization culture. 4. Corporate university is the core factor and driving force of business continuity. Keywords¡GKnowledge¡BKnowledge Management¡BOrganizational Learning¡BLearning Organization¡BCorporate University