BACKGROUND: Project based structures has become more and more common in the organizations of today. As the project based structures are given a more central role in the organizations the interdependencies between the projects are getting more attention. These structures need a new type of control to meet the unique challenges that arise. The research that has been done has been concentrated around the project form and the projects internal control, the area of multi-project management is therefore relatively unexplored. The few existing studies on the subject focus on projects in the construction industry why research in more complex fields of business have been requested. PURPOSE: The purpose of this thesis is to explore and analyze how knowledge intense multi-project organizations manage their project activities, and to determine how different organizational characteristics affect the need for management control systems. METHODOLOGY: The empirical data has been collected through interviews with personnel in BT Products R&D, Gambro R&D and AstraZeneca Development. These organizations are all mature and project intense. CONCLUSION: With an organization´s line of business follows a certain level of uncertainty and interdependencies between projects. Another important factor is the organization´s level of internal and external differentiation. These three factors together describe the characteristics of an organization, which forms the organization´s starting position. To handle the uncertainty of unpredicted events the organizations’ reflexes has to be quick enough; this is made possible through a project oriented organizational structure where the project managers have more authority than the function manager. Interdependencies between projects is handled through coordination, the level of coordination needed is dependent on the degree of interdependencies. Last but not least the organization has to handle the complexity that comes with the degree of internal and external differentiation. This is managed through the integration and extent of the management control systems. In the analysis chapter a model is presented that describes the relationship between the organization characteristics and management control systems. / BAKGRUND: I dagens organisationer är det allt vanligare att verksamheten bedrivs i projektform. När företag allt mer började ta till sig projektbaserade strukturer kom relationen mellan projekt i fokus. Denna arbetsform kräver en ny typ av styrning, detta för att hantera de beroenden som finns mellan projekten samt för att möta de samordningsproblem som kan uppstå. De senaste åren har projektstyrning blivit ett allt vanligare forskningsområde, multiprojektstyrning finns det dock inte mycket information om. Den forskning som väl genomförts har inriktats mot byggsektorn varför forskning på komplexare områden eftertysts. SYFTE: Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka och analysera hur kunskapsintensiva multiprojektorganisationer hanterar sin projektverksamhet, samt att utröna hur olika organisationers egenskaper påverkar behovet av styrsystem. GENOMFÖRANDE: Det empiriska materialet har samlats in genom intervjuer på BT Products R&D, Gambro R&D och AstraZeneca Development R&D. Samtliga organisationer är mogna och har en arbetsgång som baseras på projekt. RESULTAT: Ett företags verksamhetsområde medför en viss grad av osäkerhet i den praktiska verksamheten, ytterligare en annan verksamhetsspecifik faktor är beroendegrad mellan projekt. Vidare är ett viktigt karaktärsdrag hos organisationer graden av differentiering. Dessa tre faktorer beskriver organisationens karaktäristika, med andra ord vilket utgångsläge organisationen har i sitt arbete. För att kunna hantera osäkerhet krävs att organisationen har tillräckligt bra reflexer för att möta oförutsedda händelser, detta löses genom att ge projekten mer auktoritet jämfört med funktionen. För att hantera beroenden krävs att verksamheten koordineras, vilken grad av koordinering som krävs beror på vilken grad av beroenden som finns representerat. Slutligen måste den komplexitet som differentiering ger hanteras, detta sker genom integrationen och omfattningen av styrsystemen. I uppsatsen presenteras avslutningsvis en modell som beskriver relationen mellan organisationen och dess styrning.

We consider two classes of stochastic programming models which are motivated by two applications related to the field of aviation. The first problem we consider is the network capacity planning problem, which arises in capacity planning of systems with network structures, such as transportation terminals, roadways and telecommunication networks. We study this problem in the context of airport terminal capacity planning. In this problem, the objective is to determine the optimal design and expansion capacities for different areas of the terminal in the presence of uncertainty in future demand levels and expansion costs, such that overall passenger delay is minimized. We model this problem as a nonlinear multistage stochastic integer program with a multicommodity network flow structure. The formulation requires the use of time functions for maximum delays in passageways and processing stations, for which we derive approximations that account for the transient behavior of flow. The deterministic equivalent of the developed model is solved via a branch and bound procedure, in which a bounding heuristic is used at the nodes of the branch and bound tree to obtain integer solutions. In the second study, we consider the project portfolio optimization problem. This problem falls in the class of stochastic programs in which times of uncertainty realizations are dependent on the decisions made. The project portfolio optimization problem deals with the selection of research and development (R&D) projects and determination of optimal resource allocations for the current planning period such that the expected total discounted return or a function of this expectation for all projects over an infinite time horizon is maximized, given the uncertainties and resource limitations over a planning horizon. Accounting for endogeneity in some parameters, we propose efficient modeling and solution approaches for the resulting multistage stochastic integer programming model. We first develop a formulation that is amenable to scenario decomposition, and is applicable to the general class of stochastic problems with endogenous uncertainty. We then demonstrate the use of the sample average approximation method in solving large scale problems of this class, where the sample problems are solved through Lagrangian relaxation and lower bounding heuristics.

User experience with public products needs special attention considering the specific context. Different from other consumer or personal products that users own, public products do not belong to the user / they are shared with and used in front of other people. Thus, different concerns and problems are incorporated affecting the user experiences. This thesis dwells on the effects of presence of other people on user-public product interaction. The relationships between social context, users&rsquo / feelings, and task performances constitute the basis of the thesis. These relationships were investigated by consulting to the literature, but mainly by conducting three empirical studies. All these studies revealed that the presence of other people affects the users&rsquo / feelings and task performances greatly.

No description available.

This dissertation consists of three essays pertaining to the causes of the levels and composition of the international trade flows of nations, and the consequential implications for the levels of per capita income and welfare of their populations. The first of these documents a pattern of comparative advantage in product level, bilateral trade data that conventional quantitative trade models have difficulty explaining. It goes on to develop a theory of product level productivity differences based on endogenous differences in the allocation of research and development into product and process innovation across countries over time, and it shows that, when fitted to cross-country manufacturing wage data, the predicted product level technology distribution is consistent with the observed trade pattern. The second essay shows that the distribution of technology levels inferred in the first essay can help explain the inability of both ad-hoc and theoretically based gravity models of trade to account for the observed positive correlation between the percentage of manufacturing output that is traded and countries' per capita income. It derives a modified gravity equation based on a Ricardian model of trade with deterministic product level technology differences across countries. It then uses estimates from a product level gravity estimation to compute the component of this equation that differs from a conventional gravity equation in order to determine the extent to which the observed concentration of comparative advantage in a common set of products for low-income countries explains the small percentage of their output that is exported. The final essay shows that a simple model of firm profit maximization in the presence of sunk costs of entering the export market is broadly consistent with the observed persistence of exporting behavior in firm level data. It uses this simple model and moments from data on US manufacturing firms to estimate the value of the sunk export entry costs faced by these firms using an indirect inference strategy. These costs are shown to be substantial relative the revenue stream of a typical firm. / text

Firms of European small open peripheral economies face an increasing globalization of markets, a strengthening of global value chains, a well documented knowledge and technological gap and these in conjunction to the current crisis at least in the southern part of Europe. These conditions compose a demanding and complex environment within which firms must cope and survive. In this direction, analyzing first and improving in turn competitiveness and productivity of European firms’ has become a primary policy objective of the EU at the national, regional, sectoral and firm level in an attempt to close the growth gap with the United States (Aghion et al., 2008). In this mission, boosting exporting activities and investments in Innovation, R&D and knowledge intensity is of the outmost importance since they are seen as drivers of productivity, growth and competitiveness (EU, 2012). Especially with respect to Greece’s economic outlook and as it has been documented in several European policy documents and analyses, the country’s innovation performance has been consistently characterized as “moderately following” (IUS, 2013) the EU’s innovation leaders. The same picture is sketched with Greek firms’ export performance as a crucial component of its overall competitiveness (European Competitiveness Report, 2012). Examining more closely the relationship between firms’ exporting activities and innovation dynamism, the theoretical and empirical evidence suggests that firms which are presenting innovation activities are more likely to export, more likely to export successfully, and more likely to generate growth from exporting than non-innovating firms (Golovko and Valentini, 2011; Love and Roper, 2013). In other words, innovation and export performance are directly linked with the creation of a sustainable competitive advantage and are considered as a primary precondition for economic growth (Piercy et al., 1998; EU, 2012). More specifically, exporting activities are considered as the primary internationalization mode (Johanson and Valhne, 1977; 2009) and firms’ knowledge and learning processes are expected to play a pivotal part in the internationalization process; firms need to be in a position to apprehend and assimilate new knowledge in order to compete and grow in markets in which they have little or no previous experience (Autio et al. 2000). In this direction, the relationship between the degree of internationalization and the intensity of the production of technological knowledge remains under examination, since the significant heterogeneity in terms of country, industrial distribution, firm size, and other factors has lead to contradictory results (Harris and Li, 2009). In addition, the differential effects of the firms’ environment which in turn can be further specified in various dimensions –such as business culture, organizational characteristics, strategic orientation, national and regional systems of innovation- introduce a significant amount of unobserved heterogeneity in the employed methodological frameworks. At the same time, the causality direction, too closely related to endogeneity issues, between exporting and R&D activities has not been yet addressed adequately. The relevant literature has documented two theoretical strands, the Product Life Cycle and Endogenous Growth theory, which hypothesize on causality direction between exports and R&D activities. More specifically, the Product life cycle theory argues that innovation eventually leads to exporting (Posner, 1961; Vernon, 1966; Krugman, 1979; Dollar, 1986) and this theoretical strand is strongly interrelated with the Market Selection Hypothesis (MSH; Wagner 2007) which favours the argument that exporters have superior performance characteristics than non-exporters. On the other hand, the Endogenous growth models (Grossman and Helpman, 1989, 1990, 1991a; Segerstrom et al., 1990; Young, 1991; Aghion and Howitt, 1998, ch. 11) argue on the reverse direction of causality. The notion behind this is that exporting firms access to foreign markets provides them with feedback from their suppliers and/or customers, which gives them the opportunity to transform this knowledge into innovation. This theoretical strand has been recorded as opposite to the market selection hypothesis and is named Learning by Exporting Hypothesis (LEH; Clerides et al., 1998; Salomon and Shaver, 2005) Both the above hypotheses seem plausible and have been empirically but the relevant literature has provided contradictory results. However, it would only make sense to assume that this causality direction may be not so straightforward since causality may run in both directions that is a two-way linkage between a firm’s exporting and innovating activities may exist (Filipescu et al. 2013). The starting point of this PhD thesis lies on the idea that both these activities may influence each other and therefore, is focused on the investigation of the endogeneity between established knowledge creation processes (R&D activities) and internationalization activities as they are depicted in exporting activities. It is worth mentioning that towards the direction of seeking proof for the existence of an endogenous relationship between R&D activities and exports different methodological approaches have been employed. All of them however, examine the existence of endogeneity between the two main firm activities as well as identifying the appropriate set of determinants for each one of the firms’ activities as the relevant literature dictates. In order to (i) sufficiently address the abovementioned multiple heterogeneity, and (ii) be able to compare them, the present research investigates the interrelationship between R&D and exporting activities on two distinctively different groups of firms. More specifically, two different contextual frameworks are employed, one International and one National. The first group of firms focuses on those firms that are considered to be leaders with respect to R&D investments at a global level. The second group of firms under investigation, concerns the Greek firms which are in turn considered leaders within the national system of innovation they operate but have been consistently characterized as moderately followers within the European context (IUS, 2013). Information for the investigation of the international context was provided by the UK Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS, 2007; 2008). Yet, regarding the national context, a profound lack of information exists both with respect to exporting activities but also with respect to R&D activities at the firm level, which inevitably led to the conducting of a field research at the National Level targeting the Manufacturing Sector. In this line, and in order for the gathered information to be comparable with other European surveys on Innovation and in particular with Community Innovation Survey (CIS), the design of the questionnaire was primarily based on the CIS standards. In addition to the data provided by the National survey, all the financial and other information, including annual expenditures on R&D, for the period 2001-2010 was provided by the electronic database “i-mentor”. Based on this information, a better approximation of R&D performance has become feasible through the construction of Greek R&D active manufacturing firms’ R&D stock (Kumbhakar et al., 2012). The main argument supporting this transformation is that fluctuations in R&D investment flows are more volatile than the knowledge stock acquired from such investments (Dierickx and Cool, 1989). The third chapter of this PhD thesis is devoted in presenting the specificities of the field research, the adopted methodology for the construction of firms’ knowledge stock, along with primary descriptive results sketching the outlook of Greek R&D manufacturing firms. The rest of this PhD thesis involves three essays each one of them examining research questions arising from the endogenous relationship between R&D and export activities. / Η ενίσχυση της δυναμικότητας και του ανταγωνιστικού πλεονεκτήματος των επιχειρήσεων με βάση την καινοτομία και την εξωστρέφεια έχουν απασχολήσει τόσο την ακαδημαϊκή έρευνα όσο και την πολιτική. Ειδικότερα η Ευρωπαϊκή Ένωση στήριξε την πολιτική της για την κάλυψη του χάσματος, σε σχέση με τους κύριους ανταγωνιστές της, σε αυτούς τους δυο πυλώνες (Lisbon strategy, ….) τουλάχιστον από τις αρχές του 2000. Αναγνωρίζεται ευρύτατα ότι οι πολιτικές αυτές δεν είχαν τα αναμενόμενα αποτελέσματα όχι γιατί στους δυο παραπάνω πυλώνες αποδόθηκε δυναμική που στην πραγματικότητα δεν είχαν αλλά γιατί οι επιμέρους πολιτικές που σχεδιάσθηκαν και εφαρμόσθηκαν δεν κατάφεραν αφενός να ενισχύσουν κάθε πυλώνα χωριστά και δεν αναγνώρισαν τις μεταξύ τους αλληλεξαρτήσεις. Έτσι, τα ζητήματα τόσο του τεχνολογικού πλεονεκτήματος όπως αυτό αποτυπώνεται στην καινοτομία όσο και της εξωστρέφειας παραμένουν ιδιαίτερα επίκαιρα ειδικά στο πλαίσιο της οικονομικής κρίσης που είναι κυρίαρχη, αν και ασύμμετρα, στο σύνολο της Ευρωπαϊκής Ένωσης. Ειδικά για την Ελλάδα, την περισσότερο πληττόμενη από την κρίση Ευρωπαϊκή οικονομία, αν και έχει αναγνωρισθεί τόσο η υστέρηση των επιχειρήσεων σε όρους καινοτομίας και εξαγωγικού προσανατολισμού και αν και έχουν υλοποιηθεί μια σειρά από παρεμβάσεις σε αυτή την κατεύθυνση, το χάσμα τόσο ως προς το μέσο Ευρωπαϊκό αλλά και ως προς τον μέσο όρο των χωρών του ΟΟΣΑ παραμένει ιδιαίτερα μεγάλο. Η παρούσα Διδακτορική Διατριβή εστιάζει σε ζητήματα που προκύπτουν από την αλληλεπίδραση των δραστηριοτήτων παραγωγής γνώσης και καινοτομίας από την μια και των δραστηριοτήτων διεθνοποίησης των επιχειρήσεων από την άλλη. Πιο συγκεκριμένα διερευνώνται θέματα που προκύπτουν από την ενδογένεια των διαδικασιών παραγωγής γνώσης που αποτυπώνονται σε διαδικασίες Έρευνας και Τεχνολογικής Ανάπτυξης (ΕΤΑ) και δραστηριότητες διεθνοποίησης (internationalization) που με τη σειρά τους αποτυπώνονται σε εξαγωγικές δραστηριότητες. Οι μεθοδολογικές προσεγγίσεις που χρησιμοποιούνται προσαρμόζονται κάθε φορά αφενός στα ιδιαίτερα ερευνητικά ερωτήματα που τίθενται και αφετέρου στην πολλαπλή ετερογένεια που χαρακτηρίζει τις επιχειρήσεις σε μικρή ανοικτή οικονομία, όπως η Ελλάδα, σε σύγκριση με τις ηγέτιδες σε όρους ΕΤΑ επιχειρήσεις διεθνώς. Σε αυτή την κατεύθυνση, διερευνώνται δύο διαφορετικά συστήματα καινοτομίας-διεθνοποίησης, και συγκεκριμένα το Διεθνές και το Εθνικό, που αναφέρονται αντίστοιχα σε δύο διακριτές ομάδες επιχειρήσεων. Η πρώτη ομάδα επιχειρήσεων επικεντρώνεται σε εκείνες που θεωρούνται πρωτοπόροι σε επενδύσεις σε ΕΤΑ σε παγκόσμιο επίπεδο. Η δεύτερη ομάδα επιχειρήσεων που διερευνάται αφορά τις Ελληνικές επιχειρήσεις οι οποίες με τη σειρά τους θεωρούνται πρωτοπόροι εντός του εθνικού συστήματος καινοτομίας στο οποίο δραστηριοποιούνται αλλά ταυτόχρονα έχουν επανειλημμένως χαρακτηριστεί ως «μέτριοι ακόλουθοι» (moderately following) σε όρους καινοτομικής δραστηριότητας εντός της Ευρωπαϊκής Ένωσης (IUS, 2013). Ενώ η διαθεσιμότητα των πληροφοριών για τις επιχειρήσεις που αναγνωρίζονται σε διεθνές επίπεδο ως πρωτοπόρες σε επενδύσεις ΕΤΑ προέκυψε από ανοικτής πρόσβασης βάσεις δεδομένων, για την ελληνική περίπτωση παρατηρήθηκε παντελής έλλειψη σχετικών πληροφοριών τόσο όσον αφορά τις δραστηριότητες ΕΤΑ όσο και τις εξαγωγικές δραστηριότητες των ελληνικών επιχειρήσεων. Η έλλειψη αυτή οδήγησε στην διενέργεια έρευνας πεδίου σε Πανελλαδικό επίπεδο στον τομέα της Μεταποίησης. Η παρούσα διδακτορική διατριβή αποτελείται από έξι κεφάλαια. Στο πρώτο κεφάλαιο πραγματοποιείται επισκόπηση της βιβλιογραφίας πάνω στη σχέση των εξαγωγικών δραστηριοτήτων και των δραστηριοτήτων ΕΤΑ τόσο σε θεωρητικό όσο και σε εμπειρικό επίπεδο και τίθεται το γενικό πλαίσιο της ανάλυσης. Σε αυτή την κατεύθυνση, αναδεικνύεται η συμβολή της παρούσας Διατριβής. Το δεύτερο κεφάλαιο αναφέρεται στο διεθνές σύστημα καινοτομίας όπου οι επιχειρήσεις, ανεξαρτήτως χώρας προέλευσης, ανταγωνίζονται σε όρους παραγωγής γνώσης. Πιο συγκεκριμένα, διερευνάται η ύπαρξη ενδογένειας ανάμεσα στην εξαγωγική ένταση από την μια και την ένταση των δραστηριοτήτων ΕΤΑ από την άλλη στη βάση του επιχειρήματος ότι η γνωσιακή βάση (knowledge base) των ηγέτιδων επιχειρήσεων, σε όρους ΕΤΑ, μεγεθύνεται από ροές γνώσης που προκύπτουν τόσο από τις δραστηριότητες ΕΤΑ όσο και από τις εξαγωγικές δραστηριότητες. Στο τρίτο κεφάλαιο παρουσιάζονται τα βήματα που ακολουθήθηκαν σε σχέση με τον εντοπισμό του πληθυσμού των επιχειρήσεων που καταγράφουν δαπάνες ΕΤΑ στους ετήσιες δημοσιευμένες χρηματοοικονομικές τους καταστάσεις τους, τα κριτήρια που ακολουθήθηκαν για τον «καθαρισμό» των δεδομένων (data cleaning) καθώς και αναλυτική περιγραφή της έρευνας πεδίου. Επιπλέον, παρουσιάζεται η μεθοδολογία που ακολουθήθηκε για την κατασκευή του αποθέματος γνώσης (knowledge stock) των ελληνικών επιχειρήσεων που παρουσιάζουν δραστηριότητες ΕΤΑ καθώς και βασικά περιγραφικά στατιστικά που προέκυψαν από την πληροφορία που συνελέγη από την έρευνα πεδίου. Στη συνέχεια, το τέταρτο κεφάλαιο της παρούσας διδακτορικής διατριβής τοποθετείται εντός του Ελληνικού Συστήματος και αφορά ελληνικές μεταποιητικές επιχειρήσεις που παρουσιάζουν δαπάνες σε ΕΤΑ και ανήκουν σε κλάδους χαμηλής έντασης τεχνολογίας. Συγκεκριμένα, τα ερευνητικά ερωτήματα επικεντρώνονται τόσο στην διερεύνηση ύπαρξης όσο και εκδήλωσης διαφορικών επιδράσεων στο ανταγωνιστικό πλεονέκτημα (competitive advantage) των επιχειρήσεων αυτών που προκύπτει από την απόφαση τους να (μην) εξάγουν. Το ανταγωνιστικό πλεονέκτημα προσεγγίζεται από την εκτίμηση της τεχνικής αποτελεσματικότητας (technical efficiency) όπου το απόθεμα γνώσης αποτελεί την τρίτη εισροή μαζί με τις εισροές του κεφαλαίου και της εργασίας. Έτσι δημιουργείται θεωρητικό υπόδειγμα στο πλαίσιο του οποίου η τεχνική αποτελεσματικότητα, μέσω της διαδικασίας μετατροπής δεξιοτήτων (competences) σε ικανοτήτων (capabilities), αποτυπώνει το ανταγωνιστικό πλεονέκτημα. Σε αυτή την κατεύθυνση υποστηρίζεται ότι το ανταγωνιστικό πλεονέκτημα που βασίζεται στις δραστηριότητες ΕΤΑ των ελληνικών επιχειρήσεων προσδιορίζει ενδογενώς της απόφαση τους να συμμετέχουν στις ξένες αγορές. Το επιχείρημα αυτό στηρίζεται στο ότι οι επιχειρήσεις που καλούνται να αποφασίζουν εάν θα εξάγουν στην πραγματικότητα προεξοφλούν τα αναμενόμενα οφέλη και τα κόστη από τη συγκεκριμένη δραστηριότητα σε σχέση με τη διατήρηση του ανταγωνιστικού πλεονεκτήματος που κατέχουν. Με άλλα λόγια, διερευνάται αν το επιχειρηματικό μοντέλο που έχει υιοθετηθεί από τις εξεταζόμενες επιχειρήσεις, και μετατρέπει τις δεξιότητες σε ικανότητες, στην ουσία προσδιορίζει και την απόφαση για εξαγωγές. Το πέμπτο κεφάλαιο της παρούσας Διδακτορικής Διατριβής διερευνά την ύπαρξη ενδογένειας ανάμεσα στις εξαγωγικές δραστηριότητες και τις διαδικασίες παραγωγής γνώσης των ελληνικών μεταποιητικών επιχειρήσεων που παρουσιάζουν δραστηριότητες ΕΤΑ εντός ενός διευρυμένου θεωρητικού πλαισίου όπου συν-θεωρούνται και άλλες στρατηγικές παράμετροι που είναι πιθανό να επηρεάζουν αυτή τη σχέση. Πιο συγκεκριμένα, οι διαδικασίες παραγωγής γνώσης, όπως έχουν αποτυπωθεί στα επιμέρους συστατικά της γνωσιακής βάσης των επιχειρήσεων αλλά και στην στρατηγική διερεύνησης εξωτερικών συνεργασιών για συνεργασίες στις δραστηριότητες ΕΤΑ, συνδέονται με την εξαγωγική και καινοτομική αποδοτικότητα (export and innovation performance). Ένα επιπλέον επίπεδο πολυπλοκότητας προστίθεται όταν ο διττός χαρακτήρας της έντασης των εξωτερικών συνεργασιών σε ΕΤΑ λαμβάνεται υπόψη. Δηλαδή, διερευνάται σε ποιο βαθμό η ένταση των εξωτερικών συνεργασιών για δραστηριότητες ΕΤΑ συνδέεται με την αποδοτικότητα της διεθνοποίησης των ελληνικών επιχειρήσεων καθώς μπορεί να θεωρηθεί ως εναλλακτικός δρόμος διεθνοποίησης τους. Από την άλλη μεριά η διαδικασίες που συγκροτούν το γνωσιακό απόθεμα των επιχειρήσεων μπορεί να συνδέονται και με την καινοτομική τους απόδοση. Τέλος στο έκτο κεφάλαιο συνθέτονται τα συμπεράσματα από το σύνολο της Διατριβής, διατυπώνονται προτάσεις πολιτικής και καταγράφονται αφενός οι ερευνητικοί περιορισμοί αλλά και αφετέρου τα μελλοντικά ερευνητικά σχέδια.

The promotion of science & technology and the creation of an enabling environment for countries innovation systems has been a growing worldwide trend in developed countries, with 21 out of 30 member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) currently utilising some form of tax incentive program aimed at encouraging investment in research and development (R&D) by private industry. 1 Encouraging R&D and associated innovation is generally seen as an effective tool in advancing science and technology, which in turn leads to the creation of new products and services, an increase in international competitiveness of local business, direct foreign investment and social spin-offs in the form of increased employment and economic growth? R&D is, however, expensive and involves high levels of technical risk, with the costs and risk involved often outweighing the potential profit. Consequently, many businesses choose not to perform R&D, which has resulted in governments of most developed countries having implemented various incentives to encourage private business to undertake R&D. These incentives can take the form of either direct incentives (grants, soft loans, subsidies etc) or indirect incentives (such as tax incentives). Tax incentives effectively subsidise the costs of R&D, making it a more attractive and profitable alternative for business. Developed countries, including: the United States of America (US), the United Kingdom (UK), Japan, China, Canada and Australia have all adopted a combination of both direct and indirect incentives, with various tax incentive measures receiving much attention in the last 2 decades. In South Africa the legislation providing for R&D tax incentives has been substantially amended in recent years through a number of Taxation Amendment Acts,] culminating in the enactment of s lID of the Income Tax Act 58 of 1962 (the Act). The aim of this dissertation is to critically examine the current South Afi'ican tax incentive scheme as contained in sliD, focusing on the eligibility requirements of that incentive. In addition, the dissertation will highlight design features and characteristics of the incentive, particularly in respect of its generosity, predictability, simplicity, administration and targeting. 4 The design and characteristics of the South African incentive is then compared to those of three different countries: the UK, Australia and Canada.s Based on the analysis and comparison, certain lessons are identified for South Africa6 and various opinions are advanced on the effectiveness of the current structure and whether particular aspects of it could be improved going forward. / Thesis (LL.M.)-Unversity of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2010.

This thesis discusses the potential for private investment to fund ambitious renewable energy research and development to help mitigate climate change. I begin by discussing the threat of global warming and a brief history of renewable energy development in the United States. Next, I discuss existing avenues for private investment in renewable energy, potential methods of increasing corporate participation, and the belief that businesses must maximize only financial profits. Then I perform an in-depth case study of pension funds that have incorporated a social or environmental mission, existing environmentally focused mutual funds, and liquidated clean energy mutual funds. Finally, I compare the historical performance of the existing mutual funds to the liquidated to determine a profit threshold below which clean energy focused funds fail and discuss optimal investment strategies to foster bold renewable energy investment.

This research investigated the leadership style in a research and development (R&D) work unit within a petro-chemical company, using the Full Range Leadership Development Theory as assessed by Multifactor-Leadership-Questionnaire (MLQ). From the literature review conducted, it was concluded that an R&D environment is multi-dimensional and the workforce can be diverse in the field of specialisation and personality characteristics. Subsequently, the literature review also focused on functional diversity and gender differences within technological and/or scientific environments. Descriptive statistics were provided and the data were then statistically analysed. The research results showed a statistical difference in the perception of the frequency of leadership style between manager-leaders and subordinates. Differences in the mean scores of manager-leaders and subordinates found that the manager-leaders overestimated the frequency ratings of their transformational leadership style and the leadership outcomes, while they under-estimated the frequency ratings for transactional and laissez-faire leadership style. This indicates that although the manager-leaders consider themselves as more transformational, the subordinates of this R&D unit view their immediate managers as not displaying ideal levels of transformational leadership behaviours. A self-bias phenomenon may be present where the manager-leaders judge themselves as overly favourable. It is recommended that this be addressed within the organisation. A statistical significant difference was observed in how some male and female employees experienced their manager-leaders' leadership style. The females indicated a higher frequency of laissez-faire leadership style, while some males viewed their manager-leaders as more transformational compared to the female employees. Manager-leaders may need different skills to manage females and in general an increasing awareness of gender bias within the unit may mitigate stereotypical assumptions. No statistically significant differences (p<0, 05) could be found for the total group between functional areas, being scientists versus engineers. It should be noted that the departments consist of predominantly scientists, while only one department showed a mixture of scientists and engineers. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2010.

This research investigated the leadership style in a research and development (R&D) work unit within a petro-chemical company, using the Full Range Leadership Development Theory as assessed by Multifactor-Leadership-Questionnaire (MLQ). From the literature review conducted, it was concluded that an R&D environment is multi-dimensional and the workforce can be diverse in the field of specialisation and personality characteristics. Subsequently, the literature review also focused on functional diversity and gender differences within technological and/or scientific environments. Descriptive statistics were provided and the data were then statistically analysed. The research results showed a statistical difference in the perception of the frequency of leadership style between manager-leaders and subordinates. Differences in the mean scores of manager-leaders and subordinates found that the manager-leaders overestimated the frequency ratings of their transformational leadership style and the leadership outcomes, while they under-estimated the frequency ratings for transactional and laissez-faire leadership style. This indicates that although the manager-leaders consider themselves as more transformational, the subordinates of this R&D unit view their immediate managers as not displaying ideal levels of transformational leadership behaviours. A self-bias phenomenon may be present where the manager-leaders judge themselves as overly favourable. It is recommended that this be addressed within the organisation. A statistical significant difference was observed in how some male and female employees experienced their manager-leaders' leadership style. The females indicated a higher frequency of laissez-faire leadership style, while some males viewed their manager-leaders as more transformational compared to the female employees. Manager-leaders may need different skills to manage females and in general an increasing awareness of gender bias within the unit may mitigate stereotypical assumptions. No statistically significant differences (p<0, 05) could be found for the total group between functional areas, being scientists versus engineers. It should be noted that the departments consist of predominantly scientists, while only one department showed a mixture of scientists and engineers. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2010.