Published Article / This paper provides a conceptual overview of one of the three types of university in the South African higher education band, namely the university of technology. The contention of the paper is that universities of technology should have the same core activities as the general or classical university, that is teaching, research and service. The differences between the types of university exist on a conceptual level and therefore also in their approach to science in general. The conceptual analysis illustrates how the university of technology contributes towards research and development. It is for this reason that this university type should be welcomed by the university sector. Its overall contribution to what a university is should be acknowledged.

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An important step in making an impact on the Indian market, Saab India Technology Center, SITC, was inaugurated on October 21, 2011. SITC is a collaboration with the Indian company Tech Mahindra, and supplies all of Saab’s Business Areas with skilled engineers. The growing interest for SITC has spread to TDH, the department for Human Machine Interface and Avionics. Possible benefits, but also challenges, of utilizing SITC have been discussed. This thesis attempts to address challenges and maximize benefits for TDH by exploring how a Swedish R&D organization in the defense industry, that has a tradition of performing most work in-house, can initiate outsourcing to a supplier in India. In order to do this, a literature study was performed. Since gaps in the literature regarding outsourcing in the defense industry were identified, a combination of a descriptive and exploratory research approach was chosen. Following the literature study, interviews were conducted to collect experience from working with external partners at TDH, experience from working with SITC, experience from other companies that have outsourced R&D to India and experience of working with Saab from SITC. Empirical data was also gathered via informal meetings and observations during the researchers’ 5 month stay at TDH in Sweden and SITC in India. The outcome of this study shows that drivers and risks for outsourcing R&D, as well as the characteristics of the outsourcer and the supplier, will influence how the strategy for initiating outsourcing should be built. TDH’s main drivers in deciding to use SITC are mainly cost reduction goals, the possibility to access the Indian defense market and the opportunity to gain knowledge from collaborating with international suppliers. The type of risk that is most urgent for TDH is operational risk. Risks in this category, like overestimating cost reduction and risks associated with not understanding cultural differences are all highly relevant for any organization with limited experience in outsourcing. Strategy wise, the main finding is that an R&D organization in the defense industry will benefit from working in a more collaborative manner than traditional outsourcing entails. In an R&D organization, tasks are often complex and highly integrated with each other which, combined with a limited level of outsourcing experience, requires a tighter collaboration. With a high level of involvement from the outsourcer, problems can be detected early and insufficient requirements can be handled. Close collaboration also enhances knowledge sharing, which is important to ensure that the goal of gaining knowledge from international collaboration is achieved. Furthermore, organizational acceptance can be improved by a collaboration that enables close contact between outsourcer and supplier. Improving acceptance in the organization for collaborating with the supplier should be prioritized in order to strengthen the positive effects of outsourcing.

Inducement prize contests, where a monetary prize is offered for a specified technological achievement, are increasingly popular means of incentivising research and innovation. Such prizes are often modelled by the rent-seeking Tullock contest, or an all-pay auction. However, the direct application of such models can overlook some particular features of technological competition. This thesis addresses three such features. The first model notes that preliminary prizes are often part of contest designs. A two-round Tullock model is used to investigate a potential motivation for offering such prizes when contestants have different productivities. A designer can identify and purchase the rights to the more productive technology where the award of the preliminary prize is conditional on the winner licensing his technology to other contestants. In this way, endowing a preliminary round results in the potential for increased second round productivity, but at the cost of a reduced second round prize. Such a structure is optimal when the productivities are sufficiently different. In the second model, it is noted that expenditures in inducement prize contests are often too large to be explained by the cash prize alone. There usually exists a final consumer application of the research. This chapter examines how different types of prizes arise by considering the informational content of winning and the effect this has on quality differentiation in when there is an established quality leader. A purely informational 2 prize influences investment decisions and also the qualities offered in the market. The main result is that some prizes may aim to select the highest quality firm as often as possible, whereas other prizes may aim to reward the entrant only if a significant improvement in quality is made. In the third model, prizes are not the only instruments available to contest designers. In particular, subsidy of spending may be possible. This chapter uses an intuitive interpretation of the Tullock contest to offer a matching-funds instrument to a budget constrained principal. It is shown that symmetric prize/subsidy contest designs may be optimal even in the context of contestant asymmetry, in contrast to most existing contest design models. It is also shown that if only one subsidy is offered, it is always to the weaker contestant. The role of contest accuracy in these findings is also considered.

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Thesis (M.B.A.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / 2031-01-01

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There is a growing consensus that senior management in either marketing or finance department should not evaluate the marketing performance only by marketing metrics, e.g. market share, sales growth, customer satisfaction, and etc., but focusing on maximizing shareholder value because they do not understand how or even whether those marketing metrics benefit shareholders. To follow this trend, this article investigates whether a firm¡¦s advertising expenditure, customer satisfaction, and research-and-development (R&D) expenditure have effects on total risk, systematic risk, and unsystematic risk of its common stock. After examining American and Taiwan stock market in the period from 2001 to 2005, the study finds that, conforming to the hypotheses in the study, advertising and customer satisfaction can significantly lower all a firm¡¦s total risk, systematic risk, and unsystematic risk of its common stock. The result of R&D, however, rejects the hypotheses in the study and even previous research and states that R&D would increase a firm¡¦s total risk, systematic risk, and unsystematic risk of its common stock in American stock market, yet increase systematic risk and decrease unsystematic risk in Taiwan stock market. The implication of this study may offer senior managers an alternative thinking of controlling business risk and resource allocation.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--West Virginia University, 2009. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains vii, 122 p. : col. ill. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität St. Gallen, 1999.