Thesis (MPhil (Sociology and Social Anthropology))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / This study focuses on academic entrepreneurship. It commences with a literature review on international trends in academic entrepreneurship, with a particular focus on incentive schemes used by selected countries to encourage innovativeness in academic institutions. Linkages between these incentives schemes and the improvement in the level of innovations made are demonstrated. This study will also show that in some countries, such as Brazil and Finland, these innovation incentives have led to the formation of start-up companies and an increased number of patents. The international scenario in academic entrepreneurship is linked to the South African scenario, as presented in the chapter on the science and technology landscape in South Africa. The main focus of the South African scenario will be on the National Innovation Competition (NIC), which is an instrument of the Innovation Fund specifically aimed at encouraging and providing innovation incentives at the level of higher education institutions. This research report also provide findings of interviews with different people within the academic entrepreneurship fraternity as well as an assessment of the differences between the winning and the non-winning business plans, which are used as a basis of providing incentives to the winners of the NIC. Recommendations are made in an attempt to provide solutions to the challenges encountered in the NIC at both institutional levels, as participants, and at government level, as funders of the NIC. This will hopefully improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the NIC. Although the NIC was only started in 2004, it is envisaged that areas of improvement can be identified at this early stage. This, coupled with the lessons learnt from the international literature review, will provide a mechanism that will make the NIC a powerful instrument to encourage innovation at HEI (Higher Education Institution) level. The conclusions drawn from this report include lessons learnt from the international literature review.

The Swedish ecological breakthrough of the late 1960’s and the early 1970’s entailed a rapid proliferation of competing perspectives on the environment, on man’s relation to it, and on the possible – dystopian or utopian – futures that lay ahead. By drawing on the theoretical concept of sociotechnical imaginaries as defined by Sheila Jasanoff and Sang-Hyun Kim, this thesis aims to explore the critical role played by these perspectives, and by these visions of the future, during this formative period of the emerging environmental consciousness and of early Swedish environmental politics. With this purpose in mind, the thesis examines the sociotechnical imaginaries mobilized in three Swedish books on environmental politics written by politically concerned scientists, as well as the two first environmental manifests published by the ruling Social Democratic Party in 1968 and 1972. By comparing the imaginaries mobilized in each text, the thesis then argues that the party incorporated certain elements of the critical perspectives into the dominant paradigm, but that they never wavered in their commitment to industrial development. The thesis also shows how these environmental imaginaries were used to legitimize political power, as well as the social democratic hegemony.

The overall security posture of information systems (IS) depends on the behaviors of the IS users. Several studies have shown that users are the greatest vulnerability to IS security. The proliferation of smartphones is introducing an entirely new set of risks, threats, and vulnerabilities. Smartphone devices amplify this data exposure problem by enabling instantaneous transmission and storage of personally identifiable information (PII) by smartphone users, which is becoming a major security risk. Moreover, companies are also capitalizing on the availability and powerful computing capabilities of these smartphone devices and developing a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) program, which makes companies susceptible to divulgence of organizational proprietary information and sensitive customer information. In addition to users being the greatest risk to IS security, several studies have shown that many people do not implement even the most basic security countermeasures on their smartphones. The lack of security countermeasures implementation, risky user behavior, and the amount of sensitive information stored and transmitted on smartphones is becoming an ever-increasing problem. A literature review revealed a significant gap in literature pertaining to smartphone security. This study identified six socio-cognitive factors from the domain of traditional computer security which have shown to have an impact on user security behaviors and practices. The six factors this study identified and analyzed are mobile information security self-efficacy, institutional trust, party trust, and awareness of smartphone risks, threats, and vulnerabilities and their influence on smartphone security practices and behaviors. The analysis done in this research was confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) – structural equation modeling (SEM). The goal of this study was to cross-validate previously validated factors within the context of traditional computer security and assess their applicability in the context of smartphone security. Additionally, this study assessed the influential significance of these factors on the security behaviors and practices of smartphone users. This study used a Web-based survey and was distributed to approximately 539 users through Facebook® and LinkedIn® social media outlets which resulted in 275 responses for a 51% response rate. After pre-analysis data screening was completed, there were a total of 19 responses that had to be eliminated due to unengaged responses and outliers leaving 256 responses left to analyze. The results of the analysis found that vulnerability awareness, threat awareness, and risk awareness are interrelated to one another which all in turn had significance in predicting self-efficacy, security practices, and behaviors. This intricate relationship revealed in this study indicates that a user has to have an increased awareness in all three categories of awareness before they can fully understand how to protect themselves. Having an increased awareness in one category does not impact the overall security posture of the user and that risk, threat, and vulnerability awareness all work together. Another interesting find was that as risk awareness increased the less the smartphone users protected themselves. This finding warrants additional research to investigate why the user is more averse to risk, and willing to accept the risk, despite their increased awareness. Finally, institutional trust and party trust was found not to have any significance on any of the factors. These findings should give smartphone users and organizations insight into specific areas to focus on in minimizing inappropriate security behaviors and practices of smartphone users. More specifically, users and organizations need to focus on educating users on all three factors of threats, risks, and vulnerabilities in order for there to have any impact on increasing self-efficacy and reducing inappropriate security behaviors and practices.

Users' acceptance of a new information technology (IT) is considered to be a key determinant factor of its success. Also, studying users' adoption and use of new IT plays an important role in determining users' needs and reducing business risk, especially in industry segments with rapid changes in IT such as Smartphone technology. Such rapid evolution is influencing consumers' behaviors, their daily lifestyle, the manner of conducting their activities and their ways of consuming and using information. Smartphone technology holds a promising future with an expected global market that could reach US $258 billion by the end of year 2015 [1]. Besides the mobile industry, Smartphone technology introduces a wide range of opportunities and challenges for many related industries that participate directly or indirectly in producing and providing Smartphone services/products to the end users. Moreover, the Smartphone technology is relatively new technology with plenty of room for improvement. Better understanding of users' intentions and their behaviors regarding the adoption and use of the Smartphone technology plays a critical role in determining its success and benefiting all stakeholders. Significant efforts have been made to study and explain users' adoption and use of Smartphone technology. However, most of the empirical research focused on only a limited number of Smartphone aspects or on a specific profession such as doctors and nurses which may neglect other important factors. In emerging regions such as Jordan and China, cultural and social influence showed significant relationships with users' adoption and use of the Smartphone and its related technologies. Saudi Arabia is a developing country that has different cultural and social contexts that could influence users' intention to adopt and use the Smartphone technology. The key factors that influence general users' intention to adopt and use Smartphone technology in Saudi Arabia have not yet been studied and explored in a comprehensive manner. Therefore, the main purpose of this dissertation is to empirically study and explore the key factors that influence general users' adoption and use of the Smartphone in a comprehensive manner in Saudi Arabia. This dissertation starts with a literature review of existing research related to the adoption and use of Smartphone technology. Taxonomy is developed that includes factors that were identified as important in previous research and related to the adoption and use of the Smartphone technology. By using the developed taxonomy and reviewing literature related to the IT adoption theories, a preliminary theoretical research model is developed based on the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT). A number of qualitative methods, namely brainstorming, focus group and individual interviews, have been conducted to evaluate, select and validate the existing factors, as well as introduce new factors, and to identify only the most related factors to be included in the preliminary research model. A survey questionnaire has been developed and validated to survey general users of the Smartphone in Saudi Arabia. A web-based survey has been designed and sent through email to 5,000 randomly selected smartphones users in Saudi Arabia. Data has been statistically analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The results indicate that performance expectancy factor, effort expectancy factor, brand influence factor, perceived enjoyment factor and design factor have a positive and significant relationship with users' intention to adopt and use smartphones in Saudi Arabia. Also, the results indicate that the social influence factor has a significant and positive relationship with use behavior or actual use of smartphones in Saudi Arabia. The results of this dissertation provide more insights to practitioners in the smartphones domain and information that contributes to the body of knowledge regarding information technology adoption and its related research, especially in Saudi Arabia.

The 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico awakened communities to the increased risk of large-scale damage along their coastlines presented by new technology in deep water drilling. Normal accident theory and high reliability theory offer a framework through which to view the 2010 spill that features predictive criteria linked to a qualitative assessment of risk presented by technology and organizations. The 2010 spill took place in a sociotechnical system that can be described as complex and tightly coupled, and therefore prone to normal accidents. However, the entities in charge of managing this technology lacked the organizational capacity to safely operate within this sociotechnical system.

International cooperation on export controls for technology is based on three assumptions, that it is possible: to know against whom controls should be directed; to control the international transfer of technology; and to define the items to be controlled. These assumptions paint a very hierarchical framing of one of the central problems in export controls: dual-use technology. This hierarchical framing has been in continual contention with a competitive framing that views the problem as the marketability of technology. This thesis analyses historical and contemporary debates between these two framings of the problem of dual-use technology, focusing on the multilateral Wassenaar Arrangement on Export Controls for Conventional Arms and Dual-Use Goods and Technologies. Using a framework of concepts from Science & Technology Studies and the theory of sociocultural viability, I analyse the Arrangement as a classification system, where political, economic, and social debates are codified in the lists of controlled items, which then structure future debates. How a technology is (not) defined, I argue, depends as much on the particular set of social relations in which the technology is enacted as on any tangible aspects the technology may have. The hierarchical framing is currently hegemonic within Wassenaar, and I show how actors that express this framing use several strategies in resolving anomalies that arise concerning the classification of dual-use technology. These strategies have had mixed success, and I show how they have adequately resolved some cases (e.g. quantum cryptography), while other areas have proved much more difficult (e.g. focal plane arrays and computers). With the development of controls on intangible technology transfers, a third, egalitarian framing is arising, and I argue that initial steps have already been taken to incorporate this framing with the discourse on dual-use technology. However, the rise of this framing also calls into question the fundamental assumption of export controls that technology is excludable, and therefore definable.

Following Toyota's dramatic rise to prominence within the automotive industry in the late 1980's, firms around the globe have widely sought to adopt Lean Six Sigma (LSS) as a means of reducing costs, improving quality, and gaining an overall competitive advantage. While the operational benefits of LSS are largely undisputed, there are criticisms of the movement with regards to its effect on firm innovation capability. Prior academic studies investigating the relationship between LSS and innovation are largely conceptual in nature, rely heavily on qualitative data, and display a high degree of variability in results. The objective of this work was to empirically confirm whether LSS adoption had a positive, negative, or neutral impact on firm innovation performance.Financial data was collected for 151 publicly traded firms over the period from 1985 to 2018. The year of company-wide adoption of LSS was identified for each sample firm. Firms were paired with industry rivals using Coarsened Exact Matching (CEM), and statistical regressions were performed to show correlations between LSS implementation (as measured by inventory turns) and innovation performance (as measured by Total Factor Productivity, Research Quotient, and Tobin's Quotient). Regression results indicated that LSS implementation had a positive correlation with firm process innovation performance and the overall market perception of firm innovation and value, and a negative-to-neutral correlation with firm product innovation performance. Additional regressions performed at the industry-sector level revealed that the LSS-innovation relationship varies greatly by industry environment and is subject to unique industry effects and management implementation decisions.

<p> In the history of scientific visualization techniques there is a lack of social science practices and methodologies. The advent of modern computer graphics brought the use of visualizations into a whole new era, but even though the tools by which such modern visualizations are created become easier to access and use, the lack of social science researchers harvesting the benefits of such tools still remain. This ease of use, increase in power and accessibility plus the ever growing need within the natural sciences to augment the human senses has further complicated the relationship between scientific methodologies, validity, reliability and the use of visualization techniques. This relationship must be explored, demystified and understood in order to fully grasp the impact of visualization practices when incorporated into any given scientific method. Within the social sciences there is one example of a tradition that has since its conception carried within it a graphical notion and a visualization practice. Time geography, a theory/method from the field of human/cultural geography has at its core a set of visualization techniques that encapsulate the very framework of time geographical analysis. Since it has been an integral part of the method trough out its history, it provides the perfect example for the study of the relationship between graphical visualization techniques and methodological development. The essay uses time geography as a case to construct and try out a set of scientific and methodological perspectives on the use of modern visualization techniques in social science practices. It is not an attempt to critically deconstruct this relationship within time geography, rather it points to a possible approach to the study of visualization techniques and their impact/role in the development of social science practices.</p> / <p>Den vetenskapliga visualiserings historia visar en tydlig brist på exempel från samhällsvetenskapliga praktiker och metoder. Den moderna datorgrafikens utveckling har tagit den vetenskapliga visualiseringen till nya nivåer, men trots att verktygen för skapandet av moderna datorgrafiska visualiseringar blivit lättare att hantera och förfoga över lyser de samhällsvetenskapliga exemplen på adopterandet av dessa verktyg fortfarande med sin frånvaro. Vertygens ökande grad av användarvänlighet och kraft, samt de naturvetenskapliga traditionernas ständigt växande behov att gå bortom de mänskliga sinnenas begränsningar har gjort relationen mellan visualiseringstekniker och vetenskapliga metoder, dess reliabilitet och validitet ytterligare komplicerad. För atttill fullo förstå hur inkorporerandet av visuella praktiker och modeller påverkar en metods utveckling i övrigt måste denna relation utforskas och analyseras. Inom samhällsvetenskapen finns en tradition som sedan sin tillkomst burit med sig ett visuellt språk och en visualiseringspraktik. Tidsgeografin, en delvis kulturgeografisk tradition har i själva sitt kärnspråk en serie viusaliseringsmodeller vilka är central del av metodens analysverktyg. Tidsgeografin erbjuder därmed ett utmärkt exempel för studier av relationen mellan vetenskapliga visualiseringspraktiker och metodologisk utveckling. Uppsatsen använder tidsgeografins metod och historia som en fallstudie i ett försök att konstruera och pröva ett antal vetenskapsteoretiska och metodologiska perspektiv på användandet av vetenskaplig visualisering inom samhällsvetenskapen. Uppsatsen är inte ett försök att kritiskt dekonstruera tidsgeografin, snarare visar den på en möjlig väg att närma sig studiet av moderna visualiseringsteknikers påverkan/roll i samhällsvetenskaplig metodutveckling.</p>

Η ανάπτυξη βιομηχανικών οικοσυστημάτων αποτελεί τη βασική κατεύθυνση της βιομηχανικής οικολογίας, η οποία προβάλλει ως ένα από τα πλέον ολοκληρωμένα μοντέλα αειφόρου ανάπτυξης. Η διδακτορική διατριβή αφορά στις συστημικές παρεμβάσεις που απαιτούνται για τη δημιουργία, συντήρηση και ανάπτυξη βιομηχανικών οικοσυστημάτων ή τεχνολογικών θυλάκων όπως ορίζονται υπό το πρίσμα της κοινωνικοτεχνικής προσέγγισης. Προς αυτήν την κατεύθυνση, η εργασία αποτελεί μια καινοτόμο προσπάθεια, η οποία εστιάζει (σε μίκρο και μάκρο επίπεδο) στα προβλήματα που εμφανίζονται και στις παρεμβάσεις που απαιτούνται κατά τη μετάβαση προς ένα νέο οικοβιομηχανικό τεχνολογικό καθεστώς. H διατριβή στοχεύει κυρίως στη παραγωγή θεωρίας και καθοδηγητικών πλαισίων σχετικά με τη διαδικασία μετάβασης προς το οικοβιομηχανικό παράδειγμα μέσω δευτερογενούς ανάλυσης υφιστάμενων περιπτώσεων και εφαρμογής θεωρητικών εργαλείων από τα πεδία της συστημικής επιστήμης και των σπουδών τεχνολογίας και επιστήμης. Αρχικά, το βιομηχανικό οικοσύστημα αντιμετωπίζεται ως σύστημα, δηλαδή ως σύνολο μερών τα οποία παρουσιάζουν αναδυόμενες ιδιότητες, και αναλύεται με τη βοήθεια θεμελιωδών συστημικών χαρακτηριστικών. Στη συνέχεια, το βιομηχανικό οικοσύστημα αντιμετωπίζεται ως οργάνωση, δηλαδή ως μια συγκροτημένη ομάδα εμπλεκομένων που στοχεύουν στην πραγμάτωση συγκεκριμένων στόχων, και αναλύονται τα προβλήματα που ανακύπτουν κατά το σχεδιασμό και την υλοποίηση των απαιτούμενων παρεμβάσεων. Τέλος, σε μια συνθετική οπτική, το βιομηχανικό οικοσύστημα αντιμετωπίζεται ως ένα νέο τεχνολογικό καθεστώς, δηλαδή ως ένα σύνολο πεποιθήσεων, κανόνων και τεχνολογιών που ρυθμίζει και διαμορφώνει τη βιομηχανική δραστηριότητα, και εξετάζεται η μετάβαση προς ένα οικοβιομηχανικό σύστημα παραγωγής, υπό το πρίσμα της κοινωνικοτεχνικής προσέγγισης, μέσω συστημικών παρεμβάσεων σε σχετικούς τεχνολογικούς θύλακες. Στη διατριβή προτείνονται ερμηνευτικά και καθοδηγητικά πλαίσια, τα οποία σε μίκρο επίπεδο μπορούν να εφαρμοσθούν στη διαχείριση και ανάπτυξη υφιστάμενων βιομηχανικών οικοσυστημάτων, ενώ σε μάκρο επίπεδο, μπορούν να χρησιμοποιηθούν στη χάραξη στρατηγικών πολιτικών οικοβιομηχανικής ανάπτυξης. / This thesis concerns the systemic interventions required for the development, maintenance and diffusion of industrial ecosystems managed as technological niches under the prism of the socio-technical approach. Towards this end, it is an innovative effort that concentrates on the issues emerged and on the interventions required in the transistion towards a novel eco-industrial technological regime. The main contribution of the research reported is the development οf theoretical constructs, as well as a normative framework for the transition process towards an eco-industrial paradigm. Methodologically, the analysis was based on a secondary research approach and application of theoretical tools from the disciplines of Systems Science and Science and Technology Studies. Initially, the industrial ecosystem was considered as a system and was analysed through fundamental systems concepts. Following, it was approached as an organization, and the associated problems of its transition process were analyzed. Finally, towards a more synthetic view, industrial ecosystems were considered as the constituent parts of a novel socio-technical regime of productions systems. The transition towards such an eco-industrial regime was analyzed through systemic interventions in technological niches by reference to existing industrial ecosystems. The thesis proposes explanatory and prescriptive frameworks for the design of the necessary interventions. At a micro level, the frameworks developed can be applied to the management and further development of existing industrial ecosystems, while at a macro level, they can be used by policy makers in the development of strategies aiming at the diffusion of the eco-industrial paradigm.

This thesis analyses how the Swedish forest industry has (re)acted regarding the energy transition and, in particular, regarding the reconstruction of the electricity and forest resources in Sweden during the 1989–2009 period. The thesis consists of four papers that analyse how the Swedish forest industry by means of energy management practices at individual pulp and/or paper mills, in corporate strategies performed by CEOs and boards of directors, and via its industry association, has dealt with mounting political and public demands for the industry to become ‘greener’. At the heart of the thesis are issues related to the industry’s substantial use and management of electricity and forest resources. This thesis focuses on the patterns of conflict and reconstruction that various forest industry representatives (e.g., CEOs) and entities (e.g., mills and resources) have experienced in relation to opposing and/or adjusting to the energy transition. The Swedish forest industry constitutes an illuminating case in a wider research context of how an industry (re)acts regarding increasing environmental and energy-related demands concerning its strategic resources. By using multidisciplinary theoretical concepts when analysing industrial change, this thesis demonstrates the industry’s wider embeddedness in science, policy, and material resources. / Den här sammanläggningsavhandlingen analyserar hur svensk skogsindustri (re)agerat beträffande energiomställningen och särskilt omvandlingen av elektricitets- och skogsresurserna i Sverige, 1989-2009. Avhandlingen består av fyra artiklar vilka analyserar hur svensk skogsindustri, genom energiledning i massa- och pappersbruk, i företagsledningars koncernstrategier, och genom branschorganisationen, hanterat de ökade miljökrav som politiker och allmänhet riktat mot branschen. I centrum för avhandlingen står särskilt frågor relaterade till branschens omfattande användning och hantering av elektricitet och skogsresurser. Mer specifikt fokuserar avhandlingen på de konflikter och förändringar som skogsindustrin genomgått som ett led i motståndet och/eller anpassningen till energiomställningen. Den svenska skogsindustrin utgör ett belysande fall på hur en energiintensiv bransch (re)agerar på ökade miljömässiga krav riktade mot dess energi- och naturresursanvändning. Avhandlingen kan därmed även bidra med kunskap om hur en bransch hanterar förändringskrav riktade mot dess strategiska nyckelresurser. Genom att analysera industriell förändring med multidisciplinära teoretiska begrepp tydliggörs branschens inbäddning i vetenskap, politik, och materiella resurser.