Thesis (S.M.M.O.T.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, Management of Technology Program, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 105-108). / Design is an especially effective means to transfer organizational product knowledge; yet, design outsourcing, or the contracting of a supplier to perform the design of a product or product component, has grown in acceptance and practice. Empirical evidence suggests that there are strategic risks for the contracting company, such as forward integration by the design supplier. There are also visible benefits, such as improving product innovation and overcoming resource limitations. To investigate the strategic implications of design outsourcing in conjunction with the knowledge transfer that takes place between the contractor and the supplier, six product development firms located in New England were interviewed. Their design practices and experiences in working with clients on many different design projects provided corroboration of and new insights into the risks and benefits from design outsourcing. Additional research into design practices, design technology, the unique qualities of design knowledge, and the contributors to the transfer of knowledge during design support the argument t.hat knowledge is transferred during design. The author proposes that a product is an embodiment of the tacit and explicit knowledge that is traded-off and integrated during design in a process that naturally employs collaboration. A relative qualitative measure of the amount of knowledge embodied by the product is called its knowledge intensity. Along with an alternative to the concept of a core product called the knowledge kernel, these concepts facilitate the important linking of knowledge and products during strategic outsourcing decisions. To investigate the strategic implications of design outsourcing in conjunction with the knowledge transfer that takes place between the contracting company and the supplier, a systems dynamics model was developed. The model shows that the interactions of the many different causal-loops in design outsourcing results in an eight-to-three ratio of reinforcing feedback loops to balancing feedback loops. This result suggests that design outsourcing is a self-promoting practice that is difficult to balance and can lead to significant product knowledge transferred to the supplier. Knowledge-based recommendations are offered for companies faced with design outsourcing decisions that include offensive and defensive tactics. / by Peter L. Grant. / S.M.M.O.T.

Thesis: Ph. D. in History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology and Society (HASTS), Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Science, Technology and Society, 2016. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 217-225). / This dissertation examines how Africa's place in the world is negotiated in different forms of material engagement with Dutch Wax cloth--designing, advertising, selling, buying, and tailoring-along the cloth's trajectory between the Netherlands and Togo. Derived from a manual Javanese textile printing technique, Dutch Wax cloth has been machine-printed in the Netherlands since the late 19th century, and was introduced to West Africa in the early 20th century. Lomé, Togo was a hub for its distribution throughout West and Central Africa for much of the 20th century. The cloth's visual and material attributes were historically developed through exchanges between West African consumers and European manufacturers and Dutch Wax has since been integrated into both dress practices and processes of social reproduction in Togo, as in much of West Africa. Further, in recent years, the cloth's producer has been rebranding itself from a textile manufacturer for Africa into a global luxury design and fashion brand. As such, Dutch Wax cloth has and continues to not only mediate but also embody West African participation in the global. By examining how Dutch Wax is "done" in various sites of practice along its path-how it is given form, and what is produced alongside these forms-this multi-sited ethnography brings to light how Africa's relationship to and place in the global is negotiated in the practices of designers, advertisers, sellers, buyers, and tailors across the Netherlands, Togo, and "the global." I argue that the view of Africa-in-the-world (Ferguson 2006) that emerges in each of these sites of practice and across all five is one that is characterized by a tenuous play between absence and presence, visibility and invisibility, inclusion and exclusion. Even as it offers a seductive alternative to past discourses about a "hopeless," "crisis-ridden," "old Africa," the "New Africa" remains decidedly layered and multiple. / by Amah Melissa Edoh. / Ph. D. in History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology and Society (HASTS)

Thesis (S.M.M.O.T.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, Management of Technology Program, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 62-63). / This thesis examines how the traditional banking institutions can add value in supply networks of products and services. The approach is based on a critical examination of the current range of services offered by traditional banks and similar financial institutions to supply chains and their component firms. Our primary hypothesis that we construct from such an analysis is that banking institutions have a vast field of opportunity to undertake more value-added roles in the operational aspects of supply chains; currently, the purview of many traditional banks is limited to the strategic aspects of supply chains, such as mergers and acquisitions, capital investments, and a largely passive or reactive monitoring of financial performance of supply chains. In order to underscore the significance of the research question, we first review the strategic drivers and the success factors for most banking institutions as they seek to enlarge their role in the functioning of large markets; these strategic drivers could explain the positioning of the current range of services offered by banks to supply chains and broader markets. Next, working from the other end, we review briefly the strategic, tactical and operational issues and priorities facing supply chain managers of today, with a view to understanding the potential roles that financial institutions can play in order to engage supply chain managers for greater mutual benefit. However, the research questions of this thesis are also motivated by the set of competitive challenges facing traditional financial institutions in their current sphere of influence and their current market domains. / (cont.) For example, on the one hand traditional banks are being driven to become more efficient in their offerings to their customers, given the greater transparency and range of offerings available to their end-customers as a result of information technology, the Internet phenomena, and as a result of reduced cost of entry for many players. On the other hand, many supply chain innovators have also encroached upon the space of traditional banks, acting in effect as dis-intermediaries between banks and the end-customers of the supply chains. A good example of this is the profitable consumer credit lending business ventures of the automotive firms such as GM and Ford. Using the insights provided by the above critical analyses, we then propose that several specific opportunities exist for traditional banks to play a greater role in the tactical and operational aspects of supply networks for products and services, and provide examples of how banks can undertake more value added and proactive roles in these supply chains. / by Yoshiro Fujimori. / S.M.M.O.T.

Thesis (S.M.M.O.T.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, Management of Technology Program, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 108-122). / NeuroBioChip Device is a programmable, biocompatible, biodegradable, polymer matrix which allows the growth and programming of donor neurons. It creates a microenvironment conducive for neuronal outgrowth and promises a novel cure for neurological disorders caused by localized sites of brain damage, such as Parkinson's disease, stroke, and spinal injury. This chip is being researched in the MIT laboratories of Drs. Robert Langer and Mriganka Sur. My thesis addresses the challenges and possible strategies in commercializing this technology. The need for this treatment was evaluated in the context of current therapies available for the treatment of relevant neurological disorders. Extensive field interviews were conducted. Among other factors, the varying clockspeeds between different components of the device, the unsustainable cost structure and the emerging status of complementary technologies suggested that the development of the therapy is best pursued in collaboration with a large biopharmaceutical or medical device firm. / by Anindita Dutt. / S.M.M.O.T.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, Technology and Policy Program, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 74-76). / Climate change is increasingly being recognized by governments, industry, the scientific community, and the public as an issue that must be dealt with. Parties are pursuing various strategies to reduce CO₂ emissions. Renewable energy, energy efficiency, cleaner fuels, terrestrial CO₂ sequestration, and geologic CO₂ capture and storage (CCS) are the major efforts underway. This thesis examines some major regulatory and political issues that may affect geologic sequestration projects in the future. CCS is a technology system that captures CO₂ from a point source (e.g. power plant or industrial facility), pressurizes it into liquid form, transports it, and finally injects it underground into a porous geology for long-term storage. Technical and economic issues of capture, transportation, and injection of CO₂ have been relatively well studied over the past decade. The impacts of how current environmental regulation and political action to curb climate change will affect CCS have not been thoroughly explored. This thesis investigates the Environmental Protection Agency's Underground Injection Control Program and several types of protected and restricted land use areas to evaluate where it would be difficult or impossible to site a CCS project. I also explore state-level action on climate change and categorize them based on their attractiveness for CCS projects. I suggest a methodology for incorporating this regulatory information into a geographic information system based decision analysis tool, designed to aid decision makers dealing with CCS. / by Adam Smith. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Technology and Policy Program, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 176-180). / Innovation and high growth technological companies have been set as a priority in Europe. Recently, the European Union declared "Entrepreneurship and Innovation are central to the creative process in the economy and to promoting growth, increasing productivity and creating jobs. Entrepreneurs sense opportunities and take risks in the face of uncertainty to open new markets, design products and develop innovative processes.'' The most innovative firms, which seek early-stage, external financing, have the potential promise of substantial returns but a concomitant high level of risk. It is within the context of such firms that the potential of venture capital, as a source of entrepreneurial support, appears most relevant. However, many barriers hinder the development of venture capital in Europe, and in particular in France. Innovators are not only vulnerable at the outset but are faced with an interminable series of obstacles to creativity. The main handicaps and obstacles are those affecting the coordination of efforts, human resources, private or public financing and the legal and regulatory environment. This thesis analyzes the current situation of venture capital and entrepreneurship in France, compares it to the overall situation in Europe and in the United States. It eventually delvers some policy recommendations aimed at fostering both the supply and demand of venture capital in France. The main challenge is probably best summarized as one of flexibility. Regulations and procedures of all sorts need to be re-engineered to encourage and promote the fluid development of businesses. Flexibility to adopt new cultural mindsets: risk-taking behavior, different attitudes towards initiative, success and failure. Flexibility to adopt a lifelong learning attitude and regularly retrain. Ultimately, entrepreneurship and the development of venture capital in France is about action rather than analysis, and, despite its high potential, France has still much to achieve. / by James H. Reynolds. / S.M.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Science, Technology and Society, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references. / The general post-Soviet decline of the states of Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan) mirrors specific declines in the robustness of these states' stocks of financial, physical, natural, human, organizational, and social capital assets. This loss of various kinds of capital assets over the past decade reduces the current potential and capacity of the region to implement reforms for sustainable development. While Central Asia entered the 20th century as a comparatively marginal and underdeveloped area of the world, during the Soviet period it amassed appreciable stocks of capital, especially human, physical, and social capital. The emergence of a vibrant scientific community in Central Asia during the middle of the century marked one of the most rapid expansions of scientific prestige, talent, and institutions in the developing world. With the disassembly of the Soviet Union, development and reform projects within Central Asia and funded by foreign donors have failed to achieve their development and reform goals. Within the environmental sphere, the post-Soviet period, despite a massive investment in environmental aid to the region from the West and Japan, has yielded few environmental benefits and seen the worsening of several environmental conditions, captured in the desiccation of the Aral Sea and the collapse of Caspian Sea fisheries. / (cont.) Paralleling this trend, democracy and rule of law have not taken strong root in Central Asia; rather authoritarianism and corruption are the norm in national governments. While processes of globalization (especially the free movement of human and financial capital) suggest that Central Asia could not have avoided decline in the 1990s, the severity of declines could have been mitigated by a more robust Western appreciation of the unique endowments of the Soviet era in human (the scientific community) and organizational (Perestroika public dialogues on rule of law, civil society, and democracy) capital. / by Eric Wilhelm Sievers. / Ph.D.

Thesis (S.M.M.O.T.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, Management of Technology Program, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 82-83). / With slowdown in the growth rate of petroleum product consumption, petroleum business is maturing and becoming commoditized. In maturing industries, cost leadership and operational excellence is important, but it is not sustainable. Inevitably, competition will squeeze margins, even for the cost leaders. In order to sustain growth, companies should continuously explore potential enlargement of its offering vis-a-vis its competitors and customers' expectation. A set of industry case studies in petroleum, energy utility, steel and airline industries have been performed to identify opportunities for differentiation and to examines how the successful companies manage the innovation in developing sustainable growth strategy. Analysis of industry case study identified some important differentiating factors and approaches. It suggests, in general, that successful companies focus on Customer Solution. The customer solution reflects a shift in strategic attention from product to customer-from product economics to customer economics and customer's experience. To capture a value position and enhance profitability-in other words, to decommoditize the commodity product/service-they redefine its services to reach into the customer's own business to solve more fundamental problems. They segmented the market to better design and deliver tailored, customer-specific services bundled with commodity products. Unless companies are going to compete mainly on price, value added solutions are a necessity. Innovation, and more importantly effective implementation of innovation, is a prerequisite for a sustainable growth. In conclusion, I made suggestion for one company to achieve sustainable growth and recommendations for future research. / by YongTae Lee. / S.M.M.O.T.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, Technology and Policy Program, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 97-102). / China's recent entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) in December 2001 has lent speed to an ongoing series of market reforms that has opened up the massive Chinese domestic market to the world. The thought of China selling its products and services freely in global markets in exchange for opening up its own growing domestic market of 1.2 billion people is staggering and demands for business and policy decision makers to have an understanding of China's unique investment landscape. Centering on technology venturing in the telecommunications sector in mainland China, this research identifies and analyzes patterns of deal-making and strategies that motivate business investments in the technology space in mainland China. Three investment orientations - cost- minimization, domestic market-driven and joint development - are proposed and verified using the research data. Data was collected on all publicly-reported deals in China, published in business reporting services in the English language including the China Business Review, Reuters, Investext, Dow Jones, and The Economist Intelligence Unit. Objective data on deal attributes was matched with subjective and evaluative data on strategies and expected deal significance. By performing content analysis and statistical analysis on the data collected, results were obtained regarding the investment orientations in mainland China of two companies, UTStarcom Inc. and Nortel Networks Corp. It was found that significant differences existed in the objective and subjective attributes of telecommunications business ventures in China. / (cont.) The two companies that were studied exhibited all proposed investment orientations, including the third joint development orientation that is emerging and directing investments into Sino-foreign partnership opportunities that jointly developed 3G products for the international market. There is a decreasing trend in number of Sino-foreign import contracts and an increasing trend in Sino-foreign exports in telecoms. These results point to the emergence of Chinese telecom companies that compete strongly in the Chinese marketplace and in international markets. Three deal drivers are identified from the deals that were studied, along with several possible risk-bearing changes that might result from policy influences in China. Difficulties in tracking deals are described and the implications of the research findings from a business and policy perspective are discussed. / by Tony Whey Yit Lim. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.M.O.T.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, Management of Technology Program, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 100-104). / Financial services industry is undergoing tremendous transformation due to regulatory changes and technological developments. The thesis discusses these changes including the advent of internet and how it is impacting the financial services industry. The paper provides a detailed account of XML evolution and its comparison with SGML and HTML. Several organization bodies have been formed over the past few years to define and push XML based standards for various industries. Even though XML is still in its evolving stage, there is wide consensus that it will be the enabler for disparate systems to communicate with each other. The research provides an overview of various XML standards pertaining to financial services and firms behind these standards. The author derives the conclusion that several standards with in financial services will co-exist and the industry will converge to these standards. The thesis also provides an overview of some financial applications that are XML compliant along with examples of first mover financial services firms that have successfully applied XML to address systems issues. Based on the XML standards, changes in the industry and customer needs author predicts some future trends and milestones that will happen in the financial services industry. They include; General changes in industry Landscape, formation of Central Limit Order Book (CLOB), Emergence of HUBs and Exchanges, Global Straight Through Processing, Settlement time of T +O, Emergence of Aggregators and Enterprise Portals. The future trend section further discusses the role of XML in this changing environment and how it will help achieve some of the key break-throughs that were not possible before. In order to fully harness the potential of XML, firms need to understand the various elements of XML. The last section of the thesis provides an overview of internal factors; issues around understanding DTD's and other relevant factors firms need to consider for successful implementation. The factors are based on author's own understanding of XML, issues faced by financial services industry and interviews with financial services firms. / by Noor Hasan. / S.M.M.O.T.