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.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, Technology and Policy Program, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 54). / Clusters comprise of a particular set of ingredients, which includes researchers, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, well-trained and educated workers, and specialized professional services. The importance of each ingredient is undeniable, yet the proximity to research centers and institutions is perhaps the most critical element of success for technology clusters. This thesis focuses on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and examines its role in the development of the biomedical industry cluster in Cambridge, Massachusetts. However, while the important role that academic institutions play in the process of transforming science to marketable technology is acknowledged, the question of who are the actual researchers most intimately involved in this process remains unanswered. Drawing on quantitative data, we show that the majority of commercially related research work is performed by a small fraction of the researchers, and this group is heterogeneous in characteristics. Moreover, through a novel way of examining publication data, we also show that the commercial productivity of each researcher is positively related to the researcher's relative level of applied science research. Over the past two years, Singapore has been among the most aggressive of the East Asian countries in pursuing the development of its biotechnology industry. By benchmarking Singapore against MIT, we recommend that Singapore raise its level of applied science research, to improve the integration of academic research into the marketplace. / by Kenny Hwee Seong Ching. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.M.O.T.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, Management of Technology Program, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 65). / Many successful innovative companies are acquired and become absorbed into larger more structured organizations. The innovation capabilities of the company change in the new environment depending on the extent to which they are nurtured or overridden. This thesis looks at one particular story of such an acquisition and follows its progress after it has been formally integrated into the acquiring company. More than five years after the acquisition the company's innovation is struggling, perhaps even more so in recent years. This thesis looks at the underlying causes of that struggle, the inflexibility of the larger more structured organization and the resistance of the acquired company, due to its earlier success, to adapt itself to the rigours of a larger company,. The thesis strives to answer the question: "Does early success and market dominance help or hinder future innovative capability?" The author worked with the acquired company, as a management consultant, for a four year period beginning shortly after the company was acquired. The culture then, was strikingly positive and very enjoyable to work in. It had an almost magnetic draw. / (cont.) During the years that followed that culture began to be eroded and the atmosphere changed palpably as people struggled with the manner in which new systems and structures were being established. There was constantly a sense of being imposed on by the parent company rather than being support. That eventually took its toll on people and in recent years some key employees have left. Having stepped back from the organization, the author continues to reflect on what could have been done differently along with what can be done today to retain and restore some of that strong company creativity and innovativeness. The author's underlying purpose for doing this thesis, in addition to answering the research questions, is to reaffirm the belief that profitable, successful businesses and strongly held values can and should coexist. / by Sinead E. O'Flanagan. / S.M.M.O.T.