This thesis is a socio-economic history of the relationship between music technology and organisational practices in twentieth-century Australia. It argues that the history of technology in the Australian music economy is dependent not only upon the changing technical characteristics of musical instruments and electronic consumer goods but also upon government policy-making, management practices in music technology manufacturing firms and patterns of music technology consumption. The thesis examines economic statistics regarding the import, export and local production of music technology in Australia. The economic statistics have not previously been examined in relation to the history of music technology in Australia. The historical analysis is structured according to a four-part periodisation which includes the Electric Age (1901-1930), the Electronic Age (1930-1950), the Transistor Age (1950-1970) and the Information Age (1970-1990). This periodisation enables the analysis to continually be refocussed as the key technological and socio-economic dynamics change. With this perspective, the history of the relationship between technology and organisation in the Australian music economy has been demonstrated to be dependent on a number of key technological changes. The thesis examines changes including the shift from acoustic to electric recording; the development of transistor-based consumer electronics goods; and the advent of digital information technology. However, a number of key social determinants, particularly organisational modes, are examined including changes from protectionist to more deregulated trade policy; lack of business skills in areas such as marketing, manufacturing technique and industrial research and development; and the development of a sense of popular modernity which is expressed in the consumption of new, technically advanced and glamorous music technology. In addition to the new perspectives on the history of music technology provided by the analysis of empirical economic data, this thesis contributes to the historiography of technology. The analytical framework it proposes locates music technology within what is described as an assemblage of technologies: technologies of production, technologies of sign systems, technologies of power and technologies of the self. This approach makes clear the interdependence of technological and social factors, and the inadequacy of narrow technological determinist and social constructivist accounts. The notion of an assemblage of technologies is further embellished by drawing upon key elements of recent theories of systems analysis: the seamless web, evolution and chaos theory. Through this analytical framework and the socio-economic analysis of the relationship between music technology and organisational practices, the thesis demonstrates that the history of technology cannot be understood unless it is seen as part of a complex and interacting technical, social, economic and institutional system.

University of Technology Sydney. Faculty of Education. / This thesis explores the integration of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) within the educational system of Jordan. Educational systems worldwide are vigorously pursuing the integration of ICT as a means of staying abreast of the rapid technological changes associated with the knowledge-based economy, and the Jordanian education system is no exception, leading it to introduce several national initiatives in recent years. There has been considerable research undertaken into the impact of ICT upon society and upon educational systems, but such studies have been generally confined to Western contexts. In the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, including Jordan, the little research which exists has been conducted for the most part by Western experts or international organisations. Moreover, in spite of massive spending on education by governments of the MENA region, there have been warnings of a serious and widening gap between current schooling outcomes and the skills required for effective participation in globalised workplaces. Therefore, the Jordanian education system has implemented two national projects, Education Reform for the Knowledge Economy (ERfKE), and the Jordan Education Initiative (JEI), which aim to equip the system and students with skills and knowledge to participate effectively in the new era. In examining the ways in which ICT integration has been planned and implemented in Jordan, the study investigated the roles of all three levels of the Jordanian education system: the central Ministry of Education, the regional directorates, and schools themselves. Research data were gathered using a mixed method approach, which combined the use of questionnaires and case studies. The study was conducted in two phases: in Phase1, two standard questionnaires were distributed to 120 teachers and 12 principals from the three regions of Jordan: North, Central, and South. Phase2 comprised two case studies involving two schools which were found to have optimal conditions for ICT integration compared with other schools in Jordan. The investigation in Phase2 included interviews, observations, site visits, and document analysis. The study identifies and explores three issues which are fundamental to the integration of ICT in the Jordanian education system. These are first, the geo-political location of Jordan in the Middle East, and the impact that turbulence in the region has upon education systems; second, the economic constraints experienced by Jordan as a developing country, which necessitate collaboration with private sector and international parties, and third, the internal and external complexity of factors which surround ICT integration initiatives.

An original project for a taxonomy of organisation-technology became over time an exploration of some of the meanings and contexts of technology. The exploration began with the critique of selected instances of landmark theorising and empirical research on the technology concept. The critique raised issues in epistemology and methodology which caused this writer to address the philosophy of the social sciences and the philosophy of technology at certain points: the question of technological determinism; language and metaphor; ideology; construct validity. Chapters One and Two of this thesis reflect the quest for connections in meta-theory, as the remaining chapters reflect the quest for meanings and contexts of technology in organisation and society. The case studies of landmark theory and research on technology led into more of a generic enquiry into the nature and claims of a contingency theory of organisation and management. An analysis of landmark cases and of contingency theory suggested that a formalist or empiricist approach to technology and organisation had produced no clear conceptualisation of technology, nor of any other contextual or performance factors. No panacea for organisation-design has emerged from this quarter. A rather broader arena of the division and re-combination of labour was then approached. Analysis suggested that technology and the division of labour are not mere surrogates of managerial control but arenas continually contested by organisation and society participants. They are not givens with resident characteristics to be read out but occasions of choice ongoingly negotiated. Whereas the thesis began with notions of a static and cognitivist taxonomy it developed into a study of certain images of technology, with the valencies of technology deriving from its various contexts of meanings and matrices of values. The thesis concludes with the view that formalism of much contemporary organisation-theory needs to be amplified by a broadly phenomenological understanding.

<p> </p><p><strong>ABSTRACT</strong></p><p><strong></strong></p><p><strong>Date: </strong>16th<strong> </strong>June 2009</p><p><strong>Authors: </strong><strong><em>ODUOSE GODSPOWER ONORIODE (810822-T139)</em></strong></p><p><strong><em>NJINKO POLYCARP NGANSI (791005-5735)</em></strong></p><p><strong>Title: </strong>Evaluating the impact of IT Outsourcing in an Organization.</p><p><strong>Introduction: </strong>The continuous advancement of technology has increase the intensity of competition between organizations whose operations or core competence is based on information technology. Consequently this has force them to decide to either outsource or insource in order to survive the competition.</p><p><strong>Purpose: </strong>The purpose of this thesis is to describe and analyze the reason for IT outsourcing, the factors to consider before outsourcing, how to manage a successful IT outsourcing and the impact of IT outsourcing on an organization which consists of the advantages (benefits) and disadvantages (risks) of IT outsourcing.</p><p><strong>Research question: </strong>What are the impacts of IT outsourcing taking into consideration the reasons and factors for its successful implementation?</p><p><strong>Method: </strong>This thesis combines description with exploration and analysis. We used both primary data and secondary data. Due to time constraint and the importance of detail information for this research, we adopted a semi-structured interview which allows the respondent to give their thoughts and detail insight on some of the questions. Taken into consideration the time allotted to the interview in the research schedule, we were still able to work with articles, books, news release and website materials as secondary data sources.<strong></strong></p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>From the theoretical framework, a lot of emphasis was placed on cost saving or reduction as the reason for IT outsourcing but the empirical study and analysis indicate that the reasons for IT outsourcing is now shifting from cost saving or reduction to organization need to have access to advance technology and expertise although cost saving is still an important reason why organization adopt IT outsourcing.</p><p>Moreover, from the theoretical framework and empirical study of this thesis we could deduced that in order to implement a successful IT outsourcing the organization needs to consider some major factors such as identifying the need to outsource (why outsource IT?), what IT activities or infrastructure to outsource, identify the various steps and processes (such as contracts) involve in IT outsourcing, identify potential risks and possible outcome, criteria for choosing the appropriate IT outsourcing vendor and evaluate the down time and time required to find the most appropriate IT outsourcing vendor. We observed that organizations which spent more time in planning the IT outsourcing experience more success rate compared to those who spent less time.</p><p>Furthermore, from the theoretical framework and empirical study, we found that IT outsourcing has a major impact on an organization and its impact is dependent on how the factors for its success is managed. Although there are a lot of notable benefits of IT outsourcing but IT outsourcing also entails risks such as the hidden cost, security and confidentiality issues, service quality issues and system or operation disruptions just to name a few. In an attempt to mitigate risk, a company engaging in an IT outsourcing will try to protect its core activities and outsource non-core activities for security and confidentiality reasons. Though companies vary with respect to their operations, they will be optimistic to experience benefits that will outweighs any potential risks or cost in an IT outsourcing since the main objective of any company is to maximize profit and minimize cost.</p><p> </p>

Thesis (M.Ed.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2005. / Bibliography: leaves 25-27.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Ohio University, June, 2006. / Title from PDF t.p. Includes bibliographical references (p. 154-160)

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Under the age of knowledge economy, innovation has become the key step to success in this competitive world. The importance of innovation, especially technology innovation cannot be overemphasized. Technology innovations are the power that initiate and drive the evolution of our society and economy. Despite the essential importance of technology innovation, any technology innovation will be worthless without a proper commercialization. However, technology commercialization seldom becomes fully realized. The Taiwan government as well realizes the value of technology innovation and technology commercialization. Therefore, different types of funding plans or policies have passed every year to support and incubate the innovation and technology innovation development of Taiwan firms. Without exception, Taiwan also has SBIR programs to encourage small businesses to explore their technological potential and provide the incentive to profit from its commercialization. Nevertheless, more than half of the SBIR innovation projects fail in the process of commercialization. This study aims to provide a better understanding of factors that influence the technology commercialization of SMEs which participated in the Small Business Innovation Research Project (SBIR). The sample of 970 firms comprised 1169 SBIR projects with ending years between 1 to 5 years respectively. In addition, a detailed interview and case study on NanoWin Technology Co. Ltd was preceded. This paper has studied and constructed a conceptual framework and its associated case examples in its relationship with technology commercialization. The findings suggest three board strategies and ten related concepts that contribute to the success of technology commercialization in SMEs: R&D strategy (market demand oriented, time to market, outer resource arrangement and core technology competence); Marketing strategy (focus on niche markets, create customer values and apply 4P strategy); Business strategy (clear strategy target, value chain positioning and profitable business models).

The purpose of this master's thesis is to evaluate whether it is feasible to use the panchromatic band of Landsat 7 in order to improve the spatial resolution of colour images. The images are to be used as texture in visual databases for flight simulators and for this reason it is important that the fusion preserves natural colours. A number of methods for fusing panchromatic and multispectral images are discussed. Four of them are implemented and evaluated. The result is that standard methods such as HSI substitution are not suitable for this purpose since they do not preserve natural colours. However, if only high frequencies of the panchromatic image are used the resolution can be improved without noticeable colour distortion.

For any given firm in any industry, market success is a desire that all strive for, and this is achieved by outsmarting competition through brilliant strategies. To develop these strategies many firms resort to innovation, and as such innovation is the key to developing better strategies for market success. It is with this acknowledgement that this thesis delves into the history of LM Ericsson in order to unearth the innovation strategies that lay behind the company‟s success during the last decade of the 19th century. To achieve this mission, we ask ourselves such questions as to what was unique with Lars Magnus Ericsson that he relayed to the company that ensured success. We even try to find out if there were any technology related aspects that facilitated this success and finally take a look at the company‟s business environment to find out if the environment played any roles which can be attributed to the company‟s success. Getting the above mentioned tasks accomplished required the application of appropriate methodological steps. Owing to the historical nature of the study and the data to be collected all indications were leaning towards a qualitative study based on secondary data with a case study as the most suitable design given that the aim of study was to explore LM Ericsson‟s innovation strategies. But this study‟s relevance is tied to the relationship with theory wherein relevance is proclaimed if the empirical data collected can somehow be related to the theories used in the study. With respect to the issue of relevance, an inductive approach was suitable as we sought to make some theoretical inferences out of the findings arrived at. The application of the chosen approach edged the thesis closer towards achieving the stated aim of study. An analysis was therefore done with the help of relevant theories among them open innovation, path dependence, competitive strategy as well as theory on networks. The conclusion arrived at was that Lars Magnus Ericsson possessed a raft of unique capabilities, among them innate engineering skills, handiness, and a host of other personal attributes such as thoroughness and cautiousness. All these traits together with the favourable domestic business environment incorporating limited number of competitors and the low level of technology at that time worked in favour of the company. In addition it is also important to note that the path dependent nature of the telephone technology as well as the lack of patents in telephone technology in the Nordic region, allowed the founder of the company to borrow foreign knowledge for use in developing products. But perhaps the most outstanding of all the success factors, personal qualities aside, was LM Ericsson‟s collaboration with Henrik Cedergren‟s SAT (Stockholms Allmänna Telefonaktiebolag). There is no doubt Lars Magnus Ericsson would have succeeded thanks to his innate skills which were instrumental in the production of quality products, but he would probably not have been as successful as he was. Collaboration with SAT highly promoted the success of the company. The special relationship endeared the company to the telephone market, and made the innovation equation complete for LM Ericsson. The company could thus concentrate on improving its technical skills base while SAT delivered the markets and success was inevitable. When this relationship tended towards its end by the turn of the century, LM Ericsson‟s fortunes began to diminish and it had no choice but to diversify beyond the domestic market it once dominated with SAT‟s help, to venture into foreign markets. This highlights the epicentre of LM Ericsson‟s success pillars, thereby bringing us to the most important lesson we learn with this case as one of the major reasons behind LM Ericsson‟s success. Before proceeding to the main body of this thesis, the reader‟s attention is being drawn to the fact that the company which is the subject of this study shares the same name with its founder. Therefore in a bid to differentiate between the founder and the company to ensure clarity the full names of Lars Magnus Ericsson is used in reference to the founder while LM Ericsson refers to the company