This study is based upon the double proposition that a transfer of modern management knowledge is an important component of the development assistance given to Third World countries and that this knowledge has a cultural basis that restricts its transferability. The very essence of the cultural basis is thought to consist of culture contingent implicit assumptions about phenomena in the reality. Problems experienced in five cases of transfer of management knowledge are analysed in search for such implicit assumptions questioned. A paradigm comprising fifteen basic assumptions attached to the images of different management relevant phenomena is identified in the analysis carried out. Different corroborating conditions that make experiences from management-inaction corroborate the validity of the basic assumptions are also identified. The recognition of the relationships between basic assumptions and environmental conditions is held to be crucial to the understanding of how and why the cultural basis of modern management knowledge makes its transfer difficult. The identified relationships between basic assumptions and corroborating conditions has implications for two major issues discussed in cross-cultural management research: (i) it supports the convergence hypothesis, and (ii) it can be concluded that the perceived appropriateness of the “modern” delegativeparticipative management style hinges on the “industrialising” of environmental conditions. In addition to the implications for the cross-cultural management discourse, it is found that the perspective developed has implications for the institutionalism approach to management. In particular, it points to the importance of normative messages and collectively shared perceptions as isomorphic forces. It also points to important mechanisms behind institutional variability and change. The relationship between basic assumptions and environmental conditions is central to a strategy for transfer of modern management knowledge that is discussed in the end of the study. The importance of a cognitive transformation is emphasised as a prerequisite for a long-term success of such a transfer.

The purpose of this study was to develop a manager's planning guide to aid in the development and improvement of international training projects through the use of the Total Project Acculturation (TPA) concept. The use of TPA promotes comprehensive learning through the use of project specific and culturally adaptive learning and teaching methodologies. The study focuses on individual differences, as they pertain to learning and teaching styles, and their interaction with individual subjective cultures. The TPA concept assert that once individual differences have been identified, training projects can be effectively designed and taught to accommodate them. TPA, as conceptualized by the author, visualizes all training projects as having three areas of major influence: 1) project management; 2) project learning; and 3) project culture. Within this context, TPA asserts that there is an intense relationship between individual subjective cultures, learning and teaching styles and comprehensive learning and teaching experiences. When the TPA concept is properly implemented, project personnel, training project designs and training methodologies can be culturally as well as characteristically matched to promote more effective learning. A comprehensive Project Manager's Planning Guide was developed to act as a pathfinder for providing logical direction to the design and implementation of a totally acculturated training project. It was designed to be implemented with both new and existing international training projects. The guide describes a step-by- step sequence that allows the user to track the acculturation process as it is being developed. The Project Manager's Planning Guide is designed around an Acculturated Learning Component which divides international training into four primary areas: 1) project inputs; 2) project personnel; 3) project planning and design; and 4) project learning. Each area is designed to complement the TPA concept. This study suggests that Total Project Acculturation can enhance the effectiveness of international training projects by: 1) Characteristically and psychologically matching the international training project management, technical assistance teams, project designs and methodologies to the training participant's individual learning styles 2) Perfecting the project's learning and teaching proficiency by encouraging the "learning to learn" concept through the design and implementation of whole brain learning opportunities that promote equal practice in each of Kolb's (1976, 1985) four learning dimensions 3) Utilizing project specific, culturally adaptive learning and teaching methodologies throughout every phase of the training project to include staff and training participant selection and development, project planning and design activities, learning environments and teaching and learning methodologies. / Graduation date: 1992

Service providers have long recognized that their customers play a vital role in the service delivery process since they are not only recipients but also producers, or co-producers, of the service delivered. Moreover, in the particular context of self-service technology (SST) offerings, it is widely recognized that customers’ knowledge, skills and abilities in co-producing the service are key determinants of the services’ adoption and usage. However, despite the importance of customers’ capabilities, prior research has not yet paid much attention to the mechanisms by which service providers can influence them and, in turn, how the providers’ efforts affect customers’ use of the service. This dissertation addresses research questions associated with the role of a provider’s technology support and education in influencing customer use of an SST, namely public cloud computing infrastructure services. The unique datasets used to answer these research questions were collected from one of the major global providers in the cloud infrastructure services industry. This research context offers an excellent opportunity to study the role of technology support since, when adapting the standardized and commoditized components of the cloud service to their individual needs, customers may face important co-production costs that can be mitigated by the provider’s assistance. Specifically, customers must configure their computing servers and deploy their software applications on their own, relying on their own capabilities. Moreover, the cloud’s offering of on-demand computing servers through a fully pay-per-use model allows us to directly observe variation in the actual use customers make of the service. The first study of this dissertation examines how varying levels of technology support, which differ in the level of participation and assistance of the provider in customers’ service co-production process, influence the use that customers make of the service. The study matches and compares 20,179 firms that used the service between March 2009 and August 2012, and who over time accessed one of the two levels of support available: full and basic. Using fixed effects panel data models and a difference-in-difference identification strategy, we find that customers who have access to full support or accessed it in the past use (i.e., consume) more of the service than customers who have only accessed basic support. Moreover, the provider’s involvement in the co-production process is complementary with firm size in the sense that larger firms use more of the service than smaller ones if they upgrade from basic to full support. Finally, the provider’s co-participation through full support also has a positive influence on the effectiveness with which buyers make use of the service. Firms that access full support are more likely to deploy computing architectures that leverage on the cloud’s advanced features. The second study examines the value of early proactive education, which is defined as any provider-initiated effort to increase its customers’ service co-production related knowledge and skills immediately after service adoption. The study analyzes the outcome of a field experiment executed by the provider between October and November 2011, during which 366 randomly-selected customers out of 2,673 customers that adopted during the field experiment period received early proactive education treatment. The treatment consisted in a short phone call followed up by a support ticket through which the provider offered initial guidance on how to use the basic features of the service. We use survival analysis (i.e., hazard models) to compare the treatment’s effect on customer retention, and find that it reduces by half the number of customers who leave the service offering during the first week. We also use count data models to examine the treatment’s effect on customers’ demand for technology support, and find that the treated customers ask about 19.55% fewer questions during the first week of their lifetimes than the controls.

Photocopy of typescript. / Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1978. / Bibliography: leaves [295]-303. / Microfiche. / xiii, 303 leaves ill. (some col.), map. 28 cm

Thesis (M. Env. St.)--University of Adelaide, Mawson Graduate Centre for Environmental Studies, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 90-94).

Thesis (J.S.M.)--Stanford University, 2004. / Submitted to the Stanford Program in International Legal Studies at the Stanford Law School, Stanford University. "May 2004." Includes bibliographical references. Also available online.

Thesis (M.A.)--Carleton University, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 170-182). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (M.Ed. (Education)) - Rhodes University, 2007. / Half thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of requirements for the degree of Master of Education (Environmental Education)

Mémoire (M.P.M.O.)--Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, 1990. / Document électronique également accessible en format PDF. CaQCU

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2002. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 286-302). Also available on the Internet.