No / The convergence of several technological systems (especially nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology, and robotics) has now been adopted as a strategic goal by several countries, most notably the United States and those of the European Union. The anticipated benefits and related fears of competitive disadvantage have brought together a wide range of interested parties, governmental and nongovernmental. In the rush to enter and/or dominate this arena, the benign promise of converging technologies (CT) are highlighted, although a range of risks and less welcome (if difficult to quantify) implications are at best understated. What, then, are the prospects for exercising governance over the technological systems we are busy creating¿and the uses to which they might be put? What will it mean to speak of "global governance" in a world in which the technological promise of CT has been fulfilled?

<p>Technological systems contain complex elements and processes with a diverse set of agents and problem-solving arrangements. They often interact with and influence multi-lateral stakeholders with varying interests and incentives. Recent technological developments and engineering advancements such as digital marketplaces and high-tech networks create both new challenges and opportunities to understand further about effective mechanism designs. This dissertation attempts to answer corporate-level mechanism design issues in two different technological systems: high-tech biopharmaceutical networks and the online peer-to-peer lending industry.</p><p><br></p><p>The first part of the dissertation focuses on identifying the emergence and evolution of near decomposable systems in interorganizational relationships. To do so, first I conceptually discuss how near decomposable systems can emerge in interfirm relationships. Second, leveraging advancements in network science, I empirically analyze a detailed biopharmaceutical alliance data set and find that strategic alliance networks of biopharmaceutical firms exhibit near decomposable characteristics. I identify an emerging evolutionary pattern with smaller networks of subcommunities organizing hierarchically over time into a larger network structure, with the subcommunities generally exhibiting local clustering. A salient finding, compared to previous studies in the field of strategic management, is the identification of nested clusters formed in hierarchical fashion within this interfirm network. I find the potential for simultaneous evolutionary processes to be in play in various subnetworks within the overall industry-level network. The accrual of local changes impacting the structural processes of the subnetworks slowly diffuses to the larger, less integrated modules of the network. Finally, with the help of a simulation model, I identify how fitness heterogeneity among firms, fitness heterogeneity among partnerships and the rate of growth of partnerships impact the emergence of near decomposability in varying degrees.</p><p><br></p><p>The second study focuses on understanding an important market access control mechanism: platform owners granting priority access to a subset of supply-side complementors to grow the marketplace and remove potential demand-side bottlenecks. Platform governance mechanisms, such as market access control, help to align all market players towards a specific value proposition. I study the interplay between priority access and the variation in expertise of the complementors. Leveraging a randomized priority access given to expert institutional investors in the online peer-to-peer lending industry, I show that it creates negative spillover effects on the performance of crowd retail investors. I provide evidence in support of two mechanisms in driving the impact of priority access, the intensity of priority access and cream skimming by institutional complementors, on the retail crowd market. Again using simulation to extend the analysis, I find that the brunt of negative impacts is likely borne by more risk-averse retail investors.</p>

In an age of shrinking research and development (RandD) budgets, sustaining big science and technology (SandT) projects is inevitably questioned by publics and policy makers. The fusion enterprise is an exemplar. The effort to develop a viable system to produce unlimited and environmentally benign electricity from fusion of hydrogen isotopes has been a goal for six decades and consumed vast financial and intellectual resources in North America, Europe, and Asia. In terms of prolonged duration and sustained resource investment, the endeavor has developed into a huge fusion enterprise. Yet, no practical system for the generation of electricity has yet been demonstrated. This is the paradox at the heart of the fusion enterprise. Why, despite unfulfilled visions and broken promises, has the grand fusion enterprise endured? How can such a long-term enterprise persist in a funding culture that largely works in short-term cycles? Adapting Sheila Jasanoff's thesis of "sociotechnical imaginaries", I examine the relationship of shared and contrasting visions, co-produced expressions of nature and society, and distinctpolitical cultures in the quest for viable fusion. A systematic cultural and technological comparison of three fusion ventures, the National Spherical Torus Experiment Upgrade, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), and Wendelstein-7X, exposes how these projects and the institutions they inhabit frame the goals, risks, and benefits of the fusion enterprise and sustain a common set of fusion imaginaries. Positioned within the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory in the United States, the international ITER Organization sited in France, and the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics in Germany, the three projects are prime examples of big science and technology. Rigorous research and analysis of these cases advance the thesis of the unfulfilled utopian vision of fusion energy that has endured for more than sixty years. / Doctor of Philosophy / In an age of shrinking research and development budgets, sustaining big science and technology projects is inevitably questioned by publics and policy makers. The fusion enterprise is an exemplar. The effort to develop a viable system to produce unlimited and environmentally benign electricity from fusion of hydrogen isotopes has been a goal for six decades and consumed vast financial and intellectual resources in North America, Europe, and Asia. In terms of prolonged duration and sustained resource investment, the endeavor has developed into a huge fusion enterprise. Yet, no practical system for the generation of electricity has yet been demonstrated. This is the paradox at the heart of the fusion enterprise. Beyond articulating a possible path forward for the fusion enterprise, the intent of this study is to inform decision makers who will shape energy strategy for the second half of the twenty-first century.

This dissertation relates and analysis the development of the Swedish mobile telephone industry from 1950-98. Based on a research of entrepreneurial theories three forms of entrepreneurship are formulated, the individual as entrepreneur, the company as entrepreneur, and the network as entrepreneur. The mobile telephone industry is seen as a technological system incorporating a broad spectrum of participants, and the account analysis how the entrepreneurs carry out different types of innovations. It starts out as a technical project, with market related innovations becoming a greater force in the final phase. The source of entrepreneurship varies over time and the individual plays a significant role early on while the network becomes of a greater importance as the system develops. / Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögsk.

This thesis examines how IT and the digitization of information have transformed the Swedish graphic industry. The debate concerning the productivity paradox, i.e. if investments in IT contribute to productivity growth, is one important starting point for the thesis. Previous research on this phenomenon has mainly used different types of statistical databases as empirical sources. In this thesis though, the graphic industry is instead studied from a mainly qualitative and historical process perspective. The empirical study is focused on describing the development of internal critical production processes in the graphic industry and its external markets. The aim is to show how innovations based upon IT have influenced the transformation of the Swedish graphic industry and if this has led to changes in productivity. Furthermore, to identify other significant effects and changes in the graphic industry’s markets that also has occurred as a result of the introduction of IT innovations. The process study shows that digitization of information flows in the graphic industry began in the 1970s, but the start of the development and use of digitized information happened in the early 1980s. Today almost all types of materials in the industry, for example text and pictures, have developed into a digital form and the information flows are hereby more or less totally digitized. The consequences from use of IT in production processes are identified here as different outcomes and effects. One conclusion drawn from the analysis is that investments and use of IT have positively influenced changes in productivity. The conclusion is based on the appearance of different automational effects, which in turn have had a positive influence on factors that may be a part of a productivity index. In addition to productivity, other mainly informational effects are also identified. These effects include increased capacity to handle and produce information, increased integration of customers in the production processes, increased physical quality in produced products, and options for management improvements in the production processes. The appearance of such effects indicates that it is not always the most obvious ones, such as productivity, that is of greatest significance when IT is implemented in the processes of an industry. Also the part of the study using an external perspective shows that IT innovations have had great influence on the graphic industry’s markets. The transformation of markets is analyzed through the use of the Innovation influence model, which is grounded in the Technological systems and Development blocks concepts. It shows that suppliers to graphic companies have played an important role in the IT innovation development process and they have thereby contributed to the ongoing transformation of the industry. Furthermore, IT innovations have been an important tool for graphic companies to handle different structural tensions they have experienced. The innovations introduced have thereby contributed to the development of new products, distribution channels, and markets. At the same time different products have disappeared and old markets contracted. These progresses have also been a result f the digitization of society. Altogether, this development has resulted in a transformation pressure that has come to greatly influence the industry. Because of this there today exist fewer but larger graphic and suppliers companies. Altogether the study shows that if a productivity paradox existed in the graphic industry, it is today to be considered as resolved. The pace in which the transformation of the industry, caused by IT innovations, has occurred has been extraordinary compared to previous developments. IT has become an unconditional part of the industry and society. Therefore it is of great importance to include several perspectives, e.g., internal process perspectives as well as external market perspectives, when discussing the value that might be derived from IT investments.

Dramatic improvements in renewable energy and small-scale distributed generation (DG) technologies have been made in the last twenty years. Nevertheless, they remain underutilized in the American electric utility system. Despite the immense environmental, technical, and financial promise of renewable energy systems and DG technologies, such generators still constitute a very small percentage of electricity generation capacity in the United States. This relative neglect occurs despite remarkable gains in their technical performance and reductions in their cost of producing power—the result (in part) of dramatic government support for several decades. Moreover, the technologies often demonstrate great environmental benefits that appeal to policymakers and consumers. At the same time, they offer ways to enhance strained distribution and transmission networks. This project attempts to answer the apparently paradoxical question: why do new energy technologies that offer such impressive benefits also find the least use? The dissertation emphasizes how the history and culture of the community of electricity producers and users helps explain why the new technologies have seen little use. Going beyond technical explanations of alleged low capacity factors and high capital costs, it focuses on the social nature of decision making among participants in the electric utility system. The approach not only helps us understand the glossing over of renewable energy and distributed generation technologies, but also suggests ways of overcoming the barriers faced by their advocates. / Ph. D.

Using a Systems Theory approach allows a person to analyze the intertwined elements of the drug development system and the potential influences of the environment. Thomas Hughes's Large Technological Systems (LTS) Theory is one that could be used for this purpose; however, it falls short in its ability to address the complexity of current day regulatory environments. This dissertation provides a critical analysis of Hughes's LTS Theory and his phases of evolution as they apply to the United States (U.S.) system for biologic drug research, development and labeling. It identifies and explains potential flaws with Hughes's LTS Theory and provides suggested improvements. As an alternative approach, this dissertation explores the concept of "techno-regulatory system" where government regulators play an integral part in system innovations and explains why such systems do not always follow Hughes's model. Finally, this dissertation proposes a hybrid version of Hughes's systems approach and uses it to explain the changes that occurred in the drug approval system in response to the push for, opposition, and inclusion of, pediatric research in drug development during the period 1950-2003. / Ph. D.

Syftet med avhandlingen är att bidra till den ämnesdidaktiska kunskapsbasen för undervisning och lärande om tekniska system i grundskolan. Dagens teknikkomplexa samhälle är uppbyggt av system som vi människor interagerar med. Informations-, energi- och kommunikationssystem är exempel på tekniska system som vi kommer i kontakt med dagligen. Tekniska system ingår som en del av kunskapsinnehållet i den svenska grundskolans teknikämne, men forskning som rör teknikämnet visar att undervisning av tekniska system är begränsad och det råder osäkerhet kring vad lärande av tekniska system innebär. De övergripande frågeställningarna är: Hur uppfattar unga tekniska system? Hur kan ungas uppfattningar av tekniska system användas för att utveckla undervisningen om tekniska system? Vilken potential, att bidra till en ökad förståelse av teknik i dagens samhälle, har tekniska  system som kunskapsinnehåll i teknikämnet? Avhandlingen bygger på två studier som presenteras i fyra artiklar. I två av artiklarna fokuseras ungas uppfattningar av tekniska system och i två artiklar lyfts didaktiska dimensioner av tekniska system fram. En fenomenografisk ansats används för att kartlägga ungdomars olika sätt att erfara tekniska system genom empiriska undersökningar av kvalitativa skillnader i det kollektiva erfarandet av fenomenet. Resultatet av studierna indikerar att dimensioner av tekniska system och kritiska aspekter inom dessa dimensioner är avgörande för en utvecklad förståelse av tekniska system. Genom att lärare blir medvetna om ungas uppfattningar om tekniska system kan de med detta som utgångspunkt utveckla undervisningen. Inom den ämnesdidaktiska kunskapstraditionen ses den lärandes uppfattning av innehållet innan undervisningen startar som en betydelsefull aspekt av lärarens ämnesdidaktiska kompetens Det är därför viktigt att lärare är medvetna om dimensionerna och de kritiska aspekterna då de planerar och genomför undervisning för att kunna erbjuda kraftfulla sätt att lära om tekniska system. De didaktiska implikationerna, när det gäller tekniska system, lyfter fram aspekter av teknik som har betydelse för förståelsen av teknik även på ett mer generellt plan. Det handlar om kunskaper som aktiva medborgare i dagens teknikkomplexa samhälle behöver, så som insikter om krav på resurser, människans intentioner med och inblandning i tekniken samt hur teknikens struktur och organisation ser ut. Tekniska system som kunskapsinnehåll erbjuder en förståelse av teknik där viktiga medborgerliga aspekter som engagemang, konsekvensanalys och användaransvar kan synliggöras och problematiseras. / The purpose of this thesis is to contribute to the field of technology education research, specifically that which concerns teaching and learning about technological systems. Today's technologically complex society is made up of a variety of systems that humans interact with. Information, energy and communication are examples of technological systems with which we are involved daily. Education in technology prepares young people for participating as active citizens in a technologyintensive society and therefore includes technological systems as part of the knowledge content in the Swedish compulsory school subject of technology. Research related to the technology subject shows that the teaching of technological systems is limited and there is uncertainty about what the learning entails. The overall questions which this thesis intends to investigate are: How do young people experience technological systems? How can young people’s experiences of technological systems be used to develop the teaching of technological systems? What potential does knowledge about  technological systems have in contributing to a better understanding of technology in today’s society? The thesis is based on two studies presented in four articles. Two of the articles focus on young people’s experiences of technological systems and the other two highlight pedagogical dimensions of technological systems for teaching and learning. The studies take the perspective of  the learners’, using a phenomenographic approach, and investigate young people’s ways of experiencing technological systems. To start from the learners’ experience is an important aspect of the tradition of pedagogical research that concerns content specific knowledge. The phenomenographic approach offers empirical ways of investigating qualitative differences in the collective experience of the phenomenon and an opportunity to highlight what teaching should focus on to create learning opportunities. The main result of the studies consists of knowledge about dimensions of technological systems and critical aspects within those dimensions. Together they offer a perspective for teaching, providing possible starting points for teachers when they plan instruction. If teachers address their own and young people’s awareness of dimensions of variation, it could enable more powerful ways of learning about technological systems. The pedagogical implications in terms of technological systems also point to aspects that are relevant for understanding technology on a more general level, namely skills which active citizens in today’s technologically complex society must possess. Technological systems knowledge offers an understanding of technology in which key aspects of civil commitment, impact and user responsibility can be made visible and thus  problematized.

The human factor accounts for nine out of ten out of all traffic accidents, and because more vehicles are being deployed on the roads, the number of accidents will increase. Because of this, various automated functions have been implemented in vehicles in order to minimize the human factor in driving. In recent year, this development has accelerated and vehicles able to perform the complete driving task without any human assistance have begun to emerge from different projects around the world. However, the autonomous vehicle still has many barriers to overcome before safe driving in traffic becomes a reality. One of these barriers is the difficulty to visually perceive the surrounding. This is partly because of the fact that something can cover the camera sensors, but it is also problematic to translate the perceived data, that the sensors are collecting, into something valuable for the passenger. The situation could be improved if wireless communications were available to the autonomous vehicle. Instead of trying to understand the surrounding by the use of camera sensors, the autonomous vehicle could obtain the necessary data via wireless communication, which was the subject of this study. The study showed that wireless communication will be significant for the autonomous vehicle in the future. The conclusion is based on the fact that wireless communication was a solution in other transport systems that have had the similar barrier as for the autonomous vehicle. There are also plans on managing the barrier via wireless communication in pilot projects related to autonomous vehicles. / Den mänskliga faktorn står för nio av tio utav alla trafikolyckor, och eftersom att allt fler fordon kommer ut på vägarna så leder det till att olycksantalet ökar. På grund av detta så har olika automatiserade funktioner applicerats i fordonet för att undvika den mänskliga faktorn i körningen. Denna utveckling har accelererat och fordon som ska kunna utföra hela det dynamiska framförandet utan mänsklig assistans har börjat utvecklas i olika projekt runt om i världen. Dock så har det autonoma fordonet många barriärer kvar att övervinna, för säkert framförande, varav en av dessa barriärer är fordonets förmåga att visuellt uppfatta omgivningen. Dels genom att något kan täcka kamerasensorerna men även att kunna omsätta det sensorerna uppfattar till något värdefullt för passageraren. Situationen skulle dock kunna förbättras om trådlös kommunikation gjordes tillgänglig för det autonoma fordonet. Istället för att försöka uppfatta omgivningen via kamerasensorer, skulle det autonoma fordonet kunna få den information som behövs via trådlös kommunikation, vilket är vad denna studie behandlade. Studien visade att trådlös kommunikation kommer att ha en betydelse för det autonoma fordonet i framtiden. Slutsatsen grundar sig på att trådlös kommunikation varit en lösning inom andra transportsystem som haft en liknande barriär som för det autonoma fordonet. Man planerar dessutom på att hantera det autonoma fordonets barriär via trådlös kommunikation i pilotprojekt i dagsläget

I samhället uppmärksammas tekniken för sin ökande komplexitet och systemiska karaktär. l vilken mån avspeglar sig detta i skolans teknikämne? Denna avhandling berör undervisning om tekniska system i ett skolperspektiv, med det huvudsakliga syftet att undersöka hur undervisning om tekniska system tas upp till behandling i skolan. Den övergripande frågeställningen är: Hur har skolan hanterat den  didaktiska uppgiften att utveckla ett undervimingsområde om tekniska system? Avhandlingen är en monografi som bygger på delstudier av tre arenor  med relevans för skolan. De tre arenorna omfattar huvudsakligen nationella styrdokument, läromedel respektive lärares arbete. Resultaten pekar bland annat på att tekniska system successivt  förstärkts som undervisningsinnehåll i styrdokument och läromedel sedan slutet på 1970-talet. Denna förändring har skett parallellt med att teknikämnets beskrivning förändrats i grundskolan. I öäverenstämmelse med modern teknikfilosofi har teknik i skolsammanhang i allt högre grad kommit att framställas som en egen kunskapskultur och inte som en del av naturvetenskaperna. Detta har varit förutsättningar för att tekniska system har kunnat etableras som innehåll. Diskursen talet om tekniska rys/em har dock skiftat i karaktär över tiden. Gemensamt för de tre arenorna är att två hegemoniska diskurser har hämmat introduktionen av tekniska system. För det första teknikundervisningens egen fascination för enkla artefakter och, för det andra, en dominant naturvetenskaplig diskurs. Härmed fokuseras undervisningen på systemens komponenter, snarare än mot systemnivån. Så tenderar t.ex. undervisning om energisystem att handla om energiomvandlingar eller kemiska reaktioner, istället för systemens uppbyggnad, funktioner, eller dess relationer till människor och samhälle. Avhandlingen visar även att tekniska system framställs som faktiskt existerande och inte som mentala konstruktioner vars gränser måste bestämmas. Produktions- och transportsystem ges framträdande positioner i teknikinnehållet. Tekniska system belyses snarare som något som påverkar omgivningen, än att de är möjliga att påverka. Överlag finns en brist på systembegrepp. Dock har styr- och reglerteknik nått en viss position. 1 avhandlingen visas även hur människans roll relativt systemen tas upp och, i samband med detta, hur ett etiskt och politiskt tema vuxit fram inom arenornas teknikdiskurs. Temat har medborgerliga förtecken och tar sina motiv från en strävan mot en hållbar utveckling. Utifrån en teknikhistorisk emfas används argument för att eleverna bör studera tekniska systems framväxt och förändring. / In our society technology is becorning increasingly complex. Technological systems are now part of our evetyday lives. To what extent is this reflected in the Technology subject? This dissertation concerns education and has the aim of investigating how technological systems are treated in the Swedish school system. The overarching question is: How has the Swedish compulsory school dealt with the pedagogical challenge of det'eloping miject content about technological systems? To answer this question, the discourse of school talk on technological systems across three different school arenas has been the focus of the study so that pedagogical challenges and historicallayers relating to the discourse can be outlined. The three school arenas are the formulation, mediation, and realisation arena. They mainly encompass national curriculae, text books and teachers work, respectively, from 1980 to 2009. On the realisation arena an interactive method has been used where the researcher collaborated with a team of teachers in a lower secondary school for two years. The results are presented in two ways. First, a set of offered companion meamngs found in the expressions on the arenas are presented. The compamon meamngs emanate from three kinds of rules regolating the discourse: educational focus, system languages and curriculum emphases. Second, each arena is discussed in detail. These discussions were arrived at by feeding the categories of compamon meamngs back into the analysis process as a tool to clarify themes, orders of discourse and changes over time. On the arenas subject content relating to technological systems has successive ly strengthened its position and can be found on several curricular levels. This shift is made possible by new descriptions of technology as a distinct field of knowledge, thus affecting the view of the school subject Technology. In a Swedish context this meant dissociation from the natural sciences. Two hegemonic discourses that make the pedagogical challenge to introduce technological systems more difficult have also been found: the hegemony of the artefact and the hegemony of science. The first relates to the subject's internal interest for small products and components. The second is based on a scientific precedence where Technology is used as an arena for the illustration of scientific laws and rules. Both hegemonies have the effect of directing the educational focus away from the systernic issues around the technology at hand. The search for answers is turned inwards and downwards in the systemic hierarchy. On the other hand, production systems and controi technology have established a position in the discourse. An emerging political and ethical theme concerned with the relation between citizenship, sustainable development and technology has forwarded a systems approach. / <p>Avhandlingen finns även som talbok, TPB-nr: CA01926.</p>