Thesis--PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2003. / Supervisor: Ronald Wyllys. Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.

Thesis (doctoral)--Helsinki University of Technology, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2002. / Supervisor: Kenneth A. Lawson. Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Also available from UMI.

Abstract The paper illustrates the role of political and social dynamics upon technological change. Examining dynamics transforming excavation practices on South Africa’s goldmines, it describes how a technology that opened up a range of social and economic opportunities became a constraint on those opportunities. This technology’s development and diffusion thereby established a critical precedent in the spread of racial occupational mobility restrictions. Collaborative innovation is also a dominant feature in the analysis, highlighting both its historical importance in South Africa as well as the need for caution in its contemporary promotion.

Three technology curricula were published in Israel in the last decade, replacing the crafts curricula that had been implemented for approximately twenty years in Israel's elementary and junior high schools. The curricula for technology studies, too, were replaced in stages following the publication of the "Report of the Superior Committee for Scientific and Technological Education" (1992), which recommended the development of integrated science and technology curricula. According to the new integrated syllabus for science and technology in the junior high schools, Israel has begun to produce new curricular materials in two academic centers, involving hitherto unprecedented costs. The primary goal of this work is to develop a scheme for the analysis of technology learning materials to be used to determine whether the resulting materials address all aspects of the technology area of knowledge. Analysis of learning materials assists educators in making considered choices between the variety of existing materials, and thus contributes to the efficient implementation of the chosen curriculum. Analysis of learning materials may also improve the processes of planning and producing new materials by exposing the deficiencies of existing materials. The analysis scheme presented in this work is based on four basic factors in the education situation: subject matter, learner, milieu, and teacher. The scheme is not to be viewed as a normative measurement tool. The scheme is analytical and not judgmental. A scheme for the analysis of learning materials for science (specifically, biology) served as a model for development of the scheme presented herein. The scheme is intended for the use of both teachers and experts. Consequently, it is comprehensive and includes an explanation of the concepts, and analysts require guidance prior of its implementation. This study employed the qualitative research methodology, mainly documentation analysis and content analysis. The subject area of technology is undergoing process of conceptual consolidation and a search for a common denominator for all technological and engineering specialisations. There are currently numerous definitions that attempt to answer the question, what is technology? The central concepts of technology are unclear and consequently there are many approaches to technology education. (This work surveys twenty of the different approaches that are discussed in the professional literature. ) In the early stages of developing the 'subject matter' dimension of the analysis scheme, it became apparent that a conceptual infrastructure must first be established in order to clarify the "central areas of knowledge in technology" ("substantive structures") and the methodologies and methods used in technology problem solving ("syntactic structures"). The analysis scheme could not be completed without these conceptual frameworks. With the integration of technology instruction and other subjects, and the sciences in particular (the STS approach), technology has often been treated as a "mind-on" rather than a "hands on" subject. As a result, a gap has been created between real technology and school technology. In order to address this problem, an appendix to the analysis scheme has been developed, which details examples of "minds on" and "hands on" activities for the central areas of knowledge in technology. The analysis has been applied to the subject matter dimension of two units of study and has shown itself to be a powerful analytical tool for comparative analysis as

The thesis is an empirical study of the changes that occurred in the Fortune list of the largest American industrial corporations from 1963 to 1987. The mobility and turnover of big firms has been studied only from a neoclassical perspective in the past, and the emphasis was placed on the level of overall concentration in the economy. In this thesis, the changes in the list are analysed adopting a Schumpeterian/evolutionary framework that emphasize the importance of innovation and economic change as major determinants of economic progress. Recent evolutionary models that describe the evolution of industries. and the work of economic historians such as Alfred Chandler provide a framework for the empirical analysis. The main findings.are: I. The takeover activity is the main source of turbulence in the list. 2. There are significant inter-industry differences in the type of competition and in the behaviour of the industries. and these differences shed light on the overall changes. 3. The emergence of microelectronics has powerful destabilising effects, and its diffusion interacts with other trends such as the growing globalisation of competition between large firms and the rise of the market for corporate control.

This dissertation consists of three papers on the theme of technological capabilities. Patent information can be viewed as indicators of inventive activities emanating from a certain underlying technological capability. Cumulative patents may, therefore, be considered as the r&barbelow;evealed manifestations of those t&barbelow;echnological c&barbelow;apabilities (hereafter abbreviated as RTC) Patent databases have stored a wealth of publicly-held and verified knowledge. Each of the papers in this thesis takes-up the challenge of examining some particular aspects of RTC based on patents; and will advance our knowledge of the subject modestly in a different direction, by taking advantage of invaluable competitive information contained in patent databases. In the sense of data-mining into knowledge, we formulate and introduce a series of concepts, measurements and a methodology under the title of " patent calculation" in the first paper to mine this invaluable information. We apply this methodology, with multiple indicators, to detect the existence of technological capabilities and examine it in relation to the pattern of global collaboration in patented inventions. In the second paper we study the over time, patterns of technological capabilities in a number of countries in relation to their market and industrial structure. In the third paper we search for' potential patterns of selective concentration and specialization in the patent-intensive industries of newly industrializing countries by using the index of revealed technological advantage (RTA), which has been used as the conventional indicator in advanced countries since 1960s in technology-oriented studies. We also examine if the inherent complexities of this measure impacts the remits. In summary, we develop concepts, measures and tools, in the three essays, to take advantage of patent information to characterize the patterns of revealed technological capabilities and its variations in relation to collabor

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