This thesis describes the conditions that influence technology acquisition when an industry partner is involved. The objective of this thesis is to contribute to the knowledge regarding the conditions that affect effective acquisition of technology by collaboration by identifying and describing the relationship between the following variables: key activities and influential factors. The results are drawn from the analysis of eleven case studies involving experiences from different industries including chemicals, oil and gas and biofuels. The research adopts the perspective of an acquiring firm, which is interested in incorporating a new technology into its operations in order to meet a particular business need. Such a business need can be, for example, entering into a new market, meeting key customer requirements or improving operational efficiency. The results indicate that technology acquisition involving an industry partner can be described as a six-stage process where the acquiring firm may or may not get involved in the development of the technology concept. During the process a number of factors can influence the acquisition and implementation of the technology in the acquiring firm’s operations. These factors can be divided into six categories: business alignment, structural match, development management, technology uncertainty, implementation opportunity and contextual factors. The results also suggest that effective acquisition of technology by means of collaboration is achieved by the combination of three conditions: effective partnership management, effective execution of the co-development project and effective transference of the technology to the recipient system in the acquiring firm. The research provides relevant implications for theory and practice. On the one hand, technology acquisition by means of collaboration has been marginally addressed in technology management literature; extant literature has given more attention to organisational modes to acquire technology by collaboration rather than increasing our understanding of the dynamics of technology partnerships. On the other hand, the outcomes offer practitioners an account of the key factors and activities in technology acquisition projects involving an industry partner. These insights are key to systematically managing collaborative projects aimed at acquiring new technologies.

An enterprise can acquire technology either through 'making' (the pursuit of new technology development through internal R&D) or 'buying' (acquisition from external sources). This is known as the

Direct Recording Electronic Voting Systems (DRE) are some of the most popular forms of electronic voting and yet they are riddled with problems. Current voting systems are poorly designed and migration to newer software can be costly. Inadequate software solutions in voting systems have led to security flaws, bad tabulation, and partisan software design. As government proceeds into an increasingly sophisticated era of voting technology, it needs to consider a better platform. This thesis explores the government procurement strategy associated with modern Direct Recording Electronic Voting Systems. The thesis argues that governments should adopt an open source solution (OSS) for future IT acquisition of voting systems. Adopting an open source solution not only provides practical advantages such as better software design, cheaper implementation, and avoidance of vendor lock-in, but also proposes that OSS provides a strong foundation for future IT policy. Open source’s strength in transparency provides a key factor in voting system design. The thesis recommends that governments adopt a four part strategy for future OSS adoption with voting system. 1) Approve an independent, pro-OSS certification organization that works closely with the U.S Election Assistance Commission, National Institute of Standards and Technology, and other system organizations to create the optimal voting systems guidelines. 2) Update FAR requirements to greater accommodate open source procurement policy. 3) Assist local and state jurisdictions to acquire OSS for DRE machines. 4) Promote open source business strategy by hiring vendors for system integration and analysis This thesis contends that these four policies will improve the electronic voting experience and allow for better future innovation and adoption IT strategies.

隨著經貿全球化與自由化，各項商業活動漸無國界概念，跨國企業遊走各國，善用全球生產要素，但資源有限，企業永續經營與成長，不能只靠有限的土地、勞動力與資本等傳統生產要素，創新研發與知識累積能力成為比傳統生產要素更重要的關鍵，研發國際化更是全球經貿發展不可逆的趨勢。 本研究以2007年臺灣1,770家製造業廠商為對象，運用Probit及Tobit二種模型，分別探討在不同技術來源下，海外投資廠商決定投入海外研發以及投入資源多寡的決定因素。研究結果發現，「廠商規模」、「行業別」、「進入模式」、「國際化深度」、「投資地區」、「市場考量」以及「母國提供技術」為臺灣對外投資廠商決定投入海外研發與否之重要影響因素。一旦決定投入海外研發後，研發資源投入多寡的決定因素則有所變化，廠商規模大小與投資行業、獨資或合夥、市場夠不夠大等重要性降低成不顯著，相對的盈利與否影響性提升，但卻是負向影響關係。同時，本研究參考社會心理學領域的「調節變數」概念，探討「技術來源」是否具有調節效果，實證結果也證實不同的技術來源，確實會影響解釋變數與被解釋變數（海外研發配置）之間的因果關係，具備調節效果，這也表示技術來源對於海外研發配置確實扮演重要的關鍵角色。 / Along with globalization and liberalization, the trade goes around the world borderlessly. In order to take advantage of relatively cheap land and labor, multinational corporations extend business worldwide. However, due to the limitation of natural endowments and human resource, Innovation becomes the key factor, which plays a more-important-than-ever role for business sustainable development. This paper examines the determinants of overseas R&D of Taiwanese multinationals; including whether to invest in R&D and how to allocate. Our empirical results indicate that the firm size, IT industry, entry mode, internationalization level, investment location, market motivations and technology acquisition are the determinants of overseas R&D investment. Furthermore, whether above determinants remain significant when Dependent Variable turns to be overseas R&D allocation? The empirical results suggest that firm size, industry category, entry mode and market motivations are no more significant. Instead, profitability becomes significant with negative affect. Besides, we also found the strong effect of technology acquisition on overseas R&D investment and allocation. Different technology source acquired does play a moderating role in the relationship between independent variables and overseas R&D.