Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the facilitating factors that lead towards innovation through the management of corporate incubation process. Design/methodology/approach: This research was conducted through utilising the multiple case study research design. The interviews were semi structured (Skype and in person) with multinational companies having corporate incubators. Number of interviews conducted were 13 in 6 companies out of 12 companies contacted. Theoretical framework: The theoretical framework firstly encompasses corporate incubation process literature that relates it to innovation, followed by the description of the business incubation process and corporate incubation process and comparison between both. Lastly, the facilitating factors that are identified from theory related to general business incubation process by (Patton et al. 2009) are identified for investigation on corporate incubation process. Afterwards the proposed drivers related to each facilitating factor and literature associated with themare elaborated in order to thoroughly explain the identified facilitating factors’ impact on corporate incubation process. Findings: From the findings, innovation can be considered as the outcome of corporate incubation process. The results showed that the factors: a quality ‘pipeline’, picking the winners, developing commercialisation skills in new tenant/client companies’ team, monitoring and evaluating progress, creating synergies within the internal support network, building and maintaining an effective external support network, access to appropriate funding streams and managed exit are the facilitating factors for the management of corporate incubation process. The drivers proposed in the existing study are proven to be useful in order to explain the impact of these facilitating factors on corporate incubation process. Furthermore, it is found that out of these eight facilitating factors, having a quality pipeline is the most important factor that should be developed and improved, in order to make the corporate incubation process more efficient. Managerial implications: For managers of multinational firms, it is recommended that they should utilise the corporate incubation process in order to contribute towards organisational innovation. However, the purpose of bringing innovation should be aligned with the long term objectives of the firm. Furthermore, they should concentrate on developing a quality pipeline of ideas in the initial phase of the process, since it will reduce the chances of failure of projects at a later stage of the corporate incubation process. Limitations: Small sample size without adequately diverse geographical spread. Since,the study is conducted on the basis of interviews of 6 multinational firms having corporate incubators, and out of which majority were from Northern European countries. Originality/value: This paper is one of the first to analyse the facilitating factors leading towards innovation exclusively for corporate incubation process by interviewing those multinational firms which are currently following the process.

System Dynamics has been applied to various fields in the natural and social sciences. There still remain countless problems and issues where understanding is lacking and the dominant theories are event-oriented rather than dynamic in nature. One such research area is the application of the traditional systems engineering process in new technology development. The Navy has been experiencing large cost overruns in projects dealing with the implementation of new technologies on complex ship systems. We believe that there is a lack of understanding of the dynamic nature of the technology development process undertaken by aircraft-carrier builders and planners. Our research effort is to better understand the dynamics prevalent in the new technology development process and we use a dynamic modeling technique, namely, System Dynamics in our study. We provide a comprehensive knowledge elicitation process in which members from the Newport News Shipbuilding, the Naval Sea Command Cost Estimating Group, and the Virginia Tech System Performance Laboratory take part in a group model building exercise. We build a System Dynamics model based on the information and data obtained from the experts. Our investigation of the dynamics yields two dominant behaviors that characterize the technology development process. These two dynamic behaviors are damped oscillation and goal seeking. Furthermore, we propose and investigate four dynamic hypotheses in the system. For the current structure of the model, we see that an increase in the complexity of new technologies leads to an increase in the total costs, whereas a increase in the technology maturity leads to a decrease in the total costs in the technology development process. Another interesting insight is that an increase in training leads to a decrease in total costs. / Master of Science

This work set out to determine the cause or causes of the significant growth in the time required to develop and field new technology in major weapon system programs in the U.S. Department of Defense that has occurred over the last sixty years. The effort revolved around the analysis of twenty-one case studies of major technology development and acquisition programs (seven each from the early, late, and post Cold War periods, respectively). Primary causal factors are identified and discussed as well as recommendations to remedy or mitigate them. / text

The global problems of climate change, by the emissions of CO2 have over the past decenniums, led to a development of new innovations of renewable energy technologies, with the goal to phase out fossil fuels such as coal and oil. Many forms of renewable energy have already solved part of the energy consumption problems, but there are still large energy intensive industries that rely heavily on fossil fuels. One possible renewable product that could phase out fossil fuels in these industries is the black pellet, which is a processed bioenergy product. If commercialized, the black pellet could change major parts of the industry, thus making it a radical innovation.   One alternative to produce the black pellet is by using the torrefaction technology. The torrefaction technology has a historical record of many failed introductions. The step from pilot production to full scale commercialization is problematic in many ways, especially for a smaller developer. This study is focusing on the external commercialization problems for a radical innovation, the product black pellet and the technology torrefaction. The thesis aim to understand which these external barriers are for a torrefaction developer in Sweden and to answer our research question:   “What is the industry specific external barrier for a new entry-firm to commercialize black pellet with torrefaction technology?”   The theoretical framework is structured in two parts. The first one has a broad focus of theories regarding external barriers for commercialization of radical innovations, with a focus on small- and medium size enterprises. The second part focuses on general effects of industry structure and these two parts are combined in a conceptual theoretical framework. The findings in the study are based on empirical data collected through a total of six interviews with a supplier of torrefaction and black pellet, potential customers and market experts in Sweden.   The study’s analysis combines the theoretical and empirical data together with the industrial chapter, to create an understanding of the external barriers to commercialize black pellet with torrefaction technology. From the analysis we have understood many barriers, which could be summarized in four main barriers; lack of credibility, political incitements, strategic leadership and the costs of commercialization.   The answer to our research question, regarding the industry specific external barrier within the case of torrefaction and black pellet, is that black pellet and especially the torrefaction technology suffers from a lack of credibility by the actors in the market. From this answer, we have contributed with extended theoretical insights, that failures by previous actors create an external barrier for the current and future actors in their commercialization of a new technology.

Development of new Advanced Manufacturing Technology (AMT) for the aerospace industry is critical to enhance the manufacture and assembly of aerospace products. These novel AMTs require high development cost, specialist resource capabilities, have long development periods, high technological risks and lengthy payback durations. This forms an industry reluctance to fund the initial AMT development stages, impacting on their success within an ever increasingly competitive environment. Selection of suitable AMTs for development is typically performed by managers who make little reference to estimating the non-recurring development effort in resources and hardware cost. In addition, the performance at the conceptual stage is predicted using expert opinion, consisting of subjective and inaccurate outputs. AMTs selected are then submerged into development research and heavily invested in, with incorrect selections having a detrimental impact on the business. A detailed study of the UK aerospace manufacturing industry corroborated these findings and revealed a requirement for a new process map to resolve the problem of managing AMT developments at the conceptual stages. This process map defined the final research protocol, forming the requirement for a Cost-Benefit Forecasting Framework. The framework improves the decision making process to select the most suitable AMTs for development, from concept to full scale demonstration. Cost is the first element and is capable of estimating the AMT development effort in person-hours and cost of hardware using two parametric cost models. Benefit is the second element and forecasts the AMT tangible and intangible performance. The framework plots these quantified cost-benefit parameters and is capable of presenting development value advice for a diverse range of AMTs with varied applications. A detailed case study is presented evaluating a total of 23 novel aerospace AMTs verifying the capability and high accuracy of the framework within a large aerospace manufacturing organisation. Further validation is provided by quantifying the responses from 10 AMT development experts, after utilising the methodology within an industrial setting. The results show that quantifying the cost-benefit parameters provides manufacturing research and technology with the ability to select AMTs that provide the best value to a business.

Este trabalho investiga os projetos cooperativos de pesquisa coordenados por institutos públicos de pesquisa tecnológica (IPPs), com a participação de universidades, empresas e outros agentes do sistema de inovação. Considera-se que estas iniciativas possam ser um mecanismo para promover e acelerar a produção de inovações tecnológicas avançadas, tanto por permitir a reunião de diferentes e complementares capacitações, como por possibilitar a alavancagem de recursos financeiros. Nestes projetos, os IPPs têm aproveitado sua experiência em atividades nas fases intermediárias do processo de inovação para assumir o desafio de reunir os conhecimentos das ciências básicas e aplicadas, produzidos nas universidades, às suas capacitações tecnológicas, e aos conhecimentos das firmas sobre a produção e os seus negócios, com o objetivo de oferecer novas tecnologias para o mercado. Este trabalho também realiza um levantamento sobre as características dos IPPs e as formas como estas instituições têm se relacionado com as universidades e empresas. Para uma análise mais aprofundada destas experiências, foram selecionados três casos para a pesquisa de campo: o Fraunhofer Innovation Clusters, programa coordenado pelos Institutos Fraunhofer, na Alemanha, que apoia o desenvolvimento de projetos cooperativos entre agentes pertencentes a uma mesma região; o National Flagship Program, coordenado pela Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), na Austrália; e por fim, os projetos Mobile Harbour e Online Electric Vehicle (OLEV), coordenados pelo Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), na Coreia do Sul. A decisão de apresentar a experiência do KAIST, apesar da instituição ser uma universidade, deve-se ao fato de esta ser enriquecedora para os propósitos deste trabalho. Os casos estudados indicaram o elevado investimento público destas iniciativas. As equipes destas instituições também mostraram que a qualidade das pesquisas é o ponto de partida para que as empresas queiram cooperar com os IPPs. Em seguida, os pesquisadores apontaram a relevância da capacidade de gestão dos projetos pelas equipes dos IPPs. Os casos apresentados tornaram evidente que gerar inovação pressupõe a capacidade de administrar os diversos assuntos que poderão afetar a adoção das tecnologias e que as empresas podem contribuir nestes processos. As experiências indicaram também que as universidades têm participado nos projetos, solucionando problemas científicos que impedem o desenvolvimento das tecnologias. Os resultados mostram que estas iniciativas têm contribuído para a produção de inovação para seus países. / This thesis investigates cooperative research coordinated by public research institutes (PRIs), with participation of universities, companies and other agents of the innovation system. It is considered that these initiatives may be a mechanism to promote and accelerate the development of advanced technological innovations, both by allowing the gathering of different and complementary capabilities, such as by allowing the leveraging of financial resources. In order to develop these projects, PRIs are assuming the challenge of joining the university basic and applied knowledge with their technological capabilities and the firms product development knowledge to propose high market value technologies. It is also identified some PRI characteristics and the ways these institutions have been working with universities and companies. For a more detailed analysis of their experiences, three cases were selected for field research: the Fraunhofer Innovation Clusters, a program coordinated by the Fraunhofer Institutes in Germany, which supports the development of cooperative projects between agents belonging to the same regions; the National Flagship Program, coordinated by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), in Australia; and finally, the Mobile Harbour and Online Electric Vehicle (OLEV) projects, coordinated by the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), in South Korea. The intention of presenting the KAIST experience is due to the fact that this may contribute to the purposes of this study, although it is a university. Cases studied indicated the high level of public investment in these initiatives. These institutions have also pointed the research quality as the starting point for cooperation with industry. Then, it was emphasised the ability of PRI members in project management. Experiences clarified that producing innovation requires the ability of managing various issues that may affect the adoption of technologies. It was also pointed that companies can contribute to these processes. These cases also showed that universities are participating by solving scientific problems that hinder the technology development. Conclusions are that these PRI initiatives are managing to contribute to produce relevant innovation to their countries.

abstract: Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurological disorder with complicated and disabling motor and non-motor symptoms. The pathology for PD is difficult and expensive. Furthermore, it depends on patient diaries and the neurologist’s subjective assessment of clinical scales. Objective, accurate, and continuous patient monitoring have become possible with the advancement in mobile and portable equipment. Consequently, a significant amount of work has been done to explore new cost-effective and subjective assessment methods or PD symptoms. For example, smart technologies, such as wearable sensors and optical motion capturing systems, have been used to analyze the symptoms of a PD patient to assess their disease progression and even to detect signs in their nascent stage for early diagnosis of PD. This review focuses on the use of modern equipment for PD applications that were developed in the last decade. Four significant fields of research were identified: Assistance diagnosis, Prognosis or Monitoring of Symptoms and their Severity, Predicting Response to Treatment, and Assistance to Therapy or Rehabilitation. This study reviews the papers published between January 2008 and December 2018 in the following four databases: Pubmed Central, Science Direct, IEEE Xplore and MDPI. After removing unrelated articles, ones published in languages other than English, duplicate entries and other articles that did not fulfill the selection criteria, 778 papers were manually investigated and included in this review. A general overview of PD applications, devices used and aspects monitored for PD management is provided in this systematic review. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Computer Engineering 2019

Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2009.

No description available.

A Formulation of Multidimensional Growth Models for the Assessment and Forecast of Technology Attributes Travis W. Danner 229 Pages Directed by Dr. Dimitri Mavris This research proposes the formulation of multidimensional growth models as an approach to simulating the advancement of multi-objective technologies towards their upper limits. These multidimensional growth models are formulated by noticing and exploiting the correlation between technology growth models and technology frontiers. Both are frontiers in actuality. The technology growth curve is a frontier between capability levels of a single attribute and time, while a technology frontier is a frontier between the capability levels of two or more attributes. Multidimensional growth models are formulated by exploiting the mathematical significance of this correlation. The result is a model that can capture both the interaction between multiple system attributes and their expected rates of improvement over time. The fundamental nature of technology development is maintained and interdependent growth curves are generated for each system metric with minimal data requirements. Being founded on the basic nature of technology advancement, relative to physical limits, the availability for further improvement can be determined for a single metric relative to other system measures of merit. A byproduct of this modeling approach is a single n-dimensional technology frontier linking all n system attributes with time. This provides an environment capable of forecasting future system capability in the form of advancing technology frontiers. In addition to formulating the multidimensional growth model, this research provides a systematic procedure for applying it to specific technology architectures. Researchers and decision-makers are able to investigate the potential for additional improvement within that technology architecture and estimate the expected cost of each incremental improvement relative to the cost of past improvements. In this manner, multidimensional growth models provide the necessary information to set reasonable program goals for the further development of a particular technological approach or to establish the need for new technological approaches in light of the constraining limits of conventional approaches.