This is an investigation of the diffusion of new information and communication technologies (ICTs), particularly the Internet, by community broadcasting organisations. In order to understand ICT diffusion processes in community radio stations, this study focuses on a particular project which saw a large scale diffusion of Internet technologies across Australian community radio stations at the beginning of 1998. The Community Access Network (CAN) project was an initiative of the Australian government, and saw funding for the provision of an Internet ready computer to every licensed community radio station in Australia. In approaching this subject, this research employed social constructivist assumptions, expecting that ICT use, and in particular the CAN workstations, would vary from station to station, reflecting the cultural and organisational conditions in each environment. As such the study aimed to understand the ways in which ICT technologies have been used and understood by community ralo station management and their participants. Since community radio stations are organisations, this study employed Everett Rogers' framework for understanding diffusion of innovation processes within organisations, acknowledging that organisational variables act on innovation behaviour in a manner over and above that of the aggregate of individual members of the organisation. This approach provided scope for the investigation and comparison of organisational factors, as well as meaning making on the part of individual participants. The research was based on data collected from two case studies, chosen on the basis of their divergent social, cultural and organisational environments; 4EB in Brisbane, a metropolitan, ethnic community radio station; and 2NCR-FM in Lismore, a regional, generalist community radio station. Ethnographic methods of observation and interviews were employed to collect qualitative data, providing insider accounts of community broadcaster's use, experience, and understanding of the new technologies in their day-to-day broadcast practices. By looking at two different community radio stations, this research acknowledges points of similarity and difference across these organisational situations, identifying factors that contribute to variation in technology take-up in particular station programming emphasis, perception of need, organisational resources, role of innovation champions, training, ICT policy and broadcaster variables. Evidence drawn from these case studies, and the specific ICT investigated, contributes to a general understanding of factors in the diffusion of ICT technologies across the community broadcast sector, providing a frame of reference for anticipating subsequent innovation diffusion. In particular, there are implications for future diffusion projects which plan to deploy new technologies across the community radio sector. It also contextualises community broadcasting and ICT use within the field of new technology uptake by broadcast sectors in general.

[Truncated abstract] Technological innovation is considered the main contributor to economic growth. The systems of innovation framework aims to examine the causal pathways leading to technological innovation. However, most existing research under this framework, due to theoretical or methodological weaknesses, is unable to validate causal pathways or determinants of innovation. Institutions that guide human interaction within innovation systems are thought to be particularly important. The challenge has been to develop a taxonomy with which to conduct an empirical analysis of the impact of the institutional milieu on innovation. This thesis examines medical technological innovation within Australia and provides a basis from which such a taxonomy and other associated measures for systems of innovation have been developed. Medical industries are economically significant in developed countries and are amongst the most profitable worldwide. They use patents extensively to protect their innovations. In this context medical patents are an efficient means of examining the determinants of innovation. Few studies worldwide have explored the commercialisation process from patent to technological innovation and none has examined medical patents specifically. This thesis contains three empirical studies: - a description of Australian medical technology patented in the US between 1984-1999; - a survey of their inventors to examine the commercialisation process and identify the determinants of technological innovation; and - a case study of the commercialisation of an invention arising within an Australian university using qualitative methods. The first study is a population-based descriptive study of all US medical patents granted to Australian resident inventors between 1984 and 1999. During this period 7,835 US patents were granted to Australian resident inventors. Of these, 17% are identified as medical, and the proportion of medical patents rose from 10% to 25% of all Australian patents in the US from 1984 to 1999. The increase is largely due to Australian biotechnology patents, which increased from 10% to 55% of all medical patents during this period. Overall, medical patents are an increasingly significant proportion of Australia’s intellectual property portfolio. The second study is a survey of 402 first-named Australian inventors listed on the 602 medical patents granted in the US in 1984-1994. The aim is to assess their experience and success in commercialising their patented inventions. The correct address was found for 274 inventors of whom 177 (65%) were surveyed with no evidence of a significant response bias. This is the first known study surveying a nationally representative sample of medical inventors listed on patents

Thesis (M.A.)--Ohio University, June, 2008. / Title from PDF t.p. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.Eng.) - Carleton University, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 123-129). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 1996. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 146-154).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio University, August, 2003. / Only copy of compact disc received located in Spec. Coll. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 405-420).

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin, 1968. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 82-84).

Thesis (M. S.)--Management, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2008. / Committee Chair: Sabyasachi Mitra; Committee Member: Frank Rothaermel; Committee Member: Sandra Slaughter; Committee Member: Sridhar Narasimhan; Committee Member: Vivek Ghosal.

Thesis (M.B.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1981. / Also available in print.

Thesis--Copenhagen. / Bibliography: p. 289-294.