In the post-Napster era of disruptive innovations, independent artists are managing more nonmusical roles and more revenue streams to remain competitive and earn a living wage from their music. The purpose of this single case study was to explore the financial management strategies that one independent rock band needed to understand music royalties. Disruptive innovation was the conceptual framework used to guide the study. The sample was comprised of 4 members of an independent rock band based in Northeast Ohio. The selected band met the criteria for the study as members who earned revenue from copyrighted works, merchandise, and CD sales. The multiple data sources included face-to-face interviews with band members; public document review of ReverbNation standard policy, Fox licensing agreement, and the IRS W-9 Form; and direct observations of band members during a rehearsal and live performance. Member checking was used to strengthen the credibility and trustworthiness of interpretations. Four themes emerged from the data analysis: organizational governance of band member responsibilities, financial management education and skills, developing multiple revenue streams from royalties, and financial strategies to manage all revenue streams. Social change from this study might include college-level financial training certificate programs designed for artists given their time constraints, mobility, and need to attract financing sources other than major labels.

Medical errors are the 3rd leading cause of death in the U.S.. The problem is timely recognition and management of inappropriate healthcare worker behaviors that lead to intimidation and loss of staff focus, eventually leading to errors. The purpose of this qualitative modified Delphi study was to seek consensus among a panel of experts in hospital risk management practices on the practical methods for early detection of inappropriate behaviors among hospital staff, which may be used by hospital managers to considerably mitigate the risk of medical mishaps. High reliability theory guided the research process, utilizing the conceptual framework of fair and just culture patient safety model. A single research question asked what level of consensus exists among hospital risk management experts as to the practical methods for early detection of inappropriate behavior among hospital staff, which managers may use to ultimately mitigate the risk of preventable medical mishaps. This study included nonprobability purposive sampling (n=34) and 3 rounds of questionnaires. Consensus was reached on 8 factors: setting expectations, developing a culture of respect, holding staff accountable, enforcing a zero-tolerance policy, confidentiality of reporting, communicating expected behavior, open communication, and investigating inappropriate behaviors. The implications for positive social change include a better understanding of inappropriate behaviors among healthcare workers as well as the potential to minimize its negative impacts and improve patient safety in healthcare organizations.

The dog was the first animal to be domesticated and the process started at least 15 000 years ago. Today it is the most morphologically diverse mammal, with a huge variation in size and shape. Dogs have always been useful to humans in several ways, from being a food source, hunting companion, guard, social companion and lately also a model for scientific research. This thesis describes some of the changes that have occurred in the dog’s genome, both during the domestication process and later through breed creation. To give a more comprehensive view, three genetic systems were studied: maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA, paternally inherited Y chromosome and biparental autosomal chromosomes. I also sequenced complete mitochondrial genomes to view the effect new living conditions might have had on dogs’ genes after domestication. Finally, knowledge of the genetic structure in purebred dogs was used to test analytic methods usable in other species or in natural populations where little information is available. The domestication process appears to have caused a relaxation of the selective constraint in the mitochondrial genome, leading to a faster rate of accumulation of nonsynonymous changes in the mitochondrial genes. Later, the process of breed creation resulted in genetically separated breed groups. Breeds are a result from an unequal contribution of males and females with only a few popular sires contributing and a larger amount of dams. However, modern breeder preferences might lead to disruptive selective forces within breeds, which can result in additional fragmentation of breeds. The increase in linkage disequilibrium that this represents increases the value of purebred dogs as model organisms for the identification and mapping of diseases and traits. Purebred dogs’ potential for these kinds of studies will probably increase the more we know about the dog’s genome.

Convergence is a topic that many point to as the driving force behind modern product development. The merger of similar devices into a single product form can create a number of advantages for both producers and consumers, but successful design must take more than just this into account. Convergence is the evolution of a product through a disruptive and uncertain environment of technology and user needs. While the digital revolution has certainly been the biggest recent disrupter to society and design, there are signs of convergence in both form and function that have occurred across many products, and product categories. Producers and consumers always clamor for devices that are useful and convenient, take advantage of the latest technologies, and yet remain intuitive, attractive, and easy to use. This paper will dissect the meaning of convergence in product design and provide a framework for understanding and dialog. Combined with an extensive survey and product mapping, this definition will then be used to delineate approaches and principles for the effective design of evolving products in today's changing environment. The findings of this paper will help designers make decisions when considering the trade-offs between aesthetics, functionality, and ease of use in technology based products.

有關既有廠商面對技術改變時為何會失去領導地位，現有文獻多以技術和廠商能耐互動的供給面切入討論，其原因可能是領導廠商無法及時轉換技術、調整能耐或組織惰性等因素；對於少數新興國家的後進廠商成功挑戰既有領導廠商，成為全球領導廠商的研究，也大多依循這種供給面觀點，認為建立並不斷提升技術能耐是成功的關鍵。 深入檢視既有廠商面對技術改變失去領導地位的原因，不完全是來自供給面的問題，市場需求面也是重要的影響因素。在討論市場需求面的相關理論中，斷裂性創新架構是最典型的觀點，該觀點認為新興廠商推動斷裂性創新會持續破壞現有市場遊戲規則，造成競爭基礎的改變與產業結構的變化，此觀點主要在說明市場顧客需求的變化對新舊廠商競爭的影響，並據以補充說明技術供給面的不足。 至今斷裂性創新研究並未發展出一個有系統的架構來檢測某種創新情境是否為斷裂性創新？因而，本研究根據斷裂性創新架構觀點及個案研究法中描述性理論架構的要求，發展出斷裂性創新描述架構的相關特性要件，並用此架構來檢測台灣積體電路公司及其所促進高度發展的全球晶圓代工產業，檢測結果發現過程符合斷裂性創新的特性。後續研究將可由斷裂性創新的觀點切入，重新詮釋台積電成功成為全球領導廠商的原因。 本研究發展出來的描述架構是一個檢測斷裂性創新的良好基礎，可以作為測試其他產業是否存在斷裂性創新的參考。 / Why established incumbents loosed their leading positions facing the disruptive technology, explanation of current literatures tended to focus on the supply-side interaction of technologies and firms’ capabilities. The research on latecomer firms catching up technological gap in newly development countries also focused on the supply-side perspective and argued that consecutive advancing technological capabilities was the key to success. Closer examination of technology competition, however, reveals that technology or market transitions are not necessarily due to the supply-side difficulties, like incumbent technology’s inherent limit, incumbents’ inability to master new skill, or organizational inertness. The market demand-side is also an important factor offering a complementary set of explanations that highlight the influence of consumers’ need on technology trajectory. The most influential expression of a demand side role in technology competition is the disruptive innovation that will break the market rule, shift the bases of competition and change the industry structure. Current researches, however, did not develop systematically analytical tool or framework to identify disruptive innovation. This study followed the major perspectives of disruptive innovation and the rules of case study to develop the descriptive framework for testifying the phenomenon of disruptive innovation. The semiconductor industry development in Taiwan was identified and described under the conditions of this framework. This descriptive framework is a systematic tool for testing disruptive innovation in any industry.

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

Plusieurs études ont confirmé que certains traits de personnalité des enfants et certaines attitudes et pratiques éducatives de leurs parents constituaient des prédicteurs des comportements perturbateurs à l’adolescence. Toutefois, la majorité des recherches ont adopté un modèle postulant des relations directes et indépendantes entre ces facteurs de risque et des comportements perturbateurs. Le modèle transactionnel est plus réaliste parce qu’il postule des relations bidirectionnelles à travers le temps entre ces deux facteurs de risque. Cette étude visait à vérifier l’existence de relations bidirectionnelles entre les traits de personnalité des enfants et les attitudes parentales de leur mère mesurés à deux reprises durant l’enfance (à 6 et 7 ans), pour ensuite vérifier si les comportements perturbateurs des enfants mesurés à l’adolescence (15 ans) pouvaient être prédits par les traits de personnalité et les attitudes parentales. Les données utilisées proviennent d’une étude longitudinale prospective de 1000 garçons et 1000 filles évalués à plusieurs reprises de la maternelle à l’adolescence. Six traits de personnalité des enfants et deux attitudes parentales ont été évalués par les mères à 6 et 7 ans, alors que les diagnostics de troubles perturbateurs (trouble des conduites, trouble oppositionnel avec provocation, trouble de déficit de l’attention/hyperactivité) ont été évalués par les adolescents et les mères à 15 ans. Afin de tester les hypothèses de recherche, des analyses de cheminement (« path analysis ») multi-groupes basées sur la modélisation par équations structurales ont été utilisées. Les résultats ont confirmé la présence de relations bidirectionnelles entre les traits de personnalité de l’enfant et les attitudes parentales durant l’enfance. Toutefois, peu de relations étaient significatives et celles qui l’étaient étaient de faible magnitude. Les modèles multi-groupes ont par ailleurs confirmé la présence de relations bidirectionnelles différentes selon le sexe. En ce qui concerne la prédiction des comportements perturbateurs, de façon générale, surtout les traits de personnalité et les attitudes parentales à 6 ans (plutôt qu’à 7 ans) ont permis de les prédire. Néanmoins, peu de relations prédictives se sont avérées significatives. En somme, cette étude est une des rares à avoir démontré la présence de relations bidirectionnelles entre la personnalité de l’enfant et les attitudes parentales avec des données longitudinales. Ces résultats pourraient avoir des implications théoriques pour les modèles explicatifs des comportements perturbateurs, de même que des implications pratiques pour le dépistage des enfants à risque. / Several studies confirmed that some children’s personality traits and parental attitudes constitute risk factors of later disruptive behaviors during adolescence. However, most research has adopted a model postulating direct and independent relations between these risk factors and disruptive behaviors. The transactional model is more realistic because it postulates bidirectional relations over time between these two risk factors. Even though the transactional model is popular amongst researchers, there is in fact very little research formally demonstrating the existence of bidirectional relations with longitudinal data during childhood. This study aimed at verifying the existence of bidirectional relations between children’s personality traits and their mothers’ parental attitudes measured on two occasions during childhood (ages 6 and 7), and later verifying if individuals’ disruptive behaviors during adolescence (age 15) could be predicted by children’s personality traits and parental attitudes. The data came from a prospective longitudinal study of 1000 boys and 1000 girls assessed on various occasions from kindergarten through adolescence. Six children’s personality traits and two parental attitudes were assessed by mothers at ages 6 and 7, while the disruptive behavior diagnostics (conduct disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) were assessed by adolescents ant their mothers at age 15. In order to test the research hypotheses, multiple-group path analyses based on structural equations modeling were used. The results confirmed the presence of bidirectional relations between children’s personality traits and parental attitudes during childhood. Nevertheless, there were few significant relations and most of them were of small size. Multiple-group models also confirmed the presence of gender-specific bidirectional relations. With regards to the prediction of disruptive behaviors, especially children’s personality traits and parental attitudes at age 6 (rather than age 7) were predictive. Nonetheless, few predictive relations turned out to be significant. Overall, this study is one of the rare to demonstrate the presence of bidirectional relations between children’s personality and parental attitudes with longitudinal data. These results could have theoretical implications for explanatory models of disruptive behaviors, as well as practical implications for early screening of children at risk.

Behavioural and emotional problems in children have been linked with a number of deleterious effects for the child, their family and the community at large. Research has demonstrated that targeting parents through behavioural family interventions is an effective way of ameliorating the negative long term effects of early behaviour problems. A number of evidence-based interventions have been shown to be effective in reducing dysfunctional parenting practices and reducing the severity and intensity of behaviour problems however less than 10% of parents’ access parenting services and even fewer access evidence-based interventions. Some researchers now advocate that a population approach that emphasizes prevention rather than treatment and considers parenting in its broader ecological context is required to increase parental access to evidence-based parenting interventions and reduce population levels of disruptive behaviour problems. One important context that affects parenting is the workplace. Changing economic and demographic climates mean the majority of parents are now employed and must balance the competing demands of work and family commitments leading to increased levels of work and family conflict as functioning in one domain invariably effects functioning in the other. High levels of work and family conflict have been shown to increase psychological distress and dysfunctional parenting and are associated with a range of negative organisational outcomes such as increased turnover and absenteeism. Additionally, levels of work and family conflict are highest in parents of young children indicating that balancing work and parenting is particularly difficult at a point in a child’s life where there is greatest development plasticity. This thesis argues that one way to improve parents’ access to services and to reduce work and family conflict is to provide support to working parents in the form of a workplace parenting intervention. Such an intervention has the potential to ease the burden on working parents, increase parental access to evidence-based parenting support and reduce population levels of disruptive behaviour problems. This research comprises of a randomised controlled trial of Workplace Triple P, a variant of Triple P- Positive Parenting Program that is tailored to the specific needs of working parents. Two studies are presented. Study 1 examined the utility of a model that posits that the relationship between parental exposure to disruptive behaviour problems and occupational stress is mediated by family-work conflict. Data analyses supported the hypothesised model. The relationship between parental exposure to disruptive behaviour problems and occupational stress was fully mediated by family-work conflict. The results of this study provide a rationale for examining parenting in a workplace context by demonstrating that disruptive behaviour problems in the children of employees are related to higher levels of occupational stress and that reducing disruptive behaviour and family-work conflict should result in reductions in occupational stress. Study 2 built on the findings of Study 1 by evaluating the effectiveness of Workplace Triple P, a workplace parenting intervention that aims to assist parents to more effectively manage work and family demands. Using a sample of teachers balancing work and parenting commitments, a randomised controlled trial was conducted comparing Workplace Triple P to a waitlist control condition. Results indicated that participants who completed the Workplace Triple P intervention reported improvements in five key outcome areas: disruptive behaviour problems, parenting style and satisfaction, personal adjustment, work and family conflict and occupational wellbeing. Specifically, compared with participants in the waitlist control condition participants in the intervention condition reported that their child displayed lower numbers of disruptive behaviours and engaged in problem behaviour less frequently, that they themselves engaged less in verbose, over-reactive and lax parenting styles, that they felt more confident in dealing with a range of behaviour problems across a range of home and community settings and enjoyed parenting more. Participants in the intervention condition also reported lower levels of personal anxiety and depression. The intervention was also effective at improving work-related variables. Participants who completed the Workplace Triple P intervention reported lower levels of work-family conflict, family-work conflict and occupational stress, as well as reporting increased levels of occupational efficacy. No changes were reported for participants in the waitlist control condition. Participants in the intervention condition were reassessed at 4-months post intervention. Results indicated that all intervention gains were maintained. Together these studies contribute significantly to our understanding of work-family interface by providing insight into the mechanisms by which family life exerts an influence on occupational stress and by demonstrating that a workplace parenting intervention has the potential to improve functioning both family and occupational domains. The findings have significant implications for assisting parents more effectively manage work and family demands, for increasing parental access to services, and informing family-friendly policies and practices. Research, clinical and policy implications are discussed.

Thesis (M. Bus.)--University of Technology, Sydney, 2003. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on July 25, 2005). Includes bibliographical references (p. 50-56).

Disruptive Innovation, according to the term’s founder Clayton Christensen, is defined as a specific type of innovation that is able to capture the lower-end of the market through quality, feature, or cost differences and leverage this position to achieve higher market share. Entrepreneurs who utilize disruptive innovation strategies have been historically able to create products and services that achieve massive financial and cultural success. Theories of personality characteristics have been previously applied to entrepreneurial activities, but not used to bridge the gap between developmental experiences and market success. Cross-industry analysis of ten top entrepreneurial business leaders from retail, food services, and consumer electronics allows for the identification of certain personality characteristics and influences present in the early lives and careers of highly successful entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs can be categorized according to inherent skills and personality characteristics, which suggest either revolutionary or architecturally brilliant product or service creation. Patterns of conceptual product ideation and business model evolution show that there are similarities between experiences in an entrepreneur’s formative years and the implementation of a business model and strategy. Implications of highly successful business models as they relate to marketplace dynamics include financial success, cultural impact, and institutionalization. To varying degrees, disruptive entrepreneurs are able to institutionalize their business concepts in order to ensure lasting success in their respective marketplaces.