Thesis advisor: Joseph M. O'Keefe / This mixed methods sequential explanatory study applied the economic theory of the educational marketplace to examine district superintendents' perceptions of charter school competition and its impact on the administrative and instructional innovations launched in their districts. The initial intent of the 1993 legislation on charter schools in the Commonwealth stated specifically that charter schools would serve as an impetus for the development and dissemination of innovation in the districts in which they were allowed to reside. The study examined whether superintendents reported reform activities consistent with the language in the Massachusetts Education Reform Act, which was intended to spur innovation in charter schools and traditional districts. This dissertation asked superintendents about administrative and instructional innovations that have taken place as a result of increased competition from the educational marketplace. Though competition from school choice and vocational schools were referenced, the study focused on the impact of charter schools. The findings indicate that the innovations initiated by district superintendents are targeting student populations that are perceived to be most likely to attend local charter schools; namely those students considered by superintendents to be high academic achievers. In response, most superintendents reported innovative marketing strategies rather than programs focused on teaching and learning. Superintendents rarely mentioned programs designed to assist students from low-income families, English language learners, or students with special needs. Finally, superintendents reported minimal meaningful collaboration between districts and charter schools, except in three isolated and unique circumstances. / Thesis (EdD) — Boston College, 2014. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education.

This thesis examines how the services of design firms, which belong to the category of service sector called Knowledge Intensive Business Services (KIBS), contribute to the innovation in the product firms. In this study, I have examined the role played by the design firm IDEO, in the product innovation of a start-up technology firm, a matured technology firm and a matured consumer product firm. The services provided by IDEO satisfy different needs of the product firms in their product innovation. The services of the design firm is useful in showcasing the technology to attract more funding for the startup technology firms and in licensing the new technology to other established firms. For established firms with a strong focus in technology research, the services of the design firms, which have the expertise in the user knowledge, is useful in balancing exploration and exploitation of their technical knowledge. For a firm whose origin is in contract manufacturing, the services of the design firms is useful in its movement upstream along the value chain in establishing its own brand identity in the end. In this study, I have also observed that the design firms carry out research experiments to explore knowledge in the user domain and to understand new technology. With the increase in the knowledge of the design firms, product firms increase their collaboration with the design firms for product innovation.

In this thesis I show how various theories and methodologies borrowed from complexity science, organisation science, and network science can be suitably integrated to provide a comprehensive and interdisciplinary approach to the study of innovation processes. I study the network foundations of success in innovation ecosystems and I conduct several empirical investigations to identify those network characteristics that are expected to correlate with positive outcomes and success. I assess the extent to which the diversity and the strength in the networks of relationships boost the performance and success of scientists and early-stage firms. To this end I analyse two large-scale data sets about scientific publishing and start-up firms by making use of already existing topological network measures and by proposing novel measures to characterise the degree of interdisciplinarity and access to diverse pools of knowledge in scientific collaborations. Results provide empirical support to the idea that collaboration sustains innovation and performance by facilitating knowledge diffusion, acquisition and creation. First, results indicate that the networks of interaction between start-ups have a strong impact on the firms' longterm success. Second I find that, while abandoning specialisation in favour of moderate degrees of interdisciplinarity deteriorates scientific performance, very interdisciplinary scientists tend to outperform specialised ones. Additionally, I address the computational challenges related to the size of the data sets used and their time-varying nature. In particular I focus on the scalability challenges of incremental graph algorithms. The thesis contributes in this direction by proposing new efficient algorithms and data structures to handle and to analyse large graphs whose nodes and edges change rapidly over time. These efforts have been collected and made available to the public in the form of a web platform (http://lab.startup-network.org/) and an open-source python package, NetworkL (https://networkl.github.io/).

This study explores the management of visitor sites and attractions associated with death, disaster and suffering, commonly referred to in the literature as ‘dark tourism’. Although gaining increasing academic attention, the supply-side perspective of dark tourism is poorly understood with scarce empirical evidence relating to management operations and practices. This may be due to management operations and practices that are perceived to conflict with the sensitive themes of visitor sites associated with dark tourism. Particular consideration is given to the management concept of innovation identified as a significant gap for scholarly exploration. Qualitative semi-structured interviews were carried out with senior management at 23 sites and attractions across the United Kingdom associated with dark tourism. The findings reveal that, contrary to suggestions that dark tourism sites may be restrictive in management practices, a wide array of innovative activities and marketing practices are widely conducted and innovation was viewed as a stimuli for repeat visitation. Furthermore, management operations are viewed as facilitating important stories of trauma for present and future generations. Omission of these stories would belittle the tragic circumstances in which people associated with the sites had died or suffered. Moreover, managers at dark tourism sites acknowledged the ethical and moral tensions surrounding management practices at dark tourism sites. Indeed, the majority of managers adopted both highly ethical processes resulting in ethical innovations and complex consultation processes in order to mitigate any potential concerns from stakeholders. The ethical stance underpinning operations positions the phenomenon of dark tourism as a subset within the tourism sector, distinct from its counterparts. Recommendations include calls to widen the study to explore visitor perceptions of innovative measures undertaken by managers, and to focus on specific commercial aspects, such as retailing, within the business of dark tourism.

Os sistemas de mensuração e indicadores de desempenho de inovação são de grande utilidade para sua gestão. Embora explorados pela literatura acadêmica, as organizações possuem dificuldade em implementá-los. Em pequenas e médias empresas (PMEs), a limitação de recursos e capacidades organizacionais, além da dificuldade de acesso a informação, tornam os modelos teóricos pouco viáveis para serem implementados, sobretudo aqueles desenvolvidos para grandes empresas. Neste contexto, esta pesquisa se propôs a desenvolver um sistema de indicadores mais adequado para gestão da inovação de produtos em PMEs industriais tradicionais de média ou baixa intensidade tecnológica. A pesquisa foi conduzida por meio de revisão bibliográfica e estudos de caso em três fases. Iniciou-se com uma primeira compreensão da gestão da inovação em 21 empresas do perfil estudado, evoluindo até o desenvolvimento e teste da ferramenta, mediante verificação de sua aderência em três empresas selecionadas. Nas duas primeiras fases da pesquisa, verificou-se que as empresas analisadas não utilizam processo sistemático de mensuração de desempenho de inovação. Quando muito, utilizam indicadores básicos de resultado, como quantidade de novos produtos desenvolvidos e faturamento advindo de novos produtos. As eventuais mensurações não são realizadas periodicamente e dificilmente geram aprendizados que contribuem para a organização ou para seus processos. A ferramenta construída foi baseada em modelos pregressos, trazendo indicadores de entrada, processo e saída em ideação, conversão / desenvolvimento e difusão. Após verificação de aderência em três casos, o modelo proposto mostrou-se de fácil entendimento e aplicação. Embora possua as limitações naturais de uma ferramenta prescritiva, permite trazer ganhos relevantes para a gestão da inovação de produtos em PMEs do perfil estudado. / Innovation performance measurement systems and indicators are very useful for its management. Although exploited by academic literature, companies find them difficult to implement. In small and medium enterprises (SMEs), limitation of resources and organizational capacities, besides difficulty of access to information, makes theoretical models little viable to be implemented, especially those developed for large companies. In this context, this research proposed to develop a more adequate indicator system for product innovation management in traditional industrial SMEs of medium or low technological intensity. Research was conducted through literature review and case studies in three phases. It began with initial understanding of innovation management in 21 enterprises of the profile studied, evolving to tool development and testing, by verifying its adherence in three selected companies. In the first two phases of the research, it was verified that companies analyzed do not use a systematic process of measuring innovation performance. At most, they use basic result indicators, such as new products developed and revenues coming from new products. Eventual measurements are not carried out periodically and hardly generate learning that contributes to organization or its processes. Developed tool was based on previous models, bringing input, process and output indicators in ideation, conversion / development and diffusion. After testing in three cases, proposed model was easy to understand and apply. Although it has natural limitations of a prescriptive tool, it allows to bring relevant benefits for product innovation management in SMEs of the studied profile.

This integrating essay reviews three books, Inclusive Leadership, written with a co-author, Brian Hirsh, Ronin and Revolutionaries and The Ronin Age. The essay explores the idea of the internal revolutionary, or Ronin, and examines various models of leadership and influence that have characterised organisational thinking over many years, and the challenges that Ronin pose for leadership and effective management. It also explores the extent to which the focus on innovative thinking is increased by the growing importance of knowledge as a key competitive issue.

<p>The goal of this thesis was to study the impact of national culture on the diffusion process of innovation. The study was conducted on consumers in two countries of Sweden and Iran who have significant cultural differences based on Hofstede’s five cultural dimensions model. A questionnaire designed to evaluate the tendency to adopt new products and to imitate was completed by 200 people in each of two respective countries. These participants were well distributed across different genders and age groups. The responses obtained were analyzed to evaluate the impact of culture on adoption of innovation as well as on imitation. In addition, the role of gender on the adoption of new product as well as on imitation was investigated.</p><p>The analysis of the data obtained in this study clearly indicates that national culture plays a significant role on the diffusion process of innovation. These results show that the tendency to adopt new products in the Swedish culture is higher than that in the Iranian culture. In other words one can conclude that the tendency to adopt new products in countries with low power distance, low uncertainty avoidance, individualistic, and short term orientation culture is higher than in countries with high power distance, high uncertainty avoidance, collective, and long term orientation culture.</p><p>The results of this research also demonstrate that gender also plays an important role in the adoption of new products. These results indicate that the tendency to adopt new product by males in both Sweden and Iran is higher than the tendency to adopt new products by their female counter parts. In other words in both feminine and masculine cultures males have more tendencies to adopt new products than females.</p><p>The analysis of the data obtained in this study indicates that national culture plays a significant role on the degree of imitation. These results show that the tendency to imitate in Iranian culture is higher than in the Swedish culture. In other words the tendency to imitate in countries with high power distance, high uncertainty avoidance, collective, and long term orientation culture is higher than the tendency to imitate in countries with low power distance, low uncertainty avoidance, individualistic, and short term orientation culture.</p><p>In addition, the results of this research show that gender also plays an important role in the extent of imitation. These results suggest that the tendency to imitate by females in both Sweden and Iran is higher than the tendency to imitate by their male counter parts. In other words in both feminine and masculine cultures females have more tendencies to imitate than males.</p>

<p>Uppsatsen bygger på intervjuer av personer/företag som fått riskvillig finansiering ihop med rådgivning från ALMI Företagspartner 2006. Resultatet indikerar på att rådgivningen är viktig med avseende på rådgivaren som bollplank samt rådgivaren som förmedlare av betydelsefulla kontakter. Uppsatsen påvisar även betydelsen av att kvalitetssäkra uppföljning av dessa statliga medel inklusive den tillhörande rådgivningen.</p>

<p>I det här examensarbetet ges förslag på hur en innovativ processkartläggning kan</p><p>se ut. Kartläggningen är utformad för en specifik nätverksorganisation och</p><p>placerar kunden i fokus. Arbetets syfte är att ”skapa en innovativ</p><p>processkartläggning över designad kommunikation med fokus på kundnytta”.</p><p>Genom intervjuer med medlemsföretag i organisationen undersöks hur de ser på</p><p>sin egen process inom värdekedjan designad kommunikation. För att</p><p>uppmärksamma fler perspektiv av processen finns företag ur olika yrkeskategorier</p><p>inom nätverket representerade. Intervjuerna ligger till grund för såväl</p><p>fastställandet av processtegen som själva utformningen av kartläggningen.</p><p>Processkartläggning ger en tydlig bild av helheten och kunden får med hjälp av</p><p>denna lättare att se sin roll i värdekedjan. Kartläggningen bidrar med struktur och</p><p>ordning till nätverket, vilket ger företagen mer utrymme för oordning i själva</p><p>processen. Enligt kaosteorin bidrar detta till kreativitet och innovation. Med en</p><p>innovativ och nytänkande processkartläggning kan nätverkets effektivitet öka</p><p>eftersom alla klarare kan se sin egen roll i processen. Tydligheten resulterar också</p><p>i att nätverket på ett bättre sätt kan förmedla sin fulla kompetens och unikitet. Vår</p><p>innovativa processkartläggning har resulterat i en modell som visar på samspelet</p><p>mellan värdekedjan designad kommunikation och dess deltagare.</p>

<p>Sveriges kommuner står inför ett omfattande generationsskifte där viktig kompetens kommer att försvinna. De behöver verktyg för att lyckas med kompetensöverföring men de behöver också jobba på sin image för att de ska kunna locka till sig nya och kompetenta medarbetare.</p><p>Ett EU-finansierat projekt kallat Kompetensbron har startats som ett samarbete mellan nio kommuner. Projektet kommer att sträcka sig till 2011 och syftar till att underlätta det generationsskifte som vänta. Håbo kommun är den drivande kommunen och likväl vår uppdragsgivare.</p><p>Syftet med examensarbetet är att kommunerna i projektet Kompetensbron ska få mer material att arbeta med men framförallt att de ska få ett nytt, innovativt verktyg för framtidsplanering och se hur framtiden kan komma att se ut.</p><p>Frågeställningar som styrt studien är: Vad har kommunernas unga medarbetare för syn på sin arbetsgivare? Vad anser de utmärker en attraktiv arbetsgivare? Vad har de unga medarbetarna för syn på kompetens?</p><p>Rapporten präglas av en kvalitativ metod där semistrukturerade intervjuer genomförts med unga medarbetare i Håbo kommun, Enköping kommun samt Upplands Väsby kommun. En sammanställning har gjorts av resultaten från intervjuerna och tidigare undersökningar som Sveriges Kommuner och Landsting samt Svenskt Kvalitetsindex har genomfört. Utifrån detta har ett scenariokors tagits fram genom en metod inom scenarioframställning kallad TAIDA. Resultatet blev fyra möjliga scenarion rörande kommunernas framtid.</p><p>Vi kom fram till att kommunerna behöver satsa på marknadsföring och visa vad de kan erbjuda för att locka till sig kompetenta medarbetare. Det är också viktigt att de lägger ned tid på omvärldsbevakning och är uppmärksamma på vad som kan ske i framtiden, även efter att projektet är genomfört.</p>