he purpose of this study was to examine faculty perceptions about attributes and barriers impacting diffusion of Web-based distance education (WBDE) at the China Agricultural University (CAU). Random and stratified sampling was used and 273 faculty participated in the study. About 70% of participants stayed in early stages in the innovation-decision process related to WBDE (no knowledge, knowledge, or persuasion) and about 30% were in later stages (decision or implementation). Faculty members' stage differed significantly by professional area, level of education, teaching experience, and distance education experience. Gender, age, and academic rank had no significant influence on faculty members' stage. CAU faculty tended to agree with the existence of the five attributes of WBDE (relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability, and observability). Professional area, gender, age, level of education, and academic rank had no significant influence on the five perceived attributes. Teaching experience had no significant influence on the five perceived attributes, except compatibility. Distance education experience had no significant influence on the five perceived attributes, except compatibility and observability. CAU faculty perceived ten factors (concerns about time, concerns about incentives, WBDE program credibility, financial concerns, planning issues, conflict with traditional education, fear of technology, technical expertise, administrative support, and infrastructure) as moderate barriers to diffusion of WBDE. Age, level of education, academic rank, and teaching experience had no significant influence on faculty perception about the ten barriers. Professional area and gender had no significant influence on faculty perception about the ten barriers, except concerns about time. Distance education experience had no significant influence on faculty perception about the ten barriers, except conflict with traditional education. Faculty members' stage in the innovation-decision process had no significant influence on faculty perceptions about relative advantage of WBDE and nine of the ten barriers. Faculty members' stage in the innovation-decision process, however, did have a significant impact on faculty perception about compatibility, complexity, trialability, observability of WBDE, and WBDE program credibility as a perceived barrier. Relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, and trialability were correlated with at least one of the ten barriers. Observability was not related with any of the barriers.

For the last hundred years, fishermen¡¦s associations have played the role of bridging between government and fisheries. The purposes of fishermen¡¦s associations are to assist government in the implementation of fishery policies, to serve fishermen and to improve their lives. Hence, fishermen¡¦s associations have contributed significantly to the construction of fishing villages and the development of the fisheries industry. The founding and development of fishermen¡¦s associations proved to be an extremely difficult undertaking; unfortunately, they failed to respond to the changing environment in time. Finally, fishermen¡¦s associations became less functional, and lost their advantages and past glory. Hence, it is imperative to consider how to improve the organization and management performances of fishermen¡¦s associations via transition and innovation. It is also expected that through strategic alliances and effective integration of resources, the cultural and natural resources of fishing villages will be employed to develop their unique appeal to leisure tourism. For this reason, this research aims to evaluate and analyze the organization, functions and positioning of fishermen¡¦s associations and the problems they are encountering at present. Within the scope of the Fishing Activities Act, this research also aims to explore if fishermen¡¦s associations can increase their revenues and enhance their services by organizational transition and operational innovation. From the literature review, the research finds that fishermen¡¦s associations are encountering the following problems: operations are inflexible and adjustments are slow; there is insufficient research and development; employees are not professional enough; the election process is complex; the fishing industry is declining, and members lack confidence in the associations and their existing values. From empirical case studies, the research finds that associations have uncertain roles and positioning, but they have substantive social functions and meanings. In the future,fishermen¡¦s associations should be directed to develop a leisure fishery industry. To improve the efficiency and service quality of fishermen¡¦s associations, and to assist the associations in launching innovative services, the research initiates the following suggestions. (1) Fishermen¡¦s associations should first define their roles and improve their economic functions. (2) The credit departments of fishermen¡¦s associations are important because they are located in fishing villages and are convenient for fishermen. It is suggested that credit departments should be included in the branches of the Agricultural Bank of Taiwan to integrate existing resources and expand economic scales. (3) It is suggested that the Government should direct the promotion and service sections and that each fishermen¡¦s association should assist. Representatives from the government, industry and academia should meet on an annual basis to systematically compile teaching materials to promote the fisheries and to improve the lives of fishermen. (4) The executive secretary of the fishermen¡¦s association should be elected directly by its members, so that the executive secretary can represent public opinion and fulfill his/her obligations and responsibilities. (5) The associations should be free from political and party intervention to increase the influences of policies. (6) Core resources should be integrated to improve competitiveness. (7) Scholars and experts should visit all fishermen¡¦s associations to diagnose their operation and human resources, and then draft strategies to solve the problems and to develop new business. (8) Fishermen¡¦s associations should fulfill their social responsibilities to help form a brand new image.

In a current trend of globalization and multifaceted trend of developments, a similar issue that a majority of organizations face is that their competition constantly releases new ideas and challenges. To keep up with this level of competition in the global market, an organization must also consistently churn out new innovations and creations. Human resources are an organization¡¦s greatest source of productive capital. And only with a highly innovative team of employees can an organization maintain its competitiveness. When these employees experience a high level of job satisfaction, they will be able to raise an organization¡¦s productivity, and create a positive momentum towards innovation. This study seeks to identify the relationship between an individual¡¦s sense of humor, innovation & job satisfaction. It also analyzes the forecasting reliability of an individual¡¦s sense of humor versus job satisfaction, and the mediating effect of a sense of humor towards job satisfaction. The objects of our study are domestic organizations in a questionnaire based research 1,274 questionnaires were sent out, and 1,227 completed questionnaires were received. Of this, 1,213 questionnaires were deemed usable, creating a returns ratio of 95.21%. By analyzing the questionnaires, the following conclusions were obtained. 1. A sense of humor has a positive influence towards innovation. 2. Innovation has a positive influence towards job satisfaction. 3. A sense of humor has a positive influence towards job satisfaction. 4. Using innovation as an intermediary, a sense of humor has a partial impact on the whole of job satisfaction. 5. Using innovation as an intermediary, a sense of humor has a partial impact on internal job satisfaction. 6. Using innovation as an intermediary, a sense of humor has a full impact on external job satisfaction. Based on the above, humor does have an important impact on innovation and job satisfaction. Innovation also plays an intermediary effect between humor and job satisfaction.

Zugl.: Kassel, Universiẗat, Diss., 2009.

Paderborn, Universität, Habilitation, 2002.

This thesis presents a continuation study about the diffusion of innovation in the manufacturing companies. The focus of this study is the diffusion of innovation in technology and CAD is the selected technology that is widely used in the manufacturing companies. The foundation of this study is the previous work that has been conducted by Jan Löwstedt and Christer Norr in 1991 that explained about the diffusion of technology during that time. Thereafter, technology has experienced a rapid change. There is not a continuation study afterwards. The purpose of this study is to see how the technology has changed and how people use it over time, and what driving forces are behind it, so an extension information for the PLC perspective can be formed. Theoretical framework was built by analyzing the previous studies as the foundation to see what has changed over time. The concept of the diffusion of innovation, PLC, and the development of CAD in terms of technical and organizational perspective wise from several researchers are also disclosed to support the empirical findings. The approach of this study is based on a qualitative study where empirical data are collected through interviewing Swedish manufacturing companies that use CAD in their companies. The result of this study reveals that the usage of CAD technically is not dramatically changed: it is still mainly in providing a visceral visualization. But, the paradigm shifting in utilizing CAD in the organization is worth exploring. Where it is triggered by the need to get more advanced technology-wise. The diffusion of technology could contribute the paradigm shifting in the way of working. This study shows that the companies tend to maximize the result of the technology by integrating the result not exclusively only for the design department, but also for other parties such as: the engineering calculation department and customers. However, this study could present a sharper pattern if there were more companies that were in the early stage of CAD as the source of information.

Prior research shows that when a firm uses an approach to innovation based on diverse, distant, and distinctive knowledge it can enhance its ability to develop innovations. However, less is known about how such an approach to innovation affects evaluations in financial markets by securities analysts and investors. In this dissertation I examine how a firm’s approach to innovation influences its ability to attract coverage and favorable recommendations from securities analysts. After considering the influence of innovation on analysts’ evaluations, I examine how analysts’ recommendations, in turn, influence a firm’s ability to attract investment. I argue that when a firm uses an approach to innovation based on diverse, distant, and distinctive knowledge it may complicate securities analysts’ efforts to evaluate its strategy, which may make them less willing to provide the firm with coverage and favorable recommendations. I also explore how disagreement among securities analysts’ recommendations may create opportunities for investors, which can ultimately help a firm to attract investment. This dissertation contributes to strategy research by highlighting an important trade-off related to a firm’s approach to innovation. Whereas prior research has shown that using diverse, distant, and distinctive knowledge helps a firm to develop knowledge-based resources, this research, in contrast, shows that such an approach to innovation may hinder efforts to capture value from these resources in financial markets. This research also contributes to the literature on financial intermediaries. It shows that financial markets are not fully intermediated by analysts’ recommendations and that uncertainty reflected in disagreement among analysts’ recommendations can signal valuable opportunities for investors that will make them more likely to buy shares in a firm. Furthermore, it also shows that characteristics of investors and aspects of a firm’s innovation strategy, which enhance investors’ ability to identify and profit from opportunities that arise under uncertainty, will make investors even more likely to buy shares when analysts disagree about their recommendations. / text

Scientific and technological (S&T) advances underpin opportunities for innovation in the pharmaceutical industry. Government-funded research institutions and firms perform biomedical research to generate S&T advances and enable pharmaceutical innovation. Previous research found that the number of new drugs approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has stagnated. The observed stagnation has been interpreted as a decline in the return on research investments. The apparent decline in productivity may be due to the increasing technological difficulty of using S&T advances to develop new drugs and the organizational complexity of incorporating S&T advances generated by government-funded research institutions and firms to develop a new drug. I apply theories of organizational learning to examine how the use of S&T advances to develop new drugs affects the productivity of drug development activities, measured as the time taken to complete early stage pre-clinical research and late stage clinical development activities. I have constructed a novel data set that maps the production and utilization of S&T advances in three phases of market-oriented drug development. By measuring productivity at the project level, I am able to model productivity as the time taken to complete a R&D project as a function of three factors: (1) the technological characteristics of the drug; (2) the use of components generated by other entities; and (3) the research capabilities of the innovating firm. These models enable me to identify technological and organizational factors that affect the efficiency with which S&T advances are transformed into new drugs. Analyses indicate that different technological and organizational factors affect the productivity of pre-clinical research and clinical development. While the time taken to complete a pre-clinical research project is largely determined by the complexity and innovativeness of the drug, the time taken to complete clinical development is a function of the firm's R&D previous experience. The time taken to complete the entire drug development project is determined by the complexity of pre-clinical research and the firm's R&D capabilities. The results are discussed in detail along with policy implications. / text

The reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEIA) in 2004 states that a local education agency (LEA) may use a process that determines whether a child responds to scientific, research-based intervention as part of the evaluation procedures to identify the child as having a specific learning disability and as eligible to receive special education services. One such process that LEAs are using is response to intervention (RTI). Typically, RTI has been conceptualized and implemented as a multitiered prevention and intervention instructional support system for struggling learners. The implementation of RTI requires practitioners’ knowledge and skill in the planning, development, and execution of its innovative, scientifically based research methods. Rogers’s (2003) diffusion of innovation model served as the framework for this study. Rogers’s 5 main steps in the innovation-decision process were examined: (a) knowledge, (b) persuasion, (c) decision, (d) implementation, and (e) confirmation. Through this lens, how the innovation-decision process influences educators and schools to adopt or not adopt multitiered instruction defined as RTI was examined. The study explored whether practitioners did adopt RTI; whether all 5 stages were implemented by the educators; and, if so, whether they were sequenced. The study also examined whether adoption occurred and all aspects of RTI were being adhered to. Despite an abundance of research and writings on the pedagogical implications related to RTI, largely due to recent federal policy, there is a paucity of research on RTI regarding the organizational complexity related to implementing RTI. This lack of inquiry of organizational processes and effects of RTI affects both general and special educators, and consequently students of all ages. / text

This research focuses on understanding the processes involved in successful innovation---a topic that has appeared in a large body of research, but no conclusive trend has emerged about it. For this reason, I chose a different lens in order to gain a more panoramic view of the events leading up to an innovation. In particular, this research utilized a methodology and ontology that set it apart from previous work. In previous research control/exploitation and learning/exploration are either presented as two categorically separate concepts or as continuum that runs between them. This research supports the idea that innovation operates on a continuum but does not support the idea that it only occurs when the pendulum settles toward the learning/exploration side. Instead, the data shows that innovation could indeed occur at any point along the learning/exploration side of the continuum and even at the central point where learning/exploration and control/exploitation weigh evenly. To conceptualize this middle point, I term this a "syncretism" of two normally opposing forces to account for a significant portion of the interview data. / text