The report is aimed to stress the support of start-up businesses that exists in the environment of cluster regions. The author will introduce the reader to the conceptions of cluster regions and different shapes of social capital. The empirical study is based on two specific networks operating in two cluster areas – contributing with a broader aspect of the conception of integration. The districts are the region of Gnosjö in southern Sweden and Silicon Valley in southern San Francisco, USA. The author explore relationships between actors within the two networks and highlight two different approaches the networks use dealing with different perspectives as supporting start-up businesses. She emphasizes the importance of nurturing relations in the regional environment, with stand in natural routines and informal meetings. This will be illustrated through examples of intimate interaction in Gnosjöandan and Silicon Valley, through a perspective of regional advantage, facing global markets. The analysis is based on theoretical support with foundation in several themes of conditions for a start-up business to establish on the market. With basis in theoretical frameworks and empirical facts the report has generated an interesting argumentation of critical conditions for establishment of start-up businesses. The discussion is based on different perspectives due to the dissimilar cases used in the study. Consequently, start-up conditions, generated in cluster atmospheres, are highlighted through three interesting aspects.

<p>Expertise is regarded as the most important asset for groups working on knowledge-intensive tasks. This dissertation advances a multi-dimensional conception of group expertise that includes depth, breadth and variety as three distinct dimensions, and develops a model of the joint effect of the three dimensions on knowledge sharing and group performance. Two empirical studies test different components of the model. Using data on 174 groups from a Fortune 500 telecommunications company, one study supports the hypothesis that depth of group expertise will have a less positive effect on group performance as breadth of group expertise increases, particularly when groups engage in a low level of external task process. Using data on knowledge sharing networks among 44 employees of a supply chain service organization, the second study probes into dyadic interactions underlying group process, and tests how individual variety of experience, functional department experience (proxy for depth of expertise at the individual level), and dyadic functional difference (proxy for breadth of expertise at the dyadic level) affect dyadic knowledge sharing. Results show that individual variety of experience improves ease of knowledge sharing, and that the negative effect of functional department experience on ease of knowledge sharing is mitigated by individual variety of experience. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are considered, and directions for future studies are discussed.</p> / Dissertation

The Web and Web-based open systems are characterized by their massive amount of data and services for leveraging this data. These systems are noted for their open and unregulated nature, self-supervision, and high degree of dynamism, which are key features in supporting a rich set of opportunities for information sharing, discovery, and commerce. But these open and self-managing features also carry risks and raise growing concerns over the security and privacy of these systems, including issues like spam, denial-of-service, and impersonated digital identities. Our focus in this thesis is on the design, implementation, and analysis of large-scale Web-based open systems, with an eye toward enabling new avenues of information discovery and ensuring robustness in the presence of malicious participants. We identify three classes of vulnerabilities that threaten these systems: vulnerabilities in link-based search services, vulnerabilities in reputation-based trust services over online communities, and vulnerabilities in Web categorization and integration services. This thesis introduces a suite of methods for increasing the tamper-resilience of Web-based open systems in the face of a large and growing number of threats. We make three unique contributions: First, we present a source-centric architecture and a set of techniques for providing tamper-resilient link analysis of the World Wide Web. We propose the concept of link credibility and present a credibility-based link analysis model. We show that these approaches significantly reduce the impact of malicious spammers on Web rankings. Second, we develop a social network trust aggregation framework for supporting tamper-resilient trust establishment in online social networks. These community-based social networking systems are already extremely important and growing rapidly. We show that our trust framework support high quality information discovery and is robust to the presence of malicious participants in the social network. Finally, we introduce a set of techniques for reducing the opportunities of attackers to corrupt Web-based categorization and integration services, which are especially important for organizing and making accessible the large body of Web-enabled databases on the Deep Web that are beyond the reach of traditional Web search engines. We show that these techniques reduce the impact of poor quality or intentionally misleading resources and support personalized Web resource discovery.

Opportunity has emerged as a focal point in the field of entrepreneurship and recognizing potential opportunities is the first step of new venture creation. A number of studies acknowledge the contributions of prior knowledge and social networks in explaining opportunity recognition. However, previous research ignored the importance of cognitive process. Thus, the purpose of this study is filling the research gap of the mediation mechanism in this process. Through the entrepreneurial cognitions view lens, this research goes a step further by asking:¡¨how do individuals conclude that an opportunity from their prior knowledge and information?¡¨ Entrepreneurial alertness, first used by Kirzner (1973) has been identified as a major factor in the process of opportunity recognition. We equate this cognitive ability with entrepreneurial alertness, proposing that this bridges the gap between knowledge/information and the innovativeness/number of opportunities. There are 3 studies in this research; first, Study 1 developed a scale of entrepreneurial alertness. Secondly, Study 2 conducted an experimental design research to test the relationships between prior knowledge, entrepreneurial alertness, and the number of opportunities. Thirdly, Study 3 collected large numbers sample to test the full model. Results indicate that prior knowledge and social networks had positive effects on entrepreneurial alertness. Moreover, entrepreneurial alertness was positively associated with the innovativeness and number of opportunities. In the mediating effect, interpretation ability was partially mediated the relationship between prior knowledge of markets, professional networks and opportunity recognition. This study contributed theoretical and practical implications. Future directions for research are described, and its practical implications for entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurs are examined.

<p>The report is aimed to stress the support of start-up businesses that exists in the environment of cluster regions. The author will introduce the reader to the conceptions of cluster regions and different shapes of social capital. The empirical study is based on two specific networks operating in two cluster areas – contributing with a broader aspect of the conception of integration. The districts are the region of Gnosjö in southern Sweden and Silicon Valley in southern San Francisco, USA. The author explore relationships between actors within the two networks and highlight two different approaches the networks use dealing with different perspectives as supporting start-up businesses. She emphasizes the importance of nurturing relations in the regional environment, with stand in natural routines and informal meetings. This will be illustrated through examples of intimate interaction in Gnosjöandan and Silicon Valley, through a perspective of regional advantage, facing global markets. The analysis is based on theoretical support with foundation in several themes of conditions for a start-up business to establish on the market. With basis in theoretical frameworks and empirical facts the report has generated an interesting argumentation of critical conditions for establishment of start-up businesses. The discussion is based on different perspectives due to the dissimilar cases used in the study. Consequently, start-up conditions, generated in cluster atmospheres, are highlighted through three interesting aspects.</p>

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Akron, Dept. of Psychology-Industrial/Organizational Psychology, 2009. / "May, 2009." Title from electronic dissertation title page (viewed 12/2/2009). Advisor, Rosalie J. Hall; Co-Advisor, Harvey L. Sterns; Committee members, Rose A. Beeson, Dennis Doverspike, Aaron M. Schmidt; Department Chair, Paul E. Levy; Dean of the College, Chand Midha; Dean of the Graduate School, George R. Newkome. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Alberta, 2010. Thesis (M.LS.)--University of Alberta, 2010. / Title from pdf file main screen (viewed on January 12, 2010). "Spring 2010." A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Library and Information Studies, Master of Arts, School of Library and Information Studies, Humanities Computing, University of Alberta. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 252-265).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Cleveland State University, 2009. / Abstract. Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on Jan. 27, 2010). Includes bibliographical references (p. 185-203). Available online via the OhioLINK ETD Center and also available in print.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--City University of Hong Kong, 2009. / "Submitted to Department of Media and Communication in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 110-125)