The purpose of this study was to determine if computer technology is an effective tool for raising student achievement in education. Much of the related research indicated there is a pressing need for educators, at both the school site and district levels, to develop accurate assessment tools to accurately determine the most effective use of computers as it applies to instructional technology.

The national laboratories (NLs) play a critical role in the economic and social development of technological latecomer countries, yet no academic study has ever quantified how knowledge inflows and internal knowledge impact the performance of the NLs. This dissertation identifies and ranks the importance of factors pertaining to knowledge inflows and project-internal knowledge, which determine the success or failure of research projects in the NLs of Thailand. A survey of 123 project managers in the NLs, which covers 208 R&D projects, has been conducted. It consists of a questionnaire and unstructured interviews in which the project managers discuss their project(s). Data from the questionnaire are analyzed by factor analysis, multiple regression and logistic regression; qualitative data from the interviews are used to interpret the quantitative results from the questionnaire. The research finds that, regardless of a project's mission, knowledge inflows from outside the project group impact performance more significantly than knowledge from inside the project group does. Second, the capacity of R&D project groups within the NLs to absorb knowledge from external sources is very selective. Absorptive capacity does not just pertain to prior related knowledge; it is also a function of the source of external knowledge, the knowledge pathway into the project group, the source of complementary or substitutive knowledge that resides within the project group, and the mission to which the knowledge contributes. Third, the NLs face an ambidexterity challenge that is commonly observed in private industry--exploiting current capabilities interferes with the national laboratories' capability to explore. The discovery of selective absorption of knowledge provides practicing managers with a toolkit of micro-levers with which they can enhance performance as measured by a variety of metrics in highly specific ways. The dissertation also proposes and validates a theoretical framework for knowledge management that decomposes the national laboratory system into nine knowledge subsystems, which can be managed at a relatively low level of the organization. The methods by which this research has been conducted can be used as a tool to benchmark how knowledge management practices in different R&D organizations and environments impact performance. Guidelines for structural adjustments to the national innovation system, which are based on these contributions, should enable policymakers in most countries to implement an Open Innovation program for their national laboratories and enhance the ambidexterity of their organizations.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / BACKGROUND: The pathophysiology of diabetes mellitus and the need for vigilant monitoring of serum glucose levels lends itself well to prompt medical intervention by healthcare providers that can significantly reduce morbidity and mortality and improve patient quality of life. The effect of intervention in diabetes can be assessed by following objective laboratory measurements such as hemoglobin A1C, which is abnormal with poorly controlled diabetes and returns to normal with proper management. There are mobile technologies now available that allow for self-monitoring and intervention in this patient population. Using a systematic approach this paper will assess the benefits of Short Message Services and mobile technology in managing patients with diabetes and improving adherence and other outcomes. OBJECTIVE: To assess the benefits and disadvantages the use of mobile technology could have in the management of diabetes. METHODOLOGY: A systematic review of articles on this topic was performed. A total of 759 articles were initially identified by searching various search engines, from which only 39 articles met all of the inclusion/exclusion criteria of this systematic review. FINDINGS: The initial review of literature indicated that the use of mobile technology in patients with diabetes resulted in improved disease outcomes as indicated by parameters such as a decrease in hemoglobin A1C, and an increase in sustainable blood glucose levels. CONCLUSION: Mobile technology is found to be a promising tool in the management of diabetes, but further research is needed because there is a lack of reliable studies, trials, and systematic reviews. Physicians and other healthcare professionals are rapidly adopting mobile technology for use in clinical practice because they understand the rising phenomenon of mobile technology.

Organizations are seeking ways to become more innovative to renew their business and ward off foreign competition. The perceived weakening of this process in U.S. firms is viewed as a contributing factor in the steady decline of productivity growth vital to our nation's stability. The specific purpose of this study was to analyze the organizational and technological innovation process used by a specific organization to foster corporate renewal. Data were gathered to answer related research questions by conducting an ethnographic study (the disciplined study of the acquired knowledge that people use to interpret experience and generate behavior) of the innovation process developed and implemented by an international Fortune 100 chemical manufacturer. A structured method of analytical induction was used to analyze the textual content of the data. Findings indicated that the corporation believed that innovation was a matter of corporate survival. To change the direction the corporation was taking, a systematic process to create future business value and new businesses was designed and implemented. A conceptual "innovation" model was developed to identify and to serve as a vision for the corporation and guide the process. A management plan was created to administer the process. Most development activity was conducted by means of a "stage-gate" process. The advantages and disadvantages of innovation were intertwined and overlapped. The greatest advantages to innovation were identified as follows: 1) the Office of Innovation, 2) innovation training programs, 3) management and the formal process, and 4) the environment/culture. The greatest disadvantages cited were: 1) management, 2) environment/culture 3) conflicting missions between core business and the strategic business development division, and 4) the formal process. Recommendations were given for making the environment/climate more innovative, expanding the innovation training, improving core business and the strategic business development division's relationship, and improving the innovation process. / Ph. D.

This dissertation is motivated by two significant trends in the operations management of modern businesses. First, emerging technologies have transitioned traditional in-person services, such as healthcare, to online platforms. Second, advancements in machine learning and artificial intelligence, including large language models, provide promising tools to improve service quality. This dissertation aims to explore how emerging technologies and digitalization can be effectively utilized to manage customer behavior and the financial market. In Chapter 1, I study operational factors that lead to service incompletions and customers' heterogeneous behaviors online versus in-person, using telemedicine as a canonical example. The adoption of online services, such as telemedicine, has increased rapidly over the last few years. To better manage online services and effectively integrate them with in-person services, we need to better understand customer behaviors under the two service modalities. Utilizing data from two large internal medicine outpatient clinics, I take an empirical approach to study service incompletion for in-person and telemedicine appointments respectively. I focus on estimating the causal effect of provider availability on service incompletion. When providers are unavailable, patients may be more likely to leave without being seen, leading to service incompletion. I introduce a multivariate probit model with instrumental variables to handle estimation challenges due to endogeneity, sample selection, and measurement error. The estimation results show that intra-day delay increases the telemedicine service incompletion rate, but it does not have a significant effect on the in-person service incompletion rate. This suggests that telemedicine patients may leave without being seen, while in-person patients are not sensitive to intra-day delay. I conduct counterfactual experiments to optimize the intra-day sequencing rule when having both telemedicine and in-person patients. This analysis indicates that not correctly differentiating the types of incompletions due to intra-day delays from no-shows can lead to highly suboptimal patient sequencing decisions. In Chapter 2, I study the optimal usage of sunk cost, along with delay announcement, to mitigate service incompletion. Sunk-cost bias occurs when decisions are influenced by the time, energy, and money already invested, rather than considering the future costs necessary to achieve success. This phenomenon of "irrational behavior" is well-documented in decision-making studies and is generally recognized as a factor that can lead to suboptimal decisions. In this work, however, I investigate how sunk cost (and the behavioral bias associated with it) can be used as an operational lever to increase service completion rates in a congested service system. I run a controlled online experiment and find that the abandonment rate is significantly reduced for the group of participants who incur a larger sunk cost. To better capture the dynamics of service systems and their impact on customers' behavior, I study a queueing model with sunk cost and strategic customers, where customers experience a disutility of balking that is proportional to the sunk cost they incur. I characterize the equilibrium behavior of the customers, from which I further derive the optimal strategy for the service provider in terms of whether to provide real-time queue length information to customers as well as the optimal level of sunk cost to impose. The results show that the sunk cost strategy is effective only when waiting information is provided and that using a non-zero sunk cost is optimal when the system is moderately congested. Through a comprehensive numerical study, I demonstrate that implementing a non-zero sunk cost can substantially improve the throughput of the queuing system. In addition, I reveal an interesting asymmetric pattern in the robustness of the service provider's optimal policy when the customers' sensitivity to sunk cost cannot be accurately estimated, which suggests that if the service provider cannot accurately estimate the customer's sensitivity to sunk cost, using an underestimated value will give more robust performance improvements. In Chapter 3, I quantify news novelty -- changes in the distribution of news text -- through an entropy measure, calculated using a recurrent neural network applied to a large news corpus. An increase in the novelty of news predicts negative stock market returns and negative macroeconomic outcomes over the next year. Entropy is a better out-of-sample predictor of market returns than a collection of standard measures. Cross-sectional entropy exposure carries a negative risk premium, suggesting that assets that positively covary with entropy hedge the aggregate risk associated with shifting news language. Entropy risk cannot be explained by existing long-short factors.

The South African Post Office is investing large amounts of money in IT. Organisations were encouraged by the notion that investing in IT correlates with higher returns and the delivery of expected results by replacing the human component in organisations. The employment of IT within business has often resulted in the replacement of old problems with new and the expected business benefits of IT not realised. The primary research objective was to determine the relationship between IT expenditure and the financial performance of a firm. The secondary research objective was to explore the perceived value of IT investment in SAPO. / Graduate School of Business Leadership / MBL

Script contains articles in Afrikaans and some text also in Afrikaans / Opportunities abound in the Armaments industry is South Africa and abroad. This is probably one of the main reasons why it has grown to almost astronomical amounts in va lu e . Simultaneously, the vast f igures in turnover and profits have attracted numerous competitors into the business. The next factor which has contributed most significantly to the increase in development and manufacture of armaments is of course the need of countries to defend themselves against aggressors. Political unrest , terrorism , border conflicts , war and invasions are the order of the day. All of these events require a show of arms, if not retaliation . In order to satisfy a need for strategic independence, even to a limited extent , countries have insisted on development and establishment of various categories of technologies. During the past fifty years there has been an explosion in the amount of information published in the technology sector. Some highly sophisticated technologies have become commonplace in most technical fields , including the armaments industry . As might be expected, the armaments industry is also greatly influenced by trends and change in the sector of economics, by social and cultural factors , and new legislation. It may rightfully be regarded as a highly volatile , complex and dynamic part of any economy. Under these circumstances the role of technology management in a country and in a business enterprise becomes more important, more difficult , and more essential. To ensure that a large organisation stays competitive, or becomes more competitive, the system of planning and control must be well integrated , kept up to date, and well/managed to fulfil its purpose. For the purpose of this script an investigation was undertaken into the corporate and business systems for technology management in a firm in the local engineering industry . The description covers planning and control theory, system models, innovation and technology management principles , and the theory of forecasting methods usually adapted for technology predictions , Evaluation of the practical systems which are in place and are being utilised , led to a few significant observations and conslusions. The investigation was by no means exhaustive, but was aimed at getting an overview of the corporate and business systems as they operate with in the stated strategic frameworks. It is concluded that technology planning and control systems are well-developed, highly integrated and applied in a top-down fashion . Not all aspects are conducted as efficiently as should be possible. Also, due to the dynamic nature of the industry, effectiveness can still improve for the company. Moves are afoot to meet new challenges and requirements and there is no doubt that the future will see great achievements. / Business Management / M.B.L.

Thesis submitted in fulfillment for the requirements of the Degree of Master of Technology: Business Administration, Durban University of Technology, 2012. / The purpose of this study was to investigate the low rate of registration of IP rights such as patents, trademark and design rights at the DUT, through a survey conducted with the academic research staff. Managing IP at a University of Technology today has new dimensions with the implementation of the IP Act 51 of 2008. Stimulation of the development and commercialization of technology within South Africa may benefit the country and its citizens. The knowledge economy indicates that research, development and innovation are fundamental prerequisites for achieving and maintaining competitiveness and sustained growth. The researcher undertook to explore reasons for low IP registration as a means to increase such activity at the DUT. This study adopted both the qualitative and quantitative methodologies with questionnaires distributed to full-time academic staff in selected departments. Factors that contributed to the gap between academic research and intellectual property registration were examined. This study investigates activities relating to patent registration, as well as the academic performance of researchers at DUT. The literature reviewed indicated that factors affecting low intellectual property right activities at the DUT may be a lack of awareness, implications of the ownership provisions, funding and an effective institutional arrangement for the management of intellectual property. This study identified strengths and weakness of DUT‟s IP management system. It is envisaged that the findings of the study will contribute to increasing IP registration at the DUT, in particular, and other UoT‟s in general. Low IP registration can be attributed to lack of understanding and awareness of the ownership provisions of the IP Act. The study highlighted lessons to be learned from universities in other countries and how the DUT‟s system can grow into an efficient and effective means of promoting national innovation and economic growth. In an increasingly global world, the ability to invent, design and manufacture goods and services that people want is more vital to our future prosperity than ever.

Thesis (PhD)--University of Stellenbosch, 2003. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The main proposition of this study is that the notion of a single set of universal success factors (enablers) of innovation is naïve. Rather, the importances of different enablers are contextually based and dependent upon different kinds of projects and their attributes. By investigating the roles of project radicalness and maturity in governing the importance of enablers of innovation in the process industries, two major conclusions were made, viz. (1) the importance of enablers are significantly moderated by project attributes, and (2) the mutual interactions between moderators of enabler importance prevent the formulation of middle-range theories of innovation radicalness or maturity, which propose normative relationships between innovation attributes and enabler importance. Although a number of previous studies have posited such outcomes, this study provides empirical evidence thereof for a set of generic enablers of innovation. These findings have suggested that the modelling of innovation at the project level should follow a contingent approach. While contingency theory has widely been applied to correlate structural and environmental attributes when the unit of analysis is the organisation, the literature on project management has largely ignored the importance of project contingencies, assuming that all projects share a universal set of managerial characteristics. This void is addressed through the development of a contingency model of the influence of secondary contingencies (project radicalness and maturity) on the importance of enablers. It represents an integrative perspective of the contextual importance of a number of enablers (and constructs thereof) that have previously been investigated and reported independently. Given that theory development in project management is still in its early years, it may therefore be concluded that the study contributes to the validity of classical contingency theory arguments in the context of the project. Although it does not consider an exhaustive list of all possible contingencies, and findings thereof strictly pertain only to process innovation, it does represent a considerable step in the evolving process of theory development on the modelling of innovation at the project level. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die studie poneer in hoofsaak dat die idee van ‘n enkele stel universele suksesfaktore (drywers) vir innovasie, eng is. Dit word eerder voorgestel dat die belangrikheid van verskillende drywers kontekstueel is en bepaal word deur verskillende tipes projekte en hul eienskappe. Na gelang van ‘n ondersoek na die rolle van projek radikaalheid en stadium van ontwikkeling in die bepaling van die belangrikheid van drywers van innovasie, is twee hoofgevolgtrekkings gemaak, naamlik dat (1) projekeienskappe ‘n beduidende invloed op die relatiewe belangrikheid van drywers het, en (2) die onderlinge interaksies tussen moderators van die belangrikheid van drywers dit verhoed om middelomvang teorieë van innovasie radikaalheid of stadium van ontwikkeling te formuleer, wat normatiewe verhoudings tussen die eienskappe van innovasies en hul drywers voorstel. Alhoewel sulke resultate deur ‘n aantal vorige studies gepostuleer is, verskaf hierdie studie empiriese bewyse daarvan in terme van ‘n generiese stel drywers van innovasie. Bevindinge in hierdie verband het getoon dat innovasie op die projek-vlak deur ‘n voorwaardelikheidsmodel gemodelleer moet word. Alhoewel voorwaardelikheidsteorie algemeen gebruik word om strukturele en omgewingseienskappe op organisatoriese vlak te korrelleer, het die projekbestuur-literatuur tot dusver grootliks die belangrikheid van projekvoorwaardelikhede geïgnoreer deur aan te neem dat alle projekte ‘n universele stel bestuurseienskappe deel. Hierdie leemte word geadresseer deur die ontwikkeling van ‘n voorwaardelikheidsmodel vir die invloed van sekondêre voorwaardelikhede (projek radikaalheid en stadium van ontwikkeling) op die belangrikheid van drywers. Dit verteenwoordig ‘n geïntegreerde perspektief van die kontekstuele belangrikheid van ‘n aantal drywers (en konstrukte daarvan) wat voorheen onafhanklik nagevors en gepubliseer is. Aangesien teorie ontwikkeling in projekbestuur steeds jonk is, word die gevolgtrekking gemaak dat die studie bydra tot die geldigheid van klassieke voorwaardelikheidsteorieargumente in die konteks van die projek. Alhoewel dit nie ‘n veelomvattende lys van alle moontlike voorwaardelikhede beskou nie, en die bevindinge daarvan streng gesproke slegs betrekking het op proses-innovasie, verteenwoordig die studie ‘n beduidende stap vorentoe vir teorie-ontwikkeling in die modellering van innovasie op die projek-vlak.

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