In the service economy of the 21st century, companies face intense competition in providing customer-centric products and services. In an environment where emerging technologies constantly stimulate innovative methods of service delivery, customer and technological knowledge remain the primary types of information applied by a company in providing customers with quality products and services. Managing knowledge interactions for synergetic business operations is critical in building a service-oriented infrastructure for continuous innovation. This study explores the pattern of knowledge interaction between R&D and marketing departments. Knowledge possessed by R&D department is defined as technological knowledge, while knowledge possessed by marketing department is defined as customer knowledge. First, the concepts, theories, and relevant research regarding the relationship between customer and technological knowledge is reviewed. Based on boundary-spanning theory, this study conducts an exploratory case study to examine the interaction between customer and technological knowledge. The case study focuses on the interaction between sales personnel and R&D employees across three levels of interaction, the syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic. This study found that different types of knowledge and activities between R&D and marketing departments generate different results. This study also found that most business knowledge for innovation is generated at the knowledge interaction between semantic and pragmatic level. Another finding is that Field Application Engineers play the important roles of boundary spanner because they possess both technological knowledge and customer knowledge for their specialized field. Boundary spanners serve as both filters and facilitators in information transmittal between internal units, and play an important role in the transfer of ideas within organizations. To develop critical innovations, businesses should interact according to what type of knowledge accessed.

The inception of technology education as a learning area in the South African national curriculum has posed challenges different from those in the other learning areas. Technology education is, compared to subjects such as mathematics and science, still a fairly new subject both nationally and internationally. As a result technology education does not have a large research base or established subject philosophy. This can lead to problems in understanding the nature of technology and other pedagogical problems, such as the fragmentation of curricula in which content is simply parcelled in ‘departments’. One way through which technology can be conceptualized and understood is through technology as knowledge (epistemology). In the absence of an established subject philosophy for technology education, one can draw on frameworks from other disciplines in the field, such as engineering and design practice, for insights into technological knowledge. Educators, however, still need to determine the usefulness of these frameworks to technology education. The purpose of this study therefore, is to investigate the usefulness of an epistemological framework chiefly derived from engineering to be able to describe the nature of technological knowledge, in an attempt to contribute towards the understanding of this relatively new learning area. The conceptual framework for this study was derived mainly from Vincenti’s (1990) categories of knowledge and knowledge-generating activities based on his research into historical aeronautic engineering cases. A combination of quantitative and qualitative research was used to provide insight into the categories of knowledge and knowledge-generating activities used by students at the University of Pretoria during capability tasks. This included an analysis of the questionnaire (quantitative data), which was administered to and completed by the students, as well as a content analysis (qualitative data) of the students’ project portfolios. Findings from this study suggest that the conceptual framework chiefly derived from and used by professional engineers is useful in technology education. The findings also suggest that both the categories of technological knowledge and the knowledge generating activities apply to all the content areas, i.e. structures, systems and control, and processing, in technology education. The study recommends that researchers and educators deepen their understanding of the nature of technological knowledge by considering the categories of technological knowledge and the knowledge-generating activities presented in the conceptual framework. In order to “operationalise” the conceptual framework, educators must consciously attempt to include items of knowledge from each category of knowledge when conceptualising capability tasks for their learning programmes. The framework can then be used as a matrix to evaluate their learning programmes to ensure that all knowledge items (categories and activities) are addressed in each capability task in the technology learning programmes. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Curriculum Studies / unrestricted

The purpose of this case study with supporting quantitative data was to investigate the influence of paired grouping on student participants' perceived attitudes toward technology, perceived proficiency with technology, and perceived technological knowledge after completing a required educational technology course. Additionally, student participants' perceptions regarding the use of paired grouping on their attitudes, proficiency, and technological knowledge with regard to technology was also investigated. To measure the difference between perceived attitudes toward technology, perceived proficiency with technology, and perceived technological knowledge after completing a required educational technology course, 83 student participants enrolled in a required educational technology course at a suburban midsized Gulf Coast University in the southern United States, completed the Attitude Toward Technology Scale (ATTS), Technology Proficiency Self-Assessment for 21st Century Learning (TPSA C21), and Technological Knowledge Tool (TK). Additionally, 24 student participants participated in semi-structured interviews.

Technological knowledge is of many different kinds, from experience-based know-how in the crafts to science-based knowledge in modern engineering. It is inherently oriented towards being useful in technological activities, such as manufacturing and engineering design. The purpose of this thesis is to highlight special characteristics of technological knowledge and how these affect how technology should be taught in school. It consists of an introduction, a summary in Swedish, and five papers: Paper I is about rules of thumb, which are simple instructions, used to guide actions toward a specific result, without need of advanced knowledge. One off the major advantages of rules of thumb is the ease with which they can be learnt. One of their major disadvantages is that they cannot easily be adjusted to new situations or conditions. Paper II describes how Gilbert Ryle's distinction between knowing how and knowing that is applicable in the technological domain. Knowing how and knowing that are commonly used together, but there are important differences between them which motivate why they should be regarded as different types: they are learnt in different ways, justified in different ways, and knowing that is susceptible to Gettier type problems which technological knowing how is not. Paper III is based on a survey about how Swedish technology teachers understand the concept of technological knowledge. Their opinions show an extensive variation, and they have no common terminology for describing the knowledge. Paper IV deals with non-scientific models that are commonly used by engineers, based on for example folk theories or obsolete science. These should be included in technology education if it is to resemble real technology. Different, and partly contradictory, epistemological frameworks must be used in different school subjects. This leads to major pedagogical challenges, but also to opportunities to clarify the differences between technology and the natural sciences and between models and reality. Paper V is about explanation, prediction, and the use of models in technology education. Explanations and models in technology differ from those in the natural sciences in that they have to include users' actions and intentions. / <p>QC 20140512</p>

Identifying, examining, and understanding faculty members’ technological knowledge development and the process of technology adoption in higher education is a multifaceted process. Past studies have used Rogers (1995, 2003) diffusion of innovation theoretical framework to delineate the technology adoption process. These studies, however, have frequently reported the influencing factors based on the statistical analysis such as regression analysis-based approach, and have not focused on the emerging process of technology adoptions or the developing process of technological knowledge and pedagogical knowledge. A mixed method study was designed to see how faculty members acquire different technologies and develop technological knowledge that might help them adopt technologies in their classrooms and online using different pedagogies. A sample of STEM teaching faculty members with different ranks, tenure, teaching experience, and varied degree of experience in the use of educational technologies participated in the study. A survey was designed to identify internal and external factors affecting technology adoption and its effective use in different teaching activities. To elaborate survey results, the study also included class observations as well as pre- and post-observation interviews. Online classrooms used by the faculty via Blackboard learning management system, online flipped classrooms, or other websites such as Piazza were also examined for data triangulation. The findings of the study indicate that faculty members are influenced by their own professional motivations and student learning to improve their teaching methods and to enhance student interactions and learning through the use of different educational technologies. The adoption process was identified as spreading over a period of time and it looked at how faculty members’ developed their technological knowledge and pedagogical knowledge. With the recognition of the social, organizational, and professional motivational factors both expert faculty members, university administrators, and technologist could be made aware of the critical components necessary to construct and support a bottom-up or user-centric successful innovation adoption decision process. The bottom-up approach would use expert professors as change agents and educational designers that would encourage exchanges and meaningful dialogues about educational technology adoptions and effective uses of technology with pedagogy within each discipline and department.

This thesis consists of two essays and an introduction. The main theme is technological knowledge that is not based on the natural sciences.The first essay is about rules of thumb, which are simple instructions, used to guide actions toward a specific result, without need of advanced knowledge. Knowing adequate rules of thumb is a common form of technological knowledge. It differs both from science-based and intuitive (or tacit) technological knowledge, although it may have its origin in experience, scientific knowledge, trial and error, or a combination thereof. One of the major advantages of rules of thumb is the ease with which they can be learned. One of their major disadvantages is that they cannot easily be adjusted to new situations or conditions. Engineers commonly use rules, theories and models that lack scientific justification. How to include these in introductory technology education is the theme of the second essay. Examples include rules of thumb based on experience, but also models based on obsolete science or folk theories. Centrifugal forces, heat and cold as substances, and sucking vacuum all belong to the latter group. These models contradict scientific knowledge, but are useful for prediction in limited contexts where they are used when found convenient. The role of this kind of models in technology education is the theme of the second essay. Engineers’ work is a common prototype for pupils’ work with product development and systematic problem solving during technology lessons. Therefore pupils should be allowed to use the engineers’ non-scientific models when doing design work in school technology. The acceptance of these could be experienced as contradictory by the pupils: a model that is allowed, or even encouraged in technology class is considered wrong when doing science. To account for this, different epistemological frameworks must be used in science and technology education. Technology is first and foremost about usefulness, not about the truth or even generally applicable laws. This could cause pedagogical problems, but also provide useful examples to explain the limitations of models, the relation between model and reality, and the differences between science and technology. / <p>QC 20111118</p>

Teknik hävdas ofta vara ett självständigt kunskapsområde, skilt från till exempel naturvetenskaperna och matematiken. Att förtydliga vad detta innebär skulle medföra en förhöjd status för teknikämnet, som i flera bemärkelser har ett ojämlikt förhållande till andra undervisningsämnen. Denna uppsats söker besvara frågan hur forskare inom pedagogikområdet ser på begreppet teknisk kunskap. Metoden som används är en systematisk litteraturstudie. Undersökningen identifierar ett antal perspektiv på detta begrepp och olika sätt att hantera klassiska kunskapsteoretiska problemområden. Konstruktion av tekniska lösningar genom handlingar och artefakter, med utgångspunkt från mål och normer, är ett återkommande tema för hur forskare ser på teknisk kunskap. En annan uppfattning i litteraturen är teknisk kunskap som en rent instrumentell aspekt av teknikstödd undervisning. En tredje uppfattning är teknisk kunskap som förknippat med existentiella problem i ett modernt samhälle. Framtida forskningsfrågor är bland annat hur teknisk kunskap kan konstrueras, härledas och rättfärdigas. Förbättrad insikt i detta område har potential att särskilja tekniken som självständigt skolämne, att bidra till flera separata akademiska diskussioner och att uppnå högre effektivitet i teknikundervisning. / Technology is often claimed to be an independent area of knowledge, separate from for example natural sciences and mathematics. A clarification of the implications of this claim would raise the status of the technology subject, which in several respects is on unequal terms with other school subjects. This paper aims to answer the question how researchers in the education field perceive the concept of technological knowledge. The method used is a systematic literature review. The investigation identifies a number of perspectives on this concept, as well as different ways of approaching classical epistemological problem areas. Development of technical solutions by actions and artefacts, based on objectives and norms, is a recurring theme in how researchers perceive technological knowledge. Another common perception of technological knowledge is a purely instrumental aspect of technology enhanced learning. Yet another perception is technological knowledge as a concept related to existential problems of modern society. Questions for future research include clarification of how technological knowledge can be constructed, derived and justified. Improved insight in this area can potentially raise the status of technology as an independent school subject in its own right, contribute to a number of scholarly discussions, and improve teaching efficiency in technology education.

Philosophers of technology have often considered only the tools and processes used and conducted by humans, but natural structures and man-made structures are not always easily discernable from one another. The complexity of a spider web is not matched by many human-made technologies. Beaver dams, beehives, and ant hills are great creations made by non-human animals. Davis Baird has argued that our scientific instruments bear knowledge in important ways, and the idea of technological knowledge bears interestingly on discussions of natural artifacts. Baird thinks his argument for instruments bearing knowledge can be extended, but how far can it be taken? Do "natural" technologies, like spider webs, bear technological knowledge of some sort? This move to consider whether natural artifacts might bear knowledge rubs interestingly against current definitions of technology which include human agency or progression as important. If we find that some natural artifacts seem to bear knowledge in the way Baird describes, technological knowledge would not be the exclusive domain of humans. Our current definitions of technology seem incongruent with our view of knowledge and our knowledge of natural artifacts. The purpose of this paper is to sort out the inconsistencies between current philosophical literature on knowledge and on technology. In sorting out the inconsistencies we find, I recommend a spectrum approach with regard to technology based on the epistemological status of the artifact. Using observations from anthropology and biology, I suggest a scale with regard to technological behavior, tool use, and technology. / Master of Science

Philosophers, historians of technology, and anthropologists often offer accounts of technology that include a “human clause,” some phrase to the effect that only humans use or make technologies. When these academics do consider tool use, they refer to a few cases, usually from chimpanzee studies, as special and unusual in the animal kingdom and whose similarities to human tool use can be explained through some shared evolutionary heritage. However, new observational and laboratory animal studies demonstrate that tool use and the use of learned techniques are actually more widespread than many scholars have appreciated, encompassing the behaviors of dolphins, crows, gorillas, and octopuses. Some studies have shown that even species that are not known to produce tools in the wild can, in the right contexts, produce and use tools as capably as related species that do employ tools. Some of the non-human animals' tool use and manufacture indicates learned components, shared material cultures, innovation, an understanding of 'folk' physics and causal reasoning, the standardization of tools, and the use of metatools. This dissertation involves a reflection on these new animal studies cases: what they might indicate, how they relate to concepts used in defining technology (and humanity), how they might disrupt human-centered models of technology. This dissertation also provides a framework for considering these animal cases within the context of technological knowledge, one important concept in philosophy of technology. To highlight the relationships between two different approaches to technological knowledge, this project introduces a graphical model for considering animal cases alongside human technologies; mapping individual technologies and techniques in terms of technological know-how and encapsulation of information allow for the additional consideration of animal constructions – webs, nests, dams, etc. – alongside animal tool use and human technologies. By categorizing non-human animal constructions, tool use, and technology along the same axes, we see that the individual material products of humans and non-humans are often a matter of degree, and not a matter of kind. Animal constructions and tool use can be productively incorporated into philosophy of technology. / Ph. D.

Internationalization is one of the most complicated elements in Small- and Medium-sized Enterprise (SME) expansion. Researchers seem to agree more and more that none of the theories in this field can solely explain the dynamics of the internationalization of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises particularly small knowledge- and service-intensive firms. There are different theories and approaches toward the SMEs‘ internationalization; however there is one predictor in common among them: Firm‟s knowledge resources (Yli-Renko, Autio, &amp; Tontti, 2002).Since the value-adding processes of firms are increasingly based on the creation and exploitation of knowledge, the natural focus of attention shifts from the control of static, firm-specific resources to the acquisition, assimilation, and exploitation of firm-specific knowledge (Bettis &amp; Hitt, 1995; Grant, 1996; J.Nahapiet &amp; Ghoshal, 1998). In today‘s global competitive landscape, firms succeed not because they have control over scarce resources, but because they have the ability to gain the knowledge, learn and use this learning more efficiently than others. In comparison with big companies SMEs have relatively less resources, which make knowledge very vital for their survival and growth. (Mejri &amp; Umemoto, 2010)There has not been much empirical research on knowledge resources and capabilities although the importance of knowledge-related process is widely acknowledged. There is a notable limitation in SME literature on influence of knowledge that can only offer limited insight into firm‘s foreign market operations. In other words, there is a gap in the literature about the different types of knowledge and their role in the internationalization process and therefor this research has set it goal to answer the aforementioned issues.This research has used qualitative approach and case study research design, and six semistructured interviews were conducted with small Swedish firms that involved in international activities. Since this is an exploratory study, the data from the six cases was quite managable. Analysis was conducted by coding the interviews and categorization of the codes. The codes were interpreted and three types of knowledge were extracted based on both the data and theories; Technological Knowledge, Business Knowledge and Market-specific Knowledge. The main characteristics of each company were put together with regard to the three types of knowledge. The next step in analysis was to find out if there were any differences or similarities between the companies when it came to internationalization process. By using the aforementioned results a farmework was developed. The framework presents the role of each Knowledge in the internationalization process and is the key finding of this research.The results from this study indicate the significant role of different types of knowledge as the main source of competitive advantage for SMEs to go to international markets. However the result of this study also designates that the role of knowledge in the internationalization process must be understood in the context of the industry, the company and the people involved.