Thesis (S.M.M.O.T.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, Management of Technology Program, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 65). / Global warming is becoming a greater issue for human beings. People's life has become rich, comfortable and convenient, especially in developed countries. The rich life is supported by huge energy consumption and the energy consumption by human beings destroys natural balance of the earth. As consumption of oil is one of the highest contributors of greenhouse gases emissions, we need to reduce oil consumption- in order to cope with global warming. For oil companies, this is a tough business circumstance. Oil demand will diminish and oil companies will face severer competition and need to contribute energy conservation as well. This thesis analyses business circumstance of oil business in Japan and competences of ExxonMobil Japan and argues its future strategy. The analysis found that a competition in Japanese oil industry is a price competition and core competencies are all to compete price competition. The competition will be keener due to diminished oil demand. The argument suggests that the company should change its product from oil to service related to oil. Though the differentiation of oil product is difficult because of the quality regulations, services can be differentiated. As services can be improved by the feedback from customers. getting information on customer needs is another key issue. The thesis recommends that the company should collaborate with other industries and provide services beyond the current industry boundary. / by Kei Hara. / S.M.M.O.T.

Thesis (S.M.M.O.T.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, Management of Technology Program, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 95-96). / This thesis analyzes the effect of the privatization process on the telecommunications sector in Brazil. Given the international characteristic of this industry, this work dedicated great emphasis in understanding what are the main current issues in the telecommunications industry worldwide. Furthermore, it is investigated how other countries approached this major event - privatization and deregulation - of this critical sector for every society. Models and insights were then drawn and adapted to understand the Brazilian specific situation. It is examined the sector's current situation and its future trends in the Brazilian market after almost three years since the assets were auctioned and transferred to private hands. It is also discussed the potential industry scenarios in each major telecom segment. The conclusion is that a consolidation process is inevitable in order to reach economies of scale and scope in the system and hence guarantee a satisfactory return on the investments to the main players in the market. / by Marcelo F. Rodrigues Nunes. / S.M.M.O.T.

Thesis (S.M.M.O.T.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, Management of Technology Program, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 70-73). / The notion of clustering, defined as the localized value-creating system that comprises complementary firms, universities, investors and other private or public institutions, has become of critical importance for regional innovation policies. This thesis explores regional innovative capacity in Italy, where industrial districts or clusters of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have represented a strong economic force responsible for the country's economic vitality and growth. In order to respond to the changing global economic environment, that is challenging Italian regional clusters to achieve sustainable growth, a new notion of meta-cluster has recently emerged. Metaclusters extend the traditional definition to encompass the entire value chain of an industrial cluster. The thesis argues that the notion of meta-clusters is key to the future innovative activities, given the nature of relations between government, university and industry in Italy, the underlying fabric of the country's economic system and a number of case studies of SMEs. Meta-clusters will not involve improbable developments in new technologies disconnected from the local resources, but rather will leverage and enhance existing value chains through new process, technologies and innovation strategies. Part of the argument assumes a prominent role of regional institutions, as the catalysts for innovation upgrades, and of financial intermediaries, as the glue in the development of stronger relationships between industry, government and universities. / by Federica Busa. / S.M.M.O.T.

Thesis (S.M.M.O.T.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, Management of Technology Program, 2004. / "June 2004." / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 192-201). / Nanotechnology, which involves creating and manipulating organic and inorganic matter from the molecular to the nanoscale level, is an emerging, enabling technology that is receiving enormous amounts of attention in industrial and scientific communities. It is an umbrella term for a wide range of science and technologies. Significant and rapid advances in nanoscience and nanotechnology have been made in the past two decades. Numerous potential applications have been identified, with a promise to transform virtually every industry. These industries include aerospace, agriculture, biotechnology, electronics, energy and environment, information technology and telecommunication, materials science and manufacturing, and medicine. Governments from developed nations around the globe and private investors, including venture capitalists, are investing heavily in nanotechnology. Established companies and entrepreneurial startup firms are now exploring options for commercializing nanotechnology innovations. This thesis was initiated to investigate the current state of nanotechnology commercialization with respect to identifying the differences in commercialization strategies between startup firms and large corporations; the managerial and technical challenges facing nanotechnology based companies; the critical success factors in commercializing nanotechnologies; and the factors limiting the adoption and diffusion of nanotechnologies. The results and analysis of the interviews demonstrate that commercialization strategies for large corporations differ from those for start-up companies, with respect to methods for entering new business, funding new business, project selection criteria, risk management. There are several / (cont.) critical success factors which firms attempting to commercialize nanotechnology-based innovation must carefully consider. These factors, along with current and potential managerial and technical challenges identified by the study are discussed. The pace of commercialization will become rapid, and products based on nanotechnology will gain market acceptance once the identified are resolved. / by Christopher O. Oriakhi. / S.M.M.O.T.

Thesis (S.M.M.O.T.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, Management of Technology Program, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 112-113). / The tanker industry covers all business related with trading tankers in which there are many participants: vessel owners, charterers, shipbuilders, scrappers, consultants, capitalists, brokers, insurers, surveyors, agents, repairing shops, manning companies, and vendors etc. The industry exhibits the characteristics of commoditization driven by price. As the industry is significantly affected by the chartering market, I will herein focus on the chartering market and its movements, in order to better understand the industry. The structure of the market creates recurring cycles and instability. Also, the key elements affecting this market are highly interrelated. Characteristically, long delays of these key elements make the market more uncertain and more volatile. The purpose of this thesis is to study the dynamic of the oil tanker industry, in particular chartering market, using system dynamics methodology. A simulation model will illuminate the following:* Driving forces on the commoditized industry, Nature of the dynamics and structural behaviorsm, Effects of key elements on freight rates / by TaeSoo Lee. / S.M.M.O.T.

Thesis (S.M.M.O.T.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, Management of Technology Program, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 62-63). / Entrepreneurship, with all its attendant ingredients, is one of the best means of triggering economic and social development in developing countries like India. There are several staple and mandatory ingredients necessary for the nourishment of entrepreneurship such as capital, labor, management, and several others; and several milestones in the evolution of an entrepreneurial opportunity such as funding, recruitment, and so on. As entrepreneurship ideas and opportunities take form and substance, the prevailing process for entrepreneurship in a country results gradually guides an entrepreneur past numerous milestones. The value of entrepreneurship as an economic development tool lies in the compression and/or acceleration of the overall process of entrepreneurship in a country by providing pinpointed assistance in three areas viz. idea development, capital and skills procurement, and organizational growth. This is best achieved by an organizational entity committed to accelerating the entrepreneurship process. This thesis follows through on the above idea specifically in the context of India. India is a durable democracy with a long legacy and history of entrepreneurship dating back to the first century B.C. Modern India features political and economic policies that favour global trade and business, a reliable yet evolving regulatory and legal framework, a resilient financial system, an educated and English-speaking labor force that offers tremendous cost advantages and a growing educational infrastructure of education institutions that offer excellent higher education in technology and business. In summary, as developing countries go, India offers an excellent milieu for aspiring entrepreneurs. A summary country analysis detailing this forms the first part of the thesis. The thesis then identifies candidate business models that could effectively support the one-point agenda of catalyzing entrepreneurship. These four business models differ with respect to the organizational form of the entity concerned, the metrics for success, the measurement of the metrics, possible conflicts of interest, and the estimated overall risk of the venture in the Indian context. The most viable and effective business model is selected. Finally, the thesis builds on the model selected and presents a comprehensive business plan for accelerating entrepreneurship in India. / by Shivram Venkatasubramaniam. / S.M.M.O.T.

Thesis (S.M.M.O.T.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, Management of Technology Program, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 66-70). / In the research and development (R&D) organization of a firm in a high technology industry, because of the needs for innovative and complex tasks in the rapidly changing environment of technology and market, the design of efficient organization would be one of the most important things. Many researchers have concentrated on the questions: How should teams or unit organizations be organized in terms of demographic diversity? What are the key variables associated with better performance? More technically, should a functional team be formed by the people who have similar experience and tenure, or, alternatively, should it be composed of people with a wide range of demographic characteristics? In this perspective, using the data collected from the 31 project teams and 191 individuals at four corporate-level research and development laboratories at a global electronics company in Korea, this study investigates the impact of demography diversity on project team performance. Particularly, this study moves beyond previous research by broadening the demographic variables to the education characteristics such as major, school, and educational level as a group. The results of the study suggest that, like the other demographic variables, the educational background also is strongly related to the team level performance. While each demographic variable has a certain operating direction, in this unique organization, the more homogeneous team in terms of diversity of school is likely to have better performance through the group process. / by Myung-Jin Soh. / S.M.M.O.T.

Thesis (S.M.M.O.T.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, Management of Technology Program, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 69-72). / Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), at their core are a set of technologies that employ the processes developed in the integrated circuit (IC) and semiconductor industries to construct electro- mechanical devices. In the case of Microopticelectromechanical systems (MOEMS), optical elements are also integrated into these devices. MEMS technology holds the promise of significantly miniaturizing, reducing the cost of, and enhancing the performance of many sensors and actuators, evidence its widespread use in the manufacture of accelerometers, ink jet printer heads and various chemical gas sensors. Despite its stellar success in these "killer-applications," MEMS technology has failed to realize the widespread success many had predicted for it. Nonetheless, this technology has recently been explored extensively for new electro-optics applications, specifically in telecommunications for dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) and optical switching. This thesis examines various models of dynamic technology adoption and explores how they apply to MEMS technology. Furthermore, by way of historical comparison to the development of application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), it will identify various developmental similarities. Finally, a unique model outlining the critical driving forces behind the adoption of MEMS technology will be constructed. / by Alan M. Then. / S.M.M.O.T.

Thesis (S.M.M.O.T.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, Management of Technology Program, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references. / Inkjet printing has proven to be a remarkable disruptive technology. From its humble beginnings in 1984 it has grown to become the dominant technology for personal computer-based printing. However, after almost two decades of strong growth, the Inkjet printing market is maturing. Companies large and small are now beginning to explore use of inkjet in a diverse range of new applications ranging from manufacture of next generation flat panel displays and low cost circuits to generation of biochips and fast-prototyping of 3-D objects. These new applications present existing inkjet players with exciting opportunities to leverage their knowledge and assets to exploit these new markets. This thesis explores the opportunities for inkjet technology in two emerging industries: 1) next-generation flat panel displays based on organic light-emitting diodes and 2) low cost, disposable circuits required for products such as radio-frequency identification tags and smart cards. These are likely to be the two biggest opportunities for non-traditional applications of inkjet technology. In both cases, inkjet provides a flexible, low cost manufacturing method that is a very compelling alternative to the expensive wafer fab processing required to produce today's flat panel displays and circuits. Each of these industries is analyzed in considerable depth to provide context for assessing the disruptive potential of inkjet. The potential of inkjet to become an important enabling technology is then analyzed using ideas and frameworks from the management ofteclmology literature. Both organic LED displays and low cost circuits appear likely to become disruptive technologies. The best early opportunity for non-traditional application of inkjet technology appears to be in display manufacturing. Here the technology fit with Inkjet capabilities is good and the strength of competing manufacturing technologies is relatively weak. Establishment of inkjet as an important production method for low cost circuits appears more challenging. The technology fit is not as good and competing low-cost technologies are further along in their development. It is recommended that existing inkjet players first address the display opportunity to gain experience with transitioning inkjet from a consumer printing technology to one well suited to high-volume electronics manufacturing. Once this capability has been demonstrated the bigger challenges in circuit manufacturing can be addressed. / by Todd A. Cleland. / S.M.M.O.T.

Thesis (S.M.M.O.T.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, Management of Technology Program, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 109-112). / Disruptive innovations in network systems are forcing mobile carriers to manage difficult network software development. Within the limited development time, mobile carriers are required to develop large scale, high quality and robust network software, and accomplish smooth transition/upgrading. In the drastic transition of the network architecture, network carriers often fail to develop platform network software. Compared with KDDI, NTT DoCoMo (DoCoMo) has been coping with network migration problems. The critical difference in both mobile carriers is whether the platform-based approach was applied sufficiently in the network software development. DoCoMo's insufficient platform-based approach led to migration difficulties. On the other hand, the consistent platform-based approach allowed KDDI to enjoy successful migration. In order to identify the critical factors in network software development related to this problem, this thesis (1) explores the characteristics of network innovations and (2) analyzes the platform innovations in mobile network software. The ultimate goal of this thesis is to (3) suggest how incumbent mobile carriers can avoid the potential threats and develop the platform network software in future disruptive network innovations. In the future, management of telecommunication systems design and development will face more challenging and more complicated migration because the network concepts and architecture will be completely different from those in the existing 3G networks. The lessons learned from the case studies DoCoMo and KDDI suggest ideas that mobile carriers can utilize to address tough situations. / (cont.) The platform-based approach definitely will help the migration strategies of mobile carriers and reduce the potential threats in current and future network systems. / by Yujiro Mochizuki. / S.M.M.O.T.