Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Econometric models – Technological innovations'

O presente trabalho analisa a evolução da indústria brasileira de celulose no período de 1980 a 2005, enfocando três objetivos específicos: 1) analisar a estrutura e o desempenho da indústria brasileira de celulose, avaliando sua produção, exportação e custo de produção. Ao mesmo tempo, discute-se a reorganização dessa indústria a partir da década de 1980 e ressalta as mudanças que surgiram e seus impactos na competitividade da indústria; 2) identificar as pesquisas e inovações tecnológicas que ocorrem nas áreas florestal e industrial e ressaltar seus possíveis impactos sobre a competitividade da indústria brasileira de celulose; e 3) analisar a evolução das exportações brasileiras de celulose, elaborando um modelo econométrico para evidenciar os principais determinantes de sua oferta e demanda. Quanto ao primeiro objetivo desse trabalho, a estrutura e o desempenho da indústria brasileira de celulose foram analisados pelas seguintes variáveis: produção, exportação, custo de produção, número de empresas e, também, índices de concentração. Constatou-se que o Brasil vem ampliando e ganhando marketshare nas exportações de celulose. Esse desempenho exportador é causado, principalmente, pelas vantagens de custo de produção. Para analisar o segundo objetivo dessa dissertação, utilizou-se dados primários, coletados através questionários e a revisão de literatura, a fim de se realizar um levantamento das principais inovações tecnológicas ocorridas na silvicultura e produção industrial de celulose. Ao longo dos anos 80 e 90 e nos anos 2000, pesquisas ocorreram em diferentes intensidades, nas distintas etapas de produção florestal e industrial. Os dados das entrevistas, organizados na forma tabular e gráfica, bem como analisados pelo teste de Wilconox, ressaltam melhoria nas inovações tecnológicas em etapas do processo produtivo que trouxeram expressivos aumentos de produtividade na silvicultura e na produção industrial de celulose e que implicaram redução no custo de produção da celulose. Esta útima elevou a rentabilidade do setor, causando sua expansão. No terceiro objetivo desse trabalho, foram realizadas estimativas das equações de oferta e demanda de celulose para o período de 1980 a 2005. Em relação à oferta de celulose, as variáveis preço brasileiro da celulose exportada e exportações defasada foram significativas a 20% e a 1%, respectivamente. Já o custo de produção não apresentou significância estatística, mas teve o sinal esperado. A elasticidade-preço da oferta brasileira de celulose foi de 0,40, ou seja, trata-se de inelástica em relação ao seu preço. Em relação à estimativa da equação de demanda, o preço da celulose brasileira e a demanda internacional de celulose foram significativos a 1%. A elasticidade-preço da demanda de celulose encontrada foi -0,69 indicando que a demanda pela celulose brasileira é inelástica com relação ao seu preço. Por outro lado, a elasticidade da quantidade demandada de celulose brasileira em relação à demanda internacional desse produto foi 2,17, indicando que a quantidade demandada da celulose brasileira é elástica em relação à demanda internacional desse produto.
The present dissertation analyses the evolution of Brazilian pulp industry from 1980 to 2005, paying attention to three specific objectives: (1) analysis of the Brazilian pulp industry?s structure and performance, evaluating its production, exports and production costs. Besides that, the dissertation discusses the reorganization of this industry since the 1980\'s and highlights the changes that happened and their impacts on the sector\'s competitiveness; (2) Identify the researches and technological innovations that took place in forest and industrial areas, and emphasize their possible impacts on the competitiveness of Brazilian pulp industry; (3) analyze the evolution of the Brazilian pulp exports, elaborating an econometric model to evidence the main determinants of supply and demand for these exports. In relation to the first objective of this work, the structure and performance of the Brazilian pulp industry were analyzed through the following variables: production, export, production costs, number of enterprises, and also concentration indexes. It was evidenced that Brazil is increasing its market share in pulp exports. The increase of exports is mainly due to production cost advantages what associate to innovations in forest and industrial areas. To analyze the second objective of this dissertation, primary data, collected through questionnaires, and literature review were used to realize a survey of the main technological innovations that had occurred in silviculture and in Brazilian pulp production. Throughout the 1980\'s and 1990\'s and during the six first years of the 2000\'s, researches occurred in different intensities, in the distinct stages of industrial and forest production. The primary data organized in tables and graphs, as well as analyzed by Wilconox test, highlight the improves in the technological innovations in the stages of the production process what brought significant increases of productivity in silviculture and in the pulp industrial production, causing the reduction of pulp production cost. The latter enlarged sector\'s profitability, causing its expansion. In the third objective, supply and demand equations for pulp exports were run for data ranging from 1980 to 2005. Regarding to the pulp supply, Brazilian exported pulp price and lagged exports were statistically significant at 20% and 1% level, respectively. The production cost did not show statistically significant, but it had the expected signal. The price elasticity of Brazilian pulp supply was 0.4, so it is inelastic in relation to its price. The demand elasticity price founded was -0.69, indicating the quantity of Brazilian pulp demanded is inelastic in relation to its price. Meanwhile, the elasticity of Brazilian pulp demanded quantity in relation to international demand of this product was 2.17, indicating the demanded quantity of Brazilian pulp is elastic in relation to the international demand of the product.

The research performed throughout this dissertation aims at implementing quantitative methods in order to assess economic and technological performances of firms, i.e. it tries to assess the impacts of the determinants of technological activity on the results of this activity. For this purpose, a representative sample of the most important R&D firms in the world is constituted. The micro-economic nature of the analysis, as well as its international dimension are two main features of this research at the empirical level.

The second chapter illustrates the importance of R&D investments, patenting activities and other measures of technological activities performed by firms over the last 10 years.

The third chapter describes the main features as well as the construction of the database. The raw data sample consists of comparable detailed micro-level data on 2676 large manufacturing firms from several countries. These firms have reported important R&D expenditures over the period 1980-1994.

The fourth chapter explores the dynamic structure of the patent-R&D relationship by considering the number of patent applications as a function of present and lagged levels of R&D expenditures. R&D spillovers as well as technological and geographical opportunities are taken into account as additional determinants in order to explain patenting behaviours. The estimates are based on recently developed econometric techniques that deal with the discrete non-negative nature of the dependent patent variable as well as the simultaneity that can arise between the R&D decisions and patenting. The results show evidence of a rather contemporaneous impact of R&D activities on patenting. As far as R&D spillovers are concerned, these externalities have a significantly higher impact on patenting than own R&D. Furthermore, these effects appear to take more time, three years on average, to show up in patents.

The fifth chapter explores the contribution of own stock of R&D capital to productivity performance of firms. To this end the usual productivity residual methodology is implemented. The empirical section presents a first set of results which replicate the analysis of previous studies and tries to assess the robustness of the findings with regard to the above issues. Then, further results, based on different sub samples of the data set, investigate to what extent the R&D contribution on productivity differs across firms of different industries and geographic areas or between small and large firms and low and high-tech firms. The last section explores more carefully the simultaneity issue. On the whole, the estimates indicate that R&D has a positive impact on productivity performances. Yet, this contribution is far from being homogeneous across the different dimensions of data or according to the various assumptions retained in the productivity model.

The last empirical chapter goes deeper into the analysis of firms' productivity increases, by considering besides own R&D activities the impact of technological spillovers. The chapter begins by surveying the alternative ways proposed in the literature in order to asses the effect of R&D spillovers on productivity. The main findings reported by some studies at the micro level are then outlined. Then, the framework to formalize technological externalities and other technological determinants is exposed. This framework is based on a positioning of firms into a technological space using their patent distribution across technological fields. The question of whether the externalities generated by the technological and geographic neighbours are different on the recipient's productivity is also addressed by splitting the spillover variable into a local and national component. Then, alternative measures of technological proximity are examined. Some interesting observations emerge from the empirical results. First, the impact of spillovers on productivity increases is positive and much more important than the contribution of own R&D. Second, spillover effects are not the same according to whether they emanate from firms specialized in similar technological fields or firms more distant in the technological space. Finally, the magnitude and direction of these effects are radically different within and between the pillars of the Triad. While European firms do not appear to particularly benefit from both national and international sources of spillovers, US firms are mainly receptive to their national stock and Japanese firms take advantage from the international stock.

Doctorat en sciences économiques, Orientation économie
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

This PhD thesis provides abundant empirical evidence on the effectiveness of environmental policy instruments alone and as a policy-mix, looking at its effect on green investment and employment. Finally, it also studies the social welfare outcomes of the implementation of the two environmental policy instruments – environmental taxes and public financing. The most direct and obvious conclusion that can be extracted from this thesis is that properly designed policy-instruments are necessary to incentivise firms to invest in green technologies, especially if we want to encourage investment in cleaner production technologies over pollution abating technologies, which is not an easy task to do. I refer to the industrial and energy firms because on one hand, they contribute significantly to air pollution, waste pollution and address resource scarcity, making it even more important for them to invest in technologies that would significantly address the negative externalities. In this regard, this thesis contributes to the literature on causal evidence of environmental policy instruments on firm behaviour, as well as social welfare outcomes arising from different policy scenarios. More specifically, the second chapter of this thesis contributes to the literature on social welfare outcomes arising from the different environmental policy scenarios. In the analysed model we are faced with the asymmetry of decision making. While the regulator favours green investment, which reduces the total pollution level, firms prefer to keep producing using their dirty technology in the symmetric scenarios. The question that arises, therefore, is how such an equilibrium can be induced? It might be the case that with more money being directed at R&D, technologies would become more efficient and cheaper, making it more desirable for firms. From the policy perspective, especially investment in private environment R&D is highly encouraged. In the third chapter of this thesis, I contribute to the literature on drivers of eco-innovations by identifying crucial regulatory factors and firms’ organizational capabilities for encouraging enterprises to invest in green technologies. We observe differences between the drivers of investment in cleaner production and end-of-pipe technologies. In addition, we distinguish between investments with the purpose to reduce air pollution and energy consumption. Firstly, environmental taxation in Spain seems to be rather ineffective at stimulating investment in greener technologies, both for end-of-pipe as well as for cleaner production technologies. We argue that in the Spanish context this might be caused by relatively low rates, environmental taxes might not be doing their task effectively. At the same time, firms react positively to investment subsidies and investment tax incentives. Tax credits seem to be especially successful at financing cleaner production technologies while subsidies are positively related to both EP and CP investments. The implication derived from these findings reveals that direct policies such as subsidies help firms to convert into greener companies, while tax credits lead to reductions in production costs for firms, that pursue a substantial transformation of their production process. Additionally, we can conclude that organization capabilities matter for investment in green technologies. Admittedly, hiring green employees is a strong factor pushing each firm towards green investments, while the relationship between green procedures and certifications is not clear. The fourth chapter of this thesis is aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of environmental taxes in Spain at different levels of taxation, in the absence and in combination with public finance - an equally important market-based instrument addressing the market failure of firms. The evaluation is performed with regards to whether the implementation of such environmental policy instrument in Spain is successful at encouraging adoption of green technologies among manufacturing firms. Our results suggest that environmental taxation is effective at encouraging adoption of both types of green technologies. That being said, once we split our treatment to different categories, we find that low levels of environmental taxation do not induce further investments in process eco-innovations. Therefore, we show that the average treatment effect masks substantial heterogeneity across the taxation level groups. Results also consistently show that increasing the amount of taxation increases also the subsequent adoption of green technologies. In the sample of fully supported environmental tax payers, it seems to emerge that firms that are required to pay around EUR 2,500 per year already exhibit significantly higher investment in green technology than under lower amounts of taxation. Additionally, our findings seem to suggest that even low levels of environmental taxation can be effective at inducing investment in green technology if combined with public financing. However, once again the effect is the largest when environmental taxation is at the medium level. That being said, if the regulator is reluctant to increase the taxation level in fear of hurting firms' competitiveness, even low levels of taxation can be effective in combination with public support. Large levels of environmental though very effective on its own, are not strongly encouraged with combination of public financing. The fifth chapter of this thesis analyses, in turn, a large-scale national tax incentive program in Spain, which started in 1996 and finished in 2015. Due to data availability, I focus on the 2008-2014 time window. The findings seem to suggest that encouragement to eliminate the EI tax incentives from the Spanish Corporate Income Tax and fears that they were not successful enough was unwarranted. While it is true that the EI tax credit favoured pollution abating over energy efficient technologies, it did increase substantially investment – and even in the times of financial crises, when the capital market failure was particularly severe. The EI tax credit was found to have positive indirect effects on both number of green employees and private environmental R\&D, which could have additional positive spill-over effects. With regards to the policy change, which was aimed at disincentivizing financing of pollution abating technologies and encouraging – it was assessed as semi-effective. While it is true that it did discourage investment in end-of-pipe technologies, especially those aimed at air-pollution reduction, we could not observe investment in cleaner production technologies increasing as a result. This could suggest that tax incentives should be more clearly defined, as to avoid (1) technological lock-down in old technologies, (2) encourage technologies that do change the production process and result in smaller usage of natural resources e.g energy consumption. One of the caveats of the studied EI tax credit was the confusion it created not only with respect to eligibility criteria but also the definition of technologies that it aimed to finance. Lastly, it is quite comforting to observe, however, that the tax incentive seemed to have addressed the capital market failure of small firms for the investment in cleaner production technologies. The results from the heterogeneous analysis also point out to the fact that this positive effect exists in stark contrast to the reduction in the investment suffered by the big firms.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This thesis aims at analysing some aspects of Venture Capital (VC) and high-tech entrepreneurship. The focus is both at the macroeconomic level, comparing venture capital from an international point of view and Technology-Based Small Firms (TBSF) at company and founder’s level in Belgium. The approach is mainly empirical.

This work is divided into two parts. The first part focuses on venture capital. First of all, we test the impact of VC on productivity. We then identify the determinants of VC and we test their impact on the relative level of VC for a panel of countries.

The second part concerns the technology-based small firms in Belgium. The objective is twofold. It first aims at creating a database on Belgian TBSF to better understand the importance of entrepreneurship. In order to do this, a national survey was developed and the statistical results were analysed. Secondly, it provides an analysis of the role of universities in the employment performance of TBSF.

A broad summary of each chapter is presented below.

PART 1: VENTURE CAPITAL

The Economic Impact of Venture Capital

The objective of this chapter is to perform an evaluation of the macroeconomic impact of venture capital. The main assumption is that VC can be considered as being similar in several respects to business R&D performed by large firms. We test whether VC contributes to economic growth through two main channels. The first one is innovation, characterized by the introduction of new products, processes or services on the market. The second one is the development of an absorptive capacity. These hypotheses are tested quantitatively with a production function model for a panel data set of 16 OECD countries from 1990 to 2001. The results show that the accumulation of VC is a significant factor contributing directly to Multi-Factor Productivity (MFP) growth. The social rate of return to VC is significantly higher than the social rate of return to business or public R&D. VC has also an indirect impact on MFP in the sense that it improves the output elasticity of R&D. An increased VC intensity makes it easier to absorb the knowledge generated by universities and firms, and therefore improves aggregate economic performance.

Technological Opportunity, Entrepreneurial Environment and Venture Capital Development

The objective of this chapter is to identify the main determinants of venture capital. We develop a theoretical model where three main types of factors affect the demand and supply of VC: macroeconomic conditions, technological opportunity, and the entrepreneurial environment. The model is evaluated with a panel dataset of 16 OECD countries over the period 1990-2000. The estimates show that VC intensity is pro-cyclical - it reacts positively and significantly to GDP growth. Interest rates affect the VC intensity mainly because the entrepreneurs create a demand for this type of funding. Indicators of technological opportunity such as the stock of knowledge and the number of triadic patents affect positively and significantly the relative level of VC. Labour market rigidities reduce the impact of the GDP growth rate and of the stock of knowledge, whereas a minimum level of entrepreneurship is required in order to have a positive effect of the available stock of knowledge on VC intensity.

PART 2: TECHNOLOGY-BASED SMALL FIRMS

Survey in Belgium

The first purpose of this chapter is to present the existing literature on the performance of companies. In order to get a quantitative insight into the entrepreneurial growth process, an original survey of TBSF in Belgium was launched in 2002. The second purpose is to describe the methodology of our national TBSF survey. This survey has two main merits. The first one lies in the quality of the information. Indeed, most of national and international surveys have been developed at firm-level. There exist only a few surveys at founder-level. In the TBSF database, information both at firm and at entrepreneur-level will be found.

The second merit is about the subject covered. TBSF survey tackles the financing of firms (availability of public funds, role of venture capitalists, availability of business angels,…), the framework conditions (e.g. the quality and availability of infrastructures and communication channels, the level of academic and public research, the patenting process,…) and, finally, the socio-cultural factors associated with the entrepreneurs and their environment (e.g. level of education, their parents’education, gender,…).

Statistical Evidence

The main characteristics of companies in our sample are that employment and profits net of taxation do not follow the same trend. Indeed, employment may decrease while results after taxes may stay constant. Only a few companies enjoy a growth in both employment and results after taxes between 1998 and 2003.

On the financing front, our findings suggest that internal finance in the form of personal funds, as well as the funds of family and friends are the primary source of capital to start-up a high-tech company in Belgium. Entrepreneurs rely on their own personal savings in 84 percent of the cases. Commercial bank loans are the secondary source of finance. This part of external financing (debt-finance) exceeds the combined angel funds and venture capital funds (equity-finance).

On the entrepreneur front, the preliminary results show that 80 percent of entrepreneurs in this study have a university degree while 42 percent hold postgraduate degrees (i.e. master’s, and doctorate). In term of research activities, 88 percent of the entrepreneurs holding a Ph.D. or a post-doctorate collaborate with Belgian higher education institutes. Moreover, more than 90 percent of these entrepreneurs are working in a university spin-off.

The Contribution of Universities to Employment Growth

The objective of this chapter is to test whether universities play a role amongst the determinants of employment growth in Belgian TBSF. The empirical model is based on our original survey of 87 Belgian TBSF. The results suggest that both academic spin-offs and TBSF created on the basis of an idea originating from business R&D activities are associated with an above than average growth in employees. As most ‘high-tech’ entrepreneurs are at least graduated from universities, there is no significant impact of the level of education. Nevertheless, these results must be taken with caution, as they are highly sensitive to the presence of outliers. Young high-tech firms are by definition highly volatile, and might be therefore difficult to understand.

CONCLUSION

In this last chapter, recommendations for policy-makers are drawn from the results of the thesis. The possible interventions of governments are classified according to whether they influence the demand or the supply of entrepreneurship and/or VC. We present some possible actions such as direct intervention in the VC funds, interventions of public sector through labour market rigidities, pension system, patent and research policy, level of entrepreneurial activities, bankruptcy legislation, entrepreneurial education, development of university spin-offs, and creation of a national database of TBSF.

Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

This study examines the importance of public research and development (R&D) expenditures and innovations (prices) to U S agricultural productivity employing panel vector error correction econometric technique Specifically, time-series and panel unit root tests, panel cointegration procedures, panel causality tests, and vector error correction model are used in the analysis. Empirical application to U S state-level data for 1960-2004 suggests positive and statistically significant influence of both supply-side drivers, in the form of public R&D expenditures, and demand-side drivers, in the form of innovations (prices), on total factor productivity growth.

With the unprecedented growth of the communication industry that the world is experiencing, the demand from rural inhabitants for high quality communications at an economically affordable cost is growing. However, rural areas are rather restricted from deploying communication services due to the rough natural environment, and the shortage of rudimentary communication facilities and technical personnel. Appropriate models for building rural wireless networks and a concomitant simulation environment are, therefore, expected to enable the construction of technologically-optimal and economically-efficient networks in specified rural areas.

The research has set up two independent models, one for the economic need and the other for the technical need of building networks in rural areas. One model was the Impact of Telecommunications Model, which disclosed the importance of building a wireless network in specified rural areas by choosing an economic parameter to forecast the profitability of the network. The other was the Service Model, which collected primitive data from given rural areas and abstracted these data by flowing them through four technical layers to form the predicted technical wireless network. Both of the models had been applied to real-world cases to demonstrate how to use them.

A simulation environment was finally designed and implemented to realize the above two models for the sake of instantiation. This environment could simulate the specified rural network by constructing a wireless network on the invented areas and evaluating its quality and economic efficiency. It was written in Scilab simulation language, which was an open source.

O tema inovação vem sendo cada vez mais difundido e disseminado globalmente, o que por um lado é benéfico quanto à sua popularização e desmistificação, por outro lado corre o risco de se tornar uma referência retórica e superficial. Diante desse cenário, várias definições surgem e o conceito de inovação ultrapassa a barreira puramente tecnológica de produtos e processos para agregar questões de marketing e organizacionais. Contudo, os órgãos de fomento à inovação ainda sentem dificuldade na identificação do que é ou não inovação. Isso se dá pela falta de processos estruturados de análise que possibilitem maior segurança na avaliação de projetos ou propostas que envolvam oportunidades de inovação. Nesse contexto, o presente trabalho tem como principal objetivo propor um processo de análise para apoiar à caracterização de uma potencial inovação, identificando se ela é uma oportunidade de inovação e de que tipo.Trata-se de uma pesquisa aplicada de caráter exploratório. Como método foi utilizado a pesquisa bibliográfica e de campo, como técnica a testagem com 15 especialistas no tema, com abordagem prioritariamente qualitativa. Entre os resultados principais podem ser citados a proposta de processo de análise para apoio à caracterização da inovação e distinção de seus tipos composto por três blocos para análise, e a contribuição para definição do tipo de inovação em áreas de fronteira. Entretanto, observou-se ainda uma dificuldade de convergência, mesmo entre especialistas, para alguns casos avaliados, o que abre uma oportunidade para novas pesquisas no tema.
The innovation theme is becoming more widespread and disseminated globally, which in one hand is beneficial for their popularization and demystification, but on another hand runs the risk of becoming a rhetoric and superficial reference. On this given scenario, several definitions arise and the innovation concept goes beyond the purely technological barrier products and processes to aggregate marketing and some others organizational aspects. However, innovation promotion agencies still have issues on identify what is or is not innovation. That can be explained due to the lack of structured processes of analysis that enable safer proposals or projects evaluation involving innovation opportunities. On that context, the present work has as main objective to propose an analysis process to give support to a potential innovation characterization, identifying whether it is an innovation opportunity and at which typology it mainly fits. This is an applied and exploratory research. The used method was literature research and field testing as a technique with 15 experts on the subject, with primarily qualitative approach. Among the main results can be cited the analysis proposal process to sustain the innovation characterization and distinction of its typology, comprising three analysis blocks; and the contribution to define the innovation type in frontier areas. However, there was still identified a convergence difficulties, even among experts, for some cases evaluated, which opens an opportunity for further research on the topic. These cases are also described on this present work.

Consider the following questions in the early stage of new product development. What should be the target market for proposed design concepts? Who will be the competitors and how fast are they moving forward in terms of performance improvements? Ultimately, is the current design concept and targeted launch date feasible and competitive? To answer these questions, there is a need to integrate the product benchmarking with the assessment of performance improvement so that analysts can have a risk measure for their R&D target setting practices. Consequently, this study presents how time series benchmarking analysis can be used to assist scheduling new product releases. Specifically, the proposed model attempts to estimate the "auspicious" time by which proposed design concepts will be available as competitive products by taking into account the rate of performance improvement expected in a target segment. The empirical illustration of commercial airplane development has shown that this new method provides valuable information such as dominating designs, distinct segments, and the potential rate of performance improvement, which can be utilized in the early stage of new product development. In particular, six dominant airplanes are identified with corresponding local RoCs and, inter alia, technological advancement toward long-range and wide-body airplanes represents very competitive segments of the market with rapid changes. The resulting individualized RoCs are able to estimate the arrivals of four different design concepts, which is consistent with what has happened since 2007 in commercial airplane industry. In addition, the case study of the Exascale supercomputer development is presented to demonstrate the predictive use of the new method. The results indicate that the current development target of 2020 might entail technical risks considering the rate of change emphasizing power efficiency observed in the past. It is forecasted that either a Cray-built hybrid system using Intel processors or an IBM-built Blue Gene architecture system using PowerPC processors will likely achieve the goal between early 2021 and late 2022. This indicates that the challenge to improve the power efficiency by a factor of 23 would require the maximum delay of 4 years to reach the Exascale supercomputer compared to the existing performance curve.

Prior research has examined entrepreneurial businesses spatially located in the physical or offline context; however, recent radical information and technological breakthroughs allow entrepreneurs to launch their businesses completely online. The growth of the online business industry has been phenomenal. Predictions for worldwide online sales estimate it to reach $2 trillion in 2016. Virtual entrepreneurship refers to the pursuit and exploitation of opportunities via virtual platforms. Web 2.0 cybermediaries offer web-based platforms that function similarly to traditional intermediaries in a virtual setting and minimize barriers to entry for virtual entrepreneurial firms. The use of such cybermediaries with increasing success suggests an implicit shift in the dominant logic that typically underpins the functioning of entrepreneurial firms operating in the physical world. In this relatively uncharted territory, marked by a focus on profit, cooperation, collaboration and community, three ideal-type institutional logics i.e. Market, Corporation and Community, blend together. It is posited that a Virtual Entrepreneurial Logic guides the norms, behaviors, and practices of entrepreneurial firms operating via these virtual platforms. This raises the question whether the blending of three ideal-type logics leads to the existence of different antecedents of performance. A business model antecedent addressing the economic dimension, a community antecedent addressing the community dimension and a co-creation antecedent addressing the collaborative dimension of the Virtual Entrepreneurial Logic were therefore empirically examined in this study. Thus, three research questions were investigated to explicate the antecedents. Primary data from 1396 virtual entrepreneurial firms was collected (business model antecedent n=366, community antecedent n=732 and co-creation antecedent n= 298) to test the proposed hypotheses. Results provided support for the three antecedents. This study makes important theoretical and practical contributions to understanding the domain of virtual entrepreneurship from a blended logics perspective. Using the theoretical lens provided by institutional logics helps shed light on the pivotal role played by cybermediary platforms in the Web 2.0 context. The primary role of synergistic effects, cooperative behavior, and collaboration have important implications for virtual entrepreneurship. Findings also contribute to other related streams in entrepreneurship such as microenterprises. The study offers theoretical extensions of prior work on co-creation to virtual small entrepreneurial ventures. From a practical standpoint, insights can help entrepreneurs to better understand and leverage performance drivers in virtual contexts in general and on cybermediary platforms in particular.

With the probable end of Moore's Law in the near future, and with advances in nanotechnology, new forms of computing are likely to become available. Reversible computing is one of these possible future technologies, and it employs reversible circuits. Reversible circuits in a classical form have the potential for lower power consumption than existing technology, and in a quantum form permit new types of encryption and computation.

One fundamental challenge in synthesizing the most general type of reversible circuit is that the storage space for fully specifying input-output descriptions becomes exponentially large as the number of inputs increases linearly. Certain restricted classes of reversible circuits, namely affine-linear, linear, and permutation circuits, have much more compact representations. The synthesis methods which operate on these restricted classes of reversible circuits are capable of synthesizing circuits with hundreds of inputs. In this thesis new types of synthesis methods are introduced for affine-linear, linear, and permutation circuits, as well as a synthesizable HDL design for a scalable, systolic processor for linear reversible circuit synthesis.

Thesis (MTech (Marketing))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2015.
The rapid growth of social media has resulted in digital information and communications technology (ICT) channels for individuals to connect with each other and the rest of their world. Consequently, social network sites (SNS) and other mobile applications have become an integral part of life, as well as a daily destination for billions of individuals, offering them novel and an instant means of communication in this interactive ICT space. Internet, social media and smartphone usage are also expanding prolifically in developing countries such as South Africa (SA). This incremental expansion of social media usage is directly related to the progression of Internet usage across the globe, primarily as a result of the irrevocable dissemination of smartphones. The use of social media has become the most common activity among modern adolescents and young adults (referred to as Generation Y or Millennials). SNS such as Facebook, Mxit, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and numerous others have grown exponentially in recent years, enabling Generation Y with a portal for entertainment and communication. The increase of social media adoption has captured the attention of marketers and consumers alike on a global scale, and with the quickly changing communication environments, marketers now confront new challenges in terms of understanding consumer behaviour, attitudinal responses and consumption patterns in the new millennium. Social media brings with it powerful opportunities for brands to engage with young consumers; create real time conversations; and provide immediate feedback via interactive marketing communications at a fraction of the cost compared to traditional media advertising. Internet and social media usage, as well as access, grown has prolifically in SA, while minimal research has been conducted regarding attitudes towards social network advertising (SNA). Millennials are sophisticated and technology savvy, therefore, social media is important to them to maintain contact with their friends, and to continually interact in the digital environment. Hence, it is important for organisations to strategically market their brands in a way that would appeal to this market, which is notoriously difficult to reach. Furthermore, Generation Y consumers have huge buying power and also exert a major influence on their household purchase behaviour, so their social media usage and attitudes towards various ICT platforms media are important to marketers. A complete knowledge base of this generation will enable brands to increase their marketing communication effectiveness when targeting this cohort. Yet, many organisations have used SNA without truly discerning the real attitudinal effect that it has on their young consumers

Thesis (MScEng (Industrial Engineering))--University of Stellenbosch, 2010.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Organisations are continuously striving to attain and maintain a competitive advantage over their peers. The innovation process provides an excellent vehicle for driving this sustained quest for competitiveness, whether on product, process or strategic level. However, in reality the increased availability and adoption of technology force organisations to increase the speed and effectiveness of their innovation processes to match not only those of their competitors, but to deal with the ever-increasing power of the individual – the empowered, consuming, producing “prosumer”. The innovation process itself should therefore undergo dramatic alterations to cope with – and include – these empowered prosumers. It is for this reason that the evolution of the innovation process has undergone changes, and is now moving towards the notion of Open Innovation. Although Open Innovation has been adopted by various organisations, it was found that a wellformulated, standardised set of Open Innovation models is lacking from existing literature. This research bridges the gap between the previous innovation models and the notion of an open approach to internal innovation, to improve the speed and effectiveness of the innovation process. It does this by investigating two primary research fields: innovation and Open Innovation, and then merging the two fields to provide a standardised framework to incorporate Open Innovation in the standard innovation process. The fundamentals of innovation are investigated, whereafter the focus moves to understanding a specific, existing innovation process framework, the Fugle Innovation Process Model. The second field (Open Innovation) is introduced, whereafter various literature sources (real-life examples, case studies and interviews) are used to develop (categorise, define and describe) five standard Open Innovation models. The five developed Open Innovation models are then allocated to the investigated, standard innovation process, according to what is needed in that particular phase of the innovation process and the beneficial offerings of each Open Innovation model. The allocated models therefore provide a potential substitute for the existing internal activity associated with each of the specific phases. The result is an existing innovation process model, populated with implementable Open Innovation models to increase not only the value of the innovation process model, but also the value to organisations who wish to deploy Open Innovation.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Maatskappye is voortdurend besig om ’n mededingende voordeel bo hulle mededingers te probeer verkry en te handhaaf. Die innovasieproses bied ’n uitstekende metode om hierdie doel na te streef, hetsy op produk-, proses- of strategiese vlak. Die realiteit is egter dat die tempo waarmee tegnologie aangeneem en aanvaar word, en sodoende vrylik gebruik word, konstant toeneem. Dit dwing maatskappye om die spoed en effektiwiteit van hulle innovasieproses volhoubaar te verbeter, nie net om by te hou by hulle mededingers nie, maar ook om die maatskappy korrek te posisioneer ten opsigte van die moderne, bemagtigde verbruiker. Die innovasieproses moet dus self ’n gedaanteverwisseling ondergaan om ruimte te bied vir die insluiting van hierdie bemagtigde verbruikers. Daarom verander die evolusionêre progressie van die innovasieproses voortdurend en is dit besig om in die rigting van “Oop Innovasie” te beweeg. Alhoewel Oop Innovasie reeds deur verskeie maatskappye toegepas word, is daar gevind dat goed geformuleerde, standaard-, implementeerbare prosesse (of modelle) steeds in die literatuur ontbreek. Hierdie navorsings oorbrug dus die leemte tussen die meer konvensionele “geslote innovasie” en die nuwerwetse neiging na “Oop Innovasie”, om sodoende die spoed en effektiwiteit van die interne innovasieproses te verbeter. Dit word bereik deur die twee kernnavorsingsvelde te ondersoek: innovasie en Oop Innovasie, en dan die twee velde te kombineer om ’n gestandaardiseerde model te skep wat Oop Innovasie by die standaard-innovasieproses insluit. Die metodiek fokus eerstens op die kernaspekte van innovasie om ’n beter begrip van die veld te ontwikkel. Daarna verskuif die klem na die beskrywing van ’n reeds bestaande innovasieprosesmodel, die Fugle-innovasieprosesmodel. Hierna word Oop Innovasie bekend gestel, waarna vyf implementeerbare Oop Innovasie-modelle ontwikkel word aan die hand van verskeie werklike voorbeelde, gevallestudies en onderhoude, om sodoende die modelle te groepeer, te definieer en te beskryf (voordele, nadele en vereistes). Die vyf Oop Innovasie-modelle word hierna toegedeel aan die verskillende fases van die innovasieprosesmodel deur ’n vergelyking te tref tussen die behoeftes van elk van die fases en die proposisie wat elk van die Oop Innovasie-modelle bied. Die resultaat is dus ’n bestaande innovasieprosesmodel waarvan die waarde verhoog is deur die insluiting van implementeerbare Oop Innovasie-modelle. Dit voeg waarde toe vir organisasies wat graag ’n Oop Innovasieproses wil instel.

This research intends to advance knowledge in the technology management field, most importantly in the study of organizations that develop technologies in-house and wish to enhance their technology transfer performance while maintaining adherence between R&D activities and overall business strategies. The objective was to build a multi-criteria decision-making model capable of producing a technology transfer score, which can be used by practitioners in order to assess and later improve their organizations' technology transfer capabilities -- ultimately aiming to improve technology development as a whole. The model was applied to a major power utility organization in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. The introduction brings initial and basic information on the topic, along with the problem statement -- this chapter is aimed at situating the reader on the boundaries of the topic while highlighting its importance within the technology management field of study. The second chapter is the literature review. It brings general and specific information on technology transfer, as well as its complexities, gaps, relationship with other fields and the characteristics of this topic within the energy realm. It also tries to shed a light on how the alignment between R&D and business strategy is perceived by the literature, discussing some of the methods used and its shortcomings. Additionally, the literature review brings an analysis that builds the argument in favor of a continuous technology transfer process, and tries to show how it would be helpful in aligning R&D and business strategy. The third chapter presents the methodological approach -- hierarchical decision modeling (HDM) aided by action research -- which constitutes a methodological novelty piloted and validated throughout the development of the study. The fourth chapter details the model development process step-by-step, and the fifth chapter details the model application process with the analysis of the aforementioned organization. Additionally, results are interpreted and analyzed, and insights for the specific case and for technology managers in general are discussed. Lastly, the contributions of the study towards the advancement of the body of knowledge are discussed, as well as the study limitations and future research opportunities.

En analysant les évolutions récentes de l'industrie du médicament, cette thèse apporte de nouveaux éléments, théoriques et empiriques, sur les mécanismes de transformation des industries de hautes technologies. Nous cherchons à comprendre pourquoi l'introduction de discontinuités technologiques ne conduit pas forcément au changement de l'industrie, et comment la logique dominante peut être remise en question. Pour répondre à cette problématique, nous utilisons une approche qualitative. Nous interrogeons des experts de l'industrie du médicament, et analysons onze études de cas d'entreprises de biotechnologies et de bioinformatique. Notre première contribution théorique est de proposer le concept de logique dominante pour compléter les travaux sur le cycle de vie des industries. Nous argumentons que les discontinuités technologiques sont une condition nécessaire, mais pas suffisante, du changement de phase d'une industrie. Le concept de logique dominante permet de prendre en compte les schémas généraux de création et de capture de valeur qui contraignent la stratégie des firmes évoluant dans l'industrie. Notre seconde contribution théorique est d'identifier quatre mécanismes de remise en cause de la logique dominante d'une industrie :nouvelles propositions de valeur, alliances avec de grandes entreprises d'autres industries, orchestration de réseaux, et portefeuilles de business models. Notre troisième contribution est managériale. Nous proposons un outil de la conception de la stratégie d'entreprise afin d'articuler promesses et risques, moyen et long terme. Enfin, notre quatrième contribution s'adresse aux managers et dirigeants de l'industrie du médicament. Nous leur suggérons quatre pistes de réflexion pour concevoir la stratégie de leur entreprise
In analyzing recent developments in the drug industry, this thesis brings new elements, both theoretical and empirical, on mechanisms for the transformation of high-technology industries. We seek to understand why the introduction of technological discontinuities does not necessarily lead to change in the industry and on how the dominant logic can be questioned. To address this problem, we used a qualitative approach. We interviewed drug industry experts, and analyzed eleven case studies of biotechnology and bioinformatics companies. Our first theoretical contribution is to propose the concept of dominant logic to complete research on industry life cycle, where we argue that technological discontinuities are a necessary, but not sufficient, condition to change the industry. The concept of dominant logic allows taking into account the general schemes of value creation and value capture that constrain the strategies of the firms that are in the industry. Our second theoretical contribution is to identify four mechanisms of challenge to the industry's dominant logic: new value propositions, alliances with large diversifying entrants, orchestration of networks, and portfolios of business models. Our third contribution is managerial. We offer a tool for the design of corporate strategy. This tool allows articulating promises and risks, medium and long term. Finally, our fourth contribution addresses managers and leaders of the drug industry. We suggest four ways of thinking about the design of their corporate strategies

Common patterns of structural change in the sectoral composition of production, consumption and labor force are observed across countries during the economic development process. These patterns of change consist mainly of a large shift of employment, production and consumption from agriculture to manufacturing, and then from manufacturing to the service sector. This process of structural transformation or structural change has been extensively documented. Empirical evidence shows that the decline in the employment share of agriculture and the increase in employment share of service is a systematic feature in both developed and developing countries. In this regard, there is a growing literature that investigates the economic factors explaining both economic growth and structural change in a general equilibrium framework. Based on their assumptions on the structure of preferences and the sectoral production technologies, models of structural change are classified in two broad approaches: the demand and the supply explanations of structural change. The demand-based explanation emphasizes the role of changes in the composition of the demand on structural change. In this branch of the literature, demand changes are based on the assumption of cross-sector differences in income-elasticity of the demand. Therefore, structural change is driven by the Engel law: as income rises, demand for agriculture goods decreases and less labor is demanded in the agriculture sector to produce goods. Thus, labor moves to those sectors that are facing an increasing demand for goods and services. Consequently, the shares of employment and value added in agriculture decrease as income increases, which is consistent with empirical evidence. The supply-based explanation emphasizes the role of technological differences across sectors to explain structural transformations. In this branch of the literature, sectoral differences in the growth rates of total factor productivity (TFP), on the one hand, and sectoral differences in physical capital intensity, on the other hand, drive structural change. In the first case, when there are only sectoral differences in the pace of technological progress, less labor is required to produce goods in the progressive sectors (those sectors with the highest TFP growth rates) and labor moves from the progressive to the stagnant sectors (those sectors with the lowest TFP growth rates). In the second case, as capital deepening takes place, less labor is demanded to produce goods in the capital-intensive sectors and labor moves from these sectors to the labor-intensive ones. This thesis contributes to the literature on economic growth and structural change by analyzing three novel mechanisms. The three self-contained chapters of this Thesis analyze the effects non-constant technological progress, human capital accumulation, and changes in the uses of time on structural change and their implications on economic growth. The first chapter analyses the effect of technological adoption on structural change. The observed differences in the patterns of industrialization are explained based on sectoral differences in the adoption of technologies. This chapter makes to clear contributions to related literature. First, a technological adoption function is estimated at the sectoral level. Second, the equilibrium of a model of structural change with non-constant biased technological change is characterized. The comparison with the results obtained in the literature show that this model with adoption has a better performance in explaining the patterns of structural change. The second chapter analyses the effect of human capital accumulation on the sectoral composition of employment. To this end, it develops a multisector growth model with human capital accumulation. The main contribution is to show that the initial imbalance between physical and human capital determines the patterns of structural change. The analysis of this chapter is challenging, which shows the huge capacity of Edgar to work with different growth models. The third chapter analyses how the increase in leisure time contributes to explain the rise of the service sector. This chapter makes three contributions. First, using input-output data, it measures the size and evolution of the sector of recreational services. These are services consumed during the leisure time. It is shown that the increase in the time devoted to leisure is parallel to the increase in the consumption of recreational services. Second, a multisector exogenous growth model is used to show that taking into account the interaction between leisure and recreational services improves the performance of multisector growth models in explaining the patterns of structural change. Finally, this model is used to show that labor income taxes may explain cross-country differences in both leisure time and the sectoral composition of employment.

Investment in Research and Development (R&D) is necessary for innovation, allowing an organization to maintain a competitive edge. The U.S. Federal Government invests billions of dollars, primarily in basic research technologies to help fill the pipeline for other organizations to take the technology into commercialization. However, it is not about just investing in innovation, it is about converting that research into application. A cursory review of the research proposal evaluation criteria suggests that there is little to no emphasis placed on the transfer of research results. This effort is motivated by a need to move research into application.

One segment that is facing technology challenges is the energy sector. Historically, the electric grid has been stable and predictable; therefore, there were no immediate drivers to innovate. However, an aging infrastructure, integration of renewable energy, and aggressive energy efficiency targets are motivating the need for research and to put promising results into application. Many technologies exist or are in development but the rate at which they are being adopted is slow.

The goal of this research is to develop a decision model that can be used to identify the technology transfer potential of a research proposal. An organization can use the model to select the proposals whose research outcomes are more likely to move into application. The model begins to close the chasm between research and application—otherwise known as the “valley of death”.

A comprehensive literature review was conducted to understand when the idea of technology application or transfer should begin. Next, the attributes that are necessary for successful technology transfer were identified. The emphasis of successful technology transfer occurs when there is a productive relationship between the researchers and the technology recipient. A hierarchical decision model, along with desirability curves, was used to understand the complexities of the researcher and recipient relationship, specific to technology transfer. In this research, the evaluation criteria of several research organizations were assessed to understand the extent to which the success attributes that were identified in literature were considered when reviewing research proposals. While some of the organizations included a few of the success attributes, none of the organizations considered all of the attributes. In addition, none of the organizations quantified the value of the success attributes.

The effectiveness of the model relies extensively on expert judgments to complete the model validation and quantification. Subject matter experts ranging from senior executives with extensive experience in technology transfer to principal research investigators from national labs, universities, utilities, and non-profit research organizations were used to ensure a comprehensive and cross-functional validation and quantification of the decision model.

The quantified model was validated using a case study involving demand response (DR) technology proposals in the Pacific Northwest. The DR technologies were selected based on their potential to solve some of the region’s most prevalent issues. In addition, several sensitivity scenarios were developed to test the model’s response to extreme case scenarios, impact of perturbations in expert responses, and if it can be applied to other than demand response technologies. In other words, is the model technology agnostic? In addition, the flexibility of the model to be used as a tool for communicating which success attributes in a research proposal are deficient and need strengthening and how improvements would increase the overall technology transfer score were assessed. The low scoring success attributes in the case study proposals (e.g. project meetings, etc.) were clearly identified as the areas to be improved for increasing the technology transfer score. As a communication tool, the model could help a research organization identify areas they could bolster to improve their overall technology transfer score. Similarly, the technology recipient could use the results to identify areas that need to be reinforced, as the research is ongoing.

The research objective is to develop a decision model resulting in a technology transfer score that can be used to assess the technology transfer potential of a research proposal. The technology transfer score can be used by an organization in the development of a research portfolio. An organization’s growth, in a highly competitive global market, hinges on superior R&D performance and the ability to apply the results. The energy sector is no different. While there is sufficient research being done to address the issues facing the utility industry, the rate at which technologies are adopted is lagging. The technology transfer score has the potential to increase the success of crossing the chasm to successful application by helping an organization make informed and deliberate decisions about their research portfolio.

Thesis (MScEng)--Stellenbosch University, 2013.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Innovation is widely considered a key prerequisite for achieving organisational competitiveness and sustained long-term wealth in our increasingly volatile business environment. It is therefore imperative that organisations enable themselves to relentlessly pursue constant innovation; to grow and mature their innovation capability. A study aimed at organisational support by means of business tools toward maturity growth in these innovation capability areas is therefore warranted. Knowledge management plays a fundamental role in the enterprise’s ability to innovate successfully, and the question arises whether knowledge management tools and organisational facilitating conditions can be used to grow innovation capability maturity. The existing literature on the subject is sparse, which led to the following research problem statement: No formal guidelines exist for the use of knowledge management to grow innovation capability maturity. Knowledge conversion is a prominent theme within the knowledge management field. Knowledge creation processes form the core of this knowledge creation model and therefore, one solution to the above-stated problem is to investigate the use of knowledge creation processes to grow innovation capability maturity. This notion provides the platform for aligning knowledge creation processes to the requirements for innovation capability growth from one maturity level to the next as the cornerstone for developing a knowledge management framework that enables innovation capability maturity growth. In order to align these knowledge processes with the requirements for growth in innovation capability maturity, the author identified a knowledge creation path as a key enabler for maturity growth in each innovation capability area. Knowledge management tools and organisational facilitating conditions that support the specific knowledge processes highlighted in the identified path were identified through a literature study and subsequently synthesised to form a framework. The impact of this framework lies in providing guidelines for the use of knowledge management as a vehicle for innovation capability maturity growth.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Innovasie word allerweë beskou as ’n kernvereiste vir die verkryging van organisatoriese mededingendheid en volhoubare langtermynsukses in ons toenemend wisselvallige sake-omgewing. Dit is dus noodsaaklik dat organisasies hulself in staat stel om meedoënloos konstante innovasie na te streef; om hul innovasievermoë uit te brei en volwassenheid daarin te bereik. ’n Studie gemik op organisatoriese ondersteuning deur middel van sake-hulpmiddels ten einde groei in volwassenheid in hierdie innovasievermoë-areas te bereik, is dus nodig. Kennisbestuur speel ’n fundamentele rol in die onderneming se vermoë om suksesvol te innoveer, wat die volgende vraag ontlok: Kan kennisbestuurhulpmiddels en organisatoriese fasiliteringsomstandighede gebruik word om innovasievermoëvolwassenheid te bereik? Die bestaande literatuur oor die onderwerp is gebrekkig, wat aanleiding tot die volgende probleemstelling gegee het: Daar is geen formele riglyne vir die gebruik van kennisbestuur om innovasievermoëvolwassenheid te verbeter nie. Kennisomskakeling is ’n prominente tema in die gebied van kennisbestuur. Kennisskeppingsprosesse vorm die kern van hierdie kennisskeppingsmodel en daarom is een oplossing tot bogenoemde probleem om die gebruik van kennisskeppingsprosesse om innovasievermoëvolwassenheid te verbeter, te ondersoek. Hierdie idee skep ’n platform om kennisskeppingsprosesse met die vereistes vir innovasievermoëverbetering van een volwassenheidsvlak tot die volgende te belyn, as hoeksteen vir die ontwikkeling van ’n kennisbestuurraamwerk om innovasievermoëvolwassenheid te verbeter. Ten einde hierdie kennisprosesse met die vereiste vir groei in innovasievermoëvolwassenheid te belyn, het die outeur ’n kennisskeppingspad as kernelement geïdentifiseer om volwassenheidsgroei in elke innovasievermoë-area in die hand te werk. Kennisbestuurhulpmiddels en organisatoriese fasiliteringsomstandighede wat die spesifieke kennisprosesse wat in die geïdentifiseerde pad uitgelig word, ondersteun, is deur middel van ’n literatuurstudie geïdentifiseer en daarna gesintetiseer om ’n raamwerk te vorm. Die impak van hierdie raamwerk lê daarin om riglyne vir die gebruik van kennisbestuur as ’n middel tot innovasievermoëvolwassenheidsgroei te bied.

Innovation is one of the most important sources of competitive advantage. It helps a company to fuel the growth of new products and services, sustain incumbents, create new markets, transform industries, and promote the global competitiveness of nations. Because of its importance, companies need to manage innovation. It is very important for a company to be able to measure its innovativeness because one cannot effectively manage without measurement. A good measurement model will help a company to understand its current capability and identify areas that need improvement. In this research a systematic approach was developed for a company to measure its innovativeness. The measurement of innovativeness is based on output indicators. Output indicators are used because they cannot be manipulated. A hierarchical decision model (HDM) was constructed from output indicators. The hierarchy consisted of three levels: innovativeness index, output indicators and sub-factors. Experts' opinions were collected and quantified. A new concept developed by Dr. Dundar Kocaoglu and referred to as "desirability functions" was implemented in this research. Inconsistency of individual experts, disagreement among experts, intraclass correlation coefficients and statistical F-tests were calculated to test the reliability of the experts' judgments. Sensitivity analysis was used to test the sensitivity of the output indicators, which indicated the allowable range of the changes in the output indicators in order to maintain the priority of the sub-factors. The outcome of this research is a decision model/framework that provides an innovativeness index based on readily measurable company output indicators. The model was applied to product innovation in the technology-driven semiconductor industry. Five hypothetical companies were developed to simulate the application of the model/framework. The profiles of the hypothetical companies were varied considerably to provide a deeper understanding of the model/framework. Actual data from two major corporations in the semiconductor industry were then used to demonstrate the application of the model. According to the experts, the top three sub-factors to measure the innovativeness of a company are revenue from new products (28%), market share of new products (21%), and products that are new to the world (20%).

A necessidade de se promover uma expansão sólida da base exportadora brasileira passa pela compreensão dos fatores que caracterizam a maior permanência das empresas no mercado externo. Este trabalho teve como principal objetivo identificar de que forma as características iniciais (observadas anteriormente à estréia na atividade exportadora) das empresas estreantes no mercado externo, e em especial a realização de inovação tecnológica, geram impacto sobre a probabilidade de permanência delas na atividade exportadora. Para isso, foram estimados, para duas amostras de empresas, três modelos logit com variáveis dependentes discretas, quais foram: modelo de escolha binária, modelo multinomial de escolha não ordenada e modelo multinomial de escolha ordenada. Os resultados demonstraram que a maior probabilidade de que as empresas permaneçam continuamente no mercado exportador está associada às condições iniciais de maior eficiência, determinada pela maior produtividade do trabalho e pela obtenção de ganhos de escala, e maior competitividade de custos, determinados pelo salário médio menor e pela margem de lucro reduzida. Essas evidências podem estar relacionadas com a hipótese da auto-seleção. No entanto, o fato de a empresa realizar inovações tecnológicas faz com que a dependência dessas condições iniciais para determinar a maior probabilidade de permanência no mercado externo seja menor. Essa constatação sugere a existência de algum efeito aprendizado decorrente da participação na atividade exportadora.
The necessity of promoting a solid expansion of the Brazilian exporting base requires the understanding of the factors responsible for the larger permanence of the firms in the external market. This work had as main objective to identify how initial characteristics (observed previously to the debut in the exporting activity) of the firms embracing the external market, specially technological innovation, generate impacts on the probability of permanence of them in the exporting activity. For this objective, we estimated, for two samples of companies, three logit models with discrete dependent variables: a binary choice model, a multinomial model and a ordered model. The results demonstrated that a higher probability of remaining continuously in the exporting market is associated with the initial conditions of a higher efficiency, determined by the higher labor productivity and a higher production scale, and greater cost competitiveness, determined by the lower average wage and the reduced profit margin. These evidences may be related to the hypothesis of auto-selection. However, the fact that the firm undertakes technological innovations makes them less dependent of these initial conditions to determine a higher probability of permanence in the external market. This result suggests the existence of a learning effect following the participation in the exporting activity.

Ce travail s’inscrit dans le cadre d’étude de la sûreté de fonctionnement.

La sûreté de fonctionnement est progressivement devenue partie intégrante de l’évaluation des performances des systèmes industriels. En effet, les pannes d’équipements, les pertes de production consécutives, et la maintenance des installations ont un impact économique majeur dans les entreprises. Il est donc essentiel pour un manager de pouvoir estimer de manière cohérente et réaliste les coûts de fonctionnement de l’entreprise, en tenant notamment compte des caractéristiques fiabilistes des équipements utilisés, ainsi que des coûts induits entre autres par le non-fonctionnement du système et la restauration des performances de ses composants après défaillance.

Le travail que nous avons réalisé dans le cadre de ce doctorat se concentre sur un aspect particulier de la sûreté de fonctionnement, à savoir les politiques de remplacement d’équipements basées sur la fiabilité des systèmes qu’ils constituent. La recherche menée part de l’observation suivante :si la littérature consacrée aux politiques de remplacement est abondante, elle repose généralement sur l’hypothèse implicite que les nouveaux équipements envisagés présentent les mêmes caractéristiques et performances que celles que possédaient initialement les composants objets du remplacement.

La réalité technologique est souvent bien différente de cette approche, quelle que soit la discipline industrielle envisagée. En effet, de nouveaux équipements sont régulièrement disponibles sur le marché ;ils assurent les mêmes fonctions que des composants plus anciens utilisés par une entreprise, mais présentent de meilleures performances, par exemple en termes de taux de défaillance, consommation d’énergie, " intelligence " (aptitude à transmettre des informations sur leur état de détérioration).

De plus, il peut devenir de plus en plus difficile de se procurer des composants de l’ancienne génération pour remplacer ceux qui ont été déclassés. Cette situation est généralement appelée obsolescence technologique.

Le but de ce travail est de prolonger et d’approfondir, dans le cadre de la sûreté de fonctionnement, les réflexions engagées par les différents articles présentés dans la section état de l’art afin de définir et de modéliser des stratégies de remplacements d’équipements soumis à obsolescence technologique. Il s’agira de proposer un modèle, faisant le lien entre les approches plus économiques et celles plus fiabilistes, permettant de définir et d’évaluer l’efficacité, au sens large, des différentes stratégies de remplacement des unités obsolètes. L’efficacité d’une stratégie peut se mesurer par rapport à plusieurs critères parfois contradictoires. Parmi ceux-ci citons, évidemment, le coût total moyen engendré par la stratégie de remplacement, seul critère considéré dans les articles cités au chapitre 2, mais aussi la façon dont ces coûts sont répartis au cours du temps tout au long de la stratégie, la variabilité de ces coûts autour de leur moyenne, le fait de remplir certaines conditions comme par exemple d’avoir remplacé toutes les unités d’une génération par des unités d’une autre génération avant une date donnée ou de respecter certaines contraintes sur les temps de remplacement.

Pour arriver à évaluer les différentes stratégies, la première étape sera de définir un modèle réaliste des performances des unités considérées, et en particulier de leur loi de probabilité de défaillance. Etant donné le lien direct entre la probabilité de défaillance d’un équipement et la politique de maintenance qui lui est appliquée, notamment la fréquence des maintenances préventives, leur effet, l’effet des réparations après défaillance ou les critères de remplacement de l’équipement, un modèle complet devra considérer la description mathématique des effets des interventions effectuées sur les équipements. On verra que la volonté de décrire correctement les effets des interventions nous a amené à proposer une extension des modèles d’âge effectif habituellement utilisés dans la littérature.

Une fois le modèle interne des unités défini, nous développerons le modèle de remplacement des équipements obsolètes proprement dit.

Nous appuyant sur la notion de stratégie K proposée dans de précédents travaux, nous verrons comment adapter cette stratégie K à un modèle pour lequel les temps d’intervention ne sont pas négligeables et le nombre d’équipes limité. Nous verrons aussi comment tenir compte dans le cadre de cette stratégie K d’une part des contraintes de gestion d’un budget demandant en général de répartir les coûts au cours du temps et d’autre part de la volonté de passer d’une génération d’unités à l’autre en un temps limité, ces deux conditions pouvant être contradictoires.

Un autre problème auquel on est confronté quand on parle de l’obsolescence technologique est le modèle d’obsolescence à adopter. La manière dont on va gérer le risque d’obsolescence dépendra fortement de la manière dont on pense que les technologies vont évoluer et en particulier du rythme de cette évolution. Selon que l’on considère que le temps probable d’apparition d’une nouvelle génération est inférieur au temps de vie des composants ou supérieur à son temps de vie les solutions envisagées vont être différentes. Lors de deux applications numériques spécifiques.

Nous verrons au chapitre 12 comment envisager le problème lorsque l’intervalle de temps entre les différentes générations successives est largement inférieur à la durée de vie des équipements et au chapitre 13 comment traiter le problème lorsque le délai entre deux générations est de l’ordre de grandeur de la durée de vie des équipements considérés.

Le texte est structuré de la manière suivante :Après une première partie permettant de situer le contexte dans lequel s’inscrit ce travail, la deuxième partie décrit le modèle interne des unités tel que nous l’avons utilisé dans les différentes applications. La troisième partie reprend la description des stratégies de remplacement et des différentes applications traitées. La dernière partie permet de conclure par quelques commentaires sur les résultats obtenus et de discuter des perspectives de recherche dans le domaine.

Doctorat en Sciences de l'ingénieur
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

As empresas de manufatura necessitam integrar seus processos internos digitalmente para se tornarem mais competitivas e entregarem produtos com maior qualidade ao mercado consumidor. Informações definidas nas primeiras etapas de projeto precisam ser recuperadas em todas as fases do ciclo de vida de um produto. Para alcançar este objetivo são necessários modelos de informação que incorporem inteligência e permitam a representação do mundo real. Por outro lado, fabricantes de produtos eletroeletrônicos precisam cumprir requisitos ambientais presentes em marcos regulatórios, como a Diretiva RoHS, para poderem vender seus equipamentos em diversos países. O presente trabalho propõe a aplicação de modelos semânticos para ajudar as empresas a cumprir os requisitos estabelecidos pela Diretiva RoHS. O modelo, criado usando uma ontologia de referência, estabelece relações semânticas entre entidades que representam fases do ciclo de vida do produto, estruturas de produtos e objetos de negócios. Processos de negócio modelados permitem identificar fluxos de informação, bem como atividades que estão ligadas aos requisitos RoHS, percebidas por meio da geração de relatórios disponíveis no framework denominado Projeto Essential. O modelo semântico resultante é, portanto, útil para converter as necessidades relacionadas com o meio ambiente, endereçando requisitos através de um processo de desenvolvimento de produtos que aborda a diretiva RoHS. Um produto eletroeletrônico fabricado por indústrias nacionais foi selecionado para demonstrar a viabilidade da solução proposta.
Manufacturing companies need to integrate their internal processes digitally to become more competitive and deliver higher quality products to the consumer market. Information defined at early design stages needs to be recovered at all stages of the life cycle of a product. To accomplish this, information models that incorporate intelligence and enable the representation of the real world are necessary. On the other hand, electronic products manufacturers need to comply with environmental requirements present in regulatory frameworks as the RoHS Directive in order to offer their products in several countries. The present work proposes the application of semantic models for helping companies meet the requirements established by the RoHS Directive. A model, created using a reference ontology, establishes semantic relationships between entities that represent product lifecycle stages, product structure and business objects. Business processes, modeled in the form of activity and information flows, are linked to RoHS requirements that can be viewed through the reports in the Essential Project open source framework. The resulting semantic model is, therefore, useful for converting environment-related needs to design requirements through a product development process that addresses the RoHS Directive. A consumer electronics product has been selected for demonstrating the feasibility of the proposed solution.

Cette thèse comprend quatre essais empiriques sur l’innovation et l’esprit d’entreprise, utilisant des microdonnées au niveau de l’entreprise. Ces données ont permis de mieux comprendre les moteurs et les dynamiques sous-jacentes de la croissance économique au niveau macro, tout en offrant la possibilité d’améliorer et de fonder les politiques publiques sur des données probantes. La principale contribution de la thèse repose sur l’utilisation de nouvelles données d’enquête dans différents contextes et l’inclusion de questions améliorées sur les activités d’innovation des entreprises. Ces questions s’inspirent du Manuel d’Oslo, publié conjointement par l’OCDE et Eurostat pour favoriser une méthodologie internationalement reconnue pour les statistiques sur l’innovation des entreprises. L’analyse utilise des méthodes d’évaluation microéconomique et de programme. Le chapitre 1 examine la relation entre l’innovation et la performance pour un échantillon de quelque 30 000 entreprises des pays en développement, sur la base d’enquêtes récentes recueillies par l’unité d’enquête sur les entreprises de la Banque mondiale. Nous constatons que les retours sur l’innovation sont positifs et importants, mais qu’ils varient selon le type d’innovation et le degré de nouveauté. En outre, le R&D joue un rôle plus prononcé pour l’innovation radicale. En utilisant le même ensemble de données, le chapitre 2 examine la relation entre l’innovation et l’emploi. Notre analyse souligne le rôle de l’innovation de produit comme principal canal de création d’emplois. Nous avons également constaté un manque d’impact négatif de l’innovation de procédé, potentiellement dû à un effet de composition de compétences. Le chapitre 3 concerne les effets de l’innovation et du financement sur la survie et sur la croissance d’un échantillon d’environ 4 000 entreprises aux États-Unis, sur la base d’une enquête de 8 ans lancée en 2004 et chevauchant la Grande Récession de 2008-2009. Les entreprises du secteur de la haute technologie ont plus de chance de survivre, avec un taux de sortie en forme de U inverse. Les effets positifs de financement initial sont inversés pendant la Grande Récession, ce qui souligne le rôle de la dépendance financière et du cycle économique. Les start-ups qui signalent l’introduction de nouveaux produits sur le marché affichent des taux de croissance plus élevés. Nous étudions un mécanisme potentiel par lequel les entreprises innovantes ont plus de chances d’obtenir des cycles supplémentaires de financement externe. Les résultats soulignent le rôle de l’intégration de mesures directes de l’innovation et de l’hétérogénéité des entreprises. Dans le dernier chapitre, nous étudions un échantillon d’entreprises manufacturières en Italie, afin de découvrir les moteurs des dépenses de R&D des entreprises. Nous estimons à environ 30 points de pourcentage l’effet d’attraction pour les entreprises qui déclarent coopérer avec le secteur universitaire sur les projets de R&D et nous comparons ces résultats pour l’impact des subventions fiscales telles que les crédits d’impôt. Les conclusions de la thèse sont pertinentes pour les politiques publiques en matière d’innovation et d’entrepreneuriat et pour maximiser le rendement du secteur public sur l’investissement
This thesis comprises four empirical essays on innovation and entrepreneurship using firm-level microdata. The proliferation of such data has led to greater understanding of the underlying drivers and dynamics of economic growth at the macro level, enabling enhanced and evidence-based public policy. The main contribution of the thesis resides in the use of new survey data across different contexts with enhanced questions on firm innovation activities. These questions were modeled on the Oslo Manual Guidelines published jointly by the OECD and Eurostat to foster an internationally recognized methodology for business innovation statistics. Micro-econometric and program evaluation methods guided the analysis. Chapter 1 examines the relationship between innovation and performance for a sample of over 30,000 firms in developing countries from recent surveys collected by the Enterprise Survey Unit of the World Bank. We find that returns to innovation are positive and large but vary substantially according to innovation type and degree of novelty. Moreover, R&D plays a more pronounced role for radical innovation. Utilizing the same dataset, chapter 2 investigates the relationship between innovation and employment. Our analysis highlights the role of product innovation as the main channel for employment creation. We also found a lack of negative impact from process innovation, potentially due to a skill composition effect. Chapter 3 concerns the effects of innovation and financing on both survival and growth for a sample of roughly 4,000 firms in the United States based on an 8-year survey launched in 2004 and overlapping with the Great Recession of 2008-2009. Firms in the high-tech sector are more likely to survive; they display an inverted U-shaped exit rate. While initial financing levels positively affect survival, the effects are reversed during the Great Recession, underlining the role of financial dependence and the business cycle. Startups that introduce new products to market display higher growth rates. We investigate a potential mechanism whereby innovative firms are more likely to obtain additional rounds of external financing. The results highlight the role of incorporating direct measures of innovation for firm heterogeneity. In the final chapter, we study a sample of manufacturing firms in Italy to uncover drivers of firm R&D expenditures. We estimate a crowding-in effect of roughly thirty percentage points for firms that report cooperation with the university sector on R&D projects and contrast these findings in terms of the impact from fiscal subsidies such as tax credits. Findings of the thesis have relevance for public policy around innovation and entrepreneurship and for maximizing public sector returns on investment

In this study, the rates of technological change in food processing sectors of U.S. and Mexico are compared through econometric estimation of both the unrestricted (long-run) and restricted (short-run) profit functions with first order autocorrelation correction. Then, the dual rate of productivity growth is computed and decomposed into its sources. The impact of environmental regulations on productivity growth is also analyzed through incorporation of a pollution abatement variable into empirical models. The hypothesis testing results on the existence of short-run equilibrium in capital markets indicated that the restricted profit function framework is the valid specification for the underlying production technologies of U.S. and Mexican food sectors during the sample period, and hence, our conclusions are based on restricted profit function models. Our results suggest that, in U.S., the average annual dual rate of technological change dropped from 0.76% during 1963-73 to 0.67% during 1974-88, increased to 0.72% between 1988-1990, and declined to 0.65% during 1990-93. In Mexico, the dual rate of technological change was sharply declining during most of the years of sample period, and the average annual rate dropped from 1.30% during 1971-74 to 0.01% between 1989-93. The dual rate of technological change was lower in U.S. than in Mexico during 1971-81 period, but the difference (dual technological change gap) was sharply declining. Starting from 1982, the dual rate of technological change became greater in U.S. than in Mexico and the difference was continuously increasing. Moreover, the decomposition of dual productivity growth into its sources reveals that technological change was the main source of productivity growth in both countries, although in Mexico, the effects of changes in output price on productivity growth outweighed the contributions of technological change during several years between 1982-94. The impact of capacity utilization had a minor impact on productivity growth in both countries. The estimated elasticities of input demand and output supply indicated that labor demand is price inelastic, while material demand and output supply are price elastic in both countries. The own price elasticity of material and output was higher in Mexico than in U.S. In both countries, input demands are affected most significantly by output prices, while output supply is most significantly affected by its own price. The estimates for elasticity of substitution between labor and material imply that labor and material are complement of each other in both countries, with the degree of substitution between them is higher in Mexico than in U.S. Finally, the estimated parameters corresponding to pollution abatement variable suggested that pollution abatement costs had no significant impact on the U.S. dual rate of technological change, and in turn, productivity growth rate, and this appears to be consistent with the fact that the share of pollution abatement costs is quite small in U.S. food processing sector. For the Mexico, the estimated parameters were individually significant, implying that one unit increase in pollution abatement variable reduced the dual rate of technological change by around 0.11% points during 1982-94 period.
Graduation date: 1999

This thesis examines the channels and mechanisms of technological catch-up and industrial upgrading in the context of economic development. Technological progress is critical for a country's sustainable growth and for the successful transition of a country from imitation to innovation. Therefore, to clarify the main channels and mechanisms driving the accumulation of knowledge and technologies in an economy contributes to an understanding of the sources of economic growth. The specific aspects of technological catch-up and industrial upgrading covered in the thesis include inter-sectoral industrial upgrading, the intensification of R&D activities, a country's tapping into foreign sources of knowledge, and a country's changing position in the global value chain. In studying these channels and mechanisms, in-depth theoretical discussion and quantitative methods are applied. In terms of theoretical discussion, the thesis covers many issues relating to the factors contributing to technological progress and draws our attention to the key aspects of such progress. In terms of quantitative methods, advanced econometric methods such as Generalized Method of Moments (GMM), the estimator from Kyriazidou (1997), the Heckman two-step estimator, the Tobit and Probit estimators and various instrumental variable estimators are employed to address different econometric issues and data structures in model estimations. The thesis finds evidence of the critical role of institutional quality in promoting the productive use of scarce tertiary human capital, in stimulating the Research and Development (R&D) investment of firms, and in attracting R&D investment in host countries by multinational enterprises. The thesis also reveals the importance of human capital as an essential input to the process of technological catch-up and industrial upgrading. A case study of Chinese manufacturing firms clarifies the determinants of firm-level R&D investment, which helps us understand and predict the prospects for innovation in the Chinese economy. By linking firm-level production and customs datasets, the thesis probes into the important question of how trade participation affects innovation in the context of the Chinese economy, which is an especially interesting case due to the huge contribution from trade to China's growth miracle to date. The findings draw attention to processing trade and suggest that under some circumstances deep and long-term engagement in processing trade may adversely influence the R&D investment and innovation prospect of firms. This point reflects the difficulty of technological catch-up and industrial upgrading in a world where global production sharing continues to deepen. Based on the results of empirical and quantitative analyses, several policy suggestions are proposed. These include (1) enhancing institutional quality to accompany other growth-promoting policies, (2) encouraging individual and household-level investment in human capital, (3) nurturing domestic R&D stock and research talents at relatively early stages of development and (4) looking beyond the direct targets of industrial and trade policies to take into account the implications for technological catch-up and industrial upgrading when making such policies. The thesis also points out some directions for future research to extract from the dynamics of the world economy those channels and mechanisms of technological catch-up and industrial upgrading yet unclarified by this thesis.

This thesis is an investigation of econometric crop yield models divided into two essays. In the first essay, I propose estimating a single heteroscedasticity coefficient for all counties within a crop-reporting district by pooling county-level crop yield data in a two-stage estimation process. In the context of crop insurance---where heteroscedaticity has significant economic implications---I demonstrate the pooling approach provides economically and statistically significant improvements in rating crop insurance contracts over contemporary methods. In the second essay, I propose a new method for measuring the rate of technological change in crop yields. To date the agricultural economics literature has measured technological change exclusively at the mean; in contrast, the proposed model can measure the rate of technological change in endogenously-defined yield subpopulations. I find evidence of different rates of technological change in yield subpopulations, which leads to interesting questions about the effect of technological change on agricultural production.
Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food

by Wong Tak-Kwong.
Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1994.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 76-81).
Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1
Chapter 2 --- Literature Review --- p.7
Chapter 3 --- R&D Activities and Competing for a Researcher --- p.12
Chapter 3.1 --- Licensing Decision of a Successful Innovator --- p.16
Benefits of Firm i with Licensing
Benefits of Firm j with Licensing
Chapter 3.2 --- Competing for the Researcher --- p.23
Characterization of Equilibrium
Chapter 3.3 --- Concluding Remark --- p.29
Chapter 4 --- Innovation from An Independent Researcher --- p.30
Chapter 4.1 --- Licensing with Bargaining --- p.34
Licensing Decision of the Researcher
Licensing Decision of Firm i
Licensing Decision of Firm j
Chapter 4.2 --- Ownership Re-allocation --- p.44
Chapter 4.3 --- Concluding Remark --- p.48
Chapter 5 --- An Analysis of Sequential Innovation --- p.50
Chapter 5.1 --- Choices of Licensing and Conducting R&D --- p.55
Decision of the Follower
Licensing by the Successful Innovator
Chapter 5.2 --- Equilibrium of Sequential R&D --- p.65
Chapter 5.3 --- Simultaneous R&D or Sequential R&D --- p.68
Chapter 5.4 --- Concluding Remark --- p.74
Chapter 6 --- Conclusion --- p.75
Chapter 7 --- Bibliography --- p.76

This thesis presents two models to determine technological change and cost inefficiency in the regulated U.S. Motor Carrier Industry following regulatory reform. Data from the LTL sector of the industry from 1976 to 1987 are used in this study. Results provide insights about the observed increase in industry concentration and the effects of regulatory reform. In chapter II, a translog cost function model is used to examine the impact of deregulation and technological bias. We show that technological change has been labor saving and purchased capital using, and that these input biases were induced by changes in output level. The increase of capital cost share and the decrease of fuel cost share are attributed to deregulation. Overtime, the LTL sector of the motor carrier industry has become more capital intensive resulting in even higher entry barriers. Deregulation has had a negative impact on technological change and led to higher industry costs. In chapter III, a stochastic cost frontier model is used to examine cost inefficiency. Results suggest that cost inefficiency accounts for 12.61% of the industry's total cost and the average level of inefficiency has not significantly changed over time. The mean estimates of firm-specific inefficiencies range between 5.5% and 29.6% for the period 1976-1987. Based on the estimated firm-specific inefficiencies, Tobit regression models are constructed to examine variations of inefficiency among firms in different ICC regions and to identify factors contributing to overall inefficiency. The main factors contributing to inefficiency are output, percent of LTL shipments, and input ratios; in particular, large firms appears to operate more efficiently than small firms. We also show that, although large firms have a slower rate of technological advancement than small firms, economies of scale exist and are increasing over time. Therefore, the rise in industry concentration could be justified from the standpoint of scale economies and efficiency gain. Finally, deregulation has had no impact on the overall level of inefficiency.
Graduation date: 1999

This study recognises that both metrics and innovation lead to superior performance. It explores the marketing activities and processes followed by innovative companies, in particular those involving customers, and proposes the key metrics aligned to these; thereby formalising marketing’s role in the innovation process. Qualitative expert-interviews were done using the Critical Incident Technique; 11 professionals from a South African company, recognised for its innovation, were asked to share their personal experiences of a recent company innovation. The findings highlight the value of a strong corporate culture of collaboration and inclusion, as well as an unwavering focus on creating value for the client, and conclude by proposing a finite marketing dashboard of 12 metrics that align people and processes as key indicators of success to guide the marketer during the innovation process.
Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2013.
lmgibs2014
Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS)
MBA
Unrestricted

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Engineering at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
Particularly at the higher system voltages, certain faults have been attributed to VFTs. This work presents a full frequency domain mathematical model of the effects likely to be introduced by the application of a thin ferromagnetic coating to the surfaces of the busbars as a means of attenuating these transients. Experimental verification shows the model to perform accurately as an analysis tool for a continuous coated co-axial system. While comparison between the model developed here (based on a planar conductor) and the very accurate Bessel function solution is presented, it must be remembered that it is not feasible to include the effects of coatings in the latter solution. Hence it is used merely as a bench-mark for improvements to the general model. Consideration is also given to the transient skin effect, and this is shown to result in an increased attenuation of VFTs. detectable during high voltage experimentation. The frequency domain model is extended to that of a full travelling wave model for VFTs in GIS. The Fourier technique is used to move between the frequency and time domains. Laboratory results obtained at high voltage.show that this technique will introduce both risetime increase and peak magnitude attenuation of VFTs. As the most frequent faults directly attributable to disconnector operation are known to be faults to earth at the switch, it is noted that the technique proposed in this work is uniquely suited for use in a design strategy that requires totally robust disconnectors at the expense of more severe VFTs in the GIS. The model is used to determine a range of physical characteristics of materials suitable for use in this application. While the characteristics of the most suitable materials have therefore been established, it is concluded that extensive metallurgical experimentation remains before this technique may be economically applied.
Andrew Chakane 2018

My dissertation focuses on the heterogeneity in labor markets. The first chapter proposes an explanation for the unemployment rate difference between skill groups. Low skill workers (workers without a four year college degree) have a higher unemployment rate. The reason for that "... is mainly because they (low skill workers) are more likely to become unemployed, not because they remain unemployed longer, once unemployed" (Layard, Nickell, Jackman, 1991, p. 44). This chapter proposes an explanation for the difference in job separation probabilities between these skill groups: high skill workers have lower job separation probabilities as they are selected more effectively during the hiring process. I use a labor search model with match specific quality to quantify the explanatory power of this hypothesis on differences in job separation probabilities and unemployment rates across skill groups. The second chapter analyzes the effects of one channel of interaction (job competition) between skill groups on their labor market outcomes. Do skilled workers prefer unskilled jobs to being unemployed? If so, skilled workers compete with unskilled workers for those jobs. Job competition generates interaction between the labor market outcomes of these groups. I use a heterogeneous agents model with skilled and unskilled workers in which the only interaction across groups is the job competition. Direct effects of job competition are reducing skilled unemployment rate (since they have a bigger market) and increasing the unskilled unemployment rate (since they face greater competition). However number of vacancies respond to job competition in equilibrium. For instance, unskilled firms have incentives to open more vacancies since filling a vacancy is easier if there is job competition. Thus how unskilled unemployment and wages are affected by job competition depends on which effect dominates. The results for reasonable parameter values show that job competition does reduce the average unemployment rate. It reduces the skilled unemployment rate more, generating an increase in unemployment rate inequality. However, the employment rate at skilled jobs is unaffected. The third chapter focuses on skill biased technological change. Skill biased technological change is one of the explanations for the asymmetry between labor market outcomes of skill groups over the last few decades. However, during this time period there were also skill neutral shocks that could contribute to these outcomes. The third chapter analyzes the effects of skill biased and neutral shocks on overall labor market variables. I use a model in which skilled and unskilled outputs are intermediate goods, and final good sector receives all the shocks. A numerical exercise shows that both skilled and unskilled unemployment rates respond to shocks in the same direction. The response of unemployment rate to skill neutral shocks is bigger than the response to skill biased shocks for both skill groups. However, the unskilled unemployment changes more than the skilled unemployment rate as a response to skill neutral shocks. Thus, skill neutral shocks reduce the unemployment rate gap between skill groups.
text

This thesis consists of four papers studying endogenous technical change (TC) in climate policy analysis. The first paper provides a conceptual framework of analyzing the mechanism through which TC can be induced by climate mitigation policies. The second paper develops a computable general equilibrium (CGE) numerical model to quantitatively analyze the effect of endogenous TC on the timing and cost of carbon abatements. The third paper develops a multi-region modelling framework to examine the mechanism of international technology diffusion and its effect on domestic carbon savings. The fourth paper analyzes the mechanism of international technology coordination resulting from reciprocal cross-nation knowledge spillovers and its effect on global climate governance. The first paper, "Revisiting the mechanism of endogenous technical change for climate policy analysis", aims to reconcile the diverging specifications of endogenous TC in existing climate policy modeling literature. Drawing on the theory of R&D-induced TC, I provide a generalized framework to analyze the mechanism through which TC can be induced by climate mitigation policies. The second paper, "Can technological innovation help China take on its climate responsibility? A computable general equilibrium analysis", examines the effectiveness of China's indigenous R&D and technological innovation to cut its carbon emissions. The mechanism of endogenous TC is incorporated into a CGE numerical model. R&D investment and knowledge creation is modeled as the endogenous behavior of profit-seeking private producers. The accumulated stocks of productive knowledge are applied in a production process to induce the rate and bias of production TC. The third paper, "Can China harness globalization to reap domestic carbon savings? Modelling international technology diffusion in a multi-region framework", aims to examine the effect of globalization, particularly international technology diffusion, on reducing China's domestic carbon emissions. The single-country CGE model is extended into a multi-region framework, where both indigenous R&D and foreign technology diffusion are explicitly considered as two sources of endogenous TC for domestic carbon savings. The model systematically describes foreign technology diffusion through three diffusion channels of trade, foreign direct investment (FDI) and disembodied knowledge spillovers, with an elaborate treatment of local knowledge absorptive capacity. The fourth paper, "International knowledge spillover and technology externality: Why multilateral R&D coordination matter for global climate governance", investigates the mechanism of international technology cooperation and its effect on lowering global climate mitigation cost, with an aim of exploring the potentials of complementing international emission-based agreements with technology cooperation in the post-2012 climate regime. For that purpose, this paper firstly presents an analytical framework that describes how the mechanism of international R&D coordination can work for climate change mitigation. This mechanism is then quantitatively examined in a multi-region global numerical model that explicitly considers multilateral knowledge spillovers and resulting technology externality for global climate governance.

Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements of Doctor of Engineering, Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa, 2017.
The need to quantify and model transformations that have taken place in the cities of South Africa is one of the grand challenges linked to country’s transition to Democracy. Given the complexities associated with different stages of city transformation, it is imperative that models used to unpack processes of city transformation are novel. In this study it emerged that statistical methods alone are not adequate to fully present, in a comprehensible way, all facets of drivers of city transformation. As a result, statistical methods have been combined with mathematical and system dynamics models. Results revealed that city transformations derive from a number of triggers. Underlining these are income, migration and houses. The empirical data collected through questionnaire survey that was later incorporated into mathematical models demonstrated that income is a primary driver that fuels city migration. System Dynamic Models demonstrated that the availability of houses or accommodation serve as constraints that keep the city population within the limits of the carrying capacity of a city. In addition it was further confirmed, through mathematical models that income has varying effects on the attractiveness of cities. This was found to be linked to the shape of the distribution of income in the city. A normally distributed income with a peak in the middle results in a city being more attractive than an evenly distributed income that peaks either at very low or high income levels. This observation brought forth a need to test heterogeneity when analyzing city transformation using income as an index. Mathematical Models that incorporated heterogeneity demonstrated the usefulness of systems analysis in unpacking the mechanism of city transformation, a component of city management that requires serious consideration for planning, budgeting and provision of limited resources like houses in the cities. Success of methods used in this study led to a conclusion that these can be enhanced through other techniques like agent based models. With this call, improvements on this study that can be attained through these techniques are recommended. This will enrich the understanding of the transformation and dynamics of cities under different conditions than those that exist in South Africa.
D

One of the tools used during re-engineering of an environment is the process model as modelling tool. The identification of process models within an institution is a difficult and tedious task. A problem is that often process model structures is identified for one specific project and not stored for future reuse. The ideal for institutions is to reuse process model structures within the institution. This study focused on the generic structures within the higher education application domain where the hypothesis for this study was that a generic educational process model structure for higher education institutions can be established; a process management flow procedure can be used to manage the flow within an educational process model; and that aneducational process model can be stored and reused in re-engineering efforts. The study was divided into three research questions, where the first focused on the identification of generic process model structures, the second on the usability of the process model structures within a re-engineering effort, and the last on the preservation of a process model structure. For the first research question, the identification of process model structures, three institutions were used for data collection. It was necessary to develop a requirements elicitation procedure for data collection. The structure derived was confirmed at a fourth institution. For the second research question, which focuses on the usability of process model structures, an ordinal measurement was defined to measure the usefulness of the process model structures in a reengineering effort. A re-engineering procedure was developed for re-engineering the application domain, called the process management flow procedure, and used for a re-engineering effort at one institution. Lastly, for the third research question the preservation of the process model structures, the abstraction of the process model structure was investigated as well as the feasibility of implementing the process model structures physically using existing repository software. The conclusion after the investigation of the three research questions was that the hypothesis was confirmed that there is indeed a set of process model structures within the higher education institution that are generic, preservable and reusable in a re-engineering effort.
Computing
Ph. D. (Computer Science)

Many low-income countries desire to implement and adopt digital government as a springboard for economic and social development but face many challenges. The United Nations identifies that Africa has especially lagged consistently in digital government development and adoption. Most scholars largely attribute the challenges to infrastructure and skills, and often rhetorically cite culture as playing a strong role. This study specifically examined the role of indigenous African culture (‘spirituality’, ‘communalism’ and ‘respect for authority and elders’) and internet access on the adoption of digital government services (e-filing and e-payment of taxes) by Small and Micro Enterprises (SMEs) in Zambia, with the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technologies (UTAUT) as the underpinning theoretical lens. Data analysis was done using Structural Equation Modelling with principal attention given to the moderating and mediating influence of indigenous African culture. The influence of internet access on the intention to adopt digital government was also examined. The findings from the cross sectional study of 401 tax registered SMEs suggests that ‘spirituality’, ‘African communalism’ and ‘respect for authority and elders’ have significant negative moderating effects on the adoption of e-filing but not on e-payment; and ‘spirituality’, ‘African communalism’ and ‘respect for authority and elders’ are all significant mediators of the intention to adopt both e-filing and e-payment. This means that indigenous African culture plays a significant role in explaining Africa’s position in digital government development and adoption. The findings also showed a negative influence of internet access on the intention to adopt digital government services despite the measures that government has put in place. These results make a novel contribution to Information Systems (IS) theory in identifying a critical yet often overlooked indigenous cultural influence on the adoption of digital innovations in low-income countries. The findings also calls for finding new or adapted IS theories that take into account such unique cultural constructs. The thesis recommends that the research is extended to other low-income countries as well as other contexts that exhibit strong indigenous cultural values.
School of Computing
Ph. D. (Information Systems)

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)
There is a strong urge for advanced diagnosis method, especially in high power battery packs and high energy density cell design applications, such as electric vehicle (EV) and hybrid electric vehicle segment, due to safety concerns. Accurate and robust diagnosis methods are required in order to optimize battery charge utilization and improve EV range. Battery faults cause significant model parameter variation affecting battery internal states and output. This work is focused on developing diagnosis method to reliably detect various faults inside lithium-ion cell using electrochemical model based observer and fuzzy logic algorithm, which is implementable in real-time. The internal states and outputs from battery plant model were compared against those from the electrochemical model based observer to generate the residuals. These residuals and states were further used in a fuzzy logic based residual evaluation algorithm in order to detect the battery faults. Simulation results show that the proposed methodology is able to detect various fault types including overcharge, over-discharge and aged battery quickly and reliably, thus providing an effective and accurate way of diagnosing li-ion battery faults.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)
Hydraulic wind power transfer systems deliver the captured energy by the blades to the generators differently. In the conventional systems this task is carried out by a gearbox or an intermediate medium. New generation of wind power systems transfer the captured energy by means of high-pressure hydraulic fluids. A hydraulic pump is connected to the blades shaft at a high distance from the ground, in nacelle, to pressurize a hydraulic flow down to ground level equipment through hoses. Multiple wind turbines can also pressurize a flow sending to a single hose toward the generator. The pressurized flow carries a large amount of energy which will be transferred to the mechanical energy by a hydraulic motor. Finally, a generator is connected to the hydraulic motor to generate electrical power. This hydraulic system runs under two main disturbances, wind speed fluctuations and load variations. Intermittent nature of the wind applies a fluctuating torque on the hydraulic pump shaft. Also, variations of the consumed electrical power by the grid cause a considerable load disturbance on the system. This thesis studies the hydraulic wind power transfer systems. To get a better understanding, a mathematical model of the system is developed and studied utilizing the governing equations for every single hydraulic component in the system. The mathematical model embodies nonlinearities which are inherited from the hydraulic components such as check valves, proportional valves, pressure relief valves, etc. An experimental prototype of the hydraulic wind power transfer systems is designed and implemented to study the dynamic behavior and operation of the system. The provided nonlinear mathematical model is then validated by experimental result from the prototype. Moreover, this thesis develops a control system for the hydraulic wind power transfer systems. To maintain a fixed frequency electrical voltage by the system, the generator should remain at a constant rotational speed. The fluctuating wind speed from the upstream, and the load variations from the downstream apply considerable disturbances on the system. A controller is designed and implemented to regulate the flow in the proportional valve and as a consequence the generator maintains its constant speed compensating for load and wind turbine disturbances. The control system is applied to the mathematical model as well as the experimental prototype by utilizing MATLAB/Simulink and dSPACE 1104 fast prototyping hardware and the results are compared.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)
A gearless hydraulic wind energy transfer system utilizes the hydraulic power transmission principles to integrate the energy of multiple wind turbines in a central power generation location. The gearless wind power transfer technology may replace the current energy harvesting system to reduce the cost of operation and increase the reliability of wind power generation. It also allows for the integration of multiple wind turbines to one central generation unit, unlike the traditional wind power generation with dedicated generator and gearbox. A Hydraulic Transmission (HT) can transmit high power and can operate over a wide range of torque-to-speed ratios, allowing efficient transmission of intermittent wind power. The torque to speed ratios illustrates the relationship between the torque and speed of a motor (or pump) from the moment of start to when full-load torque is reached at the manufacturer recommended rated speed. In this thesis, a gearless hydraulic wind energy harvesting and transfer system is mathematically modeled and verified by experimental results. The mathematical model is therefore required to consider the system dynamics and be used in control system development. Mathematical modeling also provided a method to determine the losses of the system as well as overall efficiency. The energy is harvested by a low speed-high torque wind turbine connected to a high fixed-displacement hydraulic pump, which is connected to hydraulic motors. Through mathematical modeling of the system, an enhanced understanding of the HTS through analysis was gained that lead to a highly efficient hydraulic energy transmission system. It was determined which factors significantly influenced the system operation and its efficiency more. It was also established how the overall system operated in a multiple wind turbine configuration. The quality of transferred power from the wind turbine to the generator is important to maintaining the systems power balance, frequency droop control in grid-connected applications, and to ensure that the maximum output power is obtained. A hydraulic transmission system can transfer large amounts of power and has more flexibility than a mechanical and electrical system. However high-pressure hydraulic systems have shown low efficiency in wind power transfer when interfaced with a single turbine to a ground-level generator. HT’s generally have acceptable efficiency at full load and drop efficiency as the loading changes, typically having a peak around 60%. The efficiency of a HT is dependent on several parameters including volumetric flow rate, rotational speed and torque at the pump shaft, and the pressure difference across the inlet and outlet of the hydraulic pump and motor. It has been demonstrated that using a central generation unit for a group of wind turbines and transferring the power of each turbine through hydraulic system increases the efficiency of the overall system versus one turbine to one central generation unit. The efficiency enhancement depends on the rotational speed of the hydraulic pumps. Therefore, it is proven that the multiple-turbine hydraulic power transfer system reaches higher efficiencies at lower rotational speeds. This suggests that the gearbox can be eliminated from the wind powertrains if multiple turbines are connected to the central generation unit. Computer simulations and experimental results are provided to quantify the efficiency enhancements obtained by adding the second wind turbine hydraulic pump to the system.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)
Phormia regina (Meigen), commonly known as the black blow fly is a dipteran that belongs to the family Calliphoridae. Calliphorids play an important role in various research fields including ecology, medical studies, veterinary and forensic sciences. P. regina, a non-model organism, is one of the most common forensically relevant insects in North America and is typically used to assist in estimating postmortem intervals (PMI). To better understand the roles P. regina plays in the numerous research fields, we re-constructed its genome using next generation sequencing technologies. The focus was on generating a reference genome through de novo assembly of high-throughput short read sequences. Following assembly, genetic markers were identified in the form of microsatellites and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) to aid in future population genetic surveys of P. regina. A total 530 million 100 bp paired-end reads were obtained from five pooled male and female P. regina flies using the Illumina HiSeq2000 sequencing platform. A 524 Mbp draft genome was assembled using both sexes with 11,037 predicted genes. The draft reference genome assembled from this study provides an important resource for investigating the genetic diversity that exists between and among blow fly species; and empowers the understanding of their genetic basis in terms of adaptations, population structure and evolution. The genomic tools will facilitate the analysis of genome-wide studies using modern genomic techniques to boost a refined understanding of the evolutionary processes underlying genomic evolution between blow flies and other insect species.