Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'INNOVATIONS SHAPING'

Portland General Electric has proposed coupling one or more water tanks with two heat pumps in order to perform load-shifting in residential customer heating and cooling applications. By using the water tanks as a thermal storage unit, this project attempts to partially decouple energy consumption from generation to provide peak demand reduction and to better facilitate the integration of variable renewable energy resources. A scoping study was performed to evaluate the potential impact of this project if implemented in single family homes in Portland, Oregon. This study revealed that the system could provide meaningful savings in the cost of electricity to both the customer and utility. Additionally, an optimization algorithm was developed to dictate system operation and to maximize gains to the utility. Evolutionary algorithms were explored in an attempt to increase the effectiveness of the algorithm's search in limited computation time. Ultimately, an evolution strategy was selected as the most suitable based on tests run in winter and spring months. A genetic algorithm was then developed to handle fixed-speed heat pump operation for compatibility with an alpha-system prototype that has been developed by the research team.

This thesis examines the theory of technological determinism, which espouses the view that technological change drives social change, through an analysis of the impact of new media on higher education models in the United States of America. In so doing, it explores the impacts of new media technologies on higher education, in particular, and society in general. The thesis reviews the theoretical shape of the discourse surrounding new media technologies before narrowing in on utopian claims about the impact of new media technologies on education. It tests these claims through a specific case study of higher education in the USA. The study investigates whether 'new' media technologies (eg the Internet) are resulting in new forms of higher education in the USA and whether the blurring of information and entertainment technologies has caused a similar blurring in education and entertainment providers. It uses primary data gathered by the author in a series of interviews with key education, industry and media representatives in North America in 1997. Chapter 2 looks at the literature and history surrounding several topics central to the thesis - the discourses of technological determinism, the history of technology use and adoption in education, and impacts of new media technologies on education. Chapter 3 presents the findings of the American case study on the relationship between media and higher education and Chapter 4 concludes and synthesises the investigation.

This thesis assesses the policies and strategies implemented between 1965 and 2016 in building Malaysia's Innovation capability through the National Innovation System lens. Malaysia, a newly industrialised economy, became an upper-middle-income country relatively early due to its open economy and industrialisation efforts. However, its development story is between a rock and a hard place. It is no longer an attractive alternative for foreign investors, nor can it compete at the innovative frontier.

Over the last two decades, policies concerning Creative Industries (CIs) have spread widely at international, European, national, regional and local level. Governments have hence started looking as CIs as to tools to ensure the growth and development of their economies, as they represent a recognised source of employment and innovation. Along the way, though, the policy discourse might have morphed into a ‘mere’ rhetoric, losing some of its significance. As actions and programmes concerning CIs go on repeating themselves without a confrontation with the everyday life of the sector, the gap between the two keeps widening. The risk is that of generating policies which no longer involve the activities at the core of CIs, and are therefore unable to sustain their development. This document examines the most salient aspects of the discrepancy, in order to propose a model that might help bridge the divide.

This research initially sprung out of a natural curiosity for the emerging phenomenon of open data with its combination of democratic perspectives, since it is based on freedom of information legislation, and its potential for a multitude of citizen driven innovations. Research showed that while open data repeatedly was being envisioned for having immense potential of leading to a multitude of innovations and societal impacts, most of the attention still remained on challenges related to enable a broad realisation of open data, that is, putting more data on the web. At the same time, research and reports indicated that open data was a more complex matter than expected, and that the release of open data was guarded by myths saying that opening up of data equalled instant benefits from open data use, and that open data initiatives were emerging too slowly. In general, the understanding of how to address open data so that the envisioned innovative potential was enabled remained a pressing issue. Therefore this research set out to explore how the public sector open data phenomenon is being shaped to address societal opportunities and challenges, and thereby enabling both practical and theoretic contributions. The field of Social Shaping of Technology (SST) was chosen as main theoretic lens since it provided good models for approaching technology development and innovation in general, and also includes social and political dimensions without being limited by organisational borders or managerial dimensions. By engaging in a case study of two Swedish municipalities and their respective open data initiatives in combination with a study on European policies and reported open data use, a number of research papers has been written, of which four is included in this thesis.Findings reveal that the highly heterogeneous evolvement of open data can advantageously be seen as shaped into a metaphorical open arena for innovation and value creation, inspired by a SST concept called arenas for development. The arena concept enables us to bring together processes and entities that otherwise are dislocated, and to gain a holistic view of the shaping processes at stake for this yet immature ICT-phenomenon. Also, it allows us to address the evolvement of open data in a way that intertwines with social, political and technical aspects. Within the overall concept of an open arena for innovation and value creation, the research revealed two concepts for understanding how societal challenges and opportunities were addressed with the help of open data; multidirectional and multicentre evolvement, of which the latter is a contribution to SST theory. As a final reflection, this thesis provides some thoughts on future implications and possibilities of the democratic stance of open data.
Godkänd; 2014; 20141121 (joslas); Nedanstående person kommer att hålla licentiatseminarium för avläggande av filosofie licentiatexamen. Namn: Josefin Lassinantti Ämne: Informatik / Social Informatics Uppsats: Public Sector Open Data -Shaping an Arena for Innovation and Value Creation Examinator: Professor Birgitta Bergvall-Kåreborn Institutionen för system- och rymdteknik Avdelning: Datavetenskap Diskutant: Professor Debra Howcroft Manchester Business School Tid: Torsdag den 4 december 2014 kl 09.30 Plats: A1547, Luleå tekniska universitet
System förAnvändardriven TjänsteInnovation Etapp 2

The thesis attempts to expand the understanding of the socio-technical dynamics patterning both the decision making process and the outcomes of complex ICT innovation projects. The thesis seeks to overcome the shortcomings of existing social and economic research on inter-organisational standardisation by redressing the limitations in terms of empirical scope and analytical frameworks of, on the one hand, studies of standard setting processes which neglect the wider and subsequent context of implementation and, on the other, of ‘diffusions of standards’ studies which ignore the way in which standards evolve in their implementation. This study specifically answers theoretical and practical questions of ICT innovation dynamics in a complex multi spaced setting, combining economic, technical and sociological theories. The research draws on the Social Shaping of Technology (SST) perspective by explaining ICT innovations as historical and contexted actor-focussed technological change processes. The thesis develops a Multi-level Space of Innovation Dynamics (MSID) framework to capture the dynamics of standardised portal technology development and its outcomes on two levels: at a micro level focusing on individuals and groups in the adopting organisation (zoom in), and at the meso level, addressing the effects that the dynamics have in the broader context of the sector (zoom out). Jørgensen’s concept of ‘arena’ is used to analyse the way in which the actors involved at the company and the industry level are configured together. The turbulent dynamics are analysed as the outcome of complex processes of change involving the configuration and re-configuration of the various arenas and networks in which the array of involved organisational actors are embedded. The research finds that ICT innovations are shaped by history and context of the adopting organisation and the actors involved. The extremely complex organisational politics of decision making process were patterned by the configuration of the project and the management of expertise. Interactions and realignments amongst this complex set of socio-technical factors led to a drift in the subsequent outcomes. This study supports the evidence in existing literature that supply chains are mutually shaped by technology and the adopting user organisation.

The aim of this thesis is to explore how the productization of services is organised as a way of facilitating collaboration and arranging innovation. To achieve this the study is situated within the Business-to-Business (B2B) Marketing discipline and draws on the theoretical perspectives of Market Studies. The central theoretical focus of the thesis unfolds against three distinct but interrelated research questions: How is productization mobilised and exchanged by market actors? What effect does marketization have on market shaping practices? How does a firm’s business model facilitate its ability to organise and capture value? The case firm selected as the context of enquiry was a large Scottish public utility firm that delivered two key utility services to consumers and operates within a unique and complex regulatory framework. Adopting a pragmatic research philosophy based on abductive reasoning, a multi-method qualitative study was undertaken, and empirical data collected using a single case study approach. The study theoretically contributes to Marketing Studies by unpacking the performativity of the marketing object, which is found to be purposefully, consistently and temporarily destabilised and re-stabilised by actors, as they undertake agentic calculations during the productization processes. Further, the findings advance business model theory by illustrating the plurality of co-existing business models within a single firm, which dynamically span boundaries. The findings show that co-existing business models were wrapped in a collaborative spatio-temporal nature, and that this is framed through the six-year regulatory investment periods enforced upon the large public utility firm by regulators. The findings further contribute that the use of market devices are fundamental in the ability to shape market practice, demonstrated as case actors struggle to singularize the device due to lack of sound calculative abilities, resulting in attempts of qualification, which adds to the theoretical view that market devices need to be refined and calibrated. The main contribution of the thesis to practice demonstrates that organisations seeking to productize should fundamentally consider the context of the market, and industry that they exchange within. This thesis demonstrates that adopting a productized service offering will augment the knowledge and expertise required by the business to deliver value to its consumers and require restabilising of market practices.

In this empirical research, the author focuses on the enterprise resource planning (ERP) software market. Based on a contingent perspective of how markets emerge and can be shaped, the author asks the research question of whether the emergence of the ERP market was a necessary, strong, or weak consequence of the product innovation of Systems, Applications & Products in Data Processing (SAP), which was the pioneer innovator in this specific market. This question is answered with a graph theoretical model of contingency and causality in order to measure the causality between events occurring over historical time. In this sense, the research article provides an application of the method proposed by Lehmann-Waffenschmidt. The author finds that the emergence of the ERP software market is contingent and was not predetermined; path dependencies play a big role in the way how this market segment emerged. With respect to both entrepreneurial and economic factors of relevance, the case of the SAP is far from a predetermined success story. The results are relevant for a number of reasons. First, the results indicate that instead of talking about success stories, a new perspective in market shaping can highlight a more realistic way of the contingent nature of entrepreneurial activity and product innovations. Second, the results aim to bridge the gap between marketing and the emergence of markets, as it was indicated as a research gap by recent contributions in marketing science. Third, the introduction of counterfactual events in the business history of SAP indicate a methodological innovation that has not yet been considered by marketing and entrepreneurship scholars, which may be helpful regarding recognizing patterns from the past and also regarding contingent planning for the future.

The dominant discourse surrounding academic research libraries today is one of change and scholarship in the humanities has seen a similar revolution in practice. Yet, most of the documented changes in either have been ascribed to the availability of online journal materials. Despite the accessibility of millions of rare, digitized primary resources freely available on the web, little has been done to understand the impact of these materials on either the practice of scholarship or on libraries. The research described in this proposal is an investigation into digitization projects involving rare and closely guarded materials and the effects of these projects on humanities scholarship. This thesis uses both qualitative and quantitative measures to: Assess the impact of digitized primary resources on the work of humanities scholars; To construct a model based on the findings that explains current use of digitized primary sources; and, To discuss the implications of these findings for academic research libraries. The research questions are answered through a detailed analysis of the role of digitization in the field of Tibetan and Himalayan studies. The author presents detailed evidence of how digitization is changing the inputs, practice, and outputs of scholarship in this field, as well as the characteristics of digitization that have led to these changes. Importantly, these findings separate out the success of individual projects from the success of digitization across the field as a whole. Support for community and innovation as well as the presence of critical mass across the field are stressed as the three most significant factors. Finally, the implications of these findings are assessed within a newly proposed model of academic libraries. This “scholar-centric” model is intended to provide both a theoretical framework for the research findings as well as a normative provocation for structuring future research and discussions about the role of academic libraries and their presence online.

This study focuses on the factors shaping innovation in online newsrooms in three nations of the Arab World, with particular interest in the adoption of multimedia news innovations. Applying theoretical perspectives from the social shaping of technology and the diffusion of innovation literature, this study sought to identify the key factors shaping the innovation process. Field studies were based in three Arabic newsrooms: Aljazeera Net in Qatar, Almasry Alyoum in Egypt, and Almassae in Morocco. The case studies are grounded in two weeks of participant-observation field research within each online newsroom, along with over 100 in-depth interviews with those involved in the production of online news, and online archival reviews of the three news portals since their inception. Field research began with participant observation at Aljazeera in 2010, prior to the uprisings of the Arab Spring, and continued through early 2013. The political context of each newsroom during the field research became a major aspect of the innovation process of each case study. The thesis reinforces a wide range of social, economic, and organizational factors in the adoption and adaptation of multimedia technologies in the newsrooms studied, supporting earlier research on newsroom innovation across other regions of the world. For example, conceptions about ‘ideal’ industry multimedia models for the modern newsroom were important in each case. However, in the political context of events related to the Arab Spring, the overriding importance of the larger political context emerged in each case. The significance of this observation suggests that research on news organizations cannot take the political context for granted and should more explicitly embed it in discussion of the social shaping of innovation, even under more stable and liberal political conditions. There is a relative lack of systematic empirical research on Arabic newsrooms among studies of news innovation. Looking at the political context of emergent or weak democracies and their influence on modern multimedia newsrooms especially during crisis events, therefore, can contribute to the development of theory and research in Western democracies; and reintroduce politics into theories of innovation within modern newsrooms. This study suggests that future scholarship brings politics into the study of the social shaping of newsroom innovation without losing the many significant advances of existing research in more liberal democratic Western contexts of the multimedia newsroom.

Des réglementations strictes obligent les constructeurs à investir massivement dans la production de véhicules électriques. L'électrification est une innovation systémique et sa massification devrait perturber la conception dominante des véhicules. "Cette perturbation pourrait-elle déstabiliser durablement l'architecture d’une industrie considérée comme très résiliente ?"Une étude empirique de la chaîne de valeur de la traction électrique, confirme, à ce jour, la résilience de cette industrie dont les constructeurs automobiles restent l'acteur central et que l'électrification seule ne suffit pas à déstabiliser. Mais les innovations technologiques, les nouveaux défis sociétaux, les nouveaux acteurs puissants de la mobilité influencent l'avenir de cette industrie. "Cette combinaison de facteurs internes et externes à l'industrie pourrait-elle favoriser une dynamique de rupture ?" En analysant 10 cas de services de mobilité innovants au niveau mondial, cette thèse identifie 3 types idéaux : "service de mobilité ajouté au produit", "robotaxi", "plate-forme ouverte de mobilité territorialisée". Si le premier est une extension naturelle de l'activité des constructeurs, les deux derniers ont le potentiel de déstabiliser cette industrie. Une comparaison, entre la Chine et l'Europe, de la gouvernance des réglementations environnementales, indique que la Chine est en situation d’imposer désormais ses normes dans le monde entier grâce à une capacité de planification alliant directivité, intrusion et agilité. Théoriquement, cette thèse confirme les théories stratégiques et l’utilisation du paradigme de la STT pour étudier les transitions dans cette industrie. Elle contribue aux domaines de la gestion de l'innovation et de la servitisation en proposant un espace de conception pour le développement des services de mobilité et confirme que le projet est un important vecteur d'apprentissage dans un écosystème naissant. Elle soutient l'hypothèse d'une avalanche de causalités convergentes conduisant à la déstabilisation de l'architecture historique de l'industrie automobile et que les modes de régulation entre ces différents facteurs vont façonner ces déstabilisations potentielles
Strict regulations force global players to invest heavily in the production of electric vehicles. Electrification is a systemic innovation whose massification should disrupt the vehicle dominant design. “Could this disruption durably destabilize the industrial architecture of a sector, considered as very resilient?”An empirical study on the electric traction value chain, confirms, to date, the resilience of this industry as carmakers remain the focal actor: electrification alone is not enough to destabilize this industry!But, technological innovations, new societal challenges, new powerful players in the mobility market influence the future of this industry.“Could this combination of factors internal and external to the industry facilitate a disruptive dynamic?”By analyzing 10 case studies of innovative mobility services worldwide, this thesis identifies 3 ideal types: “mobility service added to product”, “robotaxi”, “territorialized open mobility platform”. If the first one is a natural extension of The carmakers' business, the last two have the potential to destabilize the automotive industry.An empirical comparison, between China and Europe, of the governance of environmental regulations, states that China is now in capacity to impose its standards worldwide through a planning capacity combining directiveness, intrusiveness and agility.Theoretically, it confirms strategic theories and the interest of building upon the STT paradigm to shed light on transitions in this industry. It contributes to innovation management and servitization fields by proposing a design space for the development of mobility services and confirms that project is an important learning vector in a nascent ecosystem. This thesis supports the hypothesis of an avalanche of converging causalities leading to the destabilization of the historical architecture of the automotive industry. In accordance with the theory of transitions, the modes of regulation between these different factors will shape these potential destabilizations

What will the U.S. Interactive Television landscape be like in the year 2012? This thesis will examine this overarching question and provide some insights. Since the 1970s, the Interactive Television landscape has seen many trials by private corporations to ascertain its technological and economical viability. However, none has actually become commercially successful. In the last few years however, the U.S. Interactive Television landscape has undergone a remarkable resurgence, which saw the emergence of many interactive television companies, the rising number of strategic alliances amongst major corporations to provide interactive television programming, and a few rollouts in some major U.S. cities. This thesis will approach the U.S. Interactive Television landscape from four perspectives - Technological, Human-social, Regulatory, and Economic. It will identify the key issues that are causing this resurgence and shaping the landscape. Further, it will qualitatively analyse the impact of each key issue in the landscape. With this understanding and through a qualitative technological forecasting method (i.e., scenario-based assessment), some plausible scenarios of the landscape from the years 2002 to 2012 will be proposed.

After the initial excitement about the Internet as a space outside of governmental control has evaporated and courts in several states have applied national laws to ‘Cyberspace’, there is now a consensus among scholars that regulators have in principle the authority and capacity to regulate the Internet. Nevertheless, the application of the established tools of regulation - legislation and adjudication - to the current challenges to copyright regulation posed by the Internet has proven to be ineffective and produced undesirable side effects. Although market self-regulation has been suggested as a more efficacious approach to regulating the Internet and has proven effective in content regulation and Internet governance, the market has so far been unsuccessful in providing an effective and efficient remedy to the challenges to copyright regulation. The purpose of this thesis is to examine a novel approach to regulation and analyse its benefits and limitations. The novel approach defies the conceptualisation as co- and self-regulation, but introduces the solution from outside the regulated environment through entrepreneurship and innovation, and relies on the forces of the market to become effective. In this thesis, I analyse the regulatory systems implemented by two private organisations, Noank Media and Creative Commons, in China’s reportedly ineffective copyright law environment and find that their market-based and innovative approach to regulation can be understood as a form of social entrepreneurship. Social enterprises have been claimed to deliver social goods more effectively and efficiently than governmental intervention, because they are said to rely on local knowledge, to be driven by the demand of the stakeholders, and to be focused on social value creation. Based on quantitative and qualitative fieldwork with Noank Media’s and Creative Common’s stakeholders in China I analyse to what extent these two enterprises managed to successfully leverage the assets of social entrepreneurship. I conclude that while the novel approach has demonstrated the potential to produce more effective and more efficient regulation, it does not automatically result in Better Regulation. Further efforts are required to ensure participation, transparency, and public accountability, and to avoid regulatory fragmentation.

Made available in DSpace on 2011-05-04T12:36:29Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2009
Este trabalho propõe analisar o fenômeno da terceirização desenvolvido ao longo das duas últimas décadas em Bio-Manguinhos. Trata-se de um estudo de caso realizado na unidade de produção de vacinas e reagentes para diagnóstico da Fundação Oswaldo Cruz. Inicialmente foi realizado um estudo de cenário, analisando a política de gestão do trabalho desenvolvida pelo Estado brasileiro para as instituições públicas. A seguir, a análise passou a verificar a inserção da Fiocruz nessas políticas, desde a sua criação e no decorrer de vigência de diferentes formas de contratação, alternando da extrema rigidez para a total flexibilidade sempre com foco na gestão do trabalho, e, como essas políticas se refletiram no desempenho de Bio-Manguinhos. Baseado no contexto da conformação do Estado e na análise do desempenho da unidade, o trabalho critica a falta de planejamento e de prospecção dessas políticas, que favoreça a inovação de processos, produtos e procedimentos e o desempenho pleno de uma unidade de produção de insumos para a saúde, tão necessários ao atendimento das necessidades da população brasileira. Critica também, a ausência de um modelo de Estado consolidado que sirva de arcabouço à formulação dessas políticas. Devido às fortes críticas dos órgãos de controle acerca da extrapolação dos limites da terceirização praticada nas últimas duas décadas e à falta de definição clara desses marcos legais, o trabalho apresenta uma metodologia baseada nas atribuições dos cargos do plano de carreiras da Fiocruz e culmina com a apresentação de uma matriz de atribuições passíveis de serem realizadas por contratação indireta. Conclui pela necessidade de convivência de dois quadros de trabalhadores: um permanente formado por servidores, estáveis e de carreira e outro flexível, executado por contratação indireta, de caráter eventual, temporário ou de apoio às atividades relacionadas à missão de Bio-Manguinhos. O trabalho ainda sugere a aplicação da mesma metodologia às demais unidades da Fiocruz e que a instituição afirme, frente aos órgãos de controle, quais atividades que ela precisa manter no quadro de servidores permanente e quais ela quer delegar a terceiros sem contudo, ferir a legislação vigente. Por fim, constata-se que a metodologia apresentada ameniza, mas não resolve o problema, dessa forma, recomenda-se à Fiocruz buscar mecanismos que altere o modelo de gestão pelo qual está submetida a fim de viabilizar as duas formas de incorporação de mão-de-obra.

India is poised to be among the top five pharmaceutical and healthcare markets with an estimated size of over USD 55 Billion by 2020. Despite the high potential, the penetration of e-Pharmacies in India remains low with over 85% sales being performed through brick and mortar stores and diagnostic centres. In recent years, a plethora of start-ups have emerged on the scene to fill the vacuum and have brought with them an array of operating models and innovations thereof. In this study, I examine the Indian e-Pharma Industry to understand the various verticals the e-businesses in this segment engage in and the dimensions on which they have made innovations to penetrate the Indian market. I dissect the marketing journey of a popular e-Pharmacy 1MG Technologies using the ASCOR framework and analyse the consumer decision making process through a focus group of one of its established target segments to highlight the multiple variables affecting this decision making process and have presented a model of gears to represent the consumer decision making, which is capable of being influenced by marketers. This work helps to elucidate the new norms for marketers across different value dimensions of the business in the backdrop of Covid19 pandemic to generate favourable consumer decisions. This study also includes scans, appraisal, evaluation of the external and internal environments affecting the e-Pharmacies. Established frameworks including PESTLE, Porter 5-forces, Strategic groups, ETOP, EFE, RBV, VRIO, SAP and IFE etc along with 360o business innovation model which have been applied on information available through reputed international and national bodies to unravel the critical external threats and opportunities, and internal strengths and weaknesses, and their relationships. To my knowledge this is the first study of this kind in India and is of immense use for not just emerging players but also for existing operators to choose or develop adequate business models, formulate their corporate and business unit strategies, identify gaps in their marketing efforts in various value dimensions and improve them accordingly considering the present status and emergent norms of the market in the backdrop of Covid19 as we all learn to co-exist with pandemics in a globalized world.

D.Com.
Innovation mostly happens tacitly. Organisations do not usually explicate innovative thinking and behaviour in business processes and models. The thesis stresses the importance of seeing learning and innovation as dynamically linked processes consisting of different episodes. Innovators and innovation managers should be able to identify the unintended and intended messages in the different episodes of the learning and innovation process and decide upon the usefulness by further eliciting, sharing and shaping tacit knowing and being for innovation...

Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Information and Communications Technology, Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa, 2016.
Existing literature indicates that the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and the inclusion of Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKSs) in the school curriculum have the potential to increase academic performance. However, formal education is still unable to integrate ICTs into the teaching and learning of school subjects, especially, those that are related to IKSs. This research therefore aims to construct a model of the factors shaping learners’ perceptions on the usefulness of ICTs for the teaching and learning of IKSs. This aim is sub-divided into four research objectives: (a) to identify appropriate technology diffusion theories for the investigation of the factors shaping learners’ perceptions on the usefulness of ICTs for the teaching and learning of IKSs, (b) to construct a theoretical model of the factors shaping learners’ perceptions on the usefulness of ICTs for the teaching and learning of IKSs, (c) to perform an empirical confirmation of the above announced theoretical model of the factors shaping the perceptions of learners on the usefulness of ICTs for the teaching and learning of IKSs, and (d) to suggest new ideas for future research on learners’ perceptions on the usefulness of ICTs for the teaching and learning of IKSs. A review of existing literature on eLearning adoption by students and learners was conducted in order to achieve objectives a, b, and d. As for objective c, it was achieved through the survey of 115 Hospitality studies learners from the ILembe and UMgungundlovu municipality districts in the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) province of South Africa. The study’s findings can be summarized as follows: (a) The Technology Adoption Model (TAM) is the backbone of the model designed by this study on the factors affecting learners’ perceptions of the usefulness of ICTs for the teaching and learning of IKSs; (b) Learners’ perceived usefulness of ICTs is hypothetically affected by the following factors: demographics, computer self-efficacy, trust in ICTs, and level of conscientiousness, (c) All these factors were empirically confirmed through a survey conducted by the current study, except that the only validated demographics were : school location, cell phone access, class grade and preferred subject; (d) This research recommends further investigation on the factors affecting learners’ perceived usefulness of ICTs for the teaching and learning of IKSs, mainly because of the insufficient literature on this subject.
M

博士
國立政治大學
科技管理與智慧財產研究所
108
Oftentimes, what we should really worry is not whether an innovation is adopted or not, but why innovation is adopted misleadingly. When numerous innovations are adopted, users are likely to misinterpret their applications. This is due to users’ cognitive dissonance and results in making wrong senses of the innovation. As such, even though users adopt the innovation, it may not necessarily lead to anticipate outcomes. In this circumstance, designers need to develop ways to guide users so as to adopt innovations effectively. This thesis analyzes the pop-up exhibition at the National Palace Museum Store to understand audiences’ adoption of the digital archive of cultural artifacts. The analysis follows the variation process of sensemaking in three steps: Initial sensemaking, sensegiving and sense-remaking. It traces changes in user's cognitive process mediated by designers’ sensegiving practices. This study analyzes the interaction among exhibition organizers, artifacts (and replicas), and audiences to explore how designers guide audiences’ cognitive understanding through sensegiving practices. Audiences are able to comprehend the meaning of museum artifacts. Theoretically, this research elaborates designers’ sensegiving practice in reshaping users’ cognition, enabling richer experience for museum exhibition. Practically, this article proposes a set of communication strategies for organizing museum exhibition, while suggesting a set of practical steps for exercising sensegiving. When innovators could navigate user's cognition, turn shocks into surprises, they could then enable effective innovation. By so doing, museum exhibition would move beyond static or interactive display, and gear toward a new genre of exhibition that may touch audiences culturally.

碩士
國立臺灣科技大學
科技管理所
99
Cloud computing is the hot trend of 2011. In this study, the trend of cloud computing is the background of company strategy. Because of the short product life cycle in Consuming electronic product, this kind of products need more innovative product develop strategy, including application innovation, disruptive innovation, business model innovation, and structural innovation. A company need these innovation strategy to enhance the competence. To reach the goal of higher profit, this study discuss a method of structural innovation called “shaping strategy”. The spirit of shaping strategy is to create the value of stakeholders. It not only concentrate in customer, but also concentrate in alliance company. To reconstruct to structure of the industry, shaping strategy give us a good guideline to think the road map of success. The case of Google and HTC will demonstrate the possibility of the spirit of shaping strategy based on structural innovation. In the end, this research also provides some suggestions for the companies in Taiwan.

Projet de recherche réalisé en 2014-2015 avec l'appui du Fonds de recherche du Québec – Société et culture.
Ce mémoire vise à évaluer les effets de variations des attentes des firmes quant à la protection conférée par les droits de propriété intellectuelle (« PI ») pour les inventions et innovations dans un milieu industriel d’innovation ouverte. D’abord, les régimes de PI aux États-Unis et au Canada sont analysés à travers des cas jurisprudentiels et législatifs et des traités internationaux afin d’illustrer de quelle façon les normes juridiques changent et démontrer les répercussions sur les attentes des firmes. Puis, les attributs du modèle de l’innovation ouverte, où les firmes gèrent à dessein leurs relations d’affaires avec une attitude d’ouverture, sont décrits et sa pertinence est appuyée à l’aide d’un modèle simple. L’accent est mis sur son traitement distinctif des échanges de connaissances et d’intrants à l’intérieur même des firmes et entre elles. Une fois ces notions établies et s’y référant à titre d’hypothèses, un modèle microéconomique des échanges de connaissances entre firmes est élaboré, avec deux variables de choix, la PI et le secret, qui captent les mécanismes de gestion technologique des firmes. Par la tension entre ces variables, les processus de prise de décisions et les interactions entre les firmes sont évalués au moyen d’une analyse statique. Pour étudier plus en détails les choix des firmes, une version à deux joueurs du modèle est examinée au moyen de la théorie des jeux. Dans toutes ces formes du modèle, l’impact des fluctuations des attentes des firmes relativement au droit de la PI est jaugé. Tel que prévu, ces effets pour une firme changent en fonction des choix de gestion de chacune des firmes. Les effets varient également eu égard à la nature des relations à travers lesquelles les échanges de connaissance ont lieu. Dans la variante à deux joueurs, la statique comparative d’un équilibre de Nash en stratégie mixte montre que la relation avec l’autre joueur imprègne les incidences des variations du droit sur les stratégies de gestion technologique. Par exemple, une hausse des attentes de protection juridique de la PI couvrant la technologie d’une firme peut étonnamment mener cette firme à moins y recourir.
The purpose of this thesis is to assess the effects of changes in firms’ expectations of intellectual property (“IP”) law protection over inventions and innovations in an industrial environment characterized by open innovation practices. To begin, a legal analysis of IP regimes in Canada and the United States is achieved through different cases of court decisions, legal amendments and international treaties in order to show how legal standards vary and to demonstrate the repercussions of legal shifts over firms’ expectations. Then, the characteristics of the open innovation management model, in which firms adopt a purposively open mindset in their business relationships, are described, and its relevance is supported using a simple model. Emphasis is laid upon open innovation’s distinguishable treatment of intra- and inter-firm flows of knowledge and inputs. Building on these insights and using them as assumptions, a microeconomic model of firms’ knowledge flow interactions is constructed, with two choice variables that capture firms’ technology management mechanisms in an open innovation industrial environment: IP and secrecy. Through the tension between these two variables, inter-firm interactions and decision-making processes are assessed with a static analysis. To study firms’ choices in greater detail, a two-firm version of the model is then examined using game theory. Throughout, the impact of fluctuations in firms’ expectations of IP law is assessed. As expected, these effects, for a focal firm, vary depending on that firm’s technology management decisions as well as other firms’. Effects also differ with respect to the nature of knowledge flows relationships that each firm undertakes. In the two-firm game theoretic version of the model, comparative statics of a mixed-strategy Nash Equilibrium show that the relationship with the other firm qualifies the consequences of legal shifts on firms’ technology management strategies. Notably, increasing expectations of IP protection for a firm’s technology might actually result in this firm relying less on IP.

The area of entrepreneurship and innovation has been increasingly debated during the last years. Major cities across the world have been focused on creating ecosystems capable of supporting its startups, aiming to bring innovation and socio-economic improvements to their citizens. The city of Porto is not an exception, and over the last few years has been assuming its position, focused on foster entrepreneurship and innovation. The process is slow and complex, and as suggested by the literature, the creation of an ecosystem is only possible when a set of different factors and elements align together and form interconnections that allow mutual development. The problem is that there are no two equal ecosystems, each one has its own characteristics and limitations that constitute a unique case study that can lead to the ecosystem’s growth, or to its destruction. Therefore, the objective of this investigation was to study the unique case of Porto’s startup ecosystem, resorting to different types of documentary analysis and conducting interviews with experts and professionals inserted in the context of Porto’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, to explore the impact of startups activity in the city, and to understand the connections, relations, and major limitations of the different elements of study. Through the analysis of Porto’s policies, support, human capital, finance and culture, it was possible to understand the efforts being made towards the success of its entrepreneurial activity, as well as the major limitations that are holding entrepreneurs and getting in the way of startups growth. Because the only way to overcome limitations is to become aware of them, although the praiseworthy increasing number of cooperation initiatives and talented people in technological and scientific areas, Porto is an early-stage ecosystem with room for improvements in different areas of knowledge, as talent management, financial supports, entrepreneurial incentives, and startup’s programs, all addressed during this investigation and with great relevance to the ecosystem sustainable growth.

Gospodarstwo rolne jako współuczestnik rynku gospodarczego, ulokowane jest w wielopłaszczyznowej regulacji zarówno na gruncie prawa krajowego i wspólnotowego. Klasyczne ujęcie czynników produkcji (praca, kapitał oraz ziemia), klasyfikuje gospodarstwo rolne jako swoistego rodzaju przedsiębiorstwo, które objęte jest odrębną i preferencyjną regulacją prawną, z uwagi na strategiczny charakter i rolę dla każdego Państwa i funkcjonującego w nim społeczeństwa. W pracy poruszono zagadnienia uwarunkowujące procesy legislacyjne w kontekście konkretnych zdarzeń polityczno-gospodarczych, które odzwierciedlały całokształt przybieranych przez Państwo koncepcji i modeli rolnictwa, jak również próbę wyważenie interesu prawa własności względem nakładanych obowiązków administracyjnych. Główny akcent w pracy położono na gospodarstwa rodzinne prowadzone przez rolników indywidualnych, które stanowią egzemplifikacje przyjętej normy programowej, wyrażonej w art. 23 Konstytucji Rzeczpospolitej Polskiej. Charakteryzując metody badawcze przybrane w pracy, wymienić należy przeprowadzoną analizę w oparciu o metodę prawno-dogmatyczną, historyczną, prawno-porównawczą z elementami statystycznymi oraz analizy typu SWOT. Dwie pierwsze z nich najpełniej pozwalają wyprowadzić wnioski dotyczące czynników kształtujących ustrój rolny w Polsce. Dwie kolejne ukazują bezpośrednie relację związanie z ówczesnym rolnictwem oraz płaszczyzną ekonomiczno-społeczną-prawną. Rozdział pierwszy został poświęcony zagadnieniom związanym z ewolucją instytucji gospodarstwa rolnego i jego prawnymi uregulowaniami. Przyjrzano się w nim źródłom pojęć oraz definicji gospodarstwa rolnego w ujęciu konstytucyjnym, administracyjnym i cywilistycznym. Podniesiono także kwestie dotyczące polityki rolnej, zasadności regulacji ochronnych i ustawowego wsparcia gospodarstw rolnych. Rozdział drugi zawiera charakterystykę i ocenę korelacji prawa rolnego względem pozostałych dziedzin prawa. W dalszej części ukazano odrębność systemu ubezpieczeń społecznych, podatków, systemu obrotu i ochrony nieruchomości rolnych, odstępstwa rolnego oraz systemów wsparcia i ochrony zasobów środowiska naturalnego w gospodarstwach rodzinnych. Wyjątkowo istotną materią tego rozdziału jest również nadal aktualna kwestia egzekucji świadczeń pieniężnych z majątku gospodarstwa rolnego. Rozdział trzeci odnosi się do zagadnień związanych z prawno-ekonomicznymi regulacjami wsparcia rodzinnych gospodarstw rolnych, w których skoncentrowano się na tematyce wpływu WPR, założeniach EFRROW, PROW w latach lata 2014–2020 i innych systemach wsparcia dla rodzinnych gospodarstw wiejskich. Rozdział czwarty zawiera analizę komparatystyczną ustroju i rozwiązań prawnych zapewniających wsparcie dla rodzinnych gospodarstw rolnych stosowanych w Polsce i wybranych krajach Unii Europejskiej. Postawione w wstępie pracy hipotezy badawcze rozwinięto w tezach i uzasadnieniu zawartym w zakończeniu. Rozważania oparto na twierdzeniu, iż ustawodawca otacza coraz to większym zakresem regulacji tryb i funkcjonowanie gospodarstw rolnych, co determinuje pozycję prawną gospodarstwa rolnego w licznych aktach normatywnych. Wyjątkowość sektora agrarnego dodatkowo ustawodawca uwydatnia poprzez rozwinięcie oddzielnych regulacji oraz odmiennego podejścia i ujęcia sfery majątkowej rolników, jak też ich obowiązków publicznych. Wysoce rozbudowana konstrukcja instrumentów regulacyjnych stawia gospodarstwa rolne jako równoprawny podmiot gospodarczy z zapewnioną uprzywilejowaną pozycją w stosunku do silniejszych kapitałowo podmiotów na rynku gospodarki wolnorynkowej, niemniej czynniki globalizacyjne spowodowały, że do dziś wiele osób traktuje rolnictwo w sposób bagatelizujący, wynikający najprawdopodobniej z niezrozumienia znaczenia i specyfiki tego sektora, w stosunku do ogólnoświatowej części systemu gospodarczego.
An agricultural holding as a co-participant of the economic market, is located in a multifaceted regulation both on the basis of national and EU law. The classic view of production factors (labor, capital and land) classifies an agricultural holding as a kind of enterprise, which is covered by a separate and preferential legal regulation, due to its strategic character and role for each State and the society functioning in it. In the dissertation issues were raised related to legislative processes in the context of specific political and economic events, which reflected the entirety of concepts and models of agriculture adopted by State, as well as an attempt to the balance between interest of property rights with imposed administrative obligations. The main emphasis was put on family farms conducted by individual farmers, which is exemplifications of the accepted program norm, expressed in art. 23 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland. Characterizing the research methods adopted at work, mention should be made of the analysis based on the legal-dogmatic, historical, legal-comparative method with statistical elements and SWOT analysis. The first two of them allows to draw the most complete conclusions about the factors shaping the agricultural system in Poland. Two next shown a direct relation with the then agriculture and the economic-social-legal plane. The first chapter was devoted to issues related to the evolution of an agricultural institution and its legal regulations. It looked at the sources of concepts and definitions of a farm in constitutional, administrative and civilian terms. Also raised issues related to: agricultural policy, the legitimacy of protective regulations and statutory support for farms. The second chapter contains the characteristics and assessment of the correlation of agricultural law in relation to other areas of law. In the following, the author shows separateness of the social security system, taxes, the system of trade and protection of agricultural real estate, agricultural exemption and support and protection systems for natural resources in family farms. An extremely important matter of this chapter is also the current issue of the judicial execution of cash benefits from farm property. The third chapter refers to issues related to legal and economic regulations for supporting family farms, which focus on the impact of the CAP, EAFRD objectives, RDPs in the years 2014-2020 and other support systems for family rural households. The fourth chapter contains a comparative analysis of the system and legal solutions that provide support for family farms used in Poland and selected European Union countries. The research hypotheses put forward in the introduction were developed in the theses and substantiation contained in the conclusion. The considerations were based on the claim that the legislator surrounds the mode and functioning of farms holdings by increasing range of regulation, what determines the legal position of an agricultural holding in numerous normative acts. The legislator emphasizes the uniqueness of the agrarian sector by developing separate regulations and different approach and recognition of the farmers property sphere, as well as their public duties. The highly developed construction of regulatory instruments places agricultural holdings as an equal economic entity, with a privileged position in relation to stronger capital market players in free market economy. However, globalization factors have caused that many people still treat agriculture in a downplaying manner, probably resulting from a misunderstanding of the importance and specificity of this sector in relation to the global economic system.