Each year the Canadian government allocates a significant amount of money for science and technology. A major portion of this allocation goes for R& D. In order to enjoy adequate return, technologies that are developed in Canadian federal labs need to be transferred to the public effectively. There are critical factors in technology transfer which play a key role in determining the effectiveness of this transfer process. This study examines the technical, organizational, and people factors which can enhance technology transfer from government laboratories.
One reason teams are seen to be a high-performance work practice (HPWP) is that the diversity of team member knowledge, skills and abilities, known as cognitive resource diversity supposedly brings new perspectives, information, ideas and resources to the solution of problems and the exploration and exploitation of opportunities. However, to date the performance of heterogeneous teams has been disappointing with the most common finding being increased conflict. Based on social identity and social exchange theories and building onto Mayer, Davis & Schoorman's (1995) classic integrative model of trust, this paper proposes that trust is a critical mediator in the relationship between cognitive resource diversity and within-team knowledge sharing.
Entrepreneurship is a recognized concept both for research and practice. It is possible to find university courses, research published in specialized journals, associations dedicated to entrepreneurship promotion and governmental support. In a regional economic development context, a special form of entrepreneurship could achieve other objectives. Social entrepreneurship is an emergent concept earning more popularity than ever around the planet. However the concept is not well known. The objective of the paper is to present an overview of the social entrepreneurship concept.
Research emphasizing evolutionary and resource-based perspectives of the firm highlights the importance of core capabilities as sources of superior performance, and views capabilities in computer-based IT systems as instrumental in leading to strategic advantage. However, the asymmetrical results from such systems present a somewhat confusing picture as to the key issues that managers should be addressing. We present an approach to IS capability development that applies a combined evolutionary and resource-based perspective. We propose that IS capability is determined along three strategic dimensions and will result from effective and sustained efforts in three complementary areas that are discussed in this paper. We use three case studies to illustrate the use of the proposed IS capability framework in analyzing information systems in organizations.
This paper examines the role of affect in marketing positioning strategy and individual positioning judgements. We examine affect in both the marketing and positioning literatures and argue that vestiges of the dual mind perspective are alive and well in positioning. Viewing 'thinking' and 'feeling' as entirely separate (as in utilitarian vs. hedonic product distinctions) runs counter to advances in neuroscience and devalues individual differences and brain functioning. As a result of our own coding of positioning dimensions, we advocate for a greater understanding of the complex interplay between affect and cognition in positioning strategy and judgements.
A review of five major journals in the Management Information Systems (MIS) field reveals that the majority of research articles engaging with Critical Theory, from the period 1990 to 2001, are of a conceptual nature, focusing primarily on systems development. Two reasons are suggested for the comparatively low level of engagement with Critical Theory in empirical research efforts: lack of a critical theory method and reluctance to engage with the theory's emancipatory commitments. A critical theory method that encompasses both quantitative and qualitative data collection methods is advanced. In addition, a more practiceoriented way of thinking about emancipation is proposed.
The paper identifies the characteristics of firm activities that constitute its technology scanning dynamic capability, which enables the firm to translate information about customer needs into information about tangible ways to introduce new products and services to satisfy those needs. The ability to find a specific actionable way to address customer needs is proposed to be measured by a latent construct called technology scanning. Using the literature on marketing, innovation management, knowledge management, new product development, and economics, five dimensions are identified for a technology scanning scale. A strong presence of 'technology scanning' ensures that the firm's resources are targeted to find the solution of the problems that matters most, the ones that were identified as a consequence of high level of market orientation of the firm. This work would shed some light on how managers might solve the problems and needs of the customers identified through market orientation practices. When market orientation guides technology scanning activities, the outcomes are more desirable to the firm.
In this study we will discuss the historical changes in the work and life relationship which resulted in development of new theories. After an introduction to work-life relationships, different theories of work and life are presented in the second section of this paper. These theories are categories intro three generations based on their characteristics in the historical evolution of work-life studies. In the third section measures of work and life spillovers are described. In section four, critiques of the current methodologies which is being used in the work and life studies are presented. Discussion section which is presented in following section includes some arguments regarding the ways to select the most appropriate theories for work-life studies. Also in this section some recommendations are presented for enhancing the commonly used methodologies of the research on work and life relationships. Finally, in the last section, some recommendations for future studies are presented.
This study uses theories of motivation to analyze how performance changes over the life of a contract. Utilizing performance data for professional basketball players in the NBA for three seasons, the results show that performance does change over the life of a contract. Factors affecting how much control a player has over his performance are found to be important in how the players' performance changes as the contract completion nears.
Managers are often measured against an ideal that is treated as a tangible object which is stable across generations. It is the contention of this paper that the ideal manager is, in fact, a social construct that is a product of the political and social context within which it exists. Different periods in time create unique typifications of the construct, and the ideal manager is not independent of its environment. The socially constructed nature of the ideal manager will be illustrated through the analysis of the construct at one specific point in time, the internal Cold War in the years following the Second World War and ending in 1960. While widely studied in most disciplines, the Cold War has been largely ignored in the management literature, and therefore provides us with a unique perspective from which to assess the impact of context on the standard to which managers are held.