Explaining the levels of innovation and R&D in New Zealand's small and medium-sized enterprises : too many small firms?

This paper is concerned with explaining the levels of innovative activity in New Zealand's SMEs. It is arguable that New Zealand provides a special case where innovation and R&D levels are comparatively low in SMEs, yet, paradoxically, it is also a nation of high rates of entrepreneurial activity. This paper seeks to examine the factors that affect innovation levels in New Zealand SMEs from an analysis of panel data set of 1500 SMEs. We test research propositions based on existing theory and literature on innovation levels in SMEs and discuss our findings. Firm size is found to be significant; we argue that New Zealand has too few growth firms rather than too many small firms and we suggest that barriers to innovation, such as access to finance, remain an issue which should be a focus for government support.

Abstract & experimental animation – A century of innovation

This compact history of 100 years of abstract and experimental animation in Australia spans the earliest cameraless classics through to modern examples of what’s happening in the vibrant VJ scene. Australian animators and experimental filmmakers have been as innovative as anybody when it comes to creating abstract animation. This history is more elongated than many people believe, in part due to the inherent lack of commercial or popular screening opportunities for much of this sort of filmmaking. This program showcases a rich collection of films from this most elemental of all animation genres. It will be introduced by a small panel of filmmakers who will contextualise this history and explain its future.

Implications of innovation for inclusive growth: a study of Medellín, Colombia's metro system and integral urban projects

Medellín, Colombia continues to attract global recognition for its evolution from a crimesaturated and desegregated city to an award-winning paragon of innovation. Two innovations in particular, the Metro System & the Integral Urban Projects, have fostered and contributed to Medellín’s inclusive growth, as indicated by a corresponding increase in both social and economic capital. Through a mixed methodology analysis of these two experiences, including participant observation, in-depth interviews with different industry leaders, and household surveys, this thesis explores the extent to which inclusive innovation has contributed to inclusive growth in Medellín. The surveys were distributed to three sensitive neighborhoods of Medellín and apply a Synthesized Framework for measuring inclusive growth, one that includes five indicators for social capital and five indicators for economic capital, emphasizing the importance of progression in both dimensions. By drawing on concepts of inclusivity surfacing more frequently in business lexicon and the emergence of a newly branded Medellín, the findings of this thesis indicates that the implementation of innovations in association with a unified city vision practiced by the local government, corporate and non-profit sector has contributed to achieving inclusive growth, and has left civilians hungry for more.

Market entry of an innovative technology : the example of a new app on the Brazilian tourism market

The Brazilian start-up Local Wander plans to enter the tourism sector with a mobile application aiming to enable a new form of travel research. A web-based survey has been sent out to the start-up’s target audience (n: 236) in order to gain further relevant information for the designing of Local Wander’s market entry strategy. By applying the diffusion of innovation theory, this thesis could detect five different adopter categories, originally described by Rogers (1962), among Local Wander’s target audience based on their adoption intention. The Early Market was observed to be significantly bigger than the theory predicted. Research revealed four characteristics to be of significant impact on the adoption intention: Relative Perceived Product Advantage, Perceived Product Complexity, Compatibility with digital travel research sources, and the adopter’s Innovativeness towards mobile applications. Specific characteristics in order to identify Local Wander’s early users, the so called Innovators, were detected giving indications for further necessary company market research. Findings showed that the diffusion of innovation framework is a helpful tool for start-ups’ prospective decision making and market entry strategy planning.

Quality management and competitiveness: the diffusion of the ISO 9000 standards in Latin America and recommendations for government strategies

Includes bibliography

Information and knowledge: the diffusion of information and communication technologies in the Argentine manufacturing sector

Includes bibliography

Airport mobile internet as an indicator of innovation: theoretical model

Trabajo para el doctorado oficial de perspectivas científicas sobre el turismo y la dirección de empresas turísticas, de la Facultad de Economía, Empresa y Turismo de la ULPGC.

Diffusion of laser polarized gases in MRI

The use of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) as a diagnostic tool is increasingly employing functional contrast agents to study or contrast entire mechanisms. Contrast agents in MRI can be classified in two categories. One type of contrast agents alters the NMR signal of the protons in its surrounding, e.g. lowers the T1 relaxation time. The other type enhances the Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) signal of specific nuclei. For hyperpolarized gases the NMR signal is improved up to several orders of magnitude. However, gases have a high diffusivity which strongly influences the NMR signal strength, hence the resolution and appearance of the images. The most interesting question in spatially resolved experiments is of course the achievable resolution and contrast by controlling the diffusivity of the gas. The influence of such diffusive processes scales with the diffusion coefficient, the strength of the magnetic field gradients and the timings used in the experiment. Diffusion may not only limit the MRI resolution, but also distort the line shape of MR images for samples, which contain boundaries or diffusion barriers within the sampled space. In addition, due to the large polarization in gaseous 3He and 129Xe, spin diffusion (different from particle diffusion) could play a role in MRI experiments. It is demonstrated that for low temperatures some corrections to the NMR measured diffusion coefficient have to be done, which depend on quantum exchange effects for indistinguishable particles. Physically, if these effects can not change the spin current, they can do it indirectly by modifying the velocity distribution of the different spin states separately, so that the subsequent collisions between atoms and therefore the diffusion coefficient can eventually be affected. A detailed study of the hyperpolarized gas diffusion coefficient is presented, demonstrating the absence of spin diffusion (different from particle diffusion) influence in MRI at clinical conditions. A novel procedure is proposed to control the diffusion coefficient of gases in MRI by admixture of inert buffer gases. The experimental measured diffusion agrees with theoretical simulations. Therefore, the molecular mass and concentration enter as additional parameters into the equations that describe structural contrast. This allows for setting a structural threshold up to which structures contribute to the image. For MRI of the lung this allows for images of very small structural elements (alveoli) only, or in the other extreme, all airways can be displayed with minimal signal loss due to diffusion.

UNDERSTANDING PEOPLE'S ADOPTION OF INDIVIDUAL-USE RENEWABLE ENERGY TECHNOLOGY

This thesis attempts to understand why people adopt or reject individual-use renewable energy technologies (IURET). I used factors from Everett Rogers' Diffusion of Innovation Theory to understand how people's perceptions towards the characteristics of a given IURET (such as price, compatibility, complexity, etc.), the characteristics of the individual adopter (such as innovativeness and environmental awareness), and the communication network (inter-personal communications and mass media) can influence adoption. An online questionnaire was sent to 101randomly selected Michigan households (using random digit dialing) to ask people whether or not they had adopted at least one IURET and to assess the above-mentioned factors from Rogers' theory. Data analysis was then conducted in SPSS using Chi-squared and binary logistic regression to determine the relationship between adoption behaviors (the dependent variable) and the factors from Rogers' theory (the independent variables) while controlling for education. The results show that Rogers' factors of price and observability and the control variable of education were all significant in explaining adoption but the other factors of Rogers' theory were not. For example, if individuals perceive the price of IURET to be reasonable or if they observe their neighbors using these technologies, then they are more likely to adopt. These results indicate that, if we want to promote greater adoption of IURET, we should focus our efforts on making the price of IURET more affordable through incentives and other mechanisms. Adopters should also be given some form of reward if they provide free demonstrations of their IURET in use to their neighbors to take advantage of the observability effects.

A Study of the Diffusion of Electroplated Coatings in the Solid State.

The term diffusion means an equalization or homogenization of diverse materials. Specifically ap­plied to metals, diffusion is the interchange of atoms. It is, in effect, an invasion of one crystal lattice by the atoms of one or more other crystal lattices. Therefore, the study of diffusion must involve the geometry and physics of crystal lattices as well as their energies.