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ItemInstitutionalized Environments and Information Security Management: Learning from Y2K(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2007-07-02) Hassebroek, Pamela BurnsThe successful elimination of the Y2K vulnerability from the information technology (IT) systems of a large, complex critical sector organization provided a model to study how organizations contend with problems affecting the security of electronically stored and transmitted information, and how context influences their solutions. This dissertation proposed that the institutionalized environments of sub-unit business areas influenced compliance solutions during the Year 2000 Program process at Delta Air Lines, Inc. The investigation applied rival organization theories. A comparative case study method was employed to explain the Y2K compliance solutions of four business areas as embedded sub-cases. Data for the study were the Delta Year 2000 Program archive, and personal interviews with individuals related to the Delta Year 2000 Program. Data analysis revealed characteristics of both the institutional and the rational-contingency models. Case results showed that: * A positive relationship among entities in the sectoral environment benefited the air transportation field in addressing the Y2K problem. In this cooperative setting, addressing common issues in one place helped a vast network of related organizations. Recognizing that all were stakeholders made it work. * Business area decisions were influenced by the institutionalized environments of their respective fields. * The Year 2000 Program team lacked awareness that the Y2K bug was an information security issue. * In the process of eliminating the Y2K bug from the Delta systems, new vulnerabilities were introduced. While tradeoffs are always required among security, functionality, and efficiency within the IT structures and systems of the present time, this negative effect might have been anticipated; but it was not. * The success of this complex, short-term project at Delta underscored the importance of leadership, understanding of IT, vision, motivation, IT skills, understanding of assets, and appropriate strategy. The Delta case study contributes to the fields of information security and organization studies. Results have implications for policymaking and for future research in the field of information security.
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ItemUniversity research centers and the composition of academic work(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2006-11-17) Boardman, Paul CraigThe purpose of this study is to assess the extent to which affiliation with a university research center affects how university scientists allocate their work time across their many academic tasks and responsibilities, including research, teaching, student advising, grants and contracts work, and service and committee duties. The key proposition is that institutional variation across university research centers can affect greatly how center affiliated university scientists allocate their work time insofar as some center level characteristics are more conducive than are others to role strain, which is the structural circumstance (Merton 1957) wherein an individual is beholden to center and departments norms and expectations that are divergent. The concept of role strain befits analysis of the impact of center affiliation on university scientists time allocations insofar as it provides a structural framework with which to characterize the time constraints that center scientists face as a result of being dually obligated to a center and an academic department. Moreover, study at the organizational level of analysis emphasizes competition and even conflict between university research centers and academic departments over the scarce resource of faculty time (Geiger 1990, Stahler and Tash 1994, Mallon 2004). This study uses data from a national survey of university scientists as well as data from interviews with university scientists who affiliate with National Science Foundation Engineering Research Centers or Science and Technology Centers. Survey results demonstrate that a centers size, multidisciplinarity, organization within the university, programmatic ties, and external relations increase the time allocated to research, grants and contracts work, and service and committee duties. These findings constitute objective evidence of center induced role strain (Pandey and Kumar 1997, Rizzo et al. 1970) insofar as they identify components of center scientists work environments suggestive of center and department norms and expectations being divergent and even conflicting. Interview results demonstrate similarly that when a center has no ties to an academic department and when its research focus is applied or commercially relevant, workload increases. These findings constitute subjective evidence of center induced role strain (Pandey and Kumar 1997, Kahn et al. 1964) insofar as it is the center scientists themselves observing these divergent norms and expectations. Implications for policy and theory are discussed.
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ItemTechnological Innovation of Chinese Firms: Indigenous R and D, Foreign Direct Investment, and Markets(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2006-05-10) Zhang, JingjingWhat are the factors behind the recent development of industrial technology in China? Does China follow the path of learning technology from outside through direct foreign investment and international trade as other Asian newly industrialized economies, or imitate the U.S. model that develop science and technology within the country based on the strong domestic research capacity? This study examines these questions using a comprehensive research model and a new Chinese patent dataset. The patent statistics in this study are created based on more than 120 thousand granted invention patent abstracts in China between 1985 and 2003. Compared with the Chinese patent data used in prior studies, this dataset distinguishes firm patents from patents awarded to universities and research institutes. The dependent variable for regression analysis is the technological innovation performance of Chinese domestic firms as measured by the number of patents awarded to firms in 30 Chinese provinces from 1989 to 1999. The final panel data for regression analysis were completed with other provincial indicators for the same years on research and development (R and D) expenditures by firms and public institutions, foreign direct investment (FDI), domestic consumption, and foreign exports. The results of count data fixed effect regression approaches show that the efforts of firms, measured by industrial R and D expenditures, spillovers from R and D activities conducted at universities and public institutions in the same region, and demand driven mainly by foreign exports are the most prominent positive factors in the domestic firms technological innovation performance. While the net impact of FDI on domestic firms patenting activity is mostly insignificant and sometimes negative