Organizational Unit:

School of Public Policy

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https://hdl.handle.net/1853/70716

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Organizational Unit

Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts

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Organizational Unit

Technology Policy and Assessment Center

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https://finding-aids.library.gatech.edu/agents/corporate_entities/1033

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Publication Search Results

Now showing 1 - 10 of 26

Representation and Reward in High Technology Industries and Occupations: The Influence of Race and Ethnicity

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2007-11-13) Gatchair, Sonia Denise

This study examined whether the demand for more educated science and engineering workers outweighed longstanding practices of discrimination in hiring in high technology industries and science and engineering occupations. The study focused on the effects of education on the distribution of employment and wages among four racial and ethnic groups (non-Hispanic whites, non-Hispanic blacks, Hispanics and Asians), for the period 1992 to 2002. The main data used in the analyses came from the March Annual Demographic Survey. Multinomial logit analyses were used to determine the probabilities of employment, and ordinary least squares, non-parametric regressions and t-tests were used to examine wages. The analyses showed that education was more important in determining employment in S &E occupations, when compared to its effects in other occupations; and compared to race, other demographic and labor market characteristics. The effects of education were greater in S &E jobs in the high technology sector when compared to S &E jobs elsewhere in the economy. However, the effects of education varied with race, the level of education, and the industry/ occupational group under consideration in ways that suggest that both employment and wages continue to be influenced by correlates of race. Based on the findings, the study provides recommendations for policy and future research.
Resource Spillover from Academia to High Tech Industry: Evidence from New Nanotechnology-Based Firms in the U.S.

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2007-10-12) Wang, Jue

The role of universities in supporting economic development has been explored in numerous studies emphasizing the mechanisms of technology transfer and knowl-edge spillover. However, in addition to these forms of intellectual capital, university scientists bring other resources into research collaboration and contribute to firm part-nerships in both direct and indirect ways. This thesis proposes the concept of resource spillover, which captures the various ways in which university scientists can benefit col-laborating firms. The study first analyzes firms, university scientists, and collaboration along with the concepts of ego, alter, and network ties in social capital theory; then it categorizes the resources possessed by university scientists into human capital, social capital, and positional capital, and tests the impact of each on the performance of a firm. The study finds that firms benefit from research collaboration in terms of both increased research capability and research output and improved public relations and research credibility. The study is carried out using a sample of new nanotechnology-based firms in the United States. As the U.S. government recognizes nanotechnology as providing scientific and technological opportunities with immense potential, this industry has be-come the recipient of significant federal R&D funding. In turn, because academic re-search has proven to be important to not only overall nanotechnology R&D but also in-dustrial R&D, it necessitates appropriate policy programs that support successful re-source spillover from academia and promote the development of industry.
Overcoming the "Do-Gooder Fallacy": Explaining the Adoption of Effectiveness Best Practices in Philanthropic Foundations

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2007-07-12) Ashley, Shena R.

An adoption model was proposed to examine the influence of four types of organizational factors- organizational capacity, organizational structure, operating environment and grantmaking orientation- on the adoption of four effectiveness best practices, formal evaluation, knowledge management, leadership development and operating grants in philanthropic foundations. Data were collected from a national survey of foundations and the Foundation Center database. The results indicate that the grantmaking orientation of a foundation is the greatest indicator of adoptive behavior. Furthermore, capacity constraints are most relevant to the adoption decision when the adopting practice requires significant investments of time, money and expertise. Given the social and political context in which the effectiveness best practices are associated, this dissertation research has broad relevance for the ways in which foundation behavior is perceived and the means by which that behavior is shaped through policy and practice.
The building of agro-biotechnology capabilities in small countries: The cases of Costa Rica, New Zealand and Uruguay

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2007-07-09) Bortagaray, Isabel

The building of agro-biotechnology capabilities in small countries: The cases of Costa Rica, New Zealand and Uruguay. Isabel Bortagaray 411 pages Directed by Dr. Susan E. Cozzens This dissertation has studied the role of institutional environments on the building of agro-biotechnological capabilities in small countries, through a comparative case study design. The key question was whether the institutional environments in Costa Rica, New Zealand and Uruguay have evolved in a way that have fostered or hindered the transition towards modern biotechnology at the level of firms and sector. Biotechnology provided a particularly interesting area of study because of the dramatic changes it has undergone since the 1970s and consequently, it facilitated to study the transition from second generation to third generation biotechnology. Innovation studies have trend to focus on pharmaceutical biotechnology. This research however, attempted to understand the dynamics behind biotechnology applied to agriculture, in countries with agricultural-based economies. In this context three small countries were selected: Costa Rica, New Zealand and Uruguay, based on some commonalities in terms of size (population), their reliance on agriculture, and some historical features that inter-connect them. The choice of biotechnology applied to agriculture enabled to study the extent to which the institutional environments have changed and processed change vis a vis fundamental technological development. The institutional environment was defined as composed by institutions (rules of the game), the web of organizations (players of the game), and policies. Technological capabilities were defined as composed by skills, processes and resources. Primary data was collected based on in-depth interviews to research organizations, hybrid research-related organizations, firms, and policy-making agencies in each country. These findings suggest that institutional thickness (number and variety of organizations and institutions), cohesiveness (shared sense of strategic purpose), and coherence between institutions and policies with regard to their goals and means are crucial for strengthening more complex, cumulative, encompassing (different biotechnologies with multiple focuses), and expanding biotechnologies.
Spatial Resolution, Costs, and Equity in Air Toxics Regulation

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2007-07-09) Turaga, Rama Mohana Rao

Concern about environmental injustice has been driving the recent effort to characterize risks from exposures to air toxics at very fine spatial resolutions. However, few studies seek to understand the potential policy implications of regulating risks at increasingly finer spatial resolutions and the impact of resulting policies on distribution of risks. To address this gap, the broad question for this research is how could the choice of spatial resolution for regulation of risks from toxic air pollutants affect emission controls and the consequences thereof? This research develops a formal model of a hypothetical decision maker choosing emission controls within a risk-based regulatory framework. The model suggests that optimal controls on air toxics emissions vary depending on the spatial resolution chosen to regulate risks; net social costs are non-decreasing as one regulates at finer and finer spatial resolutions. An empirical application of the model using air toxic emission data for Escambia and Santa Rosa Counties in Florida demonstrates the sensitivity of optimal emissions to spatial resolution chosen for regulation. The research then investigates the equity implications of regulating at different spatial resolutions with regard to the spatial distribution of cancer risks. The empirical results indicate that regulation at finer spatial resolutions could involve a tradeoff between costs and equitable distribution of risks. For example, at a threshold cancer risk of 100 in a million, regulating at census block level resolution could be twice as costly as regulating at census tract resolution while reducing the maximum individual risk by almost half. Further, regulation at finer spatial resolutions might not address environmental injustice by itself unless such concerns are more explicitly incorporated into emission control decisions. Finally, this research shows that spatial resolution at which air toxics risks are regulated could matter in predictable ways even after taking into account the uncertainties that the decision maker faces.
Predicting Public Managers' Readiness for Contracting of Professional Services in a Changing State Government Agency

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2007-07-06) O'Neil, Dara Veronica

The extent of work being contracted out in government and the type of work being contracted out is growing in magnitude. Government agencies wrestle with the effect this has on government operations as the daily work of many government employees is changing from that of actually conducting government work to overseeing government contractors who are now providing goods and services for government. In effect, many government employees are becoming contract managers. However, most studies of government contracting sidestep or ignore the role of individual employees in ensuring the success of contractual relationships with the private sector. Scholars in public policy are calling attention to the need to look at theories from organizational change research and apply them to the context of changing government organizations. Furthermore, organizational change theorists stress the importance of studying individuals within organizations that are undergoing transformations. Heeding this advice, this dissertation research uses the theory of readiness for organizational change from organizational change literature to develop a readiness for contracting construct to study how individual government employees respond to increasing contracting out in government. The readiness for contracting construct builds on current debates about government contracting by encompassing perceptions on the extent to which government contracting is needed and the concept of management capacity as two dimensions of the readiness for contracting construct. This study explores the relationship between readiness for contracting in the context of contracting out in government and 11 career path, involvement, and competence factors identified in the literature that may influence an individual s readiness. The results of multiple regression analysis show that an individual s readiness for contracting is positively predicted by an individual s perceptions of personal impact, information about contracting out, and management support. Results of this research support the need for more attention to be given to individual government employees in the context of government contracting from both a theoretical and pragmatic perspective.
Do Different Expenditure Mechanisms Invite Different Influences? Evidence from Research Expenditures of the National Institutes of Health

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2007-07-05) Kim, Jungbu

This study examines 1) whether the different expenditure mechanisms used by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) invite different sources of influences on the budget process and thus on the expenditure outcomes and 2) whether the frequent use of omnibus appropriations bills since 1996 has changed budget levels of the institutes under the NIH. The NIH uses two major expenditure mechanisms with very different beneficiary groups: the principal investigator-initiated Research Project Grants and Intramural Research. Drawing on theories of motivations of public officials and of political clout of agency heads and considering empirical studies of the effect of omnibus legislation, this study reveals the following: 1) directors with more public service experience are more successful in securing a higher budget for their institutes; 2) while the directors are found to be driven by public service motivation, when it comes to expenditure allocation between two different mechanisms, they behave in a self-interested manner, representing the interests of the institutional sectors where they have developed close relationships; 3) with ever-increasing budgets between 1983 and 2005, the institute directors have chosen to seek higher budgets rather than merely avoid the risk of budget cuts; 4) although the advisory boards are purportedly used to seek private input for the priority setting, they tend to increase intramural more than external research project grant expenditures; 5) the practice of omnibus appropriations bills significantly benefits the institutes under the NIH such that with omnibus legislation the institutes¡¯ total expenditures have more than doubled controlling the other factors; and 6) there are significant differences in the effects of the director¡¯s public experience and the number of advisory boards and their membership both (i) between disease-focused institutes and nondisease institutes and (ii) with and without omnibus legislation. The effects of the director¡¯s public service experience and the advisory boards have more budgetary impact in the general science-focused institutes than in their disease-focused counterparts. The influence of the advisory board and of the institute director¡¯s public service experience on the individual institute¡¯s expenditure level is significantly diminished by the frequent use of omnibus appropriations bills.
Institutionalized Environments and Information Security Management: Learning from Y2K

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2007-07-02) Hassebroek, Pamela Burns

The 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.
Public school responses to charter school presence

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2007-07-02) Ertas, Nevbahar

As charter schools continue to proliferate across United States, their impact on the public education system is becoming an increasingly important public policy question. Charter school proponents argue that combined pressures of consumer choice and market competition will induce traditional public schools to respond by providing higher quality education and promoting innovation and equity. Skeptics worry that charter schools pose risks of segregating students by race and economic level, and reducing per-pupil resources available to traditional public schools. This dissertation provides a comprehensive evaluation of the effects of charter schools on regular public schools by addressing the following questions: 1) How do the charter schools affect the racial, ethnic and cosio-economic distribution, student-teacher ratios and achievement of traditional public schools? 2) How do the size and scope of competitive effects vary according to different measures of competition? Using two-period panel data from the National Center of Education Statistics (NCES) Common Core Data (CCD) for traditional public schools in Florida, New Jersey, Texas and Ohio, I compare changes in racial and ethnic distribution, student-teacher ratios and achievement in public schools that do and do not face competition. I use a variation of the difference-in-differences (DD) estimation strategy to study the effect of charter schools on the outcome measures. The findings from the study suggest that introduction of charter schools in the educational landscape has affected student distributions, and at least in some cases, student-teacher ratios and the performance of traditional public schools. Charter schools seem to contribute to declines in the share of non-Hispanic white students in traditional public schools in all four states. The results show variation in other outcome areas across states and competition measures. The findings highlight the importance of monitoring what will happen to non-choosers in traditional schools as well as the role of considering state context and empirical measures while generalizing from charter school studies.
Project Organization, Diverse Knowledge, and Innovation Systems in the Korean Game Software Industry

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2007-01-16) Oh, Eunjoo

This research was initiated in the belief that new product development requires the integration of diverse knowledge located in different units or organizations. In recent decades, evolutionary scholars have emphasized the importance of coherent systems and regional scientists have highlighted the importance of geographical proximity for easier transfer of tacit knowledge. Despite the strength of these explanations, they do not adequately address the balance between tacit and explicit knowledge, ignoring different types of knowledge conversion process (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995). My research aims to bring a greater understanding of the integration of diverse knowledge for innovation achievements among different actors. Specifically, this thesis deals with project organization for new product development, exploring three main research areas: (1) company utilization of external companies and freelancers for project formation in relation to resource mobilization of companies; (2) types of knowledge conversion among employees within and between departments; and (3) the impacts of several meditating factors on clustering orientations of companies. These meditating factors include knowledge codification, IT technology for communication, and trust mechanisms that help to mobilize external knowledge and reduce friction among team members. In this study, data are collected from questionnaire survey (104 firms) and interviews with 34 persons in the Korean game industry. Probit model, tobit model, and OLS regression model were used. The main findings are as follows. First, codified knowledge concept reports, prototypes, and manuals is produced through externalization as a game development project is in progress. Second, among several indicators of internal capability of companies, the type of initial industry whether game companies started their business in the game industry and expenditures on the purchase of intellectual property rights from other cultural industries have significant and positive impacts on the utilization of external partners. Third, information communication technology has a significant, negative impact on clustering orientation of companies while reliance on communities of practice and built-in trust have significant, positive impacts on that.