dc.contributor.author | Khdairi, Ghazi Hasan Awad | |
dc.date.accessioned | 2014-07-29T09:28:26Z | |
dc.date.available | 2014-07-29T09:28:26Z | |
dc.date.issued | 2003 | |
dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/2299/14125 | |
dc.description.abstract | It has been shown in this thesis why innovations are regarded as the lifeline of
engineering industries. Continuous flow of novel ideas is the source of innovations but
the encouragement, creation and nurturing of such ideas requires many distinct
managerial attributes. Hence, management of innovations is complex but an important
area of study which is not amenable to standard analyses due to its multidisciplinary
nature and dependence on a large number of intangible variables. It has been shown
that proper management of innovations would involve at least three distinct but closely
linked activities, namely: (a) managing people, in particular the innovators, as well as
inspiring others to become innovators; (b) managing the environment so that it is
conducive to innovations; and (c) managing innovative processes in order to ensure
that innovations are properly nurtured, well targeted and economically implemented
within clearly defined time and budgetary constraints. The thesis has been divided into
eight chapters; an outline of the chapters is given below.
Chapter 1 is an introduction to the subject of managing innovations in engineering
industries. It sets the scene for carrying out research in this field, identifies the
problems to be tackled and makes a clear statement of the aims.
Chapter 2 offers a critical review of the published works relevant to the field of
research covered in this thesis. The purpose of this study was to understand the state of
the art approach to: (a) creating and maintaining the innovative environment; (b)
inspiring and leading engineers to come up with innovative solutions for engineering
problems; (c) managing the innovative processes for better efficiency. Finally, in view
of the comprehensive review of the relevant published literature, this chapter justifies
the aims of this research.
Chapter 3 describes research methodology i. e. the procedure for conducting this
programme of research. The purpose of this study was to ensure that the research
programme was conducted in accordance with the scientific method as closely as
practicable.
For sake of clarity, chapter 4 first draws distinction between inventions, innovations
and engineering design and later identifies a large number of intangible factors that
influence the three principal components, i. e. innovative environment, innovators and
the innovation process. It is suggested that the innovativeness of engineering
companies depends on these three principal components. Hence, innovativeness may
be assessed by determining the influence of each on the principal components with the
help of suitable computational techniques.
Two computer applications have been developed to: (a) evaluate the innovativeness of
engineering organisations; and (b) analyse the risks embedded in either accepting
innovative ideas or implementing innovative projects. These applications are based on
questionnaires and may serve as computer aided management (CAM) tools for dealing
with the multidimensional problem of managing innovations speedily and efficiently.
Chapter 5 analyses the influence of factors identified in chapter 4 and uses the two
aforementioned applications to survey the innovativeness of four engineering
organisations for their innovativeness and evaluate two projects for the risks
surrounding them. These assessments were carried in the form of six case studies.
Chapter 6 and Chapter 7 present the results of the six case studies and a focused
discussion of the results and other observations made during the course of this
research. Chapter 8 draws conclusion from this research and proposes further work that
may be carried out in order to study yet unknown factors, refine the questionnaires
conduct further tests in different industrial environments to build confidence in the use
of CAM Applications as tools for rapid response management of innovations in
engineering industries. | en_US |
dc.language.iso | en | en_US |
dc.publisher | University of Hertfordshire | en_US |
dc.rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess | en_US |
dc.subject | Management & business studies, Management | en_US |
dc.title | Managing innovations in engineering industries | en_US |
dc.type | info:eu-repo/semantics/doctoralThesis | en_US |
dc.identifier.doi | 10.18745/th.14125 | |
dc.identifier.doi | 10.18745/th.14125 | |
dc.type.qualificationlevel | Doctoral | en_US |
dc.type.qualificationname | PhD | en_US |
herts.preservation.rarelyaccessed | true | |