UD Home | UDaily | UDaily-Alumni | UDaily-Parents


HIGHLIGHTS
UD called 'epicenter' of 2008 presidential race

Refreshed look for 'UDaily'

Fire safety training held for Residence Life staff

New Enrollment Services Building open for business

UD Outdoor Pool encourages kids to do summer reading

UD in the News

UD alumnus Biden selected as vice presidential candidate

Top Obama and McCain strategists are UD alums

Campanella named alumni relations director

Alum trains elephants at Busch Gardens

Police investigate robbery of student

UD delegation promotes basketball in India

Students showcase summer service-learning projects

First UD McNair Ph.D. delivers keynote address

Research symposium spotlights undergraduates

Steiner named associate provost for interdisciplinary research initiatives

More news on UDaily

Subscribe to UDaily's email services


UDaily is produced by the Office of Public Relations
The Academy Building
105 East Main St.
Newark, DE 19716-2701
(302) 831-2791

UD prof awarded NSF grant, joins editorial board

John Sawyer, professor and chairperson of the Department of Business Administration
9:26 a.m., Oct. 1, 2004--John Sawyer, professor and chairperson of the Department of Business Administration in the Lerner College of Business and Economics, has received a three-year grant from the National Science Foundation to study how knowledge is transferred in high-tech industries.

Sawyer will share the $483,338 grant with Terri Griffith, professor of management in the Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University in California. The University of Delaware was awarded $280,350 and $202,988 will go to Santa Clara University.

Sawyer will use the grant to research how knowledge is developed and transferred among scientists and engineers working in technology-based industries and supported by virtual communication technologies.

Three Fortune 100 technology-based companies will participate in data collection for the study, titled "Collaborative Research: Knowledge, Innovation and Virtual Work in Science and Engineering Organizations.”

The research involves interviews and surveys of scientists, engineers, managers, customer account managers and customers and the collection of archival data related to technology use, innovation, performance, customer satisfaction and productivity, Sawyer said.

“The companies involved in the research are interested in learning how their work practices affect innovation and hope to learn from each other best practices for using technology and stimulating innovation,” Sawyer said. “Academically, the research will further advance our understanding of the knowledge development and innovation processes in modern work contexts.”

The first phase of studies across the three companies will investigate organizational practices and technologies that aid product knowledge transfer worldwide and the establishment of technology-based communities throughout the organizations. The research then will focus on the transfer of knowledge from the field to the organization’s research and development efforts, Sawyer said.

Finally, the research will address organizational practices and technologies that facilitate the integration of scientific and technological advances across multiple disciplines and across globally distributed laboratory and field research sites.

Sawyer recently was appointed to the editorial board of the Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, a multidisciplinary journal that publishes original empirical reports, critical review papers, theoretical analyses and methodological contributions. The board is composed of faculty from top U.S. and international universities. Sawyer was selected because of his expertise in individual-judgment and group-decision processes.

“Because of the focus of my research, my contributions to the board will be predominantly to review and make editorial decisions on manuscripts related to knowledge development, judgment and group decisions,” Sawyer said. “As such, I have the opportunity to shape the direction of current research in the field and to remain at the cutting edge of this discipline.”

Article by Martin Mbugua
Photo by Kathy Atkinson

  E-mail this article

To learn how to subscribe to UDaily, click here.