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UD prof awarded NSF grant, joins editorial board
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 organizations 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 To learn how to subscribe to UDaily, click here. |