Technology in Society最新文献

This study explores the critical factors of responsible innovation in the Taiwan software service industry. Based on a literature review, four main dimensions have been identified as the key factors, namely, financial capital, capabilities, social capital, and reputational assets. A hierarchical structure is constructed using these factors, and the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method is used to confirm the importance of factor weights. Questionnaires were distributed to various software companies and respondents from 35 companies. Analysis results indicate that reputational assets are highly valued, followed by social capital. The software server industry prioritizes these two indicators for responsible innovation development. Results highlight the importance of responsible innovation, assisting companies in understanding its significance and formulating strategies to enhance innovation capabilities, corporate governance, and alignment with environment and market trends. This study contributes to the evolving field of innovation management and offers valuable references for software service companies.

This study investigates older adults' perceptions and opinions regarding companion robots, contributing to the understanding of the benefits and risks associated with technology designed for senior users. Employing a mixed-methods approach, we first conducted qualitative research to explore key concepts and variables, followed by quantitative testing of the proposed model. The qualitative phase involved online interviews with 182 participants aged 55 or older. Data were analyzed using NVivo software, employing thematic analysis to identify conceptually similar themes. Six primary themes emerged, categorized into perceived benefits (health and wellness, companionship and support, and technology design advantages) and perceived risks (digital dependency and social disconnection, information integrity and online resilience, and implementation costs). Based on the qualitative findings, we developed a research model comprising six hypotheses. The model was subsequently tested quantitatively using structural equation modeling via AMOS with data from 313 adults aged 55 or older. All hypotheses were supported, with the model demonstrating an explanatory power of 56 %. Results indicate that while companion robots offer potential social and emotional support for older adults, they also present significant challenges. The study highlights the importance of balancing the advantages of companion robots with their potential drawbacks. These findings have implications for the design and implementation of smart healthcare devices for older populations, suggesting that maximizing benefits while mitigating risks could enhance adoption and utilization. This research contributes to the growing body of literature on Age technology, offering insights for researchers, technology designers, and healthcare providers working to improve the quality of life for older adults through technological innovations.

This review study delves into the use of Biomimicry in sustainable architecture, examining its ethical, philosophical, and psychological implications. The paper explores different approaches to Biomimicry, the intersection of Biomimicry with sustainable construction technologies, passive cooling strategies, emulation of sustainable ecosystems, net-zero construction techniques, and innovative 3D-printed homes. The main aim of this study is to provide an overview of sustainable construction technologies and highlight Biomimicry's role in developing passive cooling solutions and sustainable ecosystems. Additionally, integrating Biomimicry principles into net-zero construction techniques emphasizes the potential of architecture to contribute to a carbon-neutral future. The paper also discusses how using Biomimicry in 3D-printed homes can help compensate for the need for rapid urbanization while being aligned with maintaining the planet's health. Synthesizing the impact of Biomimicry on sustainable architecture, emphasizing the ethical responsibilities of architects, and the broader philosophical implications of adopting nature-inspired design principles have been explored. The knowledge gaps found from this study inspire a paradigm shift in architectural thinking, promoting a balance between technological progress and a deep respect for nature, and a commitment to creating a sustainable and ethically responsible built environment.

This study aims to examine the technology-push and demand-pull hypotheses developed for a wind power industry. The wind power industry plays an important role in society as an emerging sustainable technology with strong social supports. Using patents as a proxy for a technology-push factor and the United States wind power net generation as a proxy for a demand-pull factor from 2001 to 2018, this study shows that the technology development in the major market (e.g., United States) drives its domestic market demand, whereas the domestic market demand in the major market does not drive its domestic technology development. However, the global technology development drives the major market demand and the major market demand drives the global technology development bilaterally. These results enable us to infer a spillover effect from the major market demand, indicating global players benefit from the major market demand largely created by social and government supports in major market. These findings highlight the implications for policy makers pursing both environmental and industrial policy goals and for firm managers attempting to enhance competitiveness in the wind power market.

Envisioning humans and (smart) robots collaboratively working on the manufacturing shop floor, sharing spaces, tasks and objectives, reflects the ambitious goal that the ideal factory of the future aspires to attain. However, ensuring the effective implementation of this novel form of labour organisation remains an ongoing area of research. Key aspects such as the future role of workers, potential psychological risks, and the overall ethical considerations of human-robot (H-R) collaboration warrant further investigation until the underpinning safety challenges have been addressed. This study presents a novel ethical framework for H-R collaboration in manufacturing, which involved 30 subject-matter experts in ethics within the European context in a collaborative design process conducted through a year-long three-round data collection qualitative Delphi study. The ethical framework adopts a human-centric approach, recognising the influences that expand beyond the specific context of H-R dynamics on the shop floor, towards organisational and societal governance for a more responsible integration of (smart) robotics into the professional settings. Ethics, in this regard, aims to foster ethical awareness and accountability in the processes and practices of design and innovation, involving all stakeholders who play a role in shaping the future of Industry 5.0.

Technology standardisation is becoming a strategic initiative for globalised enterprises committed to innovation and development. However, the role of Technical Standards Alliance (TSA) as the primary method of participating in technology standardisation and the relationship between alliance enterprises for innovation benefits remains unclear, which leads to the partial failure of enterprise standardisation and innovation. This study constructs a research model based on coopetition theory to explore the mediating mechanism and boundary conditions of the Standards Alliance Coopetition Relationship (SCR) affecting enterprises' Technology Innovation Performance (TIP). The researchers conducted a questionnaire survey involving 542 standards alliance participating enterprises in China. The results of the regression analysis and self-help test reveal that (1) SCR positively affects enterprises' TIP; (2) Knowledge Acquisition (KA) and Routine Updating (RU) act as both a two-path mediator and a chain mediator between SCR and the enterprises’ TIP; and (3) Cognitive Proximity (CP) among alliance enterprises positively moderates the relationship between SCR and KA, and SCR and RU. These findings contribute theoretically to the literature on technology standardisation and address the research gap on how enterprises can effectively enhance their TIP through participation in standardisation. Finally, the study provides significant managerial implications for enterprises to construct robust standard alliance coopetition relationships, strengthen knowledge acquisition, and enhance routine updating.

This study examines innovative advances related to neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), which have severe health, social, and economic consequences that affect more than one billion people worldwide. It addresses the 2030 Agenda for the Sustainable Development Goals in tackling some of the “Grand Challenges,” such as dengue fever (DF), one of the primary and re-emerging diseases that have advanced worldwide in recent years. One of the challenges is the requirement that high investments in innovation can be rationalized by the potential returns sustained by the intellectual property protection system. This study answers the question: “How have dengue-related innovations been approached globally from an intellectual property perspective?” Seeking to shed light on innovative advances in NTD, this exploratory study adopted a (i) longitudinal approach, assessing the global impact of DF, and (ii) historical analysis from the intellectual property perspective, seeking the effectiveness of commercially viable solutions against the disease. An extensive search was conducted in international patent databases using Questel® Orbit Intelligence software to address the proposed objective. This study selected 2307 invention patent families (FamPat) from 1993 to 2023, of which nearly half have expired or been revoked. China is the largest jurisdiction, with 415 FamPat filings. However, many regions with a high global burden of DF lack intellectual protection for DF-related innovations. Although the number of Fampat is relatively high for DF, and the interaction between universities, government, and private companies shows the potential development of an innovation ecosystem, few technological solutions are available. This study concludes that the capacity to absorb knowledge influences the effectiveness of making a technology available as a commercial product.

Blockchain technology is mainly composed of public-key cryptography, hash algorithms and consensus mechanisms. Blockchain solves the two trust problems inherent in human interaction: the Byzantine Generals Problem and the Prisoner's Dilemma, which allows blockchain to replace the function of public power as a centre of trust to a certain extent, and also enables it to become a kind of decentralised large-scale collaborative infrastructure for human beings. Blockchain itself has a strong escape from public power, and the blockchain order is also non-rational. Its emergence has impacted the traditional constructivist-rationalism governance paradigm. Current research exploring blockchain governance issues at the level of governance paradigms is still limited. This study mainly adopts a normative analysis methodology, firstly outlining the decentralised technology model of blockchain and the economic ecosystem model built on top of this technology model. Secondly, this study explores the ontology of blockchain technology and its economic model on a philosophical level as well as the philosophical roots of the limitations of the traditional governance paradigm when confronted with blockchain governance. On this basis, this study further proposes ideas for shifting the blockchain governance paradigm. Specifically, it includes that a judicature-based governance paradigm should be established while the executive power should shift to focus on the issue of equality on the blockchain, and in the context of weakly centralised legislation, soft law governance should be allowed to play more of a role. Considering the popularity and development of blockchain technology, this study provides insights into the theoretical level of blockchain governance.

Local environmental constraints are capable of regulating market and affecting dual value chain (DVC), digital technology, such as information technology, big data, Internet of Things, cloud computing, blockchain and artificial intelligence, can optimize the policy effectiveness. Based on a dataset of 278 Chinese cities during 2011–2019, this article explores the non-linear effects of local environmental constraints on city's position in DVC, and then captures the role of digital technology in this process. Results confirm an inverted U-shaped effect of direct environmental constraint on DVC, while indirect environmental constraint shows positive U-shaped curve and needs more than 0.2864 to generate promotion effect. Besides, carbon control policies significantly increase the promotion effect of indirect environmental constraint on DVC. Digital technology in interval [8.6972, 9.8902] can most effectively amplify the policy effectiveness of local environmental constraints, which makes a gentler inverted U-shaped curve of direct environmental constraint, and reverses the indirect environmental constraint to an inverted U-shaped effect. This article provides new perspectives for a balanced development between local environmental constraints and DVC in the digital era.

The new retail mode in the digital era has forced firms to engage in omnichannel management. Although many companies have realized the importance of omnichannel operations, not all firms implementing omnichannel operations have achieved the expected returns. To explain why this is the case, we draw on signaling theory and use the automotive aftermarket as our research context to explore consumer reactions to various omnichannel strategies. We design two scenario-based experiments involving a total of 630 Chinese consumers. The results show that while implementing omnichannel operations is necessary, a wider scope of omnichannel operations (i.e., the breadth strategy) does not have a significant effect on consumers' service usage intentions. By contrast, increasing the density of omnichannel operations (i.e., the depth strategy) can significantly enhance consumers’ service usage intentions. More interestingly, we find that signal costs and perceived service quality are two key mediators in linking the depth strategy–service usage intention association. Our study contributes to existing omnichannel management research by highlighting the mechanisms behind the successful implementation of omnichannel operations. The findings also assist firms in effectively merging their online and offline channels.