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The automotive industry is undergoing challenging technological transformations, which have recently been further intensified by the emergence of Chinese newcomers who have the potential to become significant competitors in the electrification race, thereby challenging the dominance of incumbent manufacturing companies. This paper delves into the potential challenges posed by Chinese players and explores how automotive industry incumbents are navigating the transformative shift towards electrification. In doing so, we adopt an evolutionary perspective grounded in the conceptual frameworks of the three-dimensional window of opportunity and dynamic capabilities. The research design is based on a qualitative methodology and a narrative approach. The results highlight the advantages of Chinese players based on the multidimensional window of opportunities, and the implications suggest ways for incumbents to potentially defend their positions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As enterprises now operate in the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), the metal fabrication industry is undergoing tremendous technological trends with very detrimental impacts if not adopted. The purpose of this research is to explore the implications of informality on technological innovations adoption and new policy directives for formalization of metal fabrication micro-enterprises in Zimbabwe. Enterprises that are unregistered and unregulated but not illegal are omnipresent and constitute a large part of the economy in developing countries. Informality is a perennial phenomenon with extensive ramifications on enterprises. How informality impairs the propensity of unregistered enterprises to embrace technological innovations ushered by 4IR is identified as a research gap. In pursuit of this investigation, an in-depth review of theoretical and empirical studies was conducted. The primary data sources were electronic databases: Google Scholar, Science Direct, Scopus, and EBSCO. The articles reviewed focused on the effects of informality on numerous organizational phenomena. The findings shed light on the potential impacts of informality on the acquisition of 4IR technological innovations. The study offers insights into new policy directions for addressing informality by the National Governments can take to address informality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Management in the age of artificial intelligence (AI) presents unique challenges and opportunities, especially in the international landscape. The technology is constantly evolving, and managers need to adapt to the new landscape that is emerging to harness its potential while considering and anticipating the risks involved. AI can disrupt traditional leadership models by automating specific tasks and decision-making processes. This challenges managers to align with this new reality and use AI to drive innovation and productivity. In addition, managers must navigate and adapt to the evolving regulatory environment, understanding but also complying with regulations around AI, data protection, and privacy, while advocating for responsible and fair governance. While AI significantly impacts management processes, the academic literature on the subject is still emerging. This study aims to explore the challenges posed by AI and how international business managers can use this technology to drive decision-making and benefit their organizations. Ten interviews were conducted with senior executives from a range of industries to collect qualitative primary data. The findings show that AI can help with decision-making, automate many processes, and improve efficiency. Top managers can use AI tools to address many challenges more effectively, but they need to understand the ethical implications and concerns that continue to arise. The findings provide theoretical implications and practical recommendations for top managers using AI technologies. Senior executives should develop AI-focused strategies; as AI becomes more prevalent across industries, managers need to understand how to integrate AI technologies into their organizations successfully. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ensuring dignified care for needy populations worldwide is a collective responsibility that transcends geographical and environmental conditions. Modern entrepreneurs and businesses should incorporate social responsibility into their core objectives and success plans, recognizing the influence of underprivileged communities on their operations. However, not all organizations possess the internal capacity to actively practice social responsibility due to factors such as business type or staff profile. Consequently, many companies support other institutions dedicated to social causes, viewing it as a business opportunity that can yield modest profits. This article presents a case study of Diagnext.com, a small company that has devoted 14 years to technological innovation in digital health and has made significant contributions to public healthcare. Their initiatives have had a remarkable impact on the Amazon Rainforest's remote populations, including indigenous communities and river dwellers, facilitating hundreds of thousands of medical consultations annually. The case study aims to understand the main factors that drove Diagnext.com's promoters to invest their knowledge in social innovation and how they are proactively building their future. Key aspects explored include the leadership profile of Diagnext.com, ethical and sustainability concerns, transparency, and social responsibility. By analyzing these factors, the article highlights the importance of integrating social responsibility into business practices and the positive outcomes that can be achieved through technological innovation in addressing the healthcare needs of underprivileged populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technological innovation assumes a strategic role in organisational competitiveness. In this sense, it is perceived that universities represent a point of reference for the development of technological projects. The academic innovations arising from these projects are the result of three processes: product development process, business process and technology transfer. During the development of these projects, the team of researchers-entrepreneurs experiences different types of waste. This waste can be studied from the Lean Production Development (LPD) perspective. The LPD constitutes a set of practices capable of mitigating the waste that affects the new product development process (NPD). Aiming to address the scarcity of studies that address incident waste in the NPD of academic projects, this research aims to identify the frequency with which researcher-entrepreneurs experience each category and subcategory of waste during the development of the three processes (technology planning process - TPP; ii) technology transfer planning process - TTPP, and business planning process - BPP), from the perspective of the LPD. These three processes were subdivided into phases: i) initial, ii) intermediate and iii) final. Based on a quali-quantitative approach and using the methodological strategy of multiple case studies, this research analysed the context of nine technological innovation projects developed in a Brazilian federal university. Data were collected using a questionnaire prepared on a Likert scale. Eleven categories and 47 subcategories of waste were analysed in these projects. As a result, it was observed that during NPD, the waste category "waiting" was the most experienced in the different stages of the development of technological innovation, especially the subcategory "unavailability of resources". Regarding business development and technology transfer processes, the "waiting" category was also the most experienced, except in the initial phase when the "defects" category was more significant. However, analysing the 11 categories of waste, it was observed that the category "defect", especially the subcategory "information with insufficient quality" was the most experienced in the phases of technological innovation. From the identification of the different categories and subcategories of waste experienced in the context of technological innovation projects, it is clear that this research provides important elements to help identify LPD practices capable of mitigating the waste experienced during the NPD process in the academic environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to investigate the impact of the social and technological environment on business performance. Focus is placed on SMEs and their effort to achieve sustainable competitive advantage and thereby sustainable business performance. For this purpose, a survey study was carried out, where primary data was collected from a representative sample of SMEs operating in the Social Media industry of Greece. Questionnaires were distributed to managers and entrepreneurs of the Social Media Industry. These managers/entrepreneurs were selected using a simple random sampling methodology. The findings of the study revealed that social and technological developments have a major role in developing a sustainable competitive advantage. Strategy alignment was also found to be key in tackling the problems and in undertaking the opportunities that arise from the current social and technological environment, thereby reaching sustainable business performance. The findings of the study are especially useful to entrepreneurs and professionals in the industry in formulating effective strategies towards aligning their business with current advancements in emerging digital technologies. Such an alignment would bring numerous competitive advantages and in turn sustainable business performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emergence of digital technologies is transforming economic paradigms and leading to significant changes in product and factor markets, as well as how businesses operate. While these technologies enhance productivity, they also present new challenges for businesses regarding manufacturing methods, sources of competitive advantage, and market structures, impacting how work is conducted. Workplace transformations are happening at a faster pace than anticipated, raising important questions for employees, business decision-makers, and policymakers. We conducted an exploratory study to analyze the realism of the Knowledge Economy model's perspective on workplace changes. The study was based on a non-exhaustive literature review and an empirical study conducted with professionals from companies in Portugal belonging to several sectors of activity. Our research leads to the conclusion that the Knowledge Economy model, through technological innovation, has shaped the quality of work, bringing new insights and self-engagement of employees. However, digitalization might induce urgent needs for reskilling and upskilling. Therefore, it is essential to request such a challenge not only to employees but also to organizations and public authorities by investing in lifelong education and training and implementing policies, actions, and tools to facilitate the digital economy transition. Such proactive measures will propel the labor market towards greater availability of decent work, foster a more inclusive society, and promote social well-being and economic prosperity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Circular economy involves a circular production and consumption system with waste minimization or avoidance, increased efficiency of resource use, possibilities for superior value generation and inhibition of excessive consumption. In order to facilitate macro transformation towards circular economy, the micro level business pragmatism must be integrated with stakeholder pressure from changing behaviours and attitudes and with systematic regulatory action and support. The aim of the study was to determine the enablers and barriers as perceived by SMEs of four industries in Estonia on their path towards changing their operations, tactics and in some cases also strategies in transformation from linear models towards circular. A survey (n=440 SMEs) was carried out in Estonia in 2021. The results propose that despite significant local differences, the common perceived barriers are lack of expertise of best practices, insufficient state funding support and low levels of cooperation inside industries as well as with research institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the sectors with the greatest impact on the environment is the fashion industry, due to mismanagement of resources. This paper aims to describe the Orange Fiber case study, a Sicilian firm that uses cellulose extracted from 'Pastazzo', the citrus by-product, to obtain sustainable luxury fabrics. In addition to describing the stages of the production process and the technological innovation in the company, it was proposed the certification of environmental management systems according to international ISO 14001 standards within the company. In particular, the phases of environmental policy, and the application of the Deming cycle to the innovative start-up were explored. From the point of view of industrial symbiosis, the paper therefore proposes the idea of transforming a waste from the agro-food industry into a raw material in an environmentally impactful sector; this could represent an innovative idea in the application of circular economy principles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The project is related to “the industrial symbiosis for the National circular economy strategy” and comes from the increasingly current need to bring the textile market closer to sustainability. The idea is based on the use of canine undercoat also called "Chiengora" to create wovens. This type of waste is generated naturally with the dogs brushing and allows the creation of knitwear and clothing fabrics. Obtaining the raw material is the project keypoint, to be able to create a network of highly relevant and branched agreements to better optimize the collection of Chiengora waste through pet shops, breeders and dog owners. The goal is to create an app that can interface with suppliers that can report the achievement of a certain quantity, and customers who can easily purchase the items and products available. The project starts from the transformation process, from the raw material to the final product, with the possibility of being able to create different finenesses, up to the 24 thousand count, obtaining different fabrics and knits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The prominence of the knowledge economy technological innovation and economic development globally cannot be questioned. However, not all firms especially from Central and Eastern European to tap into the benefits coupled with new knowledge for improvement in firm innovation performance. Mostly, this is due to environmental factors confronting the firms. This study focused on the impact of External Knowledge (EK), R&D expenditure and ICT usage on firm innovation performance with the moderation role of informal competition. We used Resource Dependency Theory and Contingency theory as the theoretical background. A cross sectional data from the World Bank Enterprise Survey (WBES) 2019 on 3105 firms from CEE regions namely Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, and Poland was analysed using logistic regression. These countries were selected because firms face elevated level of informal competition in the business environment. The study confirmed the hypotheses that, internal R&D, external knowledge and website availability and usage have positive and significant direct effect on technological innovation. Our study contributes to the literature of R&D and firm performance by highlighting the moderating effect of business environment (informal competition). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technological innovations are crucial for a country's economic growth as they often have radical innovation potential. Although recognized as a key role in the innovation process, lots of technologies remain unexploited. University spin-offs (USOs) have the potential to transfer technologies into technological innovations. Often though, in universities there is a lack of consideration of potential implementation right from the start. The so-called fuzzyfront end (FFE) stage is crucial for successful innovation, as no commercialization can be achieved without the identification of a suitable application. This represents a critical hurdle, as of to date appropriate approaches for a successful systematic identification and validation of technology applications are missing. Furthermore, most investigating studies rely on data from spin-offs that are already operating successfully on the market and have therefore survived the critical initial stages of development, without highlighting the FFE of their process. This fact makes the pre-development activity of opportunity recognition appear to be a scientifically neglected topic. In this research a mixed-method approach is conducted to investigate the critical hurdles in the technology application selection (TAS) process of technologies, consisting of an extended literature review, completed by interviews with stakeholder involved in the USOs ecosystem. Striving to uncover the black box of the FFE, the study aims to specify and operationalize requirements for application identification of technologies. These findings are of relevance for researchers and practitioners which like to facilitate the exploration of potential technological innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several studies state that Innovation has a significant effect on company performance. Innovation can also increase the competence of an entrepreneurial spirit. PT Pegadaian (Persero), as a company engaged in finance, has many agents as marketers. The success of an agent in managing his business depends on the creativity and entrepreneurial spirit of the owner. The purpose of this study was to see the impact of Innovation on entrepreneurial spirit and its implications for business performance. The survey was conducted on 215 PT Pegadaian (Persero) agents spread across South Sumatra Province, Indonesia. This research design uses a quantitative approach with structural equation models (SEM) analysis techniques. Data analysis was performed with the help of the LISREL program. The results of the study indicate that Innovation has a dominant effect on entrepreneurial spirit. It also has a positive and significant effect on business performance. The entrepreneurial spirit is a good mediator for the relationship between Innovation and business performance because the size of the indirect effect is stronger than the direct effect. Innovations that are developed in enhancing the entrepreneurial spirit are not only technological Innovation but can also be management innovation. Meanwhile, product innovation is difficult to develop in business management by PT Pegadaian (Persero) agents because the product has been determined. This research provides managerial implications for service business managers, that management innovation can always be done because it will be followed by technological Innovation which will ultimately lead to an entrepreneurial spirit. The high competition among similar companies encourages management to continue to innovate both management, technology, and products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crowdfunding offers an alternative way of funding creative and innovative business ideas and projects through an open call over the internet. However, its economic potential has not been fully explored despite existing locally developed platforms due to the slow uptake of the technology in the Philippine setting. This study aims to understand top management decision-makers' perceptions toward the adoption of crowdfunding as a technology-enabled financing strategy. Using reflexive thematic analysis, the perceptions on crowdfunding adoption yielded six themes namely A Precarious Innovation, Value-driven Support Strategy for Projects, Deficient Regulatory Control and Legitimacy as Apprehensions, Wait-and-See as Confidence Builder, Risk Aversion to Online Environment and Paucity of Promotions limit Reachability and Awareness. Using a qualitative research paradigm, the results of the study revealed that the crowdfunding phenomenon requires a trusting and learning environment for its wider adoption among Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sustainable use of natural resources by employing technical and social modernization of agriculture, is a constant preoccupation, given current challenges related to climate changes, maintenance of competitiveness for agricultural producers and the decrease of dependence to non-renewable resources. In a situation where the world population is constantly growing and the agricultural fund is limited and with clear trends of deterioration, agricultural research has played a particularly important role in increasing production and in the most rational exploitation of existing resources. The concept of precision agriculture involves regulating the inputs to the agricultural system (seeds, fertilizers, pesticides) so that they are distributed in precise location, quantity, and time needed. Measuring the various working parameters through sensors and transducers, analyzing the information received through computer systems and specific software, and sending commands to change other parameters on tractors and agricultural machines created the Smart farming system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technological innovation is a process that involves the intertwining of the social, cognitive, and material. The relationship is non-linear, complex, and possesses the ability to transform as well as inform the configuration of markets, tools, users, and social environments. The concept of performativity can be used to explain this phenomenon. This paper identifies the performative elements present in the context of technological innovation and maps the social factors and the use of cognitive features in the innovation process. This identification explicitly addresses the entanglement of the material and social influences in the process, defines the agency of technological change, and focuses on the impact the nature of a technology has on the configuration of a market. A conceptual model is proposed and it is substantiated using a patent network analysis of an emerging technology market - the paper-based microfluidics industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to explore the key factors that influence SMEs cybersecurity practices in the technological innovation era. The population of this study are on three service industries of SMEs in Thailand: (1) information technology service, (2) financial service, and (3) insurance service. A qualitative approach was employed in collecting data to access insights, which can develop an understanding of meaningful factors. The sampling strategy was to select broad types of SMEs in each industry with different cyber risk profiles. A semi-structured interview was conducted. The findings show that both internal factors and external factors affect cybersecurity action plans in SMEs and that whether to recognize a factor as a success factor or a barrier depends on the capabilities and landscapes of SMEs. The outcome of this research is a proposed decision-support framework, which can be further developed into a service for SMEs to improve their cybersecurity postures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to carry out an accurate technical, economic and environmental analysis of the pilot project concerning the treatment of Sicilian ferrous waste. The plant will be managed according to the best business risk prevention principles, as it is preferred to achieve the objective in different phases and with several years of amortization to limit the financial outlay. Starting from a static chamber incinerator, you will get a plant with an hourly treatment capacity that will also be able to produce energy through the waste-to-energy technology of the waste subjected to combustion. The company Sicilia Rottami srl, located in the Catania area, which deals with the management of ferrous scrap and industrial waste from various production cycles has been investigated. Among the advantages of the technological innovation analyzed, we find the recovery of the waste content through the exploitation of the heat developed during combustion, recovered to produce the steam used for the production of electricity or as a heat carrier. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovation is a key instrument for companies to improve their efficiency and establish a long-term competitive advantage. In this context, Science Parks (SPs) are effective environments to promote new business based on technology and innovation. At the regional level, SPs are important for economic, social, and cultural development. As such, they promote new business and jobs, partnerships with universities and research centres, and attract new technology-based companies (NTBFs), which derive benefits from the spillovers that are generated. However, different regional realities and the varied motivations of the stakeholders explain the diversity among SPs. Accordingly, SPs arise and are governed through the cooperation of different types of stakeholders, such as academic, governmental, entrepreneurial and other agents and entities. Thus, they result from different interests and incentives that converge to their creation. A relevant approach to understand the specific engagement of different stakeholders in the creation of SPs and their respective roles is to study the context and circumstances of their formation. Starting from this point, the objective of this paper is to propose a SPs implementation framework based on cases from two countries -- Brazil and Portugal. An investigation was laid down on 4 SPs in Brazil and 4 in Portugal through a comparative analysis methodology. Data collection occurred upon technical visits and, in complementarity, there was a documental approach on government websites, networks and associations and the SPs themselves. The results show that the main prerequisites for the formation of SPs are: a favourable environment with institutional stability, available knowledge, development business space and motivations that converge to a common purpose. As a theoretical contribution, the outcome of the research introduces the SPs implementation framework, emphasizing the main stakeholders and the fundamental prerequisites for their formation and development. As practical implications, the results can guide the design of a favourable institutional environment for the creation of SPs, enhancing the potential to produce good results such as innovation for the involved stakeholders and society, particularly at the level of companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to study how distinct generations of knowledge and technology are used for implementing innovative and sustainable production and commercialization practices in the food system. Transition towards sustainability encompasses structural changes in technological, organizational and social domains. In the case of the food systems, notably agriculture, the shift is from a 'productivist' to a 'post-productivist' paradigm. This change takes place via the scaling up of experimental and isolated cases (niches), through the creation of organic farms and the transformation of conventional ones. The post-productivist mode of agricultural production relies on principles such as high quality products, certified practices, environmental conservation, local embeddedness and alternative forms of commercialization. Conversely, economic efficiency prevails in the dominant 'productivist' mode. On the one hand, new technologies, namely in information and communication, play an important role in the shift to sustainable businesses in the food system. The Internet has become extensively used in the commercialization processes, while biotechnology advances (developed in universities, and public and privately owned laboratories) are increasingly incorporated in farming. On the other hand, traditional sources of innovation consist of the re-usage and adaptation of 'old' knowledge, practices and techniques. Local production and short supply chains, which allow the creation of innovative businesses, are examples of this phenomenon. These cases exemplify how traditional activities can absorb/generate innovation, at technological and organizational levels, and adapt to the new knowledge-based era. The research presented in the paper has been conducted in a project on Spatial Planning for Change (SPLACH). The analysis focus on the food system transition in a specific territory, the Lisbon Metropolitan Area. The paper addresses the combination of different technologies in organic food production initiatives in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area (LMA). Primary data were collected through in-depth interviews with key actors, namely entrepreneurs or leaders of the initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aimed to explore the effect of the combined use of process and product innovation on firm performance. Specifically, we test whether the two types of innovation are interrelated and whether their joint adoption will generate superadditive firm performance effects. To this end, we use data taken from the World Bank Enterprise Surveys (wave 2018- 2020) for transition countries. The empirical strategy is based on a two-stage procedure that allows us to instrument innovation combinations through access to external credit to mitigate the endogeneity bias. The results show that in transition countries (especially those that are not EU members), product innovation can stimulate higher performance; instead, process innovation alone does not exhibit a significant impact. At the same time, we observe that implementing both technological innovations together creates more value than considering them separately. To bridge the technological gap in these countries, product and process innovation activities should be developed concurrently, primarily through training programs, research and development activities, and by assimilating more external knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With regard to manufacturing companies, technological innovations are the subject of analyses. These innovations include new products and processes as well as significant technological changes in products and processes. The aim of the article is to answer the following research questions: What are the main barriers to technological innovation for small local companies representing confectionery industry in Poland? In order to achieve this objective, a literature review (devoted mainly to the determinants of enterprise innovation) and empirical research was conducted based on the case study method. The research focuses on four small Polish confectionery enterprises. The research shows that the lack of financial resources and competent employees is the main barrier to innovation for small enterprises. The enterprises are characterized by flat organizational structures and therefore do not give their employees as vast growth opportunities as international corporations. In addition, small enterprises are often located in rural areas or in small towns, while young people frequently migrate to large cities. This is referred to as a spillover effect. The companies also focus on internal innovation projects and do not implement the open innovation concept. The article offers insights into barriers to technological innovation for small domestic enterprises operating in a specific industry. These insights can be used to stimulate innovative activities across the confectionery industry – for example to maintain and develop the Polish confectionery tradition. Bearing in mind the growing interest of foreign investors in the confectionery industry in Poland, note that the article may also provide information useful for making decisions on the location of further investments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The business model and business model innovation concepts have gained popularity in the last years in both research and practice but still lack a solid theoretical foundation and is still a developing and criticized research field. Nevertheless, business model innovation is considered to be a critical source of competitive advantage and one of the most important determinants of firm performance. Most of the research done so far in this topic is qualitative and this study takes a quantitative approach to deepen knowledge and understanding on the main drivers and consequences of business model innovation and the role that incumbent and new entrant firms play on its development. As academic work is in-progress, the research findings and conclusions are not still available at this stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technological innovation is a complex phenomenon which exists under a high level of uncertainty. Predicting probability of success of an innovation project is a difficult task. Existing mathematical models do not always take into account rapid development of approaches on how to organize innovation process. This creates a gap between innovation practice and innovation theory. One of the examples of such developments is the lean approach, which considers pivoting to be an essential part of an innovation process. In reality we observe a number of companies, which found their success after making a decision to pivot their product or their market. The purpose of this study is to understand in which way existing mathematical models of technological innovation process such as Markov Chain Models incorporate pivoting phenomena and propose directions of model improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Business model (BM) is the set of choices made by firms to identify and engage with customers and it is inherently subject to change over time. BM innovation (BMI) is indeed defined as the shift from a firm's existing BM to a novel one. Extant research has emphasised the importance of a deeper understanding on the role of technological innovations on BM. Frameworks that can support firms in identifying what BMI actually entails to exploit the advantages provided by technological innovations were proposed. Moreover, it was demonstrated that the response of incumbents vs. new entrants to technological innovation is different also depending on whether the innovation is incremental or radical. However, there is few understanding on how firms adapt their BM in response to technological change of different nature (incremental vs. radical) that originates in the same or a different industry. We aim at filling this gap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovation in service has attracted considerable interest in recent years, partly because its processes and activities are so diverse, and partly because its impact on performance is still a puzzle. This study proposes a comprehensive theoretical model, which reviews combinations of technological and non-technological innovation practices and the interrelation between different innovation strategies for the generation of sustainable competitive advantages. Using data from the 2010 and 2012 European Community Innovation Survey, it empirically examines different innovation strategies, analyzes their role in organizational performance, and thoroughly researches sectoral variation in innovation strategies between the rest of services. Comparative analysis suggests that knowledge-intensive services are the most innovative activities. Yet, complex innovation strategies are positively related to turnover irrespective of the service activity. The study concludes that there are sectoral differences in general innovation level and effects of innovation strategies on performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a panel data analysis of the failure of the Zimbabwe's economic recovery trajectory after the adoption of the multi-currency regime. Following the all-time economic meltdown that culminated in a hyperinflation phenomenon in 2008, Zimbabwe has been struggling to achieve a meaningful economic recovery. There were strong expectations that the abandonment of the sovereign currency in preference of the multi-currency regime would leverage a quick economic recovery and sustained growth. The paper uses panel data on gross capital formation, industry value addition, and high-tech exports for the period 2006 to 2016. Zimbabwe's performance is measured against the performance of South Africa and that of the Sub-Saharan Africa. The competitiveness of the national economies depends more and more on their capacity to produce and use technological innovations, as the driver of productivity and sustainable economic growth. Developing countries such as Zimbabwe can learn and tape into the successes of other developing and developed countries alike as technological innovative knowledge economies. Literature suggests that the key component of the technological innovative knowledge economy is the greater reliance on intellectual capabilities than on physical inputs or natural resources for the production of high-technology exports. That is, production of goods and services based on knowledge-intensive activities that contribute to an accelerated pace of technical and scientific advances, as well as rapid obsolescence. This is the essence of technological innovation. The results of the study indicate that Zimbabwe's investment in gross capital formation and industry value addition over the period of study did not translate into meaningful high-technology exports for the country in order to recover from the hyperinflation of the 2008 and boost sustainable economic growth. The country's economy is sinking dipper and dipper into recession. The paper suggests that Zimbabwe's future investment in gross capital formation should be channelled towards industry value addition for the production of high-tech export products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Outsourcing service providers are progressively being seen not just as efficient partners to handle peripheral tasks, but also as potential sources of impactful innovations. However, as clients reset the bar from cost efficiencies to mutual strategic value creation, the outcomes far too often fail to live up to such ambitious goals. This increasingly prevalent issue takes center stage in our conceptual paper, wherein we investigate the dynamics and effects of (mis)aligned strategic goals at the client- and service provider-side during the joint innovation formation process. By integrating goal-framing theory as the underlying theoretical perspective and drawing on relevant IS outsourcing and distributed innovation literature, we introduce the innovation-molding framework to shed light on the influence of strategic goals on collaborative activities at each phase of the development process in innovation-focused outsourcing engagements. We contribute to IS outsourcing literature and offer some directions for future research related to the emerging innovation through outsourcing stream. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates the success of an innovative web platform created in 2011 by the Institute for Financing Agriculture and Fisheries (IFAP) named "IFAP Private Account" in which the farmer was registered and accessed their data, their history of correspondence with the Institute, checking the forms they had already submitted as well inspections carried out in the field or administratively. In 2011 the ordinance 86/2011 was published that dictated new procedures by the Institute of Financing of Agriculture and Fisheries, I.P. (IFAP) as the institution allocated the managing of the EAGF (European Agricultural Guarantee Fund) and the EAFRD (European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development). Gradually, the functionalities included in this platform increased the possibility for farmers to submit application forms in their own private accounts. Later, in 2014, IFAP released an APP for Android and iOS smartphones where the beneficiary has access to his or her private account in a faster and more convenient way. For the enabling framework of the target audience of the study it was imperative to do a literature review to carry out an economic and social analysis of the sector and the population living in rural areas and manual labour and agricultural entrepreneurs. Therefore, to understand and characterize IFAP's target public (farmers / beneficiaries) as well as the wherewithal and knowledge they have to access their own private account in an autonomous way, quantifying and characterizing the type of access was a priority. Headquartered in low-density areas, agricultural entrepreneurs present unique opportunities for innovation and differentiation and, at the same time, experience several barriers to growth. Some of these barriers are mentioned in the article in order to raise awareness of the difficulties presented by farmers and inhabitants of rural and peripheral areas. Thus, surveys were directed to farmers and technicians in grassroots entities (associations and cooperatives) in order to understand whether users carry out access to the reserved area autonomously or if they need assistance from others in doing so. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study aimed to measure the innovation performance of companies subsidized with public funds arising from government programs in developing R&D projects. They were measured through a quantitative and qualitative analysis represented by analyses of efficiency and exogenous factors in order to examine whether there is any relationship between these factors and the different levels of efficiency achieved by the investigated companies. The results showed that 31.25% of the analyzed companies stood out in conducting research in technological innovation, thereby making better use of financial resources made available by the supplying organ in the form of economic subsidy. This indicates that most of the companies supported by the program failed to transform their R&D projects into successful products/technologies. The presence of barriers in the process of innovation development can be considered as exogenous factors to the proposed model, influencing companies' performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The influence of early use of technological innovation in learning and independence/dependence of children is focused on positive and negative impact in teaching and developing of their independence. We analyzed the responses obtained from 200 parents from 5 primary schools and three preschools in the city of Novi Sad, Serbia. With the method of focus groups, it was analyzed impact of early use of technological innovations adjusted to children, their autonomy in performing everyday schools and after-school activities. Analyzes shows that the perception of the real picture of the situation of independence can be obtained very quickly after the first use of technological innovation. Regardless of the developmental age of the children, recognizes the distinct coordination of small hand movements, the motivation to win, a high level of concentration and focus of attention. Severe progressiveness, in terms of education, reflected to the children in higher grades possessing advanced knowledge in relation to their peers, which is in direct correlation with the early use of of technological innovation in independent study. On the other hand, looks at the "lack" of motivation for mastering the skills important to reflect the independence of children to a certain age, such as binding of shoelaces, wear, loosening the cap, using a pencil, ball handling, storage bags for the school, editing workspace, purchase and etc. Based on these results it is concluded that there is so-called "conflict of interest among parents" when it comes to the use of of technological innovation of children in early calendar age period, because it borders on the traditional system of values that do not follow the interests and needs of children. On the other hand, parents perceived advantages associated with technological innovation, and are directly related to: independence, self-confidence and self-creation of time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In times of economic crisis a renovated demand for social housing emerges which relaunches the debate on high quality - low cost residential developments. In contemporary architecture the concept of high performance housing is often interpreted either in terms of energy and environmental efficiency - thus leaving to technical innovation in construction systems, components and materials a leading role in the design research - or in terms of aesthetical appearance enabling to provide the building with a strong identity. This paper has the aim of discussing a proposed definition of housing quality as the simultaneous compliance to both environmental, technological and spatial requirements as well as incorporating a temporal perspective in terms of adaptability, flexibility, maintainability, and durability to follow changing demands over time and contrast the physical and functional obsolescence of buildings. Hence, high performance and global cost control, to be likewise considered over time as the sum of construction, operation and upgrading activities, relies in the ability of the project as a synthetic creative interpretation of both technological and typological issues and not univocally in the application of specific materials and products. This concept is illustrated through the identification and the analysis of significant social housing case studies of Modern Architecture, with special reference to multifamily homes, which disclose different lines of experimentation, albeit sporadically recognizable through history. Accordingly, this work can contribute to highlight possible paths of design research and further perspectives for techno-typological experimentation where technological innovation allows for the development of typological answers in the flexible and efficient organization of the home spaces able to respond to inhabitants' changing needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to identify the problems associated with current trends in the development of new technologies that have been associated with irreversible loss of many jobs, the emergence of structural unemployment and the subsequent transfer of labor force between economic sectors. One way to mitigate the negative effects of these processes is to support the formation of human capital, strengthening the competent adaptability and mobility of labor, which will help to build social and emotional resilience to shocks in labor markets. At the same time, more demands are and will be placed on a man than in the past, not only at the level of knowledge, willingness to acquire professional knowledge, but also at the level of more commitment, perseverance, creativity, purposefulness, ability to get ahead and achieve something, ability to carry a certain amount of risk and responsibility for their personal progress as part of human capital of an individual. A close relationship to the creation and transfer of knowledge in the information society creates for everyone a challenge to sustain and enrich their competencies continuously. Since we are continuous learning, human capital is constantly forming and developing. In terms of development and formation of human capital, there is new trend of lifelong education within the school education system as well as trainings along the job in educational structures of enterprises and in all ranges of formal and informal education, within all methods of acquiring knowledge are applied, including a self-study. Today, most of the knowledge are aging and even outdated before the working life end - rapid economic and technological development causes the "acceleration" of time, and consequently individuals or groups do not come into contact with a permanently existing knowledge or traditional classification of knowledge. They are rather to meet variable flow of knowledge, which direction is difficult to predict. The risk of high flexibility in the labor market include the fact that the acquiring of skills required for success in the labor market is becoming more and more an individual responsibility, along with how flexible employment relationships helped to weaken corporate investments in trainings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews the provision of free educational hardware and software provided by one social enterprise to under resourced children in seven countries. The social and economic challenges faced by this social enterprise are highlighted; the implications for social enterprise of adopting disruptive innovation and of blended learning techniques in an educational context; and the importance of evaluating projects in terms of research methods. Three research questions were posed: what is the educational benefit of using Rumie? [Value dimension]; what criteria can be used to evaluate the use of Rumie in the field? [The capability dimension]; what feedback is there from students, teachers, etc. [The collaboration dimension]. Quantitative usage data and qualitative feedback were collected. Findings show that the tablets help improve pupils math and reading abilities and the educal entertainment does not appear to be at the expense of learning about more traditional subjects. Feedback from teachers and pupils appears to be extremely positive. More specific lessons learned about research methods in evaluating social entrepreneurship projects in developing economies are identified; and implications for adapting the theory of disruptive innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An important component of which the organizations should take into account when considering the use of Cloud Computing model for running their business is the compatibility between different IaaS, PaaS respectively SaaS solutions and/or service providers. To facilitate the choice of the most appropriate model, this paper proposes an compatibility matrix approach, that can be used in using/purchasing decision making. The development of the compatibility matrix will take into consideration and will cover three fundamental Cloud Computing levels: IaaS, Paas, SaaS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Models of innovation identify social factors and the use of feedback in the innovation process. This identification, however, does not explicitly address the entanglement of the technological and social influences in the process, define the interaction's agency, or focus on the impact the nature of a technology has on the configuration of a market. In this Academic Research Development Submission (ARDS) the entanglement of social, cognitive, and technological factors in the technological innovation process is highlighted and the concept of performativity is applied to describe this phenomenon. Current understanding of identity-shaping elements of the technological innovation process and its relation to both technology and market development are underlined. The proposed research project will investigate how innovation management can benefit from a more refined understanding of the iterative, social, and identityshaping features within the innovation process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to contribute to empirical understanding of how different modes of innovation persist or change over time and the factors that influence these dynamics. Using two waves of panel data from an economy wide census of business sector innovation in Tasmania (a low-tech regional economy and state of Australia), a prescriptive approach is used to define three modes of innovation based on innovation input activities and outputs. A multinomial logit model is used to test the research hypotheses. Initial analysis finds a positive association between organisational innovation capability and both persistence and shifts in innovation modes over time. Innovation mode status in one period is found to have a positive effect on innovation mode persistence, while firm structure has a positive effect on shifts between modes. The research contributes to the innovation modes and persistence literatures, highlighting the complementarity between technological innovations, organisational capabilities and skills diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of inclusive business was built on the idea of identifying sustainable business solutions with a socio-economical impact in low-income population. Although innovation is accepted as crucial to develop inclusive business initiatives there is a lack of works that address how innovation is taking place. This paper presents preliminary findings of a research intended to understand how inclusive business models are generating value and how innovation contributes to it. 49 case studies were examined to identify key drivers, benefits and innovation role. Three kinds of drivers prevails: market, business and government. For companies, benefits incudes generating profits, developing new markets and strengthening supply chains. For low-income communities, benefits include meeting basic needs and enabling them to be more productive. The cases show that technological innovation enables companies to deal with the challenges that arise when they are dealing with low-income markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Large-scale, multi-disciplinary, publicly funded research networks face increasing pressure to engage with multiple stakeholders in order to deliver on the socio-economic expectations of technological innovation. How a network understands who its stakeholders are and conceptualizes their role in shaping technological innovation is likely to influence key decisions related to the direction and goals of the research program and ultimately affects the success of the program. Drawing on aspects of stakeholder theory, the sociology of technology and innovation studies that focus on "users", this paper looks at how stakeholders are conceptualized in a funding proposal for an advanced biofuels research and innovation network. Stakeholders are conceptualized around a narrative of the future presented as a rationale for funding the network. Three prominent patterns of conceptualization temporal, spatial and functional represent a tentative framework for conceptualizing stakeholders that could have application for policy practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a study which investigated the structural forms of industrial maritime agglomerations as a way to obtain leverage capabilities for the development and diffusion of new technologies. The researchers studied three successful international maritime clusters, including the Republic of Korea Maritime Cluster, the Tasmania Maritime Cluster and the Norwegian Maritime Cluster. They found common drivers in the three clusters that favor technological developments.

Brazil, one of the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa), is becoming one of the most important players in the global economy. Recognized as the leading economic power in the South American region, the country seeks a permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council. Nonetheless, to secure a place in this strategic UN organ and become a prominent player, Brazil needs to strengthen its economy and war power through updated military equipment. The Brazilian Government has put innovation on the political agenda and has been using the practice of offset contracts or agreements as a means to promote innovation and overcome the main insufficiencies of the defence sector. The present paper aims to explore the role of offset contracts in the innovation process in the context of Brazilian Defence Industry. Specifically, it intends to evaluate if the offsets performed between 2009 and 2011, the same time period used in other national surveys, are related to: i) the number of product and process innovation introduced; ii) the degree of autonomy in terms of innovation development; and iii) the degree of novelty of innovations. Our empirical study comprises an electronic survey of the member companies of the Brazilian Defence and Security Industries Association, based on the Oslo Manual. The results show that participation in offset agreements is related to process innovation. We have not found statistical evidence that offset contracts leads to new or significantly new products. The study also indicates that participation in offsets is not associated with the degree of autonomy or the degree of novelty, both in product and process innovation. Nevertheless, the interviews conducted with the Armed Forces experts highlight the importance of participating and benefiting from offset agreements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brazil, one of the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa), is becoming one of the most important players in the global economy. Recognized as the leading economic power in the South American region, the country seeks a permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council. Nonetheless, to secure a place in this strategic UN organ and become a prominent player, Brazil needs to strengthen its economy and war power through updated military equipment. The Brazilian Government has put innovation on the political agenda and has been using the practice of offset contracts or agreements as a means to promote innovation and overcome the main insufficiencies of the defence sector. The present paper aims to explore the role of offset contracts in the innovation process in the context of Brazilian Defence Industry. Specifically, it intends to evaluate if the offsets performed between 2009 and 2011, the same time period used in other national surveys, are related to: i) the number of product and process innovation introduced; ii) the degree of autonomy in terms of innovation development; and iii) the degree of novelty of innovations. Our empirical study comprises an electronic survey of the member companies of the Brazilian Defence and Security Industries Association, based on the Oslo Manual. The results show that participation in offset agreements is related to process innovation. We have not found statistical evidence that offset contracts leads to new or significantly new products. The study also indicates that participation in offsets is not associated with the degree of autonomy or the degree of novelty, both in product and process innovation. Nevertheless, the interviews conducted with the Armed Forces experts highlight the importance of participating and benefiting from offset agreements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improving prioritization has become a tired concept in most IT departments, and yet it has the potential to change the conversation from one of cutting cost, to delivering valuable solutions as quick as the business needs it. This paper examines how Maersk Line applied an economic framework across a $100 million portfolio to quickly discover, nurture and speed up the delivery of value. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, an innovation based adaptive estimation Kalman filter (IAE-AKF) with double transitive factors is proposed for denoising the fiber optic gyroscope (FOG) signal. In this algorithm, double transitive adaptive factors are described in two stages. The transitive factor is introduced into the predicted state vector equation in stage one, where as in second stage, adaptive factor is scaled with measurement noise covariance matrix (R). These adaptive factors are developed based on the innovation sequence in adaptive Kalman filter. The predicted state error and measurement noise covariance matrix are updated by the double transitive adaptive factor in the process of iteration in stage one and two respectively. This algorithms is applied for denoising FOG signal in both static and dynamic conditions. The performance of proposed algorithm is compared with Conventional Kalman filter (CKF) and AKF with transitive factor. The precision improvement of FOG is calculated by variance and standard deviation, the predicted results revealed that the proposed algorithm is an efficient algorithm in drift denoising of FOG signal. In dynamic condition, the mean squared error (MSE) and root MSE (RMSE) values are calculated before and after denoising of FOG signal using proposed algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Fishing is the main occupation of the coastal population of 8000KM coastline of India. Most of the fishermen still use the traditional knowledge to catch the fishes, which is more or less a trial and error approach which leads to uncertainty in the catch and possibly heavy diesel consumption. About 1.2% of global oil consumption is used in fisheries, and it is found that fish catching is the main contributor to global warming in the fish production (Anon, 2012). In Indian Coast, Sea surface temperature increased by 0.2 to 0.3 degrees Celsius between 1960 and 2005 (Anon, 2011) which is projected to increase further by 2 to 3.5 degrees C by 2099 (Anon, 2011). Decline in fish catch and increase in fuel rate are two major concerns for fishermen today. Due to large and growing population and low lying coastline, Raigad district of Maharashtra is considered vulnerable to the impact of climate change. Though services like Potential Fishing Zone (PFZ) and wind advisory are available, they do not reach to most of the fishermen because the current dissemination media through fax and electronic board depends on the electricity, requires maintenance and need skill to operate. Raigad district, where we implemented the solution, is most prone to electricity failure hence all the electronic devices fail to operate. ICT, specifically mobile phones and related applications has potential to overcome these challenges and bridge the gap between rural fishermen and research institute in fisheries domain. mKRISHI®-Fisheries' service is an initiative to empower fishermen society by providing the vital information like Probable Fishing Zone (PFZ), wind direction and wind speed on their mobile phone. PFZ information addresses their livelihood whereas wind speed / direction addresses their safety concerns. INCOIS analyzes the satellite images and come up with information on PFZ, wind speed, direction information 4 days in advance, 4 times a day. Fishermen leverage this information, in almost real time, to optimize their operation. The paper discusses the impact of mKRISHI®-Fisheries on fishermen and their livelihood. This service was been deployed initially with 13 Fishing societies in Raigad district on Maharashtra for about a year with participation from CMFRI, World Bank and TCS. By analyzing the pilot data it was found that the fishing yield has improved by ∼ (30–40%). Also diesel consumption, where ever applicable, was reduced by ∼ 30–50%. This resulted in a potential positive environmental impact. Now expansion of services is being continued in 56 societies in Raigad district. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Distributed reinforcement learning algorithms for collaborative multi-agent Markov decision processes (MDPs) are presented and analyzed. The networked setup consists of a collection of agents (learners) which respond differently (depending on their instantaneous one-stage random costs) to a global controlled state and the control actions of a remote controller. With the objective of jointly learning the optimal stationary control policy (in the absence of global state transition and local agent cost statistics) that minimizes network-averaged infinite horizon discounted cost, the paper presents distributed variants of Q-learning of the consensus + innovations type in which each agent sequentially refines its learning parameters by locally processing its instantaneous payoff data and the information received from neighboring agents. Under broad conditions on the multi-agent decision model and mean connectivity of the inter-agent communication network, the proposed distributed algorithms are shown to achieve optimal learning asymptotically, i.e., almost surely (a.s.) each network agent is shown to learn the value function and the optimal stationary control policy of the collaborative MDP asymptotically. Further, convergence rate estimates for the proposed class of distributed learning algorithms are obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

As the proportion of installed capacity of wind power in total installed capacity continues to increase in China, the influence of the wind farm when dealing with the stability problems of interconnected power system is considered, and a wide-area time-delay damping controller to suppress inter-region low frequency oscillation is designed. In order to obtain a more accurate transfer function model, a multi-innovation recursive least squares algorithm with higher precision and fewer iteration times is presented to improve the identification algorithm of ARMA model. Then, as to the time-varying time-delay problems in the feedback signal, a free-weighting matrices method with lower conservation and without iteration is used to conduct the on-line stabilization design to the system. At last, the example simulation results verify that the proposed identification method has a high accuracy and the wide-area time-delay damping controller can effectively damp the inter-region low-frequency oscillations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The technology innovation behavior oflarge enterprises and SMEs has always been a hot spot of the research, this article from the perspective of the Repeatability Game use of Pigs Game ideas, not only from the theoretical research when the development of SMEs and large enterprises to the same scale of the innovative behavior, also used to construct the model in-depth analysis of their behavior and the impact of innovation, and ultimately through the analysis conclusion given the appropriate recommendations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Patent as the most important form of innovation output, has become one of the important factors of regional economy development. According to China's traditional economic zoning and the patent classification, our country is divided into eastern, central, western and north-east four regions, patent is divided into invention, utility model and design three types, and this paper builds power function model between patents granted and GDP based on the data of 2001–2011. Through regression analysis, this paper explores three different type patents' different impact of the GDP in different regions. Combined with the characteristics of patent types, this paper explores the reasons from many perspectives of industrial structure and market openness in different regions, and put forward some economic development recommendations of each region. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]