Inferior Technology Research Articles

Technology Adoption under Negative External Effects

Abstract This paper shows that, in the presence of negative production external effects (e.g., waste, pollution), market-driven technology adoption is socially inefficient. Two distinct market structures are considered within the neoclassical framework: perfect competition and monopoly. In both cases, there is a range of cost structures under which firms prefer the adoption of inferior technologies. A number of policy instruments are considered in terms of their welfare enhancing properties.

Wealth Inequality and the Exploration of Novel Technologies

Abstract I investigate whether wealth inequality hinders the discovery of novel technologies in a competitive screening model. Agents can engage in exploration, which may lead to the discovery of superior technologies, but it is likely to waste time with inferior ones. Talented agents are better at weeding out inferior technologies, but talent is unobservable by lenders. When agents are poor, this causes an adverse selection problem whereby exploration is pursued by untalented agents rather than by talented ones. As economies become wealthier, the misallocation problem of talented agents weakens. Higher inequality worsens this misallocation problem when the economy is wealthy, but can increase efficiency in poor economies.

Analysis Of Failed Business Products – The HCI Perspective

Most of the leading companies have increased their success through the growing use of HCI methods to avoid wasting precious investment money from failed deployments of inferior technologies and to generate new revenue by identifying under-served needs and then envisioning, designing, and testing innovative products and services that fulfill the under-served needs effectively. Our work aims at Analyzing and Improving various systems where failure to implement principles of HCI leads to failure of the overall business product like Google wave, Google Plus, Google catalogs. The methodology that we followed is collecting various real-time examples where business products failed due to lack of user satisfaction, analyzing these case studies based on HCI principles, and trying to provide an effective solution to make the system more usable. Keywords: User Satisfaction, Design Principles, Cognitive Science, Useful systems, safety-critical systems, design flaw impact, software defects, root causes.

When is intergroup herding beneficial?

We develop a population dynamics model to explore the benefits of intergroup herding. We consider a society composed of two groups – one autonomous and the other open, i.e., learning from outsiders indiscriminately – and analyze the joint evolution of their technology adoption and population sizes. When the autonomous group converges to an inferior steady state, it can, under some conditions, drag the open group down with it. However, if the autonomous group converges to a superior steady state, the open group always ends up in the superior steady state, even if technology adoption is very difficult for its members. When the open group learns from multiple autonomous groups, the advantage of intergroup herding is more salient. However, if population is bounded, or if adopting the inferior technology generates a negative externality on the other group, intergroup herding becomes less beneficial.

How responsive is the poverty to the foreign direct investment inflows in Nigeria? Evidence from linear and non-linear ARDL

PurposeThe aim is to examine the long run and short run linear and non-linear impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows on poverty in Nigeria from 1980 to 2019.Design/methodology/approachThe Augmented Dickey Fuller, Phillips Perron and Kwiatkowski-Phillips-Schmidt-Shin unit root tests and bounds test were used to tests the series stationarity and co-integration, respectively. Autoregressive Distributive Lag (ARDL) and non-linear and linear autoregressive Distributive Lag (NARDL) estimators are employed to examine the long run and short run impact of the coefficients of the variables and diagnostic check.FindingsThe study finds that the variables are integrated at a level I(0) and the first difference I(I) and co-integrated. The ARDL estimator indicates that FDI significantly reduces poverty in the long and short run. The findings under NARDL shows FDI positive shock and FDI negative shock reduces poverty substantially in the long-short run, respectively. The error correction term is negative and significant.Research limitations/implicationsThis study is limited to a single country (time series) and less informative compared with the panel data study with much informative and free from hetero-scedasticity. Future studies should consider panel data using a similar or dissimilar approach.Practical implicationsFDI inflows stimulate growth, thereby creating job openings, transfer of modern technology and reduce poverty and demonstrate that, if the finding integrated into policy actions, the government would attract FDI inflows for the real sector of the economy.Social implicationsFDI inflows lead to environmental degradation if inferior technology is use in the host economy, especially the weak environmental regulations in Nigeria.Originality/valueThe authors find no study that applied both ARDL and NARDL estimator, selection of variables measurement and time frame for the study in the context of Nigeria.Peer reviewThe peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-08-2020-0530.

A War of Attrition with Experimenting Players*

A standard incomplete‐information war of attrition is extended to incorporate experimentation. We obtain a characterization of all equilibria in this extended setup and use this setup to illuminate a tradeoff between short‐run and long‐run gains of experimentation. The extension yields qualitative impacts on the strategic nature of the problem. The option value of experimentation serves as a credible commitment device to stay in the game, which is instrumental in inducing the other player to concede earlier. As a direct consequence, there may be an equilibrium in which the strictly less efficient player, but with a higher margin of experimentation, can get the better end of the deal. This result leads to an important empirical implication since the margin of experimentation is not directly observable, even ex post. Our analysis also gives insight into why an apparently inferior technology often survives in standards competitions and more broadly offers implications for technology adoption and industry dynamics.

Does fintech innovation improve bank efficiency? Evidence from China’s banking industry

This paper examines whether the development of the financial technology (fintech) industry affects cost efficiency and the technology adopted for China’s banking industry over the period 2003–2017. Fintech industry development indices are constructed using fintech enterprise-level data, and these indices measure the development extent of entire fintech industry and four sub-industries including (1) credit, deposit and capital–raising services, ​(2) payment, clearing and settlement services, (3) ​investment management services ​and ​(4) market support services. The relevant efficiency scores for Chinese banks under different ownership structures are measured by applying the stochastic metafrontier approach. The results show that state-owned commercial banks have the lowest cost efficiency and operate under inferior technology. When considering the influence of fintech development, fintech innovations not only improve the cost efficiency of banks, but also enhance the technology used by banks. This double beneficial effect is more significant in the case of market support service innovations.

Winner-Take-All Dynamics Revisited: Markets Can Redress Lock-In to Inferior Technologies

The literature on network effects has a longstanding controversy regarding the possibility that markets may lock into an inferior technology. This controversy and confusion were triggered by Arthur’s (1989) model of winner-take-all dynamics driven by positive feedback (success begets more success) in markets with competition between incompatible technologies. In reality, however, even when positive feedback is rather apparent, incompatible technologies sometimes persist with no clear-cut winner-take-all outcome. We believe the confusion stems from an implicit assumption in Arthur’s model — the influence of adopters persists indefinitely. We shed new light on this controversy by examining the implications of influence that decays over time. Our model exhibits what physicists call a “critical slowing down.” In the vicinity of a critical influence decay level, our model displays a protracted period of technology competition even in the presence of positive feedback. This protracted process provides the opportunity for the market to redress premature lock-in to an inferior technology.

Privatization of a multi-product public firm

ABSTRACT This study considers a public firm that provides a profitable service and an unprofitable service. In our model, only the public firm supplies the unprofitable service, while both the public firm and multiple private firms supply the profitable service. The two services may be substitutes, complements, or independent in demand, and the public firm has inferior technology. We examine whether the public firm should privatize either the profitable service or the service that faces competition from private firms. We obtain the following results. When the two services are complementary, the critical cost of the public firm such that privatizing the profitable service is socially preferable increases with the degree of complementarity. When the two services are substitutes, the critical cost decreases (increases) with the degree of substitution for a low (high) degree of substitution. For a sufficiently high degree of substitution, the critical cost becomes small.

Testing, disclosure and approval

Certifiers often base their decisions on a mixture of information, some of which is voluntarily disclosed by applicants, and some of which they acquire by way of tests or otherwise. We study the interplay between the information acquisition of certifiers and the information disclosure of applicants. We show that the inability of a certifier to commit to the amount of information to be acquired can result in a reduction of information disclosed. Among other consequences, given the choice between two information acquisition technologies, the certifier may prefer to commit to the inferior technology, in the sense of being either more expensive or less accurate.

Influencing the disruptive potential of sustainable technologies through value proposition design: The case of vehicle-to-grid technology

Disruptive innovations often struggle to enter the mainstream market, especially those that benefit society. Innovative business models can help to make inferior technologies attractive and disrupt existing market linkages. As value propositions are an integral part of business models, they can play a key role in this process. This study explores the effect of value proposition design (VPD) on the customer value of sustainable technologies in the case of vehicle-to-grid charging. The result suggests that VPD can influence the trajectory and customer value of a technology and pave the way for disruptive innovation. It suggests to focus on utilitarian or hedonic values in VPD to target the low-end or high-end market respectively; a mixed approach reduces customer value. Hence, the study establishes a link between technology, value proposition, and market disruption. The results have important implications for research and practice as they offer an explanatory framework that can help managers in designing value propositions to accelerate the diffusion of sustainable technologies.

Analysis of Urban Solid Waste Management System of Bangladesh and Germany Waste Management System

Bangladesh is a low-lying riverine country. Unplanned growth of urban population causes audacious generation of solid wastes and strives immense pressure on existing services and environment. At present days, urban solid waste management is considered as most immediate and demanding environmental problems vexing Municipal authorities or urban governments in developing Asian countries like Bangladesh. Cities are now clashing with the serious problems of high amount of waste. The traditional concepts and inferior technologies of collecting waste are becoming incomplete as well as incompetent resulting more than half of the engendered solid wastes remain uncollected, disposed of regionally, forging the environmental view of cities quite murky and disheartening for the future. In waste management system, Germany is a role model for the world and the New German Closed-Cycle management is aiming to curve the waste management into resource management. The main intent of this research study is to categories in the solid wastes, discussing the issues of waste generation, a popular method for solid waste management, gasification schematic and waste-management model for Bangladesh. This study also explains Germany Closed-Cycle Management Act as well as waste treatment facilities, recovery, and disposal rate in Germany. Germany keeps very high-quality to preserve soil, air and water from the emissions integrated with waste storage and treatment.

Delegated Certification

Certifiers often base their decisions on a mixture of information, some of which is voluntarily disclosed by applicants, and some of which they acquire by way of tests or otherwise. We study the interplay between the information acquisition of certifiers and the information disclosure of applicants. We show that the inability of a certifier to commit to the amount of information to be acquired can result in a reduction of information disclosed. Among other consequences, given the choice between two information acquisition technologies, the certifier may prefer to commit to the inferior technology, in the sense of being either more expensive or less accurate.

Strategic experimentation with asymmetric players

We examine a two-player game with two-armed exponential bandits à la (Keller et al. in Econometrica 73:39–68, 2005), where players operate different technologies for exploring the risky option. We characterise the set of Markov perfect equilibria and show that there always exists an equilibrium in which the player with the inferior technology uses a cut-off strategy. All Markov perfect equilibria imply the same amount of experimentation but differ with respect to the expected speed of the resolution of uncertainty. If and only if the degree of asymmetry between the players is high enough, there exists a Markov perfect equilibrium in which both players use cut-off strategies. Whenever this equilibrium exists, it welfare dominates all other equilibria. This contrasts with the case of symmetric players, where there never exists a Markov perfect equilibrium in cut-off strategies.

Overcoming inefficient lock-in in coordination games with sophisticated and myopic players

Path-dependence in coordination games may cause lock-in on inefficient outcomes, such as inferior technologies (Arthur, 1989) or inefficient economic institutions (North, 1990). To calculate the conditions under which lock-in can be overcome, we develop a solution concept that makes ex-ante predictions about the adaptation process following lock-in in a critical mass game. We assume that some players are myopic, forming beliefs according to weighted fictitious play, while others are sophisticated, anticipating the learning process of the myopic players. We propose a solution concept based on a Nash equilibrium of the strategies chosen by sophisticated players. Our model predicts that no players would switch from the efficient to the inefficient action, but deviations in the other direction are possible. Three types of equilibria may exist: in the first type lock-in is sustained, while in the other two types lock-in is overcome. We determine the existence conditions for each of these equilibria and show that the equilibria in which lock-in is overcome are more likely and the transition is faster when sophisticated players have a longer planning horizon, or when the history of inefficient coordination is shorter.

Neurotechnologies for Human Cognitive Augmentation: Current State of the Art and Future Prospects.

Recent advances in neuroscience have paved the way to innovative applications that cognitively augment and enhance humans in a variety of contexts. This paper aims at providing a snapshot of the current state of the art and a motivated forecast of the most likely developments in the next two decades. Firstly, we survey the main neuroscience technologies for both observing and influencing brain activity, which are necessary ingredients for human cognitive augmentation. We also compare and contrast such technologies, as their individual characteristics (e.g., spatio-temporal resolution, invasiveness, portability, energy requirements, and cost) influence their current and future role in human cognitive augmentation. Secondly, we chart the state of the art on neurotechnologies for human cognitive augmentation, keeping an eye both on the applications that already exist and those that are emerging or are likely to emerge in the next two decades. Particularly, we consider applications in the areas of communication, cognitive enhancement, memory, attention monitoring/enhancement, situation awareness and complex problem solving, and we look at what fraction of the population might benefit from such technologies and at the demands they impose in terms of user training. Thirdly, we briefly review the ethical issues associated with current neuroscience technologies. These are important because they may differentially influence both present and future research on (and adoption of) neurotechnologies for human cognitive augmentation: an inferior technology with no significant ethical issues may thrive while a superior technology causing widespread ethical concerns may end up being outlawed. Finally, based on the lessons learned in our analysis, using past trends and considering other related forecasts, we attempt to forecast the most likely future developments of neuroscience technology for human cognitive augmentation and provide informed recommendations for promising future research and exploitation avenues.

Comparison of efficiency and technology across the banking systems of Vietnam, China and India

PurposeGiven some similarities in the banking industry and economic condition across Vietnam, China and India, the purpose of this paper is to estimate and compare the cost and revenue efficiency of banks across these three countries over the period 1995–2011.Design/methodology/approachThis study employs the meta-frontier of Battese et al. (2004) and O’Donnell et al. (2008) which envelops the three country-frontiers to measure the cost and revenue efficiency of banks in these three countries.FindingsThis study finds that Chinese banks adopt the most advanced cost-reducing and revenue-increasing technology when providing banking products to their customers, followed by Indian banks. Indian banks are as cost-efficient as Chinese banks, but more cost-efficient than Vietnamese banks. Indian banks are as revenue-efficient as Vietnamese banks, but less revenue-efficient than Chinese banks. Over the analysis period, banks in the three countries have employed the more advanced technology in reducing costs, and they have become more cost-efficient. Nonetheless, for revenue side, the improvement in revenue efficiency and adopted technology are observed only in Chinese banks. The main source of meta-cost and meta-revenue inefficiency of these banking systems stems from undertaking inferior technology rather than managerial ability. Results from comparison across bank types show that state-owned banks (SOBs) are more cost and revenue-efficient than privately owned banks, with Indian and Chinese SOBs being the most cost- and revenue-efficient, respectively.Practical implicationsTo improve meta-cost efficiency, Chinese and Indian banks would constitute a relevant benchmark for Vietnamese banks, while to improve meta-revenue efficiency, Chinese banks would be considered as a relevant benchmark for Vietnamese and Indian banks.Originality/valueThis is the first study which utilizes meta-frontier to compare cost and revenue efficiency and technology across banks in Vietnam, China and India.

Stakeholder-driven modelling the impact of animal profile and market conditions on optimal delivery weight in growing-finishing pig production

Pig delivery weight optimisation (PDWO) has been studied extensively and has resulted in several optimisation models. A previous participatory analysis of the problem has revealed that existing models are too complex and might therefore be under-valorised. Farmers desire a simple but reliable model based on available farm data to learn about the problem. A spreadsheet simulation model was therefore developed based on empirical animal performance models. The present study aims at conceptualising a stakeholder-driven model concerning PDWO that should provide insights into four key questions: I) how do the driving forces behind the optimisation determine the optima, II) what is the dependency of the optimal delivery weight on market conditions, III) how do the opportunity costs due to suboptimal delivery evolve, in addition to the mere optimisation results and IV) what is the effect of differences in animal performance profile, in terms of growth, feed intake and average carcass quality on the optimal delivery results? The results generated by the simulation model generally align with those generated using more sophisticated modelling approaches in previous studies. Our results indicate that the animal's growth and feed intake profile can more importantly affect the location of the optima, the stability of the optima and economic importance of delivery weight optimisation compared to market conditions. Moreover, the effect of market conditions on the optimisation was dependent on the animal profile, which determines the flatness of the payoff curve per pig. The possible flat payoff curves imply that the benefits of accurate PDWO can be limited and that some error margin in decisions on PDWO can be exploited. Moreover, this finding illustrates and corroborates the increased benefit of a shift in technology, i.e. an improved animal performance, compared to striving for the optimum on the production function of an inferior technology. Using this simplified model, farmers can investigate the flatness of their farm-specific payoff curve and the stability of their farm-specific optima. That information may help them to determine the appropriateness of a robust decision-supportive rule about optimal delivery weight on their farm.

Impact of Tanneries Waste Disposal on Environment with Special Reference to Vellore District Tamil Nadu

The Leather Industries occupies a place of prominence in the Indian economy in view of its massive potential for employment, growth and export. There has been increasing emphasis on its planned development aimed at optimum utilization available raw material for maximizing the returns particularly from exports. This paper aims at understanding the impact of tanneries waste disposal on environment. From the very beginning of industrialization in India, tanning industries have been playing a significant role in the country’s economy. Due to its importance as a labor based export oriented industry the full flourish of this industrial sector is essential. But due to the absence of proper waste management, using inferior technologies, lack of facilities for treating industrial wastes; the tanning industries especially located in Vellore district are aggravating environmental problems day by day. The discharging and dumping of wastes near the water bodies without treatment makes it almost look like an area which is lying under the blanket of pollution. It is an emerging problem not only for the environment but also as the social context of the country. This study focuses on the tanneries located in Vellore District to assess the present situation arising from such activities and proposed several mitigation measures.

From troublesome materials to fluid technologies: making and playing with plastic-bag footballs

The material recalcitrance of plastic bags – evident in their refusal to decompose and their capacity to evade neat disposal – is a widespread source of environmental concern and frustration. Yet throughout the Majority (developing) World, the incessant materiality of plastic affords boys and young men an opportunity to make footballs (soccer balls) out of waste. Made in situ, plastic-bag footballs are uniquely suited to local contexts and landscapes – a resourceful technology assembled from otherwise troublesome materials. Plastic-bag footballs are also fluid: perpetually in-the-making and characterized by diverse states of working order. Insights garnered from discussions with young Tanzanian football-makers and players position plastic-bag footballs against neocolonial discourses of poverty and precarity. Meanwhile attentiveness to the socio-material relations of plastic-bag footballs makes plain that they are not inferior technologies. Plastic-bag footballs invite consideration of how humans live, materially, in the Anthropocene. Plastic bags typify the ecological crises of throwaway consumerism and malignant toxicity. Yet, we ask: could it be that plastic-bag footballs exemplify the material resourcefulness, skill, care for things – and even playfulness – needed to cope with these very crises?