Innovative Technology Projects Research Articles

Application of the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) for Innovative Technological Projects Evaluation and Prioritization in an FMCG Company

The FMCG industry is known for its dynamic and competitive nature. To thrive in this business sector, companies must possess the ability to swiftly adapt to the market demand changes, continuously enhance operational efficiency and drive innovation. Those abilities are crucial for maintaining competitiveness and ensuring long term viability of the company. Over the past few decades, technology along with its advancement has emerged as a factor that disrupts the ecosystem of various industries by reshaping the way businesses operate and interact with the customers. In Indonesia, many organizations including FMCG companies have continuously embraced and adopted emerging and innovative technologies within their business operations. Although it offers various benefits for the companies, the execution process has usually encountered various challenges which causing the implementation projects to experiencing delays, especially during the decision-making process. This was also the case in one of the largest FMCG companies in Indonesia due to varying interpretations of project importance, as well as the absence of clear prioritization criteria and an unorganized decision-making process. In order to address the issues, the organization plans to develop a decision-making framework that harmonizes diverse stakeholder perspectives related to project importance based on a number of key criteria while also analyze the benefit and impact provided by the implemented technologies through the application of the Multi Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) approach using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) framework. There are three technology innovation projects to be analyzed and assessed in this research: AGV Implementation, and Digital Warehouse Management System, and Universal QR for Traceability. In order to evaluate the projects, eighteen criterion which are divided into eighteen sub criteria that has been established through Secondary Data Collection and Focus Group Discussion (FGD) process. The data were processed by leveraging the systematic decision-making structure provided by the AHP framework. The research yields two primary outcomes: a structured decision-making framework and a project prioritization scheme intended for application at the organization. The findings of the research highlight the critical role of structured decision-making in navigating the complexities of evaluating and prioritizing innovative technological projects, while also proposing a scalable model that can be repeatedly utilized by the company in the project evaluation and prioritization contexts.

AI Health Projects Win BCS Prizes

Abstract Two innovative technology projects have been honoured with awards from the BCS Primary Healthcare Specialist Group. Victoria Temple, BCS’ Senior Press Officer, explores how each uses AI to improve patient outcomes and save GPs’ time.

Digital technologies in the business of law firms as a source of ideas for student projects implemented as part of the startup as a graduation program

The success of the “Startup as a WRC” program is largely due to the effectiveness of combining the efforts of students and business representatives in the development and implementation of innovative technological projects. The prerequisite for such interaction in the field of LegalTech is the close study by law students of promising areas of digitalization of legal business. An overview of digital technologies that allow law firms to more effectively organize interaction with the client and improve the quality of services provided is presented. The conditions necessary for the functioning of a virtual law firm are listed, the main directions of automation of business processes of law firms are outlined, and the prospects for the use of artificial intelligence in legal practice are shown. The results of the study can be used by students when choosing business ideas for the implementation of startups in the field of LegalTech.

An AHP-TOWS Analysis of Options for Promoting Disaster Risk Reduction Infrastructure in Informal Settlements of Greater Giyani Local Municipality, South Africa

In the face of unstoppable urbanisation, disaster risks are projected to increase, mainly in unplanned areas that usually lack disaster risk reducing infrastructure. In Africa, including South Africa, limited resources and capacity hinder the provision of such infrastructure. The objective of this study was to determine options for promoting disaster risk reducing infrastructure in informal settlements in Giyani Municipality, Limpopo Province, South Africa, a disaster risk-prone area. A case study was conducted to collect primary data from purposively selected experts and the SWOT factors from the Integrated Development Plan Report of 2019/2020. A TOWS analytical hierarchical process was applied to pairwise comparisons of factors to prioritize them using eigenvalues and generate strategic options for promoting disaster risk reduction infrastructure in the informal settlements of Giyani Local Municipality. In the TOWS results, the experts suggested integrating traditional authorities into the municipal development processes, implementing an environmental framework that includes disaster management policies and an integrated waste management plan, and developing innovative technological projects that provide up-to-date spatial planning data to provide disaster risk reducing infrastructure in informal areas. This study concludes that the provision of affordable housing, clean regular piped water, storm and sewer drainage systems, street lighting, accessible routes, solid waste collection, electricity, and healthcare services would reduce a range of disaster risks.

Building a model of supply chains duopoly taking into account the marketing and innovative activities of manufacturing enterprises

This paper reports the construction and analysis of the economic and mathematical model of the duopoly of supply chains, based on the model of optimization of plans for the release and delivery of multi-range articles, taking into consideration the marketing and innovative activities of industrial enterprises. Demand for goods is supposed to be an increasing function of advertising costs. In this case, marketing investments affect only the base selling prices of articles and do not affect competitive discounts. The explicit form of this dependence can be established as a result of marketing research. It is also assumed that investments in innovative technological projects could reduce industrial costs; production costs are decreasing functions of the size of the investment. It is believed that the demand function is linearly dependent on the total volume of output produced. The criterion of optimality for supply chains is the maximum of the total profit received from the sale and delivery of finished products to points of consumption, taking into consideration the costs of production and advertising. As a result of this study, equilibrium solutions of the duopoly according to Cournot and Stackelberg were found. That has made it possible to determine the optimal values of product volumes for output, the size of investment investments, as well as product advertising costs. The model helped study the impact of investment deductions and advertising costs on the acquisition of competitive advantages by manufacturing enterprises. A numerical illustration of the results obtained is given. The proposed approach could be used to build and analyze dynamic optimization models taking into consideration the innovation and marketing activities of enterprises, as well as to study other market structures

ОЦЕНКА УРОВНЕЙ ГОТОВНОСТИ КАК ИНСТРУМЕНТ УПРАВЛЕНИЯ ТЕХНОЛОГИЧЕСКИМИ ПРОЕКТАМИ: ЗАДАЧИ, ПРОБЛЕМЫ И ОСОБЕННОСТИ ПРИМЕНЕНИЯ ДЛЯ ПРОЕКТОВ НОЦ

The implementation of programs aimed at developing Russian manufacturing, including for the purpose of import substitution and proactive import substitution, makes the task of an objective and comprehensive assessment of the readiness of innovative technological projects an urgent one. The readiness assessment facilitates the effective and balanced management of the project development and allows to control the project dynamics and the effectiveness of functioning of the development institutions that support it. The availability of user-friendly tools for a comprehensive assessment of the level of technology readiness is an important component when assessing projects implemented within the frameworks of world-class research and educational centers, being created in Russia since 2019. Today, a number of cutting-edge methods of assessing the readiness of projects are used, including the technology readiness level (TRL) developed by NASA, and its European interpretation, the method for assessing technology readiness levels (TRL) developed in the Russian Federation, method for assessing the technology project readiness level for commercialization of scientific and engineering innovation projects (TPRL). The article discusses theoretical and practical aspects of the application of the above-mentioned methods, identifies opportunities and prospects for their improvement, analyzes the practice of using the TRL method to assess the projects included in the program of the World-class Ural Research and Education Centre. The rationality of improving the methods for assessing the readiness of innovative projects, as well as of the methods for assessing the effectiveness of research and educational centers as a whole, has been proved.

Mobile Applications Accessibility: An Evaluation of the Local Portuguese Press

The local press has always played a central role in the Portuguese society. Recently, new innovative technological projects to develop mobile applications and focus on local journalism in Portugal have emerged. These initiatives allow the development of better and more appealing services for local users. However, due to the important social role of the local press, this also brings along some responsibilities. Our main research goal is to study the accessibility issues in local journalism in Portugal. To this end, we first describe the current situation of local journalism in Portugal and some accessibility issues raised by the appearance of mobile applications. We then develop a simple checklist that allows the assessment of whether these applications have prevented social exclusion and facilitated the access of local information to a wide range of users, including disabled citizens. This tool provides the regional news publisher with information to improve its democratization of access to local information in Portugal. Using the cognitive walkthrough method, we illustrate the proposed framework by presenting case studies of five mobile applications in Portuguese local and regional press. This study concludes that despite the great potential that mobile applications showcase, several accessibility issues have not been properly addressed.

Inovativni dizajn tehnologija prerade otpada

Designing modern waste recycling systems is an urgent problem. The experience of attracting masters from two leading Russian universities in organizing interaction and cooperation in the development and implementation of waste sorting complexes is considered. Faculties of Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration and Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology held a project session for developing and launching innovative technological projects on the market called "Techno marketing". The developed methodological base made it possible to combine educational and entrepreneurial tasks and ensure the promotion of student technological projects. As a result of the conducted project session, a project on the use of computer vision systems for sorting waste was developed, the competitive differences of the project and its technical and economic indicators were presented. The mechanisms for the implementation of an innovative waste sorting project have been determined. Despite being twice as expensive, the waste sorting machine is able to fully pay off 3 times faster than manual sorting, justifying further investment in the project.

Social assessment of technology and humanitarization of engineering in the information society

The article considers definitions of the contemporary technology and its social and moral assessment. In the information society, humanitarization of engineering and technical education in general becomes extremely important together with the social-humanitarian knowledge in the interdisciplinary assessment of the scientific-technological development. Technology Assessment (TA) is a new scientific discipline, a theory of assessing and forecasting the development of technology, and a practice of consulting. Based on the TA, algorithms are developed to identify negative effects of technology and to make scientifically sound decisions. An interdisciplinary dialogue on the social assessment of technology should focus not only on technocratic tasks but also on the social-humanitarian methodological and epistemological foundations of the TA. In recent years, this component of the social assessment of technology has influenced the Western-European academic discourse on Responsible Research and Innovation, which reflects the scientific understanding of the importance of ethical reflection of technical activity. Thus, there is an obvious need for the combination of the social-humanitarian expertise of innovative technological projects with technical, mathematical and applied methods in the information age. Contemporary radical changes determined by the scientific-technological revolution require new approaches, methods and forms of interaction between people and communities, while their global nature determines universal ethical principles of these relationships. The post-modern information development of Russia will be accompanied not only by implementation of information technologies in all spheres of life, but also by the social-moral assessment of technology, humanization and humanitarization of engineering, strengthening personal professionalism and creative abilities.

Risk in the scope of research and innovative technological projects

Assessment and management of risk constitute the subject of many researches. Nevertheless, many more specific factors are applicable during the implementation of innovative technological projects. On the article identified risk factors, which have been supplemented, systematized and assigned to the individual risk categories. The risk assessment methods for R&D projects have been analysed, as well as the risk sheets have been developed for the R&D project through the use of dotProject application. Also shown that networking and clustering is a change for fruitful cooperation within difference EU projects, which create trust between business and sciences and reduce the risk.

The Research Role of the Librarian at a Community Health Hackathon-A Technical Report.

A hackathon is a social event that is focused on building small and innovative technology projects. The 2018 Hackathon hosted by the Washington State University (WSU) Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine aimed to solve rural health problems in Washington state. One major modification to the regular format of a healthcare hackathon was the inclusion of research librarians. Librarians with health sciences and business expertise provided research and library services at a designated Research Station, which included literature, patent, and internet searches. Participant and hackathon librarian observations, verbal feedback, and librarian survey results demonstrate the positive value/outcome of library services to the health hackathon winners. The winning hackathon teams used the services by the Research Station extensively. Areas of strength for this event included collaboration between librarians, promotion of library services, and efficient information retrieval. Areas for improvement included making regular contact with hackathon teams during the event and clearer signage and marketing.

Did Venture Capital Promote Innovation in India?

The study exhorts to ascertain the general perception that Venture Capitalists fund innovative technology projects in the Indian context using primary and secondary data. A structured questionnaire was used to elicit response from 101 (sample) out of 134 (Population) SEBI registered and active Venture Capital firms in the recent past. The study analyses the mode of funding by Venture Capital firms and their geographical dispersion. The study ascertains whether Venture Capital firms have enabled innovation in the Indian context during the recent past or not. Finally, the study concludes that Venture Capital Investments have not been very enabling for innovative technologies in the Indian context, which is contrary to the relevant literature available in the context of USA and other developed nations.

The impact of innovative transformation of industry on the socio-economic development of the Russian Arctic

The goal of the study was to analyze the impact that innovative transformation of industry has on the socio-economic development of the Russian Arctic and to formulate proposals for accelerating and enhancing innovative processes in the industrial sector of the country’s Northern territories. We have established that, given the internal and external threats, challenges, restrictions and sanctions of Western countries, innovations and R&D should be stimulated, as these activities, primarily connected to impact of industrial transformation on socio-economic development of the Arctic, are particularly important not only from a scientific but also from a practical standpoint. We have considered the external and internal challenges and restrictions that hinder innovative development in the Arctic. We have confirmed that while growth of industrial production in the Arctic is ahead of the average indicators in the Russian Federation, it is largely due to extensive factors connected to intensified development of natural resources, rather than to generating and implementing innovative technological projects and usage of information technologies.We have analyzed the potential to increase the number of organizations implementing technological innovations to 50% by 2024 (as established by the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation No. 204 of May 7, 2018), confirming that it would be difficult to achieve the target indicators without special policies and measures, given the current trends and rates of innovative development of the Arctic regions. Considering the integral estimate, we have found that the Arctic regions have low susceptibility to innovation. We have established that the financial capabilities of Arctic enterprises for generating and implementing innovative projects are limited. For example, only one of the thirteen enterprises studied is capable of technological innovation.

Policies for Financing the Energy Transition

Historically, energy transitions have occurred gradually over the span of several decades, marked by incremental improvements in technologies. In recent years, public interest in accelerating the next energy transition has fueled a clean-energy policy agenda intended to underpin the development of a decarbonized energy economy. However, policies to date have encouraged investors to fund renewable energy projects utilizing proven technologies that are not competitive without the help of government subsidies. A true transition of the energy mix requires innovations that can compete with conventional energy over the long term. Investments in innovative technology projects are scarce because of the “commercialization gap,” which affects projects that are too capital-intensive for venture capital yet too risky for private equity, project, or corporate debt financing. Accelerating innovation through the commercialization gap will require governments to allocate public dollars to, and encourage private investment in, these riskier projects. Policy-makers will face a trade-off between prioritizing policies for accelerating the energy transition and accounting for the risks associated with innovation funding in a tight budgetary environment.

Valuation of High-Risk High-Technology Ventures

The valuation of high-risk technological ventures is more of an art than a science. In the absence of cash flow forecast and in view of the high uncertainty about the successful completion of the venture's R&D effort, it is not possible to apply the Discounted-Cash-Flow (DCF) method, which is the common practice in the valuation of conventional projects or ventures. In the absence of a structured and methodical way for valuating risky innovative technology projects, CEOs, CFOs, investment managers as well venture capital and other investors resort to a variety of methods including gut feeling. In this paper I present a novel venture-pricing model (VPM) and method for the valuation of risky technological projects. The model may serve both researchers and practitioners (investors, entrepreneurs, C-level executives in well established technological corporation and the like) for the valuation of risky technological ventures and as supporting tool for decision-making and portfolio management.