Technology Diffusion Process Research Articles

Effect of Accessibility and Utilization of Electronic Information Resources on Productivity of Academic Staff in Selected Nigerian Universities

The aim of the paper was to investigate the effect of accessibility and utilization of electronic resources on productivity of academic staff in Nigerian universities. A survey method was used in the study, with a questionnaire as the instrument for data collection. Responses from 324 academic staff out of 586 that were surveyed were used for data analysis. Correlation analysis showed that, there was a positive correlation between accessibility and utilization of electronic resources on productivity of respondents in the survey (r=0.135; p=0.015). This implies that increase in access and use of e-resources will lead to increase in productivity among respondents at the surveyed universities. Similar result was obtained when the hypothesis was tested at international level with r=0.158 and p=0.004. In other words, respondents that access and use e-resources in research frequently publish more articles in international journals than those who do not. It was recommended that, in view of the observed positive impact of e-resources on productivity in the survey; university managements, university librarians, National Universities Commission (NUC) and other stakeholders in Nigerian universities should intensify the process of effective information and communication technology (ICT) diffusion and provision of relevant e-resources in Nigerian universities towards qualitative research. This will also make academic staff in Nigerian universities to be globally competitive for journal space in international journals, and thus bridge the productivity gap between Nigeria and developed countries.

Divergent diffusion: Understanding the interaction between institutions, firms, networks and knowledge in the international adoption of technology

Why do certain technologies diffuse globally while others spread only within certain areas of the world? I analyze the uneven process of international technology diffusion by focusing on how institutions moderate the impact of firm, network, and knowledge characteristics on the adoption of technology. The study shows that better economic institutions lower transformation costs; that similarities across social institutions minimize transmission costs; and that effective political institutions reduce transaction costs for technology diffusion. The impact of each institution-type on the diffusion process is based on the relative weight of the three different knowledge dimensions embedded in the technology. Complex technologies are most affected by economic institutions; tacit technologies are most dependent on social institutions; and systemic technologies are most influenced by political institutions.

Capability accumulation, innovation, and technology diffusion: Lessons from a Base of the Pyramid cluster

Although research on industry clusters has made many valuable contributions, a dearth of empirical evidence and theoretical reflection about the characteristics of Base of the Pyramid (BOP) clusters has persisted. Consequently, the literature still lacks a framework that incorporates the context, challenges, and dynamics encountered in such clusters. Drawing from clusters, capability accumulation, and innovation literatures, we develop a theoretical framework that provides a more fine-grained understanding of the dynamics encountered in BOP clusters, the role of support organizations, the importance of capabilities accumulation in firms, and the challenges associated with technology development and diffusion within such settings. We use case study research method conducted in a traditional granite-mining cluster in Brazil, based on 154 interviews with key informants between 1999 and 2011. Our findings suggest that BOP clusters present different dynamics when compared to clusters elsewhere, because of the existence of idiosyncrasies such as additional barriers to technology diffusion, especially when coupled with a lack of coordination and misaligned policy approaches. We contribute to the literature by arguing that the process of technology diffusion in BOP clusters is hindered by these barriers, and that technology development without wide diffusion within BOP clusters can become a source of social exclusion and wealth concentration. Moreover, in large emerging economies, global pipelines are not necessarily the only path for BOP clusters to achieve competitive advantage and sustainable growth, as suggested in the clusters literature.

Impact of social factors in adoption of CSR BIO - A cost effective, eco-friendly bio-growth enhancer for sustainable crop production

Comparative evaluation and survey on adoption and profitability of existing crop production system evidences problems of higher input cost, low productivity, diminishing profitability and lower cost:benefit ratio in the field conditions than expected. To overcome these problems, a cost effective bio-formulation CSR BIO was developed using dynamic microbial consortia cultured in patented dynamic nutrient media under the World Bank funded National Agricultural Innovation Project. The bio-formulation intervened in the Barabanki district of Uttar Pradesh played an unique role in increasing income and productivity among adopters. Most of the technologies fail due to improper diffusion process and lack of adoption study to assess their performance. Therefore, the current study looked into the adoption profile of the CSR BIO, a bio growth enhancer, and assesses the relation with critical factors influencing adoption intensity using logistic regression model through survey data obtained from 2010 to 2013. Results showed an overall average adoption percentage of 68.61 % over the study period. The adoption percentage increased with the year of intervention which signified the success of the technology and got stabilized at 83.00 % in the year 2013. The major factors which have strongly influenced the adoption process were the level of training, land holding capacity and occupation of the target users. Small land holders with agriculture as major occupation who had received trainings, adopted more intensively than the others. The results of this study furthermore indicated that advancing the knowledge diffusion process of the cost effective technology would be useful in developing extension strategies for novel low cost technologies.

Exploring price effects on the residential water conservation technology diffusion process: a case study of Tianjin city

Reforms of the water pricing management system and the establishment of a flexible water pricing system are significant for cities in northern China to tackle their critical water issues. The WATAP (Water conserva- tion Technology Adoption Processes) model is developed in order to capture the water conservation technology adoption process under different price scenarios with disaggregate water demands down to the end use level. This model is explicitly characterized by the technological selection process under maximum marginal benefit assumption by different categories of households. In particular, when households need to purchase water devices in the provision market with the consideration of complex factors such as the life span, investment and operating costs of the device, as well as the regulated water price by the government. Applied to Tianjin city, four scenarios of water price evolutions for a long-term perspective (from year 2011 to 2030) are considered, including BAU (Business As Usual), SP1 (Scenario of Price increase with constant annual rate), SP2 (Scenario of Price increase every four years) and SP3 (Scenario of Price increase with affordable constraint), considering many factors such as historic trends, affordability and incentives for conservation. Results show that on aggregate 2.3%, 11.0% and 18.2% of fresh water can be saved in the residential sector in scenario SP1, SP2 and SP3, respec- tively, compared with the BAU scenario in the year 2030. The water price signals can change the market shares of different water appliances, as well as the water end use structure of households, and ultimately improve water use efficiency. The WATAP model may potentially be a helpful tool to provide insights for policy makers on water conservation technology policy analysis and assessment.

From Steam to Diesel in the Spanish Fisheries Sector: A Multilevel Perspective in the Study of Technology Diffusion Processes

This article seeks to study the diffusion of diesel engines in the Spanish fisheries sector by revealing the factors that had a bearing on that process from a dual perspective: at aggregate level and at company level. The diffusion process for diesel technology follows an S-shapped curve, involving a gradual process. A range of varying factors explains the slow diffusion of diesel at the sector level, related to both demand and supply, and factors as those related to the characteristics of innovation and the evolution of older technology. A model is subsequently proposed that details the adoption of innovations and the characteristics of companies. The results indicate that the parameters of both the recipient company—size, location and organizational structure—and its technology provider help to explain the probability of this deployment.

Technology and adolescents: Perspectives on the things to come

Assuming that, given the processes of technology diffusion, adolescent behavior forecasts future consumption of digital information, it would seem pertinent to study the characteristics of teenager technology use. This research asks: What are the key patterns regarding the use of technology platforms by teenagers? Is technology usage among teenagers shaped by schools' disparate teaching philosophies and cultures? How is technology usage impacting the consumption of traditional print media? A survey designed to determine how high school students use technology was administered at a private boarding school in New Hampshire and a public school in New York. The research concluded that individuals' residing environment and context shape ICT adoption. School culture and geographic context drive behavioral technology usage patterns. Furthermore, consumption of information appears to be guided by a principle of complementarity. However, technology substitution should not be discarded. Finally, school culture incorporating and promoting technology use may contribute positively to knowledge acquisition, although technology adoption without controls could negatively impact the teaching experience. While directionally valid, the study results need to be validated by statistical research and case studies.

Are global pipelines really fundamental for cluster innovation and growth? Lessons from Brazil

Although research on industry clusters has made many valuable contributions, a dearth of empirical evidence and theoretical reflection on the characteristics of Base of the Pyramid (BOP) clusters has persisted. Consequently, the literature still lacks a framework that incorporates the context, challenges, and dynamics encountered in such clusters. Drawing from cluster, capability accumulation, and innovation literatures, we develop a theoretical framework that provides a more fine-grained understanding of the dynamics encountered in BOP clusters, the role of support organizations, the accumulation of capabilities in firms, and the challenges associated with technology development and diffusion within such settings. We use case-study research conducted in a traditional granite-mining cluster in Brazil, based on 154 interviews with key informants between 1999 and 2011. Our findings suggest that BOP clusters present a different dynamic when compared to clusters elsewhere, because of the existence of idiosyncrasies such as additional barriers to technology diffusion, especially when coupled with a lack of coordination and misaligned policy approaches. We contribute to the literature by arguing that the process of technology diffusion in BOP clusters is hindered by these idiosyncrasies, and that technology development without wide diffusion within a BOP cluster can become a source of social exclusion and wealth concentration. Moreover, in large emerging economies, global pipelines are not necessarily the only path for BOP clusters to achieve competitive advantage and sustainable growth, as suggested in the cluster literature.

Good Things Grow in Scaled Packages: Africa's Agricultural Challenge in Historical Context

This paper describes sub-Saharan Africa’s contemporary small-holder agricultural challenges in relation to the 20th century’s revolutions, especially in Asia. Distilling evidence from the agronomics and economics literatures, four key points stand out. First, each country’s deployment of its own green revolution package typically amounted to a discernible policy event, driven by active public sector involvement rather than emerging as a simple product of factor scarcities or market forces. Second, green revolutions are not characterized by a breakthrough in any single intervention technology, but instead by a set of key inputs — namely seeds, fertilizer, water and farmer extension — that are successfully deployed as complements in production. Third, the specific biophysical sub-elements of the package differ by crop type, geography and farming system, so the process of technology diffusion is limited by physical factors. Fourth, much of Africa has faced unique challenges to wide-scale deployment of modern input packages, and there is little evidence of policy efforts having been appropriately targeted to overcoming the region’s core constraints.

An alternative approach to the monitoring of technological diffusion via foreign direct investment: evidence from the Greek manufacturing sector

The existing studies of foreign direct investment and the corresponding technological diffusion process that they generate, focus either on specific parameters of the production process in isolation, or they combine certain parameters to construct indices that are not consistent across studies. The present analysis proposes an alternative approach that captures the entire production process and multinational firms are viewed as the platform that transfers more advanced technologies to the host countries. As multinational firms are able to utilise more efficiently the available production process, an efficiency gap ensues between the domestically owned firms of a country and the multinational firms that operate in it. We capture and provide a measure and a monitoring mechanism of the technological diffusion process via foreign direct investment through the evolution of the efficiency gap between the two groups of firms whilst controlling for other variables that might contribute to such a gap. We apply our approach to the manufacturing sector of the Greek economy that experiences a consistent presence of foreign direct investment inflows over the time period 2001–2007.

Testing, Contesting and Legitimizing Technology Diffusion in Regulated Environments

Based on a longitudinal case study approach, this paper shows that the legitimation processes of technology diffusion in regulated environments is subjected to distinct power struggles manifested in different framing contests when several competing technological frames are crafted, are contradictory and attempt at capturing the same resources. We show that technology framing contests increase ambiguity which may in turn spark the need to rely on technology testing in order to bring a resolution of the debate, to lower ambiguity and to provide legitimacy to the purpose and benefits of a technology. Furthermore, we show that when framing contests over diffusion cannot be resolved through legitimated means, institution testing may come into play. This is likely to occur when the cultural-cognitive legitimacy of a technology has acquired sufficient force to trump regulatory legitimacy.

How Institutions Drive Technological Development in Sustainable Energy

Entrepreneurs, corporations, and policy makers are increasingly turning to new technologies as one way to address the monumental challenges relating to world energy demands. This symposium brings together a diverse, yet related set of papers focused on the ways in which institutions shape the development of new technologies aimed at addressing these energy challenges. Although emerging technologies represent promising solutions to the challenges of developing a sustainable future, to be effective, they must be widely diffused and implemented as intended. The process of technological development, diffusion, and implementation relies not only on the underlying science, but on the social processes that shape technological development. As such, it is critical to understand how the institutional environment shapes technological development in this sector. The papers in this session are firmly anchored in organization theory and incorporate rich data sets to investigate a critical issues central to technologica...

Testing, Contesting and Legitimizing Technology Diffusion in Regulated Environments

Based on a longitudinal case study approach, this paper shows that the legitimation processes of technology diffusion in regulated environments involves not only the demonstration of the benefits o...

Identifying critical mass in the global cellular telephony market

Technology diffusion processes are often said to have critical mass phenomena. We apply a model of demand with installed base effects to provide theoretically grounded empirical insights about critical mass. Our model allows us to rigorously identify and quantify critical mass as a function of installed base and price. Using data from the digital cellular telephony market, which is commonly assumed to have installed base effects, we apply our model and find that installed base effects were generally not strong enough to generate critical mass phenomena, except in the first cellular markets to introduce the technology.

An empirical investigation of factors affecting e-collaboration diffusion in SMEs

Organizations today operate in a complex, unpredictable, competitive and global business environment. Organizations have responded to these challenges by implementing collaborative supply chain management (SCM) which allows their organizations to gain competitive advantages. E-collaboration implementation is one of the key technologies to facilitate the success of SCM, which allows the integration of business processes and the sharing of information among supply chain members. E-collaboration has been implemented with considerable success in the supply chain by organizations such as Infineon and Wal-Mart. However, these large organizations have more financial and technical resources compared to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). Little research on the implementation of e-collaboration has focused on the perspective of SMEs. Furthermore, most studies on e-collaboration implementation have traditionally examined the adoption stage of e-collaboration tools instead of a multi-stage diffusion process of technology. The main objective of this study is to understand the factors that influence the diffusion of e-collaboration in SCM among the SMEs. This study proposes a research model to examine a stage-based e-collaboration diffusion process in SMEs. An integration technology adoption model based on Technological-Organizational-Environmental (TOE) framework, Interorganizational Relationships (IOR), and Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) is proposed and empirically validated.

The Limits and Contradictions of Agricultural Technology in Latin America: Lessons from Mexico and Argentina

Abstract Based on a collective research project designed to analyze the links between scientific and technological production, development and democracy in Latin America, this paper deals with the performance of the agrarian economy under conditions of scant internally generated technology. We begin by acknowledging that this resource has historically been imported. We frame the objective of analysis in terms of assessing its economic and social implications through an empirical approach to the process of technological diffusion. Two representative experiences of the agricultural structure are examined in the region, namely, peasant productive units in Mexico and capitalist enterprises on the Argentine plains. For the former, we look at the post-war era, examining the content of the technological package contained in the green revolution and its repercussions. In the latter case, we look at present-day agro-business and analyze the propagation of the transgenic soybean known as “Roundup Ready” in the pampas region. In both cases, we consider the positive and negative characteristics within the productive and macroeconomic order, including impact on employment, environment, and social welfare.

Biomedical technology growth: a case study of forecasting in pulsed electromagnetic field therapy

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to explore the benefit of forecasting emerging biomedical therapy technologies as well as the rate of diffusion of resultant biomedical products in the context of management of technology.Design/methodology/approachThe research method is exploratory using a case study approach. Techniques such as bibliometric analysis and the Bass diffusion model are utilized to assess the growth rate and market penetration of pulsed electromagnetic field therapy (PEMF) as a technology.FindingsThe penetration and growth rate of user acceptance of the technology in a global context are simulated across a 15‐year period. The technology forecasting model is also used in a case study to simulate the penetration of a product using ten years' medical application data of a patented pulsed electromagnetic field for biomedical therapy application in the global context. Useful correlation between bibliometric data for PEMF and real data for the case study is illustrated.Research limitations/implicationsThe research is limited to the case of PEMF data presented. Further research may be done on other PEMF technology applications.Practical implicationsAspects of a holistic management model that was developed for high technology companies are invoked in the practical realisation of the professional paradigm shift required when an emerging biomedical therapy technology is in the process of becoming mainstream.Originality/valueIt has been shown that technology diffusion traces exist for PEMF therapy technology as is evident from the bibliometric PEMF global data presented. Furthermore it is possible to simulate the PEMF therapy technology diffusion process with a Bass diffusion model incorporating innovation imitation and market size coefficients.

Empowerment of Women

Technology empowerment of rural women is identified as a crucial element to ease out their work stress, reduce drudgeries and to improve productivity. In developing countries, technology development and training programmes have not been responsive to household drudgery associated with different production activities undertaken by women. Hence, rural women’s needs for technology that improves their productivity while reducing drudgery must be recognised. Present article attempts to highlight the need of effective Technology transfer for empowerment of rural women. In Section I of the article an overview is presented about empowerment, technology transfer and women’s work which is hidden and multitasked and having many misperceptions. Considering women’s different needs and widening gaps in rural technologies, this article affirms the critical need of technology transfer for enhancing and widening the process of technology diffusion in rural India. The focus of Section II is on the observations of an extensive study carried out to identify the gaps in technological transfer process in Andhra Pradesh and suggests definite pointers to develop appropriate technologies and transfer practices to ignite the process of women empowerment and social equity in India.

Making medicine a business in Japan: Shimadzu Co. and the diffusion of radiology (1900–1960)

This contribution focuses on the role of the firm Shimadzu in the marketing of X-ray machines in Japan during the first part of the 20th century, viewed from a business history perspective. It attempts to further understanding of the process of technology diffusion in medicine. In a global market controlled by American and German multinational enterprises, Japan appears to have been a particular country, where a domestic independent firm, Shimadzu, succeeded in establishing itself as a competitive company. This success is the result of a strategy based on both the internalisation of technological capabilities (recruitment of university graduate engineers, subcontracting of research and development activities) and an original communication policy towards the medical world. Finally, the specific structure of the Japanese medical market, composed of numerous and largely privatised small healthcare centres, facilitated the rapid diffusion of X-ray machines, a new technology which conferred a comparative advantage on its holders.

Growth behavior of publications and patents: A comparative study on selected Asian economies

This study attempts to model the growth behavior of the number of publications and patents of South Korea, Taiwan, Japan and Malaysia. Three competing growth functions, namely, simple logistic growth function, bi-logistic growth function and logistic function within a dynamic carrying capacity were considered. The findings provide insight to the diffusion process of science and technology, often measured by the number of publications and patents, respectively. The function that provides the best fit to the observed data was opted for explaining the diffusion process. The function with the best fit is the bi-logistic growth function for the number of publications as well as the number of patents of South Korea and Taiwan, the logistic growth function within a dynamic carrying capacity (LGDCC) for the number of publications and the bi-logistic growth function for the number of patents of Japan, and the LGDCC for the number of publications and simple growth function for the number of patents of Malaysia. The results suggest a dynamic self-propagating growth for the science and technology, and thereby a transition from science and technology-push to market-pull growth for South Korea and Taiwan. While a similar transition was observed for the technology of Japan, the growth in science had entered a maturity stage. On the other hand, the growth potential in science is dynamic for Malaysia, but its technological advancement is relatively lower and static compared to the other economies.