Time Of Technological Change Research Articles

The Important Role of Emergence in Conceptualizing the Challenges of New Technologies to Private Law

Consider the following legal quandaries: a victim of a wrongdoing without a perpetrator, a work of art without an author, or the possibility that the sum of legally compliant behaviours give rise to non-compliance. Welcome to the world of emergence in law. The concept of emergent properties is central to systems thinking. It is commonly expressed as ‘the whole is more than the sum of its parts’ where the ‘whole’ represents the ‘emergent property’. This concept helps us understand how complexity emerges and allows systems engineers to look beyond the properties of individual components of a system and understand the system as a complex whole. In practice, this way of thinking militates against two kinds of fallacies: the fallacy of composition and the fallacy of division. The former occurs when one wrongfully attributes the properties of the component parts to the system as a whole whereas the latter arises when one wrongfully attributes the properties of the system as a whole to component parts. I argue that emergence provides an overarching framework to explain the challenges that technological developments associated with big data, artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics pose for different domains of private law, including privacy, data protection, Intellectual Property (IP), and tort laws. By creating new objects, possibilities for new action and new relationships, changes associated with the above technologies encourage the formation of emergent properties, which in turn pose attribution challenges for these legal domains. Two attribution challenges are particularly noteworthy. If we fail to address them properly, they may lead to the fallacies of composition and/or division. Further, emergence may help explain some of the regulatory responses and suggestions provoked by changes associated with the above technologies. For example, emergence and the desire to avoid the fallacy of division can explain suggestions to grant AI systems some form of legal (electronic) personhood and thereby bestow legal responsibility or entitlement on them. Thus, one way the law might usefully adapt during times of technological change would be by taking emergence seriously. This includes recognizing the possibility that the sum of fully complaint behaviours may create behaviour that is not compliant or not in the spirit of the law. Taking emergence seriously would also include being open to the prospect of a harm or legal entitlement existing without a perpetrator or a right-holder and finding new ways to address this prospect.

Digital orientation and environmental performance in times of technological change

Digitalization is increasingly seen as a strategic means for firms to yield competitive and environmental advantages. Still, current empirical research does not yet provide ample evidence on how a firm's strategic posture towards digitalization connects to environmental performance. This study examines the link between digital orientation and environmental performance as well as the moderating role of technological turbulence. The natural-resource-based view and literature on strategic orientations provide the conceptual foundations. The hypotheses are tested with data from 515 U.S. Standard and Poor's 500 companies with 2,800 firm observations from 2009 to 2019. The results indicate that, first, a firm's digital orientation has a significant and positive effect on environmental performance and, second, this effect is even more pronounced in technologically turbulent business environments. In sum, our findings suggest that managers can improve their firm's environmental performance and competitive position by increasing the digital orientation within their organizations. We thus add to the literature on the natural-resource-based view by identifying digital orientation as a strategy aligned with the natural environment. Finally, we derive practical implications for managers and policymakers aiming to bring together digitalization and green strategies.

The relationship between works councils and firms’ further training provision in times of technological change

AbstractParticipating in further training is strategically important for employees to ensure their employability. Particularly for employees in low‐skilled jobs, works councils — firm‐level organizations that represent employees — constitute an important employee advocacy instrument in European countries, such as France and Germany. With comprehensive co‐determination rights, works councils can influence firms’ hiring policies, job design and career paths (e.g. promotions). Using German firm‐level data, we empirically investigate the influence of works councils on firms’ training provision for employees in firms below and above the industry level of technology. The results show that works councils have a positive effect on the percentage of employees in general, and of employees in low‐skilled jobs in particular, participating in training, but only for firms below the industry level of technology. These results show the importance of works councils in supporting training in such firms and enhancing the employment prospects of employees in low‐skilled jobs. In contrast, firms above the industry level of technology invest in training with or without a works council, indicating that the training interests of employers and employees are aligned.

Standard setting in times of technological change: accounting for cryptocurrency holdings

PurposeThis paper explores how the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) has dealt with the emerging issue of accounting for cryptocurrencies by investigating its constituents' expectations and the motivations underlying its regulatory response.Design/methodology/approachThe theoretical lens of regulatory space is used to analyse the four-year debate around cryptocurrency holdings and informs the extensive thematic analysis of public documents, meetings recordings and comment letters on the topic.FindingsFacing national standard setters' initiatives to regulate accounting for cryptocurrency, the IASB defended its position in the regulatory space through an agenda decision based on ewct 2xisting standards, which was finalised by the International Financial Reporting Standards Interpretation Committee (IFRS IC) despite criticism from constituents and Board members.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper provides insights into the IASB approach to a regulatory vacuum regarding a new class of items, which derive from a new and rapidly-evolving technology. Disruptive technology impacts the contested arena of accounting regulation, in which the constituents ask for new solutions and the IASB tries to resist such pressures, while defending its position.Practical implicationsThe paper sheds light on the growing importance of agenda decisions in the IFRS environment and on the limits of the IASB long regulatory process in the circumstance of emerging accounting issues deriving from rapidly-evolving technology.Originality/valueThis investigation is timely and relevant as it considers the regulatory issues arising from disruptive technological innovations (i.e. cryptocurrency), shedding light on the limits of regulatory processes in times of technological change.

Exploring physical activity in Central Chile during the Early Ceramic Period and Late Intermediate Period (200-1450 CE).

We explore physical activity in early farming societies of Central Chile during the Early Ceramic and Late Intermediate Periods (200-1450 CE), a time of technological changes and intensification of food production. The existence of differences in entheseal changes (EC) between females and males is evaluated in two periods with different subsistence strategies. EC were recorded with method in the upper and lower limbs of 56 male and female adult individuals from the Early Ceramic Period (ECP) and Late Intermediate Period (LIP). Hierarchical multiple factor analysis and hierarchical clustering on principal components were performed using an exploratory approach. In all the analyzed limbs, the EC scores are higher in males than females, which may be explained by sexual dimorphism. A constant overlap in the variability of the EC among males and females is observed. However, the EC scores show a different pattern of variability when comparing ECP females with LIP females. The results show that the scores increase in the latter. In contrast, when comparing ECP males with LIP males scores decrease in the later period. Physical activity in the societies of Central Chile with incipient agriculture did not vary by sex or during the timeframe studied. Nevertheless, the interaction between sex-period and the variability pattern of the EC from one period to another suggests different ways of doing similar physical activities or different emphases for similar biomechanical actions.

German Labor Emigration in Times of Technological Change: Occupational Characteristics and Geographical Patterns

Technological change has altered labor market demands within well-developed societies implying global competition for skilled labor and, as a consequence, new forms of labor migration. So far, patterns of this labor migration have been underexplored. Thus, the article analyzes characteristics, geographies and possible underlying drivers of workers migrating from Germany as an exemplary case for a well-developed country. Relying on probability-based and unique data, our findings reveal that, besides demand for people with higher levels of education, performing specific occupational tasks is also in demand in the global competition for talent. Hence, Germans in jobs with a high proportion of analytical non-routine tasks are more likely to emigrate than those with predominantly manual routine tasks. Moreover, the results show that global discrepancies concerning the technological development between the country of origin and the country to which they emigrate are a crucial contextual driver attracting this specifically demanded work force. Workers mainly performing analytical non-routine tasks within their job tend to move to countries which are technologically more developed than Germany while individuals performing jobs with a high share of non-routine manual or interactive tasks tend to emigrate to countries that are less technologically developed than Germany.

Technology, tasks and training – evidence on the provision of employer-provided training in times of technological change in Germany

ABSTRACT In the context of technological change and the ongoing transformation of the labour market, this paper investigates firms’ employer-provided continuing training provision for employees with different skill requirements. Following human capital theory, firms invest in training when expecting higher returns than costs. From a theoretical point of view, only investment in employees in high-skilled jobs is reasonable. Empirically, this is not always the case. Using firm-level data from the BIBB Establishment Panel on Training and Competence Development, a fractional logit model is applied to answer which role technology use and task profiles play in employees’ training participation. The results suggest that firms with a higher proportion of digital technology users provide more training. On the contrary, more working time spent with digital technologies is associated with less training. A potential explanation could be that after initial training in using digital technologies, there are substantial learning effects and employees become more experienced. Additionally, employees who more frequently perform complex tasks receive more training independent of their jobs’ general skill requirements.

"Series Culture" and Fandom in Game of Thrones: Check-in as an identity marker in Brazil and Portugal

In times of technological change, television and social media are increasingly intertwined. Watching a serial fiction, for example, is no longer a solitary task and, from the popularity of this format, this research conducted content analysis of the comments regarding the fifth season of Game of Thrones on Facebook and Twitter in Brazil and in Portugal. From the collected data, the act of check-in in the episodes was symptomatic for questions of belonging, affection and pleasure. Therefore, the existence of an emotional connection between the fandom, beyond the perception of the series as part of the self, was observed, shaping relations and behaviours.

Aural Nation: Knowledge, Information and Music in Early Australian Public Broadcasting

When the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) announced the 2017 schedule for the Radio National (RN) network, all but one music programme had been dropped. Removing music from RN in a time of technological change – there are suggestions RN will become a post-broadcast digital platform by 2020 – reflects a deeper relationship between knowledge, information and the arts at the heart Australian public service media. Using historical examples from early Australian broadcasting this article revisits the notion of radio ‘liveness’ in the context of shifting understandings of knowledge production that emerged when radio was ‘new media’. Radio broadcasting’s ability to serve up events to listeners as if they were present had a critical effect on emerging media forms from broadcast concerts to dramatic news presentations. The article situates radio within the shift from traditional knowledge values, championed by music appreciation’s representation of European art-music, to information programming (including sports and news) presented to a new listening subject that was being formed within broadcasting. With the establishment of local practices to exploit the cultural impact of liveness, conventions emerged in the ABC’s national radio service that shaped its information programming for years to come.

The logic of practice in the practice of logics: practicing journalism and its relationship with business in times of technological changes

ABSTRACTThis paper investigates the workings of institutional logics in practice, by focusing in particular on the interplay between material, practical and linguistic dimensions of practices. In other words, drawing on Bourdieu's sens pratique, the paper explores the logic of practice in the practice of logics through a six months full-time ethnographic study at Il Sole-24 Ore, the largest Italian financial newspaper, between 2007 and 2008. An original conceptual framework is developed to analyse how the logic of journalism is enacted vis-à-vis that of advertising in a setting in which an old technology for news production – print newspaper – coexists with a new one – website – and thus encounters between new and old technological possibilities make workings of institutional logics particularly visible. The findings point out different mechanisms of institutional work dealing with actions that, made possible by new technological possibilities, are potentially, but not necessarily classified as divergent from institutional logics.

Method to Reduce Complexity and Response Time in a Web Search

Living in times of technological changes that alter our daily activities, involving tasks such as reading the newspaper, following the weather, scheduling a trip, are usually executed after perusal of the gigantic repository of information, commonly known as the World Wide Web. However some problems are still associated with the information found in such a vast amount of information: heterogeneity, availability, distribution, quality and quantity of irrelevant information. Recent work has suggested different ways of grouping similar information sources, trying to give solutions to these problems. However, some domains are more complex than others. For example, a person looking for tourist information, is generally overwhelmed by visiting various websites. This paper proposes the implementation of a method to retrieve and group web information sources, depending on the services they offer; thereby allowing the user to get accurate answers; thus reducing the time and complexity in the search.

Liner Shipping and Technological Innovation: Ostasiat and the Container Revolution, 1963–751

This article examines the implications of technological innovation on liner shipping. In the 1960s and early 1970s, containerisation revolutionised liner shipping. The article asks how a well-established liner company, AB Svenska Ostasiatiska Kompaniet, responded to the challenges of the container revolution. Despite being a late mover, Svenska Ostasiatiska Kompaniet nevertheless successfully adapted its liner network to the container technology. The basic argument is that organisational changes paved the way for Svenska Ostasiatiska Kompaniet's successful transition from conventional liner shipping to container shipping. Before the container revolution, Svenska Ostasiatiska Kompaniet had gained valuable cooperative experiences in a joint venture with a Norwegian and a Danish liner company. These organisational experiences were crucial to the survival of the Scandinavian lines in liner shipping in a time of technological change.

Nokia connects HR policy with company success

With more than 50,000 employees at 16 factories in nine countries, and research and development facilities in 11 countries, Finnish‐based Nokia is the largest maker of mobile telephones in the world. Nokia’s people policies have played a key role in helping the company to reach its 40 percent share of the global handset market and industry‐leading profit margins of 20 to 25 percent, at a time of technological change and intense competition from Asian manufacturers.

Green taxes and uncertain timing of technological change

Green taxes and uncertain timing of technological change

Equilibrium with new investment opportunities

We develop a general equilibrium model where there are opportunities to abandon existing technologies and adopt new technologies. We study how technologies change endogenously in an equilibrium and the effect of technological changes on the equilibrium. We find that locally the equilibrium resembles that from Cox et al. (1985, Econometrica 53, 363–384); globally, the equilibrium can be viewed as the equilibria from CIR economies pasted together. We also find that, while the equilibrium consumption and security price processes are continuous, the equilibrium return processes experience jumps at the time of technological changes.

Economic liberalisation, innovation, and technology transfer: opportunities for cleaner production in the minerals industry

The liberalisation of investment regimes for mining over the past decade is encouraging an inflow of foreign investment for mining and mineral processing projects in developing and former centrally‐planned economies. This new investment is occurring at a time of technological change within the international mining industry as market and regulatory pressures lead the most dynamic firms to invest in the development or acquisition of new technologies and management practices. The effective transfer and assimilation of these technologies enable mining companies to combine gains in productivity with improvements in environmental management. Joint ventures and other strategic alliances between inwardly investing firms and the newly privatised or remnant state‐owned mining enterprises may provide an effective vehicle for the transfer of the techniques for more productive and cleaner operations. Specific examples of innovative process and remediation technologies are analysed and it is suggested that the ability of innovative technologies to improve competitiveness and sustain best‐practice environmental management in the recipient is linked to the transfer and effective acquisition of the capacity to manage the complex processes of technological and organisational change. The paper closes with some recommendations for further research directed towards a systematic examination of this hypothesis.

Curriculum 5‐16

This paper sets out to explore why the school curriculum should now be at the centre of the debate about quality in education and of such direct concern to the Government. In doing this, it examines the curricular development work of the 1960s and early 1970s and maintains that, extensive as that activity was, it was essentially an in‐house educational debate within which the instrumental purposes of education and the legitimate concerns of many parents, employers and the wider society received insufficient attention. Those concerns and issues were never wholly lost sight of and now in times of technological change, economic constraint, and declining pupil numbers, they and other questions have been raised in the increasingly sharply focused debate about the purposes of education, the standards to be aimed for, and value for money.

Canberra — A city within the landscape an evaluation of the provision of parkland and public open space

Canberra, the National Capital of Australia, grew out of an intermix of political necessity, economic and social development, and the need to decentralize the major population centres of the State Capitals. The area selected and the subsequent construction of Canberra over some 60 years were influenced by the natural topography and landscape qualities, as well as an awareness of a need to create and maintain beautiful landscapes within the city. Since Canberra was being established soon after the birth of the concept of the Garden City Movement, its planning and construction embodied many of the then world philosophies about creating healthy and attractive living conditions. In particular, this included the need to establish an integrated parkland and public open space system, easy access to open space, and different recreation facilities. Awareness of the value of the landscape as an essential component in the design of the City influenced the selection of the site by the first surveyor and politicians and also the designers and planners who have worked to create this 20th century city. The setting up of the National Capital Development Commission, some twenty years ago, set the scene for Canberra to grow rapidly at a time of technological change and creative planning. The Commission built upon the experience of the post war reconstruction programmes and planning philosophy. These led to the integration of landscape design into the development of all the parts of the city and satellite towns. Today, Canberra is a city of great beauty with easy access to the bushland within its framework and to the surrounding countryside. Born out of political necessity, it has become a city of 190,000 people, and enfolds within itself the structure of modern planning ideals.