Links and impacts: the influence of public research on industrial R&D

Purpose – Notwithstanding a significant amount of literature on the technology acceptance model (TAM), past research has overlooked the role consumers' technology readiness (TR) plays in adoption of self‐service technologies (SSTs). This study aims to fill this research gap by developing and testing a model that integrates the role of TR into the TAM.Design/methodology/approach – The study proposes a research framework to suggest the direct and moderating roles of TR in the TAM. Extant research from various research streams is reviewed, resulting in 13 hypotheses. Data collected from customers with SST experiences are examined through structural equation modeling (SEM) and hierarchical moderated regression analysis.Findings – Results indicate that customer TR enhances perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, attitude toward use, and intention to use. Results also show that TR attenuates the positive relationship between perceived ease of use and attitude toward using SSTs.Research limitations/implicat...

The role of technology readiness in self‐service technology acceptance

Assessing the Self-service Technology Encounters: Development and Validation of SSTQUAL Scale

Landes’ (1969) classic metaphor of The Unbound Prometheus, referring to the Greek god who released the power of fire to mankind. Defined as the introduction of new products, technologies, business processes, and ideas in the market, as well as the invention of new ideas, innovation drives Schumpeter’s creative destruction process (Schumpeter [1942] 2008), underlies modern growth theory, and is the critical ingredient in historical accounts of how countries achieve prosperity. In turn, the gains from Schumpeterian catch-up afforded to follower countries, arising from the radiation of ideas, products, and technologies to developing countries, represents an externality of truly historic proportions that should rise with increased distance from the technological frontier. Yet Prometheus remains bound in developing countries. This study documents that, despite the vast potential returns to innovation, developing countries invest far less, measured along a variety of dimensions, than advanced countries. Firms and governments appear to be leaving billions of dollars on the table in forgone productivity growth and lost competitiveness. Indeed, policy advice to move into production baskets thought to be more growth-friendly misses the critical point that countries unable to innovate in their present industries are unlikely to do so in new industries. To explain this innovation paradox the report focuses on three central determinants of innovation performance: (1) the critical complements to innovation investment needed to realize the high potential returns; (2) the range of firm capabilities required to undertake innovation and take it to market; and (3) the required government capabilities for implementing effective innovation policies. The analysis draws on two important traditions, the neoclassical and the National Innovation Systems (NIS) literatures, highlighting the common ground between them, with the ultimate goal of contributing to more coherent and effective policy making in developing countries.

The Innovation Paradox: Developing-Country Capabilities and the Unrealized Promise of Technological Catch-Up

http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~japhill/SSM_2014_Suicide%20and%20the%20great%20recession%20of%202007-2009.pdf

Suicide and the Great Recession of 2007-2009: the role of economic factors in the 50 U.S. states.

The past decade has witnessed a rapid growth in self service that allows consumers to take on the traditional role of a service worker in the provision of a service. Self service has long existed - think of placing a call by dialing a telephone instead of using a telephone operator or pressing a button in an elevator instead of using an elevator operator - but its importance has grown as advances in information technology (IT) have created many opportunities to leverage self-service technology for large gains in efficiency and convenience. Using computer kiosks, airline travelers check in to their flights; on the Internet, consumers purchase products without ever speaking to a sales agent; and, using a mobile phone, customers check their bank balances and transfer funds. Self-service technology continues to become more efficient and more convenient, and, as a result, increasingly organizations, including businesses, non-profits and governments, are using self-service technology to operate more productively and to better serve their customers.Self-service technology has already transformed entire industries, from ATMs in banking to e-commerce in the travel industry, resulting in significant savings for businesses which are passed on to consumers in the form of lower prices and better service. However, even though self-service technology has generated a wide range of benefits and savings for consumers, businesses, and government, it is only the beginning. Over at least the next decade, self-service technology has the potential to be a major force for growth in productivity and improvements in quality of life. We estimate that if self-service technology were more widely deployed, the U.S. economy would be approximately $130 billion larger annually, the equivalent of an additional $1,100 in annual income for every household.These savings could not be coming at a more crucial time. Most national economies will need the power of self-service technologies if they are to avoid serious economic problems stemming from significant growth in the number of retirees, a situation that will be particularly acute in Europe, Japan, and the United States. In the United States, for example, the number of retirees for every 1,000 working age adults is projected to grow from 213 today to 346 by 2030. For Social Security recipients in 2030 to not see a decline in their inflation-adjusted payments without workers seeing a decline in their after-tax incomes, economic productivity will have to increase by 62 percent. Unfortunately, the Social Security Administration estimates productivity will grow just 40 percent. As a result, in 2030, either worker incomes after Social Security taxes are deducted will be significantly lower, or Social Security benefits will be lower, or both. Self-service technologies promise to be a major source of needed productivity growth, enabling the United States, Japan, Europe, and other nations facing demographic challenges to realize such growth without reductions in wages or benefits.But these benefits will not automatically occur unless the right policies are in place and the wrong ones are avoided. First, governments should avoid putting in place restrictions on self-service business models and processes. This means that policymakers must resist the efforts of special interest groups that press for restrictions in technology to protect their economic or social interests at the expense of the average citizen. Second, where appropriate, governments should proactively promote self-service delivery of government services. For example, governments should pass along to citizens the savings from using lower-cost self-service options. Governments should also help create a climate conducive to expansion of self-service technologies. This means that government should support the development and deployment of technologies that enable self-service, like broadband, electronic IDs, and mobile payment systems. In the United States in particular, Congress should increase the minimum wage thereby providing firms with more incentive to invest in self-service technology, while at the same time helping to boost the incomes of low income Americans. In addition, Congress should establish an academic Center of Excellence to develop best practices for accessible design for self-service technology. Finally, we recommend that policymakers establish stronger safety nets for workers adversely affected by technological change so that the workforce can more easily adapt to a rapidly changing economy.Self-service technology offers a broad set of benefits to consumers and businesses and has the potential to contribute even more to our national prosperity and quality of life. While self-service technology is widespread, it is still relatively new and will only continue to improve in quality over time. However, policymakers must avoid enacting policies to restrict self-service while at the same time putting in place appropriate policies to stimulate the self-service economy to realize these benefits.

https://www.itif.org/files/2010-self-service-economy.pdf

Embracing the Self-Service Economy

As Congress considers a substantial stimulus package to get the economy moving, investing in new economy digital infrastructures will provide significant opportunities not just for short-term stimulus and job creation, but also longer term economic and social benefits. In the report, "The Digital Road to Recovery: A Stimulus Plan to Create Jobs, Boost Productivity and Revitalize America," ITIF provides a detailed analysis and estimate of the short-term jobs impacts of spurring investment in three critical digital networks: broadband networks, the smart grid (making the electric distribution system intelligent) and health IT, and outlines policy steps to spur this investment.ITIF finds that investments in America's digital infrastructure will spur significant job creation in the short run. Specifically, ITIF estimates that spurring an additional investment of $30 billion in America's IT network infrastructure in 2009 will create approximately 949,000 U.S. jobs.

The Digital Road to Recovery: A Stimulus Plan to Create Jobs, Boost Productivity and Revitalize America

This report from US think-tank ITIF argues that supporting the deployment of faster broadband networks will be crucial to enabling next-generation Web-based applications and services that will play important roles in improving quality of life and boosting economic growth. While getting broadband service to the Americans who lack it is an important policy target, next-generation broadband will deliver a wave of new benefits to consumers, society, businesses, and the economy.

The need for speed: the importance of next-generation broadband networks

/pdf/worse-than-the-great-depression-what-the-experts-are-missing-3smxe1if12.pdf

Worse Than the Great Depression: What the Experts Are Missing About American Manufacturing Decline

/pdf/the-case-for-a-national-manufacturing-strategy-53l004epu5.pdf

Stephen Ezell

Papers

Embracing the Self-Service Economy

The Digital Road to Recovery: A Stimulus Plan to Create Jobs, Boost Productivity and Revitalize America

The need for speed: the importance of next-generation broadband networks

Worse Than the Great Depression: What the Experts Are Missing About American Manufacturing Decline

The Case for a National Manufacturing Strategy