Smartphones

Many of the research approaches to smartphones actually regard them as more or less transparent points of access to other kinds of communication experiences. That is, rather than considering the smartphone as something in itself, the researchers look at how individuals use the smartphone for their communicative purposes, whether these be talking, surfing the web, using on-line data access for off-site data sources, downloading or uploading materials, or any kind of interaction with social media. They focus not so much on the smartphone itself but on the activities that people engage in with their smartphones

Innovative Asia: Advancing the Knowledge-Based Economy - Highlights of the Forthcoming ADB Study Report

[Excerpt] The development of knowledge-based economies (KBEs) is both an imperative and an opportunity for developing Asia. It is an imperative to sustain high rates of growth in the future and an opportunity whereby emerging economies can draw from beneficial trending developments that may allow them to move faster to advance in global value chains and in position in world markets. Over the last quarter of a century, driven mostly by cheap labor, developing countries in Asia have seen unprecedented growth rates and contributions to the global economy. Sustaining Asia’s growth trajectory, however, requires developing economies to seek different approaches to economic growth and progress, especially if they aspire to move from the middle-income to the high-income level. KBE is an important platform that can enable them to sustain growth and even accelerate it. It is time for Asia to consolidate and accelerate its pace of growth. Asia is positioned in a unique moment in history with many advantages that can serve as a boost: to name a couple, an expanding middle of the pyramid—Asia is likely to hold 50% of the global middle class and 40% of the global consumer market by 2020; and the growing importance of intra-regional trade within Asia, increasing from 54% in 2001 to 58% in 2011. Many developing economies are well placed to assimilate frontier technologies into their manufacturing environment

The influence of national culture on the attitude towards mobile recommender systems

This is the post-print version of the final paper published in Technological Forecasting and Social Change. The published article is available from the link below. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. Copyright @ 2013 Elsevier B.V.This study aimed to identify factors that influence user attitudes towards mobile recommender systems and to examine how these factors interact with cultural values to affect attitudes towards this technology. Based on the theory of reasoned action, belief factors for mobile recommender systems are identified in three dimensions: functional, contextual, and social. Hypotheses explaining different impacts of cultural values on the factors affecting attitudes were also proposed. The research model was tested based on data collected in China, South Korea, and the United Kingdom. Findings indicate that functional and social factors have significant impacts on user attitudes towards mobile recommender systems. The relationships between belief factors and attitudes are moderated by two cultural values: collectivism and uncertainty avoidance. The theoretical and practical implications of applying theory of reasoned action and innovation diffusion theory to explain the adoption of new technologies in societies with different cultures are also discussed.National Research Foundation of Korea Grant funded by the Korean governmen

Turning towards quality : a Japanese-Hungarian comparative study of the unequal usage of geographical information technologies

General theories explain the altering role of the influencing effects of ICT-related inequalities by diffusion models, in which differences of accessibility slowly turn to inequalities between users in the quality of usage. This paper is focusing on this latter and newer form of inequalities, by examining what differences appear between people in using a specific type of qualitative information, the spatial information. The presented study has chosen Japan, an advanced country, and Hungary, a follower country, to introduce how geographical information technology is used. In the paper outcomes of a comparative survey are presented, focusing on the Japanese and the Hungarian peoples’ relation to map-information applications and services. According to the results it is assumed that Japan entered the “quality phase” of ICT development earlier, but later Hungary mirrored also good numbers on qualitative information usage. In Japan location based services and geolocated searching are unambiguously more common, which is a result of larger numbers of geo-equipped smartphones. The usage of modern devices may have deliberated users from spatial bounds of location; which has already signs in Japan. On the other hand small differences between the two countries are better to be explained by local specifications than by ICT development differences

A Comparative Study Of Smartphone Users Perception And Preference Towards Mobile Payment Methods In The U.S. And Korea

As the Smartphone adoption rate increases, Smartphone users pay more attention to mobile payment. There are several options for mobile payment but there is no dominate method. Proximity mobile payment is the newest form of mobile payment. Security, cost, and convenience are three main factors Smartphone users keep in mind when making a mobile payment. This paper investigates Smartphone users perceptions and preferences toward mobile payment methods in Korea and the U.S. U.S. Smartphone users have a willingness to pay more for a secure mobile payment transaction, even though Korean users have more experience in the mobile payment frequency. Among the three factors, mobile security is the factor of strongest influence on mobile payment frequency in both countries

Considering Cultural Differences with the Use of Twitter on a Mobile Communication Device under a Dispersed Group Collaboration Context

The impact of technology on society is clear and profound, but the influence of society on technology is more subtle. This is an empirical study about Twitter on a mobile communication device (TMCD) used in group collaboration, undertaken to ascertain and gauge the user group’s subtler exhibitions and behaviors from two opposite cultures: western and eastern. To outline TMCD impact on group communication, a baseline of online message board (OMB), a common form of computer-mediated communication (CMC), is used in a comparative analysis. A total of 167 MBA and undergraduate students from the United States and South Korea representing western and eastern cultures participated this experiment. This study revealed a mixed result in the cultural difference. In the TMCD category, the Korean groups exhibited 1) a significantly higher number of initiatory tweets and 2) a significantly higher number of tweets promoting group harmony by virtue of their agreement with each other. But the Korean groups failed to exhibit 1) a significantly higher number of friendly tweets, and 2) a significantly high level of pro-activeness by tweeting more to each other to accomplish the given task than the U.S. groups. The data analysis result and discussion are provided

Use of Mobile Technology and Smartphone Apps on the Camino de Santiago: A Comparison of American and European Pilgrims

Mobile technology and smartphone apps are increasingly being used by pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago, leading us to wonder what the role of technology is among Camino pilgrims and what impact technology has on the Camino experience. The purpose of this research is to explore these questions. To do so we conducted separate surveys of American and European pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago. This paper presents our analysis of the results of these surveys, focusing on differences between American and European pilgrims. The results showed that some mobile technologies are used extensively by pilgrims, although pilgrims did not consider the technology to be essential. They also showed that technology impacts the Camino experience in both positive and negative ways. Similarities and differences between American and European pilgrims were found in the results