Behaviour change and Pay-As-You-Drive insurance. Rewards, punishment, and persuasive information delivery:PAYD-1. Feedback from Pay-As-You-Drive insurance, both outside and inside the car

Pay-As-You-Drive insurance (PAYD) where insurance customers can be charged directly for when, where, and how they drive, is now possible thanks to modern telematics technology. PAYD addresses many problems with traditional insurance in terms of more fairly, and transparently, charging users for their driving behaviour and lessens the impacts of insurance on lower socioeconomic groups in particular (Adkins, 2004; Bordoff & Noel, 2008; Litman, 2005a; Litman, 2011). Indeed, some estimates of PAYD in the USA have suggested that if it was implemented two thirds of households would benefit, with savings of around 270 USD per car per year (Bordoff & Noel, 2008; Litman, 2011). However, PAYD insurance does not only have the potential to benefit individuals. Rather, it is estimated to have significant societal impacts, including possible reductions in mileage of up to 8-12% (Adkins, 2004; Balcombe et al., 2004; Bordoff & Noel, 2008; Harvey & Deakin, 1998; Litman, 2005a; Litman, 2011), which could then be associated with accident reductions of 12-18% (Litman, 2011). Furthermore, it is also estimated that even an 8% reduction in mileage would reduce CO2 emissions by 2% and petrol consumption by 4%. This reduction in petrol consumption would be equivalent to the effect of a 1 USD per gallon increase in the price of petrol (Bordoff & Noel, 2008). It is also estimated that PAYD insurance may reduce the profits of insurance companies (Adkins, 2004; Bordoff & Noel, 2008; Litman, 2011). It is therefore recommended that, due to the significant societal gains associated with PAYD insurance, governments examine what they can do to help encourage PAYD insurance despite the potential costs to insurance companies (Adkins, 2004; Bordoff & Noel, 2008; Litman, 2011)

Behaviour change and Pay-As-You-Drive insurance. Rewards, punishment, and persuasive information delivery:PAYD-1. Feedback from Pay-As-You-Drive insurance, both outside and inside the car

Pay-As-You-Drive insurance (PAYD) where insurance customers can be charged directly for when, where, and how they drive, is now possible thanks to modern telematics technology. PAYD addresses many problems with traditional insurance in terms of more fairly, and transparently, charging users for their driving behaviour and lessens the impacts of insurance on lower socioeconomic groups in particular (Adkins, 2004; Bordoff & Noel, 2008; Litman, 2005a; Litman, 2011). Indeed, some estimates of PAYD in the USA have suggested that if it was implemented two thirds of households would benefit, with savings of around 270 USD per car per year (Bordoff & Noel, 2008; Litman, 2011). However, PAYD insurance does not only have the potential to benefit individuals. Rather, it is estimated to have significant societal impacts, including possible reductions in mileage of up to 8-12% (Adkins, 2004; Balcombe et al., 2004; Bordoff & Noel, 2008; Harvey & Deakin, 1998; Litman, 2005a; Litman, 2011), which could then be associated with accident reductions of 12-18% (Litman, 2011). Furthermore, it is also estimated that even an 8% reduction in mileage would reduce CO2 emissions by 2% and petrol consumption by 4%. This reduction in petrol consumption would be equivalent to the effect of a 1 USD per gallon increase in the price of petrol (Bordoff & Noel, 2008). It is also estimated that PAYD insurance may reduce the profits of insurance companies (Adkins, 2004; Bordoff & Noel, 2008; Litman, 2011). It is therefore recommended that, due to the significant societal gains associated with PAYD insurance, governments examine what they can do to help encourage PAYD insurance despite the potential costs to insurance companies (Adkins, 2004; Bordoff & Noel, 2008; Litman, 2011)

Enhancing entrepreneurial innovation through industry-led accelerators: corporate-new venture dynamics and organizational redesign in a port maritime ecosystem

This PhD dissertation studies the management and design of corporate accelerators, in particular, industry-led value chain corporate accelerators. I addressed a multi-faceted research question about the novelty, corporate impact, dynamics and design of industry-led accelerators. Using a longitudinal, inductive, multiple-case embedded research design that analyses the industrial accelerator interface, the relationships between incumbent firms and external new ventures and the R&D/innovation units of established firms in a port maritime complex, this dissertation addresses this multi-faceted research question and it makes five core contributions. First, it positions, for the first time, the corporate accelerator phenomena at the intersection of fundamental management research streams, including organizational design, dynamic capabilities and corporate entrepreneurship. Second, it conducts the first study of the promising model of industry-led accelerator by inductively generating a four-step framework of how these accelerators work: i) co-define a broad innovation remit, ii) generate an innovation funnel to attract start-ups and scale-ups, iii) mutual sensing via flexible matching iv) select for scale and investment. Third, it finds striking counter-intuitive evidence in that the industry-led accelerator not only accelerates external new ventures but rather the corporate partners themselves by triggering them to internalize the lean start-up method and redesign their R&D/innovation processes and routines. To explain this, I inductively developed a four-phases process model of corporate entrepreneurial capability-building, comprising: a) attracting, b) strategic fit sensing, c) shaping and d) internalizing. Fourth, this dissertation uncovers three novel tensions—internalization, implementation and role—at the incumbent - new venture interface and develops a new ecological and symbiotically-inspired framework for tension identification and mitigation in industrial acceleration contexts. Fifth, and finally, using the frameworks and process models developed, this dissertation proposes a new toolkit (industrial acceleration design canvas and workshops) to orient practitioners when strategizing, designing and sustaining corporate new venture ecosystem acceleration initiatives.Open Acces

Robotics 2010

Without a doubt, robotics has made an incredible progress over the last decades. The vision of developing, designing and creating technical systems that help humans to achieve hard and complex tasks, has intelligently led to an incredible variety of solutions. There are barely technical fields that could exhibit more interdisciplinary interconnections like robotics. This fact is generated by highly complex challenges imposed by robotic systems, especially the requirement on intelligent and autonomous operation. This book tries to give an insight into the evolutionary process that takes place in robotics. It provides articles covering a wide range of this exciting area. The progress of technical challenges and concepts may illuminate the relationship between developments that seem to be completely different at first sight. The robotics remains an exciting scientific and engineering field. The community looks optimistically ahead and also looks forward for the future challenges and new development

Humanoid Robots

For many years, the human being has been trying, in all ways, to recreate the complex mechanisms that form the human body. Such task is extremely complicated and the results are not totally satisfactory. However, with increasing technological advances based on theoretical and experimental researches, man gets, in a way, to copy or to imitate some systems of the human body. These researches not only intended to create humanoid robots, great part of them constituting autonomous systems, but also, in some way, to offer a higher knowledge of the systems that form the human body, objectifying possible applications in the technology of rehabilitation of human beings, gathering in a whole studies related not only to Robotics, but also to Biomechanics, Biomimmetics, Cybernetics, among other areas. This book presents a series of researches inspired by this ideal, carried through by various researchers worldwide, looking for to analyze and to discuss diverse subjects related to humanoid robots. The presented contributions explore aspects about robotic hands, learning, language, vision and locomotion