14,789 research outputs found
Innovative Tokyo
This paper compares and contrasts Tokyo's innovation structure with the industrial districts model and the international hub model in the literature on urban and regional development. The Tokyo model embraces and yet transcends both industrial districts and international hub models. The paper details key elements making up the Tokyo model-organizational knowledge creation, integral and co-location systems of corporate R&D and new product development, test markets, industrial districts and clusters, participative consumer culture, continuous learning from abroad, local government policies, the national system of innovation, and the historical genesis of Tokyo in Japan's political economy. The paper finds that the Tokyo model of innovation will continue to evolve with the changing external environment, but fundamentally retains its main characteristics. The lessons from the Tokyo model is that openness, a diversified industrial base, the continuing development of new industries, and an emphasis on innovation, all contribute to the dynamism of a major metropolitan region.Labor Policies,Environmental Economics&Policies,Public Health Promotion,ICT Policy and Strategies,Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems,ICT Policy and Strategies,Environmental Economics&Policies,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems,Innovation
Social networking and transnational capitalism
Social Networking Sites (SNS) have become a key component of usersâ experience of the internet. Whilst much has been made of the social dynamics of online SNS, the influence of the structures and operations of these sites â and the business models behind them â on users is rarely accounted for. This paper argues that behind the social behaviours sup- ported by SNS, there is a growing shift towards viewing online communities as commodities, and SNS as an extension of mainstream capitalist ideologies fostered by existing patterns of commercialization and consumption. Using the works of Gramsci, Gill and Hardt & Negri to provide a critical grounding, this paper explores the popular SNS site âFacebookâ and suggests that SNS may feel to the users to be free, social, personal, but in fact SNS are business as usual
The strategic use of business method patents: a pilot study of out of court settlements
A patent is an exclusive right preventing the use or exploitation of an invention by others than the owner of the patent. A patent can be accurately described as a statutory monopoly within the scope and the jurisdiction of its grant. Proprietary positions in electronic commerce are particularly critical because of the low barriers to entry in the digital environment, and the huge potential value buried in reengineering supply chains and direct retailing services
Information technology innovations and commercial banking: A review and appraisal from an historical perspective
Technological innovation in general and information technology (IT) applications in particular, have had a major effect in banking and finance. Following Garbade and Silber (1978), this research reviews the effects on banking organisations with reference to front office or external changes as described by the nature of product and service offerings. Following Morris (1986) and QuintĂĄs (1991), the research also considers innovations in the back office or internal (operational function) changes brought about to banking organisations. Outstanding IT-based innovations are considered and grouped into four distinct periods: early adoption (1864-1945), specific application (1945-1965), emergence (1965-1980) and diffusion (1980-1995). The research then discusses the potential impact of more recent innovations (i.e. electronic purses, digital cash and Internet banking). As a result, the research provides an historical perspective on the main drivers determining adoption of technological innovation in retail banking markets.Banks, competition, IT innovation
Precision Targets: GPS and the Militarization of U.S. Consumer Identity
For most people in the United States, war is almost always elsewhere. Since the Civil War, declared wars have been engaged on terrains at a distance from the continental space of the nation. Until the attacks on the World Trade towers and the Pentagon in September 2001, many people in the United States perceived war to be conflicts between the standing armies of nation-states conducted at least a borderâif not oceans and continentsâaway. Even the attacks of September 11 were localized in such a way as to feel as remote as they were immediateâwatching cable news from elsewhere in the country, most U.S. residents were brought close to scenes of destruction and death by the media rather than by direct experience. Thus, in the United States, we could be said to be "consumers" of war, since our gaze is almost always fixed on representations of war that come from places perceived to be remote from the heartland
Why is Open Access Development so Successful? Stigmergic organization and the economics of information
The explosive development of "free" or "open source" information goods
contravenes the conventional wisdom that markets and commercial organizations
are necessary to efficiently supply products. This paper proposes a theoretical
explanation for this phenomenon, using concepts from economics and theories of
self-organization. Once available on the Internet, information is intrinsically
not a scarce good, as it can be replicated virtually without cost. Moreover,
freely distributing information is profitable to its creator, since it improves
the quality of the information, and enhances the creator's reputation. This
provides a sufficient incentive for people to contribute to open access
projects. Unlike traditional organizations, open access communities are open,
distributed and self-organizing. Coordination is achieved through stigmergy:
listings of "work-in-progress" direct potential contributors to the tasks where
their contribution is most likely to be fruitful. This obviates the need both
for centralized planning and for the "invisible hand" of the market
Communications
The communications sector of an economy comprises a range of technologies, physical media, and institutions/rules that facilitate the storage of information through means other than a society\u27s oral tradition and the transmission of that information over distances beyond the normal reach of human conversation. This chapter provides data on the historical evolution of a disparate range of industries and institutions contributing to the movement and storage of information in the United States over the past two centuries. These include the U.S. Postal Service, the newspaper industry, book publishing, the telegraph, wired and cellular telephone service, radio and television, and the Internet
Reprogramming the World: Cyberspace and the Geography of Global Order
We live in a world of âfake newsâ, data breaches, election hacking, and cyberwarfare. We live in a world in which 280 characters can change everything. Our analog past has been replaced with digital realities. The world itself is being reprogrammed. This statement might seem like a quippy metaphor, but it actually reveals something much more concrete. The central claim of this book is that digital technologies are rewiring the way that society understands and thinks about global order as Cyberspace changes the content of international borders. Understanding these developments is critical to understanding the future of global society
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