Feasibility of Warehouse Drone Adoption and Implementation

While aerial delivery drones capture headlines, the pace of adoption of drones in warehouses has shown the greatest acceleration. Warehousing constitutes 30% of the cost of logistics in the US. The rise of e-commerce, greater customer service demands of retail stores, and a shortage of skilled labor have intensified competition for efficient warehouse operations. This takes place during an era of shortening technology life cycles. This paper integrates several theoretical perspectives on technology diffusion and adoption to propose a framework to inform supply chain decision-makers on when to invest in new robotics technology

Understanding Dynamic Collaboration in Teleconsultation

Information and communication technology (ICT) has been widely deployed in the provision of health care for decades. Teleconsultation, one of these new telemedicine solutions, has been prevalently implemented in numerous countries with its tremendous potential to improve healthcare. However, the clinical utility has remained at a disappointing level. Unlike prior research that focuses on the pre-adoption or implementation stages, our research explores not only the understanding the antecedences of actual usage in post-adoption of teleconsultation service, but also the reasons for low actual usage in clinical practice. We identify specific theoretical attributes that are relevant to our research question, and extend TOE into an integrative theoretical framework. Initial propositions are generated based on theoretical perspectives in each dimension of the framework. Finally, we design a comparative case study as our research methodology, and conduct deductive analysis to test our propositions using data from multiple sources. Theoretical and practical implications, as well as future research, are outlined

Adoption of Cloud Computing in Organizations

Cloud Computing is gaining popularity as a new IT arrangement in organizations, offering many advantages such as cost reduction and high flexibility that help in coping with high elasticity of demand. This study investigates organization‟s propensity to adopt Cloud computing services. The decision is viewed as an IT outsourcing decision and as a technology adoption decision through three theoretical perspectives: Transaction cost theory, resource dependence theory and diffusion of innovation theory. Based on these theories, a conceptual model is proposed with research hypotheses for future empirical testing. The study makes an attempt to contribute to the emerging literature of cloud computing, in addition to offering organizations considering adoption a list of benefits and risks of adopting cloud computing

Modeling the influence of information technology (IT) adoption factors on the electronic voting (E-Voting) technology using partial least squares-structural equation model (PLS-SEM) methods

Although there are many factors influencing the organizational adoption of information technology innovations, the lack of knowledge as to those that affect the adoption decision of Electronic Voting technology in the organizational context, especially from the perspectives and perceptions of developing countries remains fundamental and of necessity if such adoption decision is to succeed.This paper discusses the theoretical and empirical model that identifies the relevant determinants factors within the context of an electoral management organization that might influence Electronic Voting technology adoption in Nigeria.Six theoretical constructs derived from diffusion of innovations; technology-organization-environment; Iacovou et al. theories and other relevant literatures on organizational adoption of technology were identify and consider.The research instrument were validated in a survey of managerial and operational staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission of Nigerian and tested against the model using Partial Least squares Structural Equation Modeling-PLS-SEM method of data analysis.The predictive tendency of the factors is quiet substantial (84%) and represents higher variance in the adoption of Electronic Voting technology with good model fit. The study produced useful insights into the factors that influence organizational adoption of Electronic Voting technology and provided new ideas in the understanding of information technology innovation adoption in the organizational context

Re-imagining Digital Technology in Education through Critical and Neo-materialist Insights

Technological determinism, techno-solutionism and instrumental perspectives on technologies have populated educational research literature in the last decades, and even more since the pandemic crisis has started. This essay offers a critique about simplistic explanations of technology adoption in pedagogy by using insights from critical philosophy of technology and feminist new materialism. It rejects the assumption of teachers’ resistance to change and proposes a frame to expand future imaginaries of education. In this sense, critical studies provide a focus on human activity as interconnected with social and situated knowledges/practices. The emphasis is on recursive relations that allow educational researchers and practitioners to take into account the considerable complexity of digital technologies pedagogical adoption. On the other hand, feminist new materialism brings about a new focus on relational ontology, which adds to the critical theoretical framework the agentic element. By overcoming a binary way of seeing technologies through utopias and dystopias, new materialist studies focus on ethics and responsibility. We argue that we need both a critical and a neo-materialist view, in order to adopt technologies in education in meaningful, productive and creative ways. Building on small narratives and possible utopias can take us to re-design and re-interprete the future of educational technologies

Re-imagining Digital Technology in Education through Critical and Neo-materialist Insights

Technological determinism, techno-solutionism and instrumental perspectives on technologies have populated educational research literature in the last decades, and even more since the pandemic crisis has started. This essay offers a critique about simplistic explanations of technology adoption in pedagogy by using insights from critical philosophy of technology and feminist new materialism. It rejects the assumption of teachers’ resistance to change and proposes a frame to expand future imaginaries of education. In this sense, critical studies provide a focus on human activity as interconnected with social and situated knowledges/practices. The emphasis is on recursive relations that allow educational researchers and practitioners to take into account the considerable complexity of digital technologies pedagogical adoption. On the other hand, feminist new materialism brings about a new focus on relational ontology, which adds to the critical theoretical framework the agentic element. By overcoming a binary way of seeing technologies through utopias and dystopias, new materialist studies focus on ethics and responsibility. We argue that we need both a critical and a neo-materialist view, in order to adopt technologies in education in meaningful, productive and creative ways. Building on small narratives and possible utopias can take us to re-design and re-interprete the future of educational technologies

The process of agricultural technology generation in Brazil: a social audit.

The focus of agricultural technology studies in Brazil has been on technology diffusion or adoption. This approach stresses the neutrality of technology and its adoption depends on farmers' psychological and individual values. The agricultural technology generation process and the organisations in which technology is generated have not been considered as active factors. This thesis regards both as highly significant in farmers' adoption or rejection of technology. Approaches to development, modernisation and underdevelopment, along with agricultural globalisation, are the applied theoretical perspectives used to understand what happens in the underdeveloped countries in an integrated world system. This is an ex-post facto and cross-sectional study. The empirical data, based on a case study, was collected in Brazil, in and around the Brazilian Agricultural Research Organisation (EMBRAPA), a topdown state-owned organisation. Agricultural technology generation, its adoption, as well as the attitudes of users, clients, policy-makers, politicians and unions to the agricultural technology generation process were investigated. The fieldwork was conducted with eighty-seven agricultural researchers from four national agricultural research centres, one hundred and forty-four farmers, and eighty individuals and organisations' representatives. Qualitative and quantitative analyses indicated that the agricultural technology generation process is related more to scientific issues than to farmers' demands. The technology adopted by farmers was determined primarily by developments within the process of technology generation rather than through any persuasion. The thesis concludes that as a result of the process of technology generation in EMBRAP A, organised and capitalist farmers have been targeted rather than small or subsistence farmers. Therefore, the new farm as a whole research model is recommended, which explores the whole production system rather than specific agricultural products.Dissertation (Doctor in Philosophy)- School of Social Sciences, University of Sussex. Tese de doutorado

Australian Politics in a Digital Age

Information and communications technologies are increasingly important in the Australian political landscape. From the adoption of new forms of electoral campaigning to the use of networking technology to organise social movements, media technology has the potential to radically change the way politics is conducted and experienced in this country. The first comprehensive volume on the impact of digital media on Australian politics, this book examines the way these technologies shape political communication, alter key public and private institutions, and serve as the new arena in which discursive and expressive political life is performed. Employing a range of theoretical perspectives, empirical data, and case examples, the book provides insights on political behaviour of Australia’s elites, as well as the increasingly important politics of mirco-activism and social media. Energetic and fast-paced, the book draws together a wide range of Australian and international scholarship on the interface between communications technology and politics. Crossing several genres, the book will find a wide audience amongst scholars of both politics and communication, among public relations professionals, and with members of the media themselves