Globalisation and New Realities for MNE-Developing Host Country Interaction

Globalisation has resulted in the increased mobility and knowledge intensity of the ownership advantages of MNEs, which they increasingly seek to utilise in conjunction with the created-asset intensive location advantages of countries. We highlight that that the relative opportunity sets (and thus bargaining positions) of both developing country host governments and MNEs varies by the stage of economic development and the motive of FDI. In general, globalisation has shifted the balance in favour of the MNE, and governments increasingly need to provide unique, non-replicable created assets in order to get foreign firms to be ''locked into'' these locations.international economics and trade ;

The coherence of EU trade, competition, and industry policies in the high tech sector : the case of the telecommunications services sector

We analyze the coherence existing among European Union competition, industry, and trade policies in the high tech sector in general terms focusing on its specific features (externalities, fast progress) and their effects on the emergence and treatment of policy consistency and conflicts. Second, this analysis is applied to the European telecommunications services sector. The examination of this sector and the relevant EU policies reveals a consensus on giving priority to competition. However structural factors prevent policy implementation to reflect much liberalization and harmonization and business responses to trade globalization challenge effective competition. The potential, important role of standardization is shown.economics of technology ;

VANET Applications: Hot Use Cases

Current challenges of car manufacturers are to make roads safe, to achieve free flowing traffic with few congestions, and to reduce pollution by an effective fuel use. To reach these goals, many improvements are performed in-car, but more and more approaches rely on connected cars with communication capabilities between cars, with an infrastructure, or with IoT devices. Monitoring and coordinating vehicles allow then to compute intelligent ways of transportation. Connected cars have introduced a new way of thinking cars - not only as a mean for a driver to go from A to B, but as smart cars - a user extension like the smartphone today. In this report, we introduce concepts and specific vocabulary in order to classify current innovations or ideas on the emerging topic of smart car. We present a graphical categorization showing this evolution in function of the societal evolution. Different perspectives are adopted: a vehicle-centric view, a vehicle-network view, and a user-centric view; described by simple and complex use-cases and illustrated by a list of emerging and current projects from the academic and industrial worlds. We identified an empty space in innovation between the user and his car: paradoxically even if they are both in interaction, they are separated through different application uses. Future challenge is to interlace social concerns of the user within an intelligent and efficient driving

mHealth Innovation in Asia: Grassroots Challenges and Practical Interventions

This book offers a detailed account of a range of mHealth initiatives across South, Southeast and East Asia. It provides readers with deep insights into the challenges such initiatives face on the ground, and a view of the diverse cultural contexts shaping strategies for overcoming these challenges. The book brings together various discussions on the broader mHealth literature, and demonstrates how a research focus on diverse Asian contexts influences the success and/or failure of current mHealth initiatives. It also highlights the important roles social scientists can play in advancing theoretical approaches, as well as planning, implementing and evaluating mHealth initiatives. The book is a valuable resource for project planners, policy developers in NGOs and government institutions, as well as academics, researchers and students in the fields of public health, communications and development studies

QR codes: A case of its level of adoption in Portugal

The choice of this work arises from the interest in the topics of entrepreneurship and technology transfer toward launching more innovative products/services. It focuses on delivering a technology, QR code, which brings more innovation to a product especially with the current growth of mobile activities. Then, with the help of a strategic plan, it evaluates the level of potential acceptation and adoption of the proposed service and of widespread use of QRs in Portugal. Thus, an interactive prototype of the supporting platform is described and used for its validation with users. Most participants in this project know the technology and consider the idea interesting and promising. They even suggest add-ons such as more video functions and a higher variety of events and/or resources for combination. However, through a deeper analysis, aspects related with effective use of the service, eventual payment, and explaining how it works reveal lower enthusiasm. Thus, although there is a promising scenario for its implementation in the Portuguese market, training aimed at effectively knowing and using QR-code technology must evolve. Given the challenges of today's society, the future application of this product/service shall pass through an innovation acspecialized information or resources for activities in the areas of tourism, banking, health, etc.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

An aesthetic for sustainable interactions in product-service systems?

Copyright @ 2012 Greenleaf PublishingEco-efficient Product-Service System (PSS) innovations represent a promising approach to sustainability. However the application of this concept is still very limited because its implementation and diffusion is hindered by several barriers (cultural, corporate and regulative ones). The paper investigates the barriers that affect the attractiveness and acceptation of eco-efficient PSS alternatives, and opens the debate on the aesthetic of eco-efficient PSS, and the way in which aesthetic could enhance some specific inner qualities of this kinds of innovations. Integrating insights from semiotics, the paper outlines some first research hypothesis on how the aesthetic elements of an eco-efficient PSS could facilitate user attraction, acceptation and satisfaction