Adoption of New Technology

The contribution of new technology to economic growth can only be realized when and if the new technology is widely diffused and used. Diffusion itself results from a series of individual decisions to begin using the new technology, decisions which are often the result of a comparison of the uncertain benefits of the new invention with the uncertain costs of adopting it. An understanding of the factors affecting this choice is essential both for economists studying the determinants of growth and for the creators and producers of such technologies. Section II of this article discusses the modeling of diffusion and Sections III to V explore the determinants of diffusion and the evidence for their importance.

Technology Adoption and Growth

Technology change is modeled as the result of decisions of individuals and groups of individuals to adopt more advanced technologies. The structure is calibrated to the U.S. and postwar Japan growth experiences. Using this calibrated structure we explore how large the disparity in the effective tax rates on the returns to adopting technologies must be to account for the huge observed disparity in per capita income across countries. We find that this disparity is not implausibly large.

Technology adoption and the investment climate : firm-level evidence for Eastern Europe and Central Asia

The international diffusion of technology presents an opportunity for developing economies distant from the world technological frontier to reduce their income gap relative to advanced economies. It is therefore crucial to understand why, when faced with similar technological alternatives different firms in different countries choose to adopt different vintages of capital. This paper examines technology adoption across firms in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. The findings show that access to complementary inputs - managerial capacity, skilled labor, finance, and good infrastructure - and to international knowledge - through foreign direct investment or exports - is an important correlate of technology adoption. The link between market incentives and technology adoption is more nuanced. Although consumer pressure results in technology adoption, competitor pressure does not, suggesting that only firms with rents are able to adopt technology given substantial resource constraints. Privatized firms exhibit better technology adoption outcomes but only when a clear private owner with a profit incentive is present. Better governance is associated with technology adoption only in the countries that joined the European Union in 2004. Future increases in technology adoption by firms in the region will require complementary reforms of the investment climate.E-Business,Technology Industry,ICT Policy and Strategies,Microfinance,

Inequality, Technology Adoption and Development

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Innovation and Adoption of Electronic Business Technologies

This paper presents a duopoly model of e-business technology adoption. A leader and a follower benefit from a new ebusiness technology with uncertain quality depending on its innovation and adoption cost and both firms' adoption timing. When innovation and adoption require large set-up costs, the leader favors quick adoption by the follower. The follower prefers either late or no adoption. This is due to a delayed firstmover benefit which stems from an innovators' capability to impose a new technology standard. It is shown that inter-firm adoption subsidies are a viable tool to quicken adoption. --Electronic Business,Adoption,Innovation,Network Effects

Technology adoption and club convergence

Although the importance of technology adoption has been acknowledged, nevertheless, at a more general level, a critical question arises: how do the overall infrastructure conditions affect the absorptive ability of a regional economy? This question can be stated alternatively as: what are the implications of a ‘poor’ or a ‘superior’ infrastructure for regional convergence? It is possible to provide some answers to these questions by constructing a model of regional convergence that encapsulates the impact of infrastructure in the absorptive ability of a regional economy. In this model the possibility that high technological gaps might act as obstacles to convergence is taken explicitly into consideration. The model developed in this paper indicates that convergence towards leading regions is feasible only for regions with sufficient absorptive capacity, which is assumed to be a function of infrastructure conditions in a regional economy. The model is tested using data for the NUTS-2 regions of the EU-27 during the time period 1995-2006. The results suggest that adoption of technology has a significant effect on regional growth patterns in Europe.Convergence-club, Technological Gap, European Regions

Concerning Technology Adoption and Inequality

Empirical evidence suggests that there has been a divergence over time in income distributions across countries and within countries. Furthermore, developing economies show a great deal of diversity in their growth patterns during the process of economic development. For example, some of these countries converge rapidly on the leaders, while others stagnate, or even experience reversals and declines in their growth processes. In this paper we study a simple dynamic general equilibrium model with household specific costs of technology adoption which is consistent with these stylized facts. In our model, growth is endogenous, and there are two-period lived overlapping generations of agents, assumed to be heterogeneous in their initial holdings of wealth and capital. We find that in a special case of our model, with costs associated with the adoption of more productive technologies fixed across households, inequalities in wealth and income may increase over time, tending to delay the convergence in international income differences. The model is also capable of explaining some of the observed diversity in the growth pattern of transitional economies. According to the model, this diversity may be the result of variability in adoption costs over time, or the relative position of a transitional economy in the world income distribution. In the more general case of the model with household specific adoption costs, negative growth rates during the transitional process are also possible. The model’s prediction that inequality has negative impact on technology adoption is supported by empirical evidence based on a cross country data set.inequality, technology adoption, international income differences, altruism, negative growth rates.

What role does corporate governance play in the intention to use cloud computing technology?

This paper aims to investigate the factors which promote the adoption of cloud-based technology. It strives for a better understanding of the impact of corporate governance on the adoption of this technology. This study concentrated on executives in companies where the use of cloud computing may give a competitive advantage. The main contribution of this work is to propose a model for the influence of corporate governance and other factors that determine the adoption of this technology. A questionnaire was prepared after taking into consideration the reviewed literature. The sample consisted of 164 technology companies from Southern Spain that already use the new economic models for digital solutions. The methodology used to analyze the structural model was the Structural Equation Model (SEM). The results of the survey showed the influence of Corporate Governance and the procedures and practices of the organization on the adoption of cloud computing and the associated business model. This study aims to point out the importance of corporate support and Knowledge Management for the correct and successful adoption of this technology and to show the effects on the new business model of billing for the use of available resources. View Full-Tex

Perception of Nigerian SMEs on electronic data interchange adoption

The wide adoption of electronic data interchange (EDI) by the SMEs is important for the success of the technology. A review of past EDI adoption literature indicates that past studies have focused mainly on large businesses. With the advance of technology, SMEs businesses are now able to enjoy the benefits of EDI. SMEs businesses are the backbone of the economy in Nigeria, despite these facts, there are relatively no identified studies on perception of EDI adoption among the Nigerian SMEs. A conceptual model is then proposed to address the above issues. The model may help Nigerians SMEs to achieve higher impacts on their businesses from the adoption of EDI and may also provide strategic roadmap for SMEs in other African countries. Using a technology, organization, and environment framework, this study tested a perception base model against the data collected from 204 SMEs firms in Nigeria. Four factors that were found to be significant in the SMEs EDI adoption were direct benefits, indirect benefits, financial resources, and external pressure to adopt EDI. The results of this study could provide insight into unique factors that drive EDI adoption by SMEs in Nigeria and serve as a guide to policy initiatives to the SMEs owner managers. Key words: Technology adoption, EDI technology, Nigerian SMEs