How Technology Shapes the Actor-Network of Convergence Services: A Case of Mobile Banking

The continuous advancement of mobile technologies offers an opportunity for mobile carriers and banks to offer mobile banking services. However, such convergence of services from mobile carriers and banks raises many complex issues, particularly because it requires alliances among the actors who have different and sometimes conflicting interests. Using the mobile banking sector in Korea, this paper examines how the alliances between mobile carriers, banks, and other related parties are formed, and analyzes how technology affects competition and collaboration among them when a new convergence service is created by two, previously unrelated industries, in this case, by banks and mobile carriers. In so doing, we use the actor– network theory (ANT). As ANT helps analyze how actors form alliances and enroll other actors including nonhuman actors (i.e., technology) to secure their interests through the use of the technology, there is a fit between ANT and the emergence of new, converged services. This paper shows that it is technology that shapes the actor–network of convergence services, and that competition between banks and mobile carriers in mobile banking is about how to inscribe their interests in a given technology and thereby who can translate customers into their own network

Introduction to the Organizational Economics of Interorganizational Systems

This paper describes the current research approaches and directions on the organizational economics of inter- organizational systems, and suggests an alternative perspective to the conventional approach, transaction cost economics. This paper concludes with suggestions on incorporating other theories to the organizational economics researches

Exploring the characteristics of mobile data service users in Australia

Mobile data services are increasingly important as revenues from voice calling are decreasing for mobile carriers, and there are many predictions that the use of mobile data services will increase in Australia. However, there is little research on the current use of mobile data services. This study explores the characteristics of mobile data service users. We conducted a survey with over 6,000 respondents. The findings show that as in the early stage of the Internet diffusion, age is the most important demographic variable which influences the pattern of mobile data service use. In addition to age, gender and household income have a role in describing each group’s consumption of mobile data services more precisely. We conclude the paper by presenting limitations of the study and outlining some possible future research

The political economy of standards setting by newcomers: China's WAPI and South Korea's WIPI

In 2004, China attempted to set its national standard for mobile security (wireless LAN authentication and privacy infrastructure (WAPI)) which was to be used for wireless LAN. In 2005, Korea implemented a national standard for the mobile Internet platform (wireless Internet platform for interoperability (WIPI)). This paper examines and compares the two cases in terms of the role of government, characteristics of each standard and the process of standards setting. Despite some similarities of 'aiming for a de jure national standard', 'government-initiated' and 'anticipatory', the outcomes of the two efforts are different. WIPI was ratified in Korea, while WAPI was indefinitely postponed as the national standard and failed to be ratified as an international standard. It is contended here that the different outcomes are attributed to differences in the openness of the standards and of institutional processes of standardization, combined with the government role and the timing of market entry. In the cause of national security, China adhered to the original goal of WAPI; in the WIPI case, compromises were made to satisfy to some extent the various demands from many stakeholders despite the original goal being undermined. The findings from this comparison reinforce findings by previous studies on open standard and open standardization processes. This paper makes a unique contribution in that it first examines the international standards-setting attempts by newcomers, China and Korea, in the race for international standards. They used to be standard adopters but now want to become standard setters. Given the narrowing gap of technological capabilities at the global level and the huge size of markets in countries like China, these standards challenges from newcomers are not one-off episodes, but will happen repeatedly in the future. Further research is required in this area.WAPI WIPI International standards China Korea Standards war

The characteristics of mobile data service users in Australia

Copyright © 2008 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.Mobile Data Services (MDS) are increasingly important as revenues from voice calling are decreasing for mobile carriers, and there are many predictions that the use of MDS will increase in Australia. To explore the characteristics of MDS users, we conducted a survey with over 6000 respondents in Australia. The findings show that age is the most important demographic variable which influences the pattern of MDS use. In addition, gender and household income have a role in describing each group's consumption of MDS more precisely. We conclude the paper by presenting limitations of the study and outlining some possible future research.Sangjo Oh, Song Yang, Sherah Kurnia, Heejin Lee, Marisa Mackay, Kieran O'Dohert

Growth and Reform in the Korean Economy Proceedings of the Conference on Growth and Reform in Korea - Implications for Australia

This paper explores the issue of outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) exporting Korean jobs during 9862003. In the midst of an overall increase in employment in Korea, there was a temporally coincident increase in OFDI and a decline in manufacturing employment. An examination of the employment structure and capital stock changes suggests that there had been a structural transition in the Korean economy from a capital intensive to a knowledge intensive base. Simple regression analyses demonstrated that the OFDI from Korea had a checking effect on rising unemployment. As such, the increase in unemployment can be attributed to the trends of the time and the East Asian financial crisis.Growth refrom, Korea, Australia, OFDI, Outward foreign direct investment, Employment, capital stock, incentive base, East Asian Financial Crisis

Growth and Reform in the Korean Economy. Proceedings of the Conference on Growth and Reform in Korea: Implications for Australia

This paper explores the issue of outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) exporting Korean jobs during 1986–2003. In the midst of an overall increase in employment in Korea, there was a temporally coincident increase in OFDI and a decline in manufacturing employment. An examination of the employment structure and capital stock changes suggests that there had been a structural transition in the Korean economy from a capital intensive to a knowledge intensive base. Simple regression analyses demonstrated that the OFDI from Korea had a checking effect on rising unemployment. As such, the increase in unemployment can be attributed to the trends of the time and the East Asian financial crisis.

Diagnostic performance enhancement of pancreatic cancer using proteomic multimarker panel

Due to its high mortality rate and asymptomatic nature, early detection rates of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) remain poor. We measured 1000 biomarker candidates in 134 clinical plasma samples by multiple reaction monitoring-mass spectrometry (MRM-MS). Differentially abundant proteins were assembled into a multimarker panel from a training set (n = 684) and validated in independent set (n = 318) from five centers. The level of panel proteins was also confirmed by immunoassays. The panel including leucine-rich alpha-2 glycoprotein (LRG1), transthyretin (TTR), and CA19-9 had a sensitivity of 82.5% and a specificity of 92.1%. The triple-marker panel exceeded the diagnostic performance of CA19-9 by more than 10% (AUC(CA19-9) = 0.826, AUC(panel) = 0.931, P < 0.01) in all PDAC samples and by more than 30% (AUC(CA19-9) = 0.520, AUC(panel) = 0.830, P < 0.001) in patients with normal range of CA19-9 (< 37U/mL). Further, it differentiated PDAC from benign pancreatic disease (AUC(CA19-9) = 0.812, AUC(panel) = 0.892, P < 0.01) and other cancers (AUC(CA19-9) = 0.796, AUC(panel) = 0.899, P < 0.001). Overall, the multimarker panel that we have developed and validated in large-scale samples by MRM-MS and immunoassay has clinical applicability in the early detection of PDAC.Y