Explaining the Health Information Technology Paradox

Excerpt] The substantial gap between the promise inherent in upgrading information systems in health care and the documented reality has baffled health care scholars. Why is a technology so clearly capable of creating efficiencies, increasing safety, and promoting greater information sharing and coordination across professionals failing to live up to expectations

Dynamics of contextual factors, technology paradox, and job performance in smartphone usage: a systematic review

The purpose of this paper is to explore the theories pertaining to the dynamics of contextual factors, technology paradox, and job performance of employees so as to answer specific questions related to the theories’ progressive advancement, and to evaluate the relationships among them in the context of mobile phones, using the evidence-based systematic review methodology. The term technology paradox has evolved over past decades, and theories have been postulated to explain its nature and relationships with its antecedents and outcomes; however, there is a dearth in the integrative models. Thus, the theory of paradox has been combined with other theoretical lenses to conceptualize tensions and responses to enrich extant theories on technology paradox and job performance. The finding of the study identifies seven research gaps in the available literature, which need to be plugged so that a holistic model is developed to address the interrelationships among the aforementioned research constructs

THE ARCHITECTURE OF ENABLING TECHNOLOGY IN THE CRITICAL CARE SETTING: THE ROLE OF ARCHITECTURE IN ADDRESSING THE HEALTH CARE - TECHNOLOGY PARADOX

Health care architecture, particularly tertiary care settings, which have the sickest people, and most advanced medical care, should accommodate and employ technology in ways that are both therapeutic and enabling. Although technology in the tertiary care setting is generally considered beneficial, it can sometimes have negative impacts, cause stress and result in poor health outcomes. Norman Cousins said in his book Anatomy of an Illness, \u27Many doctors are increasingly aware of the circular paradox [of the intensive care unit]. It provides better electronic aids than ever before for dealing with emergencies that are often intensified because they communicate a sense of imminent disaster to the patient.\u27 These negative side effects are typically the result of disabling technology, which above all restricts a patients\u27 ability to have and to sense comfort and control. This health care - technology paradox is often activated through medical equipment, medical practices and medical settings. When medical practices and medical equipment are disabling and do not sufficiently enabling comfort and control, then the medical setting can play a role in helping to temper the paradox and hence the total impact technologies have on the patient

Paradoxes and consumer decision-making

Consumers often find themselves faced with conflicting evaluations in which they identify both positive and negative aspects of a purchase or consumption experience. A paradox occurs when the individual is aware of the conflicting evaluations and experiences tension as a result. While there are strong potential implications of paradox, marketing research has been slow to study consumption paradoxes. As a result, many deficiencies exist in the literature, including no consensus as to the definition of consumer paradox, insufficient quantitative measurement, and limited knowledge of the antecedents and consequences of paradox. This dissertation was conducted to address these shortcomings. Essay one was conducted to develop a basic understanding of consumer paradox and examine the similarities and differences between paradox, ambivalence and mixed emotions. As such, it integrated divergent literature streams and developed a new definition of paradox, distinct from ambivalence and mixed emotions. Furthermore, a hermeneutical interpretive approach was used to interpret in-depth interviews that replicated existing paradox research and identified a new technology paradox. Essay two was conducted to develop a measurement technique for capturing the presence of paradox in consumption situations. Four pretests and two studies were conducted to develop and test this new measurement technique that captured the two conditions for paradox: the recognition of two opposing, irreconcilable evaluations and the feeling of tension brought about by the opposing evaluations. Additionally, factor analysis was employed to determine the overall structure of the various types of paradoxes. Essay three was conducted to delineate and test a theoretical framework of consumption paradox. It was the first to empirically test antecedents and outcomes of paradox, and found that antecedents and outcomes exhibited different relationships under different technology paradoxes. The research failed to find any evidence that coping mediates the proposed model. This research offers contributions by defining paradox as distinct from ambivalence and mixed emotions, developing a comprehensive measurement protocol for assessing paradoxes, and delineating and empirically testing a conceptual framework of paradox. It offers managers insight into the underlying causes of paradox, the associations between paradoxes, and possible strategies to reduce the occurrence of paradox

ICT productivity and firm propensity to innovative investment: learning effect evidence from italina micro data

This work attempts to shed light on the “information technology productivity paradox”. Employing a large data set of Italian manufacturing firms we compute ICT marginal productivity across different cluster of firms and the impact of information and communication technology (ICT) on output growth. Following Yorukoglu’s (1998) vintage capital idea, in which ICT is associated with consistent learning-by-doing effect, we explore whether firm capital replacement/introduction behaviour and firm’s technological investment aptitude have any role in explaining ICT productivity. We find that low capital replacement (high capital introduction) yields to sensibly greater ICT marginal revenues compared to high replacement (low capital introduction). However, what really matters in explaining ICT productivity is the level of innovation the new capital embodies. In fact, for non-innovative firms the ICT paradox is far less consistent. This strongly suggests the existence of learning by doing effects. In terms of growth contribution we find that ICT have an impact disproportionately wide compared to the share in total investment they representGrowth, investment behaviour, information and communication technologies, productivity, replacement

Flawless devices, faulty users: Finnish young adults’ representations of smartphone usage

Finnish smartphone users lead the global statistics of data usage. This makes them an ideal consumer group to research technology consumption practices. It has been estimated that consumers use their smartphones as much as one third of the time that they are awake. The device has become essential in everyday life as consumers have it always with them and it is always on. Smartphone usage has been researched for example in terms of technology adaptation and desired functionalities, but the research on consumers’ emotions towards technology is limited. The focus of this study is especially in the contradictions and paradoxes that Finnish young adults express in their narratives of theirsmartphones and smartphone usage. Past research on technology paradoxes, information technology development, postmodern consumption culture and social constructivism on technology serve as theoretical background for the study. This study has been done by using qualitative research methods. The data consists of ten interviews and projective techniques including sentence compilations and autodriving. Young Finnish adults who live in big cities and have high education were selected for the interviews, as statistically they are heavy users of smartphones, thus making them interesting subject of technology paradox research. The findings of this study outline the major mismatch in consumers’ narratives: they perceive their smartphones as useful and capable devices but consider their own smartphone consumption as incapable and counterproductive, which results into feelings of distress, anxiety and guilt. This misusage appears in multiple forms, interpreted in four themes of guilt: using smartphones to procrastinate, damaging meaningful social relations with smartphone usage, misusing or overdosing the massive amount of content and not meeting the expectations to be available. The narrative of flawless device and faulty user has implications both for consumer research and for management. The main contribution of this study is to widen the focus of academic legacy from the paradoxes of technology to the paradoxes of technology consumption. The study portrays the shift from consumers’ perceptions of their smartphones as devices to perceptions of themselves as smartphone users. This offers a fruitful basis for further research on technology consumption, which is an inseparable part of postmodern life

Schumpeter and the Knowledge-Based Economy: On Technology and Competition Policy

This paper discusses some of the new policy challenges raised by the trend towards the knowledge based economy. It is argued that this trend signals a further weakening of old "market failure" arguments in guiding public action in the field of science, technology and innovation policy. Rather a Schumpeterian perspective on technical change recognizing the intrinsic differences in the nature of the accumulation process across sectors and industries appears more and more warranted. Such an approach does, however, require from policy makers to pay much greater attention to the effectiveness of their policy tools with a focus on policy and institutional learning, rather than following a set of simple normative guidelines about market failures. While such policy and institutional learning can and has to some extent already been implemented in most of Dutch technology policy and is a focal point of OECD comparative analysis (best practice, bench marking), it is much more difficult to introduce at the European level.research and development ;

Os dois lados da mesma moeda: identificando os paradoxos da tecnologia no consumo online dos brasileiros

 The possibility of buying at any time of the day, researching prices and finding varied products are some of the advantages informed by online consumers. Despite the benefits, some disadvantages are also cited by these consumers, such as the impossibility of product experimentation, delay in delivery, difficulty in accessing websites and lack of security. With this, the possibility of paradoxical behavior among this type of consumer is verified. Therefore, this work aims to verify the presence of technology paradoxes in online consumer behavior. This is a descriptive-exploratory research, with a quantitative approach and a survey research method. A questionnaire was elaborated aiming to collect information regarding the profile of the online consumers interviewed and the characteristics of the purchase process, besides containing 28 statements referring to the 14 paradoxes of technology adapted from national surveys for consumption through the internet. A total of 263 respondents were obtained, where two pairs of paradoxes were present: Assimilation / Isolation and Planning / Improvisation.A possibilidade de comprar a qualquer hora do dia, pesquisar preços e encontrar produtos variados são algumas das vantagens informadas por usuários do mercado online. Apesar dos benefícios, algumas desvantagens também são citadas por esses consumidores, tais como a impossibilidade de experimentação do produto, demora para entrega, dificuldade de acesso a sites e falta de segurança. Com isso, verifica-se a possibilidade de comportamento paradoxal entre este tipo de consumidor. Portanto, este trabalho tem por objetivo verificar a presença de paradoxos da tecnologia no comportamento dos consumidores online. Trata-se de uma pesquisa descritiva-exploratória, com abordagem quantitativa e método de pesquisa survey. Um questionário foi elaborado visando coletar informações referentes ao perfil dos consumidores online entrevistados e às características do processo de compra, além de conter 28 afirmativas referentes aos 14 paradoxos da tecnologia adaptados de pesquisas nacionais para o consumo via internet. Obteve-se um total de 263 respondentes, onde se verificou a presença de dois pares de paradoxos: Integração/Isolamento e Planejamento/Improvisação