Progress on the global digital divide: an ethical perspective based on Amartya Sen’s capabilities model

This paper examines evolving technological capabilities in developing countries. Counts of web sites indicate that some progress is being made in some of the world’s poorest countries, but the numbers show even with this progress, the gap between developed and developing countries is actually growing. So has there been progress in closing the global digital divide? The significance of web sites to provide access to necessary medical information, local cultural information, and the general visibility of the developing world is described and the current environment evaluated. The moral situation created by the current status is reviewed using ethical theories proposed by Nobel laureate Amartya Sen. By reviewing one vehicle for information transfer—the web site—the author hopes to highlight the importance of this vehicle and to present a general overview of the progress that is being made around the world.     

Analyzing the public discourse on works of fiction – Detection and visualization of emotion in online coverage about HBO’s Game of Thrones

This paper presents a Web intelligence portal that captures and aggregates news and social media coverage about “Game of Thrones”, an American drama television series created for the HBO television network based on George R.R. Martin’s series of fantasy novels. The system collects content from the Web sites of Anglo-American news media as well as from four social media platforms: Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and YouTube. An interactive dashboard with trend charts and synchronized visual analytics components not only shows how often Game of Thrones events and characters are being mentioned by journalists and viewers, but also provides a real-time account of concepts that are being associated with the unfolding storyline and each new episode. Positive or negative sentiment is computed automatically, which sheds light on the perception of actors and new plot elements.     

Customer’s role in knowledge management and in the innovation process: effects on innovation capacity and marketing results

Scholars have acknowledged customer knowledge management (CKM) as a key strategic resource for improving innovation and supporting long-term customer relationship management. This study provides a deeper understanding of the internal antecedents of business innovation capacity overcoming previous approaches. A model that had not previously been tested was used to analyse the role of customer collaboration and CKM – measured as a second-order construct – in innovation processes and marketing results. To test the model, structural equation modelling (partial least squares) was applied to a random sample of 210 Spanish companies. Results confirm that CKM and customer collaboration are antecedents of innovation capacity and marketing results. Furthermore, the effect of CKM is greater than the effect of customer collaboration. This paper provides a basis for managers to encourage innovation in their companies and explains how managers can improve marketing results.     

Understanding the impact of digital service failure on users: Integrating Tan’s failure and DeLone and McLean’s success model

Although information systems (IS) success has been given much attention in IS literature, failure has received lesser attention. This study empirically validates a model of digital service failure for consumers by integrating three dimensions from Tan’s failure model and one dimension from DeLone and Mclean’s Information Success model. The factors have been mapped to Expectation Disconfirmation Theory (EDT). Experiential survey approach has been used to collect primary data from information systems users who have experienced digital service failure. Structural equation modeling (SEM) has been used for model testing and validation to measure the impact of information, system, functional and service failure of digital service on end users. The findings suggests that information, functional, system and service failure has an impact on the consumers through the outcome, process, cost and user satisfaction of digital services.     

The Digital Economy Bill and the UK’s creative industries: a perspective from China

Lucy Montgomery is a Research Fellow in the Centre for Creative Industries and Innovation at Queensland Institute for Technology in Brisbane. Her current work explores evolutionary approaches to understanding the role of copyright in creative innovation in China, Indonesia and Indigenous Australia. She is the author of China’s Creative Industries: Copyright, Social Network Markets and the Business of Culture in a Digital Age (2010, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham), from which some of this response is drawn.     

Evolution of an academic career: DML’s influence

When I first met Don, I was already an established research fellow in regional economics. Don’s subsequent influence directly helped me follow my dreams, passions and interests. Thus, my academic career grew, developed and transformed from regional economics, to information economics, and eventually to evolutionary economics. This reflection traces that evolving process, illustrating Don’s influence throughout.     

Luciano Floridi’s philosophy of information and information ethics: Critical reflections and the state of the art

I describe the emergence of Floridi’s philosophy of information (PI) and information ethics (IE) against the larger backdrop of Information and Computer Ethics (ICE). Among their many strengths, PI and IE offer promising metaphysical and ethical frameworks for a global ICE that holds together globally shared norms with the irreducible differences that define local cultural and ethical traditions. I then review the major defenses and critiques of PI and IE offered by contributors to this special issue, and highlight Floridi’s responses to especially two central problems – the charge of relativism and the meaning of ?entropy’ in IE. These responses, conjoined with several elaborations of PI and IE offered here by diverse contributors, including important connections with the naturalistic philosophies of Spinoza and other major Western and Eastern figures, thus issue in an expanded and more refined version of PI and IE – one still facing important questions as well as possibilities for further development.     

Assessing the effects of consumers’ product evaluations and trust on repurchase intention in e-commerce environments

This study enhances the existing literature on online trust by integrating the consumers’ product evaluations model and technology adoption model in e-commerce environments. In this study, we investigate how perceived value influences the perceptions of online trust among online buyers and their willingness to repurchase from the same website. This study proposes a research model that compares the relative importance of perceived value and online trust to perceived usefulness in influencing consumers’ repurchase intention. The proposed model is tested using data collected from online consumers of e-commerce. The findings show that although trust and e-commerce adoption components are critical in influencing repurchase intention, product evaluation factors are also important in determining repurchase intention. Perceived quality is influenced by the perceptions of competitive price and website reputation, which in turn influences perceived value; and perceived value, website reputation, and perceived risk influence online trust, which in turn influence repurchase intention. The findings also indicate that the effect of perceived usefulness on repurchase intention is not significant whereas perceived value and online trust are the major determinants of repurchase intention. Major theoretical contributions and practical implications are discussed.     

The impact of network ties strength and enterprises＇ learning capability on the technological innovation

网络关系强度作为表征企业网络的重要变量之一,理论界关于其对企业技术创新的影响尚存在较大的争议。本文以企业规模和研发投入作为控制变量,构建了网络关系强度、企业学习能力和技术创新三者之间的关系理论模型,并以申报广东省高新技术企业和民营科技型企业的企业为调查对象进行了实证检验。研究发现：（1）企业网络关系强度和学习能力都对技术创新存在着显著的正向影响。（2）企业学习能力在网络关系强度和技术创新之间起到不完全中介作用。（3）在小规模企业中,这三者之间并不存在相互影响的关系。本研究进一步深化了前人的研究结论,对组织网络及技术创新的相关研究都有学术贡献。     

Intentionality and virtual objects: the case of Qiu Chengwei’s dragon sabre

This article offers an analysis of intentionality for virtual objects and explores some of the ethical implications of this analysis. The main example which serves as a motivation for the article is the case of a Chinese gamer who, in 2005, committed murder in retaliation for the theft of a virtual object, the theft of his virtual dragon sabre. The intentional analysis reveals that the way in which we experience virtual objects shares a structural similarity with the way in which we experience physical objects. Both virtual and physical objects are accessible through action and intersubjectively available. The final part of the article introduces three ethical points based on the intentional analysis. First, virtual objects can have the same ethical significance as physical objects. Second, it will be important to consider empirical results on the factors which influence one’s subjective level of immersion in the virtual world. Finally, the intentional analysis of virtual objects suggests specific questions for future research.     

China’s reformed science and technology system: an overview and assessment1

Science and technology (S&T) systems are interconnected with economic systems. After China began to make its economic system more market‐oriented in 1979, reforms to its S&T system became urgent. China’s major breakthrough in reforming its S&T system occurred in 1985. This paper provides data on China’s changing S&T sector, outlines the processes of its reform and China’s changing sources of funding for R&D. China’s evolving technology market is given particular attention and some of its pitfalls are discussed.     

Unravelling the drivers of technological innovations in the Czech Republic: Do international technological linkages matter?

This study aims to investigate the main factors driving technological innovation within firms in the manufacturing and service sectors of the Czech Republic. We apply a binary logistic regression model to cross-sectional data from 502 firms, obtained from the World Bank Enterprise Survey. The results of our empirical investigation show that certain elements of the business environment, such as the tax rate, serve as significant obstacles to firms’ product innovations. The results also confirm that international technological linkages—measured by international quality certificates and foreign technology licenses—affect technological innovations. Moreover, we found that internal R&D activities positively impact technological innovation across all sectors; contrarily, we found that process innovation in the manufacturing sector is positively influenced by foreign technology licenses and business association membership. Process innovations in the service sector are positively correlated with external R&D and financing from banking institutions. Finally, business association membership does not positively influence technological innovation in the service sector. Our findings have salient implications for firm managers, policymakers, and scholars aiming to explore and improve innovation outcomes in transitional economies.