Determinants of Internet standards adoption: The case of South Korea

We develop an adoption model of infrastructure technologies and test it with survey data collected from companies in six industries in South Korea (hereafter: Korea). The implementation of a new Internet standard such as Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) depends on the usefulness of the technology to the adopting organizations and the environment in which they operate. The adoption of IPv6 in Korea is mostly driven by a governmental strategy that created user demand, and normative pressure. IPv6 adoption in Korea is also driven by perceived resource concentration and power due to the uneven allocation of IPv4 addresses. Conversely, killer applications, technical sponsorship and financial factors had no influence on the adoption decision by Korean companies. Taken together, the findings of our explorative study suggest the need to consider technical as well as social and policy factors to understand the adoption dynamics of infrastructure technologies.     

Reflections on the Academic Policy Analysis Process and the UK Identity Cards Scheme

There is an increasing rhetoric from politicians for universities to become more involved in policy analysis and policy research. In this article, we reflect on our experiences of the analysis we conducted into the legislation to introduce biometric identity cards in the United Kingdom. We highlight how our work had direct consequences for the ongoing policy deliberation around this controversial piece of legislation. In particular, we highlight our role in the debate surrounding the government's figures for identity fraud and the concerns about the likely cost of the scheme to the government and taxpayer. We end the article by discussing some of the practical realities of such a foray into real politik.     

A Review of: “The Information Revolution and Developing Countries”

There is an increasing rhetoric from politicians for universities to become more involved in policy analysis and policy research. In this article, we reflect on our experiences of the analysis we conducted into the legislation to introduce biometric identity cards in the United Kingdom. We highlight how our work had direct consequences for the ongoing policy deliberation around this controversial piece of legislation. In particular, we highlight our role in the debate surrounding the government's figures for identity fraud and the concerns about the likely cost of the scheme to the government and taxpayer. We end the article by discussing some of the practical realities of such a foray into real politik.     

技术认知、补贴政策对农户不同节水技术采用阶段的影响分析

探究农户节水技术采用的阶段性特征,对促进其持续采用具有重要意义。本文以滴灌技术为例,结合民勤县354份农户调研数据,运用结构方程模型分析了技术认知与补贴政策认知对农户采用节水技术的不同阶段的影响。结果表明：从初始采用阶段到后续采用阶段,农户感知技术的易用性有所提升,而感知技术的有用性与感知补贴政策的合理性有所下降;感知有用性对农户采用意愿的影响相对于感知易用性有所增强;补贴政策认知对农户采用意愿的影响有所提升,并成为最主要的影响因素。据此建议：技术宣传、培训与田间示范在技术推广中仍有重要意义;进一步加大研发投入,从而提升农户技术采用的效果与持续性;适当调整补贴标准与方式,提高补贴政策的实施效果。     

外部环境对中小型企业采用数字技术影响研究

数字技术对企业发展至关重要。中小型企业是我国经济发展的重要贡献者,相较于大型企业,其对外部环境更为敏感,但现有研究却未解释外部环境影响中小型企业采用数字技术的作用机制。为此,研究基于技术-企业-环境（TOE）框架理论,构建了结构方程模型,并利用207家中国中小型企业的数据对模型进行了实证检验。结果表明,政府政策和竞争压力两个外部环境变量通过技术因素对中国中小型企业采用数字技术产生间接影响;企业层面的感知利得对中小型企业采用数字技术的影响并不显著。研究结论可解释外部环境影响中小型企业采用数字技术的路径,对中国中小型企业数字化转型具有启示意义;同时,结果证实了数字能力和数字兼容性两个技术因素在外部环境与中小型企业采用数字技术间起到的中介作用,可对现有TOE框架理论形成补充与完善。     

State ownership and technology adoption: The case of electric utilities and renewable energy

Technology adoption is crucial to address pressing public policy issues such as climate change, but the role of ownership structure in adoption decisions is not well understood. The low-carbon energy transition in the electricity industry is a case in point. Following market liberalization, the electricity industry in many countries is now characterized by a co-existence of state-owned and private utilities. We bring together the economic literatures on innovation and ownership to derive hypotheses of how ownership could affect renewable energy adoption by utilities. Focusing on data from incumbent utilities in the European Union (EU) during 2005–2016, we test these hypotheses using regression analyses and qualitative analysis of investment rationales for ten utilities. Results suggest that in the EU, state-owned utilities have a higher tendency to invest in renewables. We find evidence that state ownership interacts with the existence of pro-adoption policies and state enforcement capabilities. Based on our findings, we discuss broader implications for the role of state-owned enterprises in technological change in the energy sector and beyond.     

Technological innovation in a corporatist state: The case of biotechnology in the Federal Republic of Germany

This article examines a decade of federal support for biotechnology in the Federal Republic of Germany in order to determine the impact of liberal corporatist patterns of decision-making on industrial policy. For this purpose, industrial policy is taken to include both public initiatives aimed at promoting the new technology and those designed to control its risks.Two distinct forms of corporatism are discernible in this case study. In the first, the principal actors are large businesses, the state, and to a lesser extent, the academic reserch community. These actors have been most influential in defining the scope and specific objectives of the federally funced R&D program in biotechnology. A more traditional form of corporatism, including organized labor, has been engaged in the debate on regulatory policies.In the case of biotechnology, these patterns of corporatism have created the consensus necessary for the adoption of a comprehensive R&D program, but have perpetuated certain barriers to technological innovation. In particular, the reliance on established peak organizations to formulate policy has discouraged structural changes that could have enhanced Germany's early competitiveness in biotechnology. Incrementalism has produced more favorable results in the context of regulatory policy, by permitting control strategies to develop in step with technological progress.     

社会网络嵌入对农户绿色防控技术采用的影响——基于技术认知的中介效应

分析不同社会网络嵌入对农户绿色防控技术采用的影响及其作用机制,可为政府完善绿色农业技术推广政策提供决策参考。本文利用河南、陕西和甘肃790份苹果种植户微观调查数据,运用社会网络分析方法构建农户村域社会网络矩阵,基于关系嵌入和结构嵌入,探讨何种社会网络嵌入影响农户绿色防控技术采用及其作用机制。结果发现：①关系嵌入能显著提高农户采用绿色防控技术的可能性,结构嵌入的影响效应不显著。在控制其他因素的情况下,农户关系嵌入每增加一个单位,采用绿色防控技术的概率将提高13.5%~31.4%。②机制分析表明,关系嵌入通过增强农户技术认知广度和深度促进其采用绿色防控技术,结构嵌入对农户绿色防控技术采用的影响受到示范效应的调节,表现为结构嵌入仅对高示范效应组的农户绿色防控技术采用具有显著的正向影响,对低示范效应组的农户影响不显著。根据研究结论本文提出,政府应注重农户所嵌入的社会网络在绿色防控技术扩散中的媒介作用,加强农户互动水平,强化种植大户和家庭农场主的示范带动作用,加快实现农业绿色转型。     

Measuring the temporal dynamics of policy mixes – An empirical analysis of renewable energy policy mixes’ balance and design features in nine countries

Complex societal or environmental problems require fast and substantial socio-technical transitions. For instance, in the case of climate change, these transitions need to take place in the energy, transport and several industry sectors. To induce and accelerate such transitions, numerous policy interventions are required, which interact with each other in policy mixes. While several conceptual studies on policy mixes have been published recently, there is very little empirical research apart from single case or small-n studies. It has been prominently argued that the debate about policy mixes has reached an impasse partly due to this lack of empirical work. This paper addresses this gap by providing a first analysis of the temporal dynamics of complex policy mixes. To do so, we develop a conceptualization and measurement of policy mix balance across instrument types as well as policy mix design features (in the form of intensity as a general and technology specificity as a technology-focused design feature). This allows us to answer the question how temporal dynamics of policy mixes differ between countries regarding their balance and design features. Our measurement approach is developed bottom-up, i.e., policies are assessed individually and then aggregated systematically at the policy mix level. This enables overcoming the ‘dependent variable problem in the study of policy change’, i.e., the problem of measuring policy output. More specifically, we develop a comparative dataset of 522 renewable energy policies in nine OECD countries. Our analysis shows that countries’ policy mix dynamics vary strongly regarding some variables (e.g., technology specificity) but less regarding others (e.g., balance). As a validity check, we also test the effects of these mix dynamics on policy outcome in the form of renewable energy technology diffusion. We reflect our findings in light of the theoretical debates around policy mixes and policy design and discuss how our results provoke an agenda for the new generation of research on policy mixes. We specifically discuss avenues for future research with a particular focus on the ‘politics of policy mixes’.     

Entrepreneurship policy and the financing of young innovative companies: Evidence from the Italian Startup Act

While there is a general consensus that young innovative companies (YICs) need special attention by public policy which should aim at alleviating the financial constraints these firms commonly suffer, much less agreement has been reached on the most effective policy instruments reputed to accomplish the task. In this respect, if the scientific debate has very much revolved around the dilemma about the crowding-in or crowding-out effect of public R&D subsidies to firms, there is a dearth of scientific studies which analyse the effectiveness and potential interrelations of different policy instruments which at the same time and in the same institutional context are offered to YICs. By taking advantage of the Italian Startup Act issued in 2012, we analyse, for the first time, the possible existence of interrelationships between firm access to a Government-guaranteed (GG) bank loan programme and fiscal incentives for venture capital (VC) equity investments. Results suggest two important facts. First, the two mechanisms appear to be functional to different typologies of YICs. Second, VC investments significantly reduce the probability to access GG bank loans. Overall, our analysis highlights a sort of “institutional division of labour” between the two measures and depicts what we label as a Task segmentation effect.     

Measuring systemic problems in National Innovation Systems. An application to Thailand

The paper contributes to research on innovation systems in general and, in particular, to the current debate on rationales for innovation policy by providing a framework to identify systemic problems in a given system of innovation and test the framework empirically. The data were drawn from the Thai Community Innovation Survey in the period after which a major change in the country's innovation system policy had been initiated. By hierarchical factor analysis, systemic problems are identified and grouped into four components: institution, network, Science and Technology infrastructure and other support services. The analysis allows researchers to investigate the mismatch between policies and problems and identify policy gaps.     

微型企业采用电子商务驱动机制的实证研究——来自成都微型企业的证据

以TAM模型框架为基础,结合IDT、RBV理论提出了微型企业电子商务采用驱动模型,并以成都463家微型企业的调查数据为基础,采用结构方程进行了实证研究。结果显示,感知有用性、感知易用性是微型企业采用电子商务的主要驱动因素,感知有用性和感知易用性通过影响使用意愿驱动使用行为。     

New technology-based firms in Germany: a survey of the recent evidence

The importance and contribution of new technology-based firms (NTBFs) to long-term economic development is at the centre of a controversial debate. This paper provides an overview of the current status of research on various issues concerning NTBFs in Germany. The issues covered include the incidence of start-up firms in Germany's technology-intensive sectors and their regional clustering. The review also shows that NTBFs play an important role with regard to the transfer, adoption and diffusion of technology. The public support and policy initiatives for NTBFs in Germany are also discussed.     

Understanding the dynamics of users’ belief in software application adoption

Research has identified numerous factors that influence initial technology adoption decisions. However, extant studies consider beliefs to be static rather than dynamic over the adoption time-span. Various models have been employed to identify adoption behavior, pre- and post-adoption, however, there is little research on the dynamics of users’ belief structures over time and the inter-relationships among them. This study aims to investigate the dynamic nature of users’ beliefs and the relationships among their dynamics, i.e., rates of change. We test our research model based on data obtained at three time-windows using a parallel-growth process model. The results reveal that self-efficacy, usefulness and intention to use are likely to be dynamic, and increase with time. The rate of change in self-efficacy influences the rate of change in usefulness, which in turn affects the rate of change in intention to use. This study theoretically contributes to expanding the extant cross-sectional TAM research to include time-phased TAM studies, and highlights the role of self-efficacy as an important determinant of the dynamics.     

Will COVID-19 be the tipping point for the Intelligent Automation of work? A review of the debate and implications for research

As part of the urgent need to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, governments, healthcare providers, and businesses have looked to applications of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to compensate for the unavailability of human workers. This interest has renewed the debate regarding the use of AI for the automation of work, which has been described as Intelligent Automation (IA). A new dimension to this debate is whether COVID-19 will be the catalyst for higher IA adoption levels. This article reviews arguments in favour of COVID-19 increasing the level of IA adoption and possible counter-arguments. Key arguments in favour of increased IA adoption include consumer preferences changing to favour IA, increasing familiarity of IA technologies, and increased business confidence in IA. Counter-arguments include big data availability and reliability limitations, many tasks still favouring human skills over IA, the narrow capabilities of IA technologies, and a high availability of human workers. The article also discusses the implications of this debate for information management research and practice.     

政策激励、价值感知与农户节水技术采纳行为——基于冀鲁豫1188个粮食种植户的实证

政策激励和价值感知是影响农户节水技术采纳行为的重要方面,分析二者对农户节水技术采纳的影响有助于提升节水技术采纳率、实现水资源可持续利用。本文基于冀鲁豫1188个粮食种植户调查数据,运用双变量Probit模型分析政策激励和价值感知及其交互项对农户节水技术采纳行为的影响,并揭示农户节水技术采纳行为的代际差异和规模差异。研究发现：①政策激励和价值感知显著促进农户采纳农艺和工程节水技术,对同时采纳两种技术的影响由高到低依次为政策补贴、经济感知、农技宣传、适用感知、环境感知和灌溉水价。②价值感知在政策激励对农户节水技术采纳行为的影响中发挥调节效应,农技宣传、政策补贴、灌溉水价对农艺和工程节水技术采纳行为的激励作用均受到经济感知的影响,农技宣传能够激励高环境感知农户采纳农艺节水技术、高适用感知农户采纳工程节水技术,灌溉水价有助于高适用感知农户采纳农艺节水技术。③政策激励和价值感知对农户节水技术采纳行为的影响存在代际差异和规模差异,老一代农户、规模农户的节水技术采纳行为受到政策激励和价值感知各变量的显著影响,农技宣传、适用感知显著促进新生代农户采纳工程节水技术,小农户节水技术采纳行为主要受到农技宣传、政策补贴和适用感知的影响。④农技宣传、政策补贴与灌溉水价在影响农户节水技术采纳行为的过程中存在互补效应。鉴于此,本文提出应强化政府在节水技术推广中的作用,注重提升农户价值感知水平,加强对新生代农户和小规模农户的政策倾斜。     

基于计划行为理论的施工企业标准采纳行为研究

工程建设标准的有效实施对于保证工程项目的施工安全和质量,促进科学技术的发展和深化都具有重要的作用。因此,对于工程建设标准采纳行为的研究有助于保证工程标准的实施获得最优效益。文章以计划行为理论为基础,通过问卷调查的方式,采用结构方程模型分析施工企业工程建设标准采纳行为问题。研究结果表明,主观规范和知觉行为控制正向影响着施工企业管理者的标准采纳行为;施工企业的采纳态度、主观规范与知觉行为控制通过标准采纳意愿这一中介变量影响着施工企业标准采纳的实际行为;知觉行为控制对施工企业的标准采纳行为影响机理较为复杂,在所有因素中处于影响程度最大的变量。根据模型的分析结果,提出促进施工企业标准采纳行为的政策建议。     

名义锚的选择分析

汇率锚、货币供应量目标以及通货膨胀目标作为可供选择的名义锚均有其自身的优势和劣势。锚币国的任何变化都会通过汇率渠道传递到本国,这使得维持汇率锚的成本大大增加;同时,由于货币供应量与通货膨胀之间的相关性被破坏,货币供应量目标也不再适合我国;因而,通货膨胀定标制将成为我国可能的选择。     

经济战“疫”货币先行

2020年,随着新冠肺炎疫情波及全国,中国经济料将承受阶段性冲击。我们认为,为避免短期冲击向长期风险演变,货币政策亟待提早发力。一方面,不同于"非典"时期,受本次疫情制约,积极财政或将遭遇规模、时滞、效力的瓶颈,亟待货币政策率先破局。另一方面,伴随通胀约束和期限利差约束的纾解,未来贷款市场报价利率(LPR)"降息"的空间有望温和扩张,将为货币政策提供发力支撑。由此,我们预判,2020年全面降准、LPR"降息"等总量性工具有望部分前移,结构性工具有望侧重疫情地区、服务业和中小企业。2020年中国经济有望实现低开高走,高质量发展的道路不会动摇。     

我国新一轮宏观经济调控中的货币政策:局限性及调整思路

针对自2003年下半年以来我国国民经济运行出现的局部过热问题。中国人民银行进行了一系列货币政策操作，相关部门也以其它措施进行配合。本文分析这一期间货币政策执行的效果及存在的局限性，研究我国在货币政策实施中面临的特殊制度背景，进而提出在我国现阶段实施货币政策所应具备的“大智慧”和“大思路”。