International Journal of Innovation and Technology Management

In spite of the benefits associated with Automated Traveler Information Systems (ATIS), little attention has been given to its implementation in Sub-Saharan Africa. However, the management of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology has made efforts to implement this technology on their campus transport services. It is in this regard that the researchers sought to investigate the factors that will influence the student’s intention to adopt ATIS. The Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT2) with self-efficacy, system quality and gender as moderators were employed in the study. The results indicate that performance expectancy, facilitating conditions and habit are the true predictors of people’s intention to use ATIS. Moreover, self-efficacy and gender were also found to moderate the relationship between behavioral intention and use behavior. This is among the few attempts to examine the factors that may influence user’s adoption of ATIS in Sub-Saharan Africa.

In this research, we investigate the role of innovation and entrepreneurship as well as entrepreneurial communities in the process of economic growth and development. Current research on development issues strongly focusses either on the micro-level or on the macro-level of national economies disregarding the holistic nature of economic development. Entrepreneurial communities represent a conceptual link between the macro-perspective on economic development and the micro-perspective on entrepreneurial initiatives as a tipping point for economic development. In this paper, we present a theoretical construct of entrepreneurial communities. Additionally, we introduce a qualitative model of thriving entrepreneurial economies following a holistic perspective on development issues. The theoretical analysis is based on systems thinking and systems approaches to management. Structures of entrepreneurial communities and networking between regional communities will be explored and reflected in a theoretical exploration. The introduced theoretical construct of an entrepreneurial community is based on living systems theory. The qualitative systems model of the thriving entrepreneurial economy is deduced from a descriptive model (word model).

Individual’s perception of anthropomorphic platforms in promotion of really new products or novel innovations has not been examined fully. There are contradictions in the academic literature on how various presentations of social cues are perceived by audience mindlessly or mindfully. Perceived mindful and mindless anthropomorphism are explored in this study in order to understand its effect on individuals’ attitude, purchase intention and comprehension of new products. A single factor between-subject design using two innovative products and websites with four levels of social cues (voice, language, interactivity and social role) was used. Five hundred participants took part in the main experiment. Participants were randomly assigned to each experimental group. The analysis indicated that a human-like avatar is preferred by individuals over static avatar and perceived higher mindlessly. Interactive content didn’t improve individuals’ perceived mindless anthropomorphism. There was no significant increase in individuals’ mindful anthropomorphism in any condition. The study indicated perceived mindless anthropomorphism results into better comprehension, attitude and purchase intention towards really new products.

All nations globally are going through domestic and international pressures to become more responsible towards environment and climate change. This makes it imperative for the businesses in these countries to review and revitalize their green initiatives. This study is an attempt to examine the factors that drive the Indian firms to be involved in green initiatives. The findings of the study reveal that higher green ratings corresponded to higher productivity of firms. In addition, green products enabled firms to exhibit higher sales volumes while they charged price premiums. However, firms engaged in green processes were neither able to demonstrate higher sales volumes nor charge price premiums.

Organizations should maintain their innovation trajectories by developing products, processes, marketing, and organizational methods to achieve and sustain competitive advantage. However, by itself, creating value through innovation is not enough for companies: transforming these innovations into firm performance is also crucial. This study aims to validate the relationships among innovation and firm performance components and to explore the effect of innovation culture on innovation components and personnel performance. In our model, the innovation construct is comprised of innovation input, innovation process, and innovation output components, while firm performance construct includes four performance components such as financial, customer, market, and personnel performance. Moreover, this comprehensive model was proposed based on the literature, and structural equation modeling (SEM) was performed by employing data gained from 353 companies in Turkey to validate the model. According to the results, there is a sequential relationship within innovation components and firm performance components, while the relationships among innovation components and firm performance components are observed holistically. This paper contributes to the innovation literature by introducing a validated model to clarify these relationships. This model can be evaluated by company leaders to identify not only their firm’s innovation path but also short and long-term innovation results. Furthermore, the findings indicate that companies should manage the system from innovation input to financial gains without delicately compromising the whole sequential and holistic relationship. Managers should also be aware of the power of innovation culture on innovation path and personnel performance directly to create a convenient atmosphere.

Based on the data of the Growth Enterprise Market (GEM)-listed companies in the Shenzhen Stock Exchange of China, this paper researched the influence mechanism of political connections on enterprise innovation intention. This paper is based on the theory of reciprocal exchange of social capital. The research found that the entrepreneur’s political connections are detrimental to the improvement of enterprise innovation intention, and the differentiation strategy has a mediation effect between them. Moreover, the market competition intensity of enterprise production adjusts the influence of the differentiation strategy on enterprise innovation intention, and it can alleviate the negative influence of the political connection on the innovation intention through the differentiation strategy. Although the country’s innovation-driven strategy will provide more innovative resources for enterprises, securing the survival and development of an enterprise is becoming increasingly narrower by relying solely on establishing connections with the government.

This paper sets out to understand the use of public procurement as a policy instrument for catching up. Brazil and China, who have explicitly linked procurement to innovation, are used as empirical cases. We review their respective institutional settings, policy approaches, and micro-level processes related to the public procurement of innovation (PPI). We have discovered that they share similarities concerning issues encountered during PPI implementation. Although both countries have made some achievements in promoting innovation through procurement, this paper highlights some of the obstacles they have experienced when implementing this policy, such as institutional problems, changes in the political landscape, and macroeconomic constraints. Such obstacles, more prominent in the case of Brazil, may have acted as an obstruction to achieving the pursued objectives, thereby restricting the full potential of PPI in driving technological catching up. The article then offers managerial and policy implications for the implementation of PPI, such as the importance of choosing relevant procurement procedures, critical roles played by policy champions, and demonstrating effects of leading firms and regions. While in China PPI was once an instrumental part of its technology development agenda, in Brazil it has been sporadic and unconnected to a given national strategy.

This paper provides some evidence about the impact open data has in the economic landscape, and therefore, contributes to the limited evidence in this subject. From a panel data corresponding to the period of 2014–2017 and a sample of 27 open data leader countries, the incidence of open data on the economic field is examined. The dependent variable, economic impact, is a latent variable based on innovation and doing business indicators. Results obtained show there is a significant and positive effect of open data, ICT development and income per capita on the economic impact.