Telemedicine competition,pricing, and technology adoption: Evidence from talk therapists

This paper examines how new telemedicine competitors affected incumbent health care providers during the first waves of COVID-19. Using data from the largest mental health provider search platform in Canada, I show that increased telemedicine competition in a market caused incumbent providers in that market to stop offering income-based discounts to patients. I isolate the causal effect of competition in a difference-in-differences framework, comparing providers before and after a supply shock on the platform that exogenously assigned some markets new telemedicine search results. I find that higher-quality providers are more likely to stop income-based discounts when facing new telemedicine entrants, while lower-quality providers are more likely to exit the platform, which is consistent with telemedicine providers competing for more price-sensitive patients. The results suggest that expanding telemedicine options had a heterogeneous effect on the affordability of care.     

The patient trajectory: A modelling tool for planning rural telemedicine systems

The authors present an analytical tool developed and applied to plan for the use of telecommunications technology to link a non-physician health care provider in a rural satellite clinic to a central source of medical expertise. The principal result obtained is that narrowband technologies appear nearly two- thirds as effective as broadband technologies in averting patient travel.     

Telemedicine in the USA: An overview

The authors examine the development and use of telecommunications technology in the provision of health services and in that context discuss policy formulation relating to technological innovation in health care. In the course of their examination, they consider the nature of the major challenges facing health care delivery that are amenable to responses in telecommunications technology, present selected findings from telemedicine studies in the light of these challenges, and offer a set of policy recommendations.     

Gaining added value from centres of excellence in the UK medical equipment industry

New technologies and the transfer, exchange and pooling of existing technologies are impacting, at the strategic level. Research on joint activities has emphasised the industry sectoral differences and the need for more in-depth analysis at these levels. This study of eleven companies' joint activities with government research institutes, university medical schools and other companies, in developing thirty-four medical equipment innovations, details the mechanisms by which the expected added value from joint activities is realised.
The manufacturers gained added value by:
1. Appropriating user knowledge to them-selves
2. Transferring costs to the users
3. Increasing private returns through co-operation with the user in gaining market penetration
4. Diffusion of costs and the capturing of benefits through intermediary-manufactureruser interactions
5. The coupling of 'outside product champions' to 'inside product champions'.     

Product innovation in food processing—a Swedish survey

Abstract: Product development strategies in 20 major Swedish food processing companies are described and evaluated both from a company and a consumer point of view. Three types of company outcomes are focused on, technological, market and commercial success. Company variables related to success are size, ownership and research intensity. Strategic variables analyzed in relation to success are technology use, R and D cooperation and marketing. Consumer outcome is studied in terms of price differences, convenience, taste, nutritional benefit and medical value. As in previous studies carried out in the same research programme in more research and technology intensive industries, cooperating with the outside research environment and combining technologies is shown to be clearly associated with success in finding and developing new products. With regard to consumer outcome, convenience and taste differences are the most common attributes of new food products, differentiating them from existing products.     

Modelling the dynamics of decision-making for emerging medical technologies

There has been considerable interest in systematic methods for technology assessment that can be used to evaluate the social impact of medical practices. Policy-makers have been attracted to these methods because they offer a capability to logically and systematically analyze a decision. Assessing newly "emerging" technologies proves most difficult because practitioners' perceptions of their clinical effectiveness are continually changing. We propose and illustrate a mathematical model framework which, when simulated by computer, could serve as a tool to help analyze future consequences of hypothetical alternative public policies for emerging medical technologies.     

Using 'hard' and 'soft' technologies for global new product development

This paper reports on a study of the use of 'hard' and 'soft' technologies as tools for managing global new product teams. 'Hard' technologies consist of electronic mail, teleconferencing, fax, video conferencing, and other electronic means of facilitating communication. 'Soft' technologies, on the other hand, reflect managerial behaviors that are necessary to deal with the social and behavioral aspects of global new product development. Our study suggests that:
The frequency of use of hard technologies is greater for higher versus lower performing global teams.
The set of hard technologies perceived to be important is different for higher versus lower performing global teams.
How well soft technologies are used is greater for higher performing global teams.
Soft technologies are seen as more important than hard technologies.
Implications of these findings for managers and future research are discussed.     

Realigning research and extension to focus on farmers’ constraints and opportunities

This paper argues that research and extension have failed to (1) develop technologies that take into account farmers’ resource constraints and risks; and (2) improve farmers’ capacity to adapt technologies to their own situations. The paper critiques continued use of blanket, high-dose fertilizer recommendations, arguing for approaches that teach farmers how to maximize returns from smaller, more affordable input purchases. Developing such technologies requires that researchers integrate a wider range of stakeholders (farmers, extension agents, agricultural exporters and processors) into research activities at an earlier point in time than has been the case. Although evidence that these new approaches are increasing the use of purchased inputs remains weak, a number of important lessons are emerging about how research and extension outcomes are influenced by institutional culture and incentives. The authors conclude that developing recommendations for small, affordable input doses and training farmers so they can adapt recommendations to their particular circumstances is as much an institutional challenge as a technology challenge.     

Industrial product diffusion by market segment

This article focuses on the need to forecast diffusion patterns by market segment. The usual single market forecasts may be quite inappropriate if the market is segmented. Evidence is offered, based on the marketing of a new medical technology, that the diffusion pattern does vary by segment. The marketing of new technologies can potentially be improved by planning and forecasting on a segment by segment basis.     

Assessing the impact of improved agricultural technologies on household income in rural Mozambique

In many areas of Africa, rural livelihoods depend heavily on subsistence farming. Using improved agricultural technologies can increase productivity in smallholder agriculture and thus raise household income and reduce poverty. Data from a nationally representative rural household survey from 2005 is used to assess the impact of four technologies – improved maize seeds, improved granaries, tractor mechanization, and animal traction – on household income in Mozambique. To ensure the robustness of the results, three econometric approaches were used: the doubly-robust estimator, sub-classification and regression, and matching and regression. The results show that, overall, using an improved technology did not have a statistically significant impact on household income. This may be associated with a widespread drought that occurred in 2005. Despite drought, distinguishing between households based on propensity score quintiles revealed that using improved technologies, especially improved maize seeds and tractors, significantly increased the income of those households who had better market access. Thus, to allow households to benefit from the use of improved technologies, policy makers need to reduce structural impediments to market participation by ensuring adequate road infrastructure and enabling access to markets.     

Efficient division of profits from complementary innovations

Many products—including microprocessors, telecommunications devices, computer software, and on-line auction services—make use of multiple technologies, each of which is essential to make or sell the product. The owner of one technology benefits from the existence of complementary technologies. We show that, despite this externality, the structure of payoffs that support efficient R&D investment by duopolists racing to discover a single innovation generalizes to the structure that supports efficient investment for complementary innovations. The paper also examines how alternative intellectual property regimes and legal institutions affect R&D investment in complementary technologies. The results have policy implications for the organization of R&D, the assessment of damages for patent infringement, and allocations of value in patent pools.     

Agricultural technologies for climate change in developing countries: Policy options for innovation and technology diffusion

Climate has obvious direct effects on agricultural production. The reverse is more apparent than ever as greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture are tallied. The development and effective diffusion of new agricultural practices and technologies will largely shape how and how well farmers mitigate and adapt to climate change. This adaptation and mitigation potential is nowhere more pronounced than in developing countries where agricultural productivity remains low; poverty, vulnerability and food insecurity remain high; and the direct effects of climate change are expected to be especially harsh. Creating the necessary agricultural technologies and harnessing them to enable developing countries to adapt their agricultural systems to changing climate will require innovations in policy and institutions as well. Potential constraints to innovation involve both the private and public sectors in both developing and developed countries. The process of transferring agricultural innovations across agroecological and climatic zones is often subject to agronomic constraints. Often, the most binding constraints occur at the adoption stage, with several factors that potentially impede poor farmers’ access to and use of new technologies. Based on discussions of these constraints, we derive six policy principles and use these principles to suggest several specific investments and policy priorities.     

E-health/m-health adoption and lifestyle improvements: Exploring the roles of technology readiness,the expectation-confirmation model,and health-related information activities

This purpose of this study was to investigate (a) the prevalence and patterns of e-health/m-health use in Hong Kong; (b) the activities that people engage in via health-related information platforms/apps; and (c) the roles that technology readiness, the expectation-confirmation model, and e-health/m-health activities play in predicting lifestyle improvement. Data were collected from a telephone survey, with a probability sample of 1,007 respondents aged 18 or above. Our results show that 47.2% of the respondents were regular users of e-health technologies, 23.2% were m-health users, and only 10.7% used wearables for health purposes. Among the six e-health/m-health activities identified, health tutorials and health information seeking were the most frequently used, followed by recording/monitoring and medical services. The least popular activities were reminders and sharing experiences. As expected, the component variables in the expectation-confirmation model, particularly confirmation and perceived usefulness, were the strongest predictors for lifestyle improvement. External factors, such as being older and innovative, the use of e-health/m-health activities for recording/monitoring, health tutorials, medical services, and sharing experiences, also had significant impacts. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Electronic funds transfer as a subject of study in technology,society and public policy

As society becomes increasingly dependent upon technology, and so increasingly a subject of public policy scrutiny, it is essential to acquire as much knowledge as possible about technology development, adoption, use, and impacts. The authors propose in detail a long-term study of electronic funds transfer that would cover six major topics: how technology emerges; how new technology is handled by existing institutions; how new technologies are assimilated by the public; what specific impacts new technologies have; how new technologies create synergistic impacts with other technologies; and how technologies change over time to conform to new circumstances and developments. They conclude with a consideration of the measures necessary for the implementation of such a study.     

Skills, Flexible Manufacturing Technology, and Work Organization

This study employs a national survey of over 3000 U.S. manufacturing establishments to explore associations between worker skill requirements and use of production and telecommunications technologies, work organization, and other management practices. Ordered probit equations show an empirical link between increases in each of six types of skill requirements, as reported by plant managers, and the use of flexible technologies and work organization practices. Technology use is most strongly linked to computer skill requirements. Work organization practices were strongly associated with problem-solving and interpersonal skill increases, suggesting that new work organization practices are broadening the set of skills sought by manufacturers. Traditional academic skills (e.g., math and reading) also were linked to the use of flexible technologies and work organization practices, but increases in these skill requirements were reported less frequently than were requirements for computer, interpersonal, and problem-solving skills.     

The use of OR models in the assessment of alternative wave energy devices

Abstract: The author outlines the way in which OR models can be used to aid the development and technical assessment of different technologies for obtaining energy from the wave motion of the seas. The cost of prototype devices would be enormous and their use would be quite impracticable for comparing different technologies. The author's models are sophisticated enough to give an initial assessment of different devices using the input from relatively inexpensive small-scale physical models. They are capable of varying the design parameters of each device and locating optimum values, thus ensuring that comparisons are made under the most favourable conditions.     

The impact of connectivity technologies on e-flexible working practices of small and medium-sized enterprises in the North East of England

This paper examines the use of connectivity technologies among 80 small and medium-sized enterprises operating in the North East of England. The paper demonstrates that translation of connectivity technologies into e-flexible working practices is highly dependent on the firm's organisational structure and managerial capacity.     

Sales force technology usage—reasons, barriers, and support: An exploratory investigation

Increasingly, salespeople are being asked to adopt and use a variety of technologies to increase their selling productivity and efficiency, including sales force automation and customer relationship management technologies. However, little research has investigated what happens once sales force automation (SFA) technology is adopted. This paper explores the reasons why salespeople use SFA technologies, the perceived barriers to SFA usage and how management can increase the usage of SFA technology. First, a qualitative study was performed to gain insight about salespeople's automation technology usage and the reasons why some salespeople fully use or do not utilize technology. After the initial study, 130 salespeople were surveyed. More productivity/efficiency was the main reason why salespeople use technology, the lack of management and technical support proved to be the main barrier to usage, and training proved most effective in increasing usage of SFA technology. Sales managers are provided with implications of the findings.     

An Exercise To Explore The Future Impact Of New Technologies

New technologies have the potential to drastically change the way people and firms conduct business. But the future is difficult to predict, and the inherent uncertainty of a new technology's impact can be troubling. This article describes an exercise that has participants evaluate a 1937 U.S. Government sponsored technology forecast. The forecast identified thirteen inventions that were predicted to have a significant impact on society during the subsequent 10–25 years. These inventions included the television, facsimile machine, mechanical cotton picker, and trailer homes, among others. Participants in the exercise are challenged to evaluate the accuracy of the 1937 forecast, and develop and understanding of the issues inherent in predicting the future impact of new technologies. They are then challenged to identify today's new technologies, and make predictions regarding these technologies' future impact. Today's new technologies may change important aspects of everyday life over the next few decades, and significantly influence the competitiveness of certain firms. The exercise illustrates how difficult it can be to anticipate the future impact of new technologies. New technologies take time to develop, and most forecasts are overly optimistic regarding the rate of development and adoption. New technologies can also develop in ways not anticipated, and a new technology may have uses that are difficult to foresee. These challenges notwithstanding, it is still important to regularly track new technologies and attempt to anticipate their potential impact. The greatest danger comes not from having inaccurate predictions of the future impact of new technologies, but from having not thought about the potential impacts. The exercise was developed for use in an executive MBA program to encourage participants to think beyond the budgets and deadlines that drive much of their regular work activity. It was designed to challenge them to reevaluate whether they, and their firm, were thinking about how new technologies might impact their industry. The exercise has the greatest impact and applicability when conducted at corporate programs or with Executive MBA students, but can be used in a typical MBA or MS program as well. It can be conducted in a three‐four hour session, or over multiple shorter sessions. © 2002 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.