Articulation work from the middle—a study of how technicians mediate users and technology

This article studies the work performed by technicians in a large demonstration project, EcoGrid 2.0, in the Danish island Bornholm. Based on observations of household visits conducted by technicians, we demonstrate how these act as ‘middlemen’, mediating and linking together the smart technology of the demonstration and the involved users. Formally, technicians’ work is to keep users online; however, they also perform a number of invisible tasks to keep users engaged and active. Our ethnographic study shows two broad categories of invisible work: first, technicians continually facilitate the willingness of users, recurrently affirming the social contract between users and demonstration project. Second, technicians facilitate the abilities of users by improvising informal training sessions of how to operate the system. These findings are used to discuss the importance of invisible articulation work of technical service workers in large scale real‐world experiments.     

Multinational firms and qualification inflation in a hi-tech labour market

This article examines the role which elite MNC employers play in the process of qualification inflation within the Irish Republic. While these employers do not contribute towards inflation across technical occupations the tendency to select the most qualified within individual occupations has led to the emergence of a 'graduate barrier' between technicians and engineers/scientists.     

Developing Technician Skills for Innovative Industries: Theory,Evidence from the UK Life Sciences Industry,and Policy Implications

This article explores how innovative firms attempt to acquire the skilled technicians needed to deploy new technologies. Interviews with 40 employers from the UK life sciences sector reveal that shortages of technicians, an awareness of the importance of practical skills best acquired through work-based learning, and increasing dissatisfaction with the use of graduates, are encouraging employers to turn towards apprenticeship training. However, the rules governing the funding of various kinds of education and training discourage providers from offering the kinds of apprenticeships increasingly sought by employers, giving rise to a ‘system failure’ that manifests itself in shortages of technicians and the use of over-qualified graduates in technician roles.     

浅谈桩基础工程施工测量的质量控制

分析建筑工程桩基础施工测量技术要求，初步探讨对建筑物定位、建筑物桩位、建筑物承台桩位和桩基础竣工等测量的质量控制，具有一定实用价值，可供有关技术人员参考。     

The Economics of Teams among Technicians

This paper examines the economic logic of organizing field technicians into self‐managed teams, an approach to work organization that shifts the division of labour from a hierarchical to horizontal one. Economic efficiencies arise through the integration of direct and indirect labour tasks and the alignment of'the organizational structure with the occupational logic of communities of practice among technicians. Self‐managed teams absorb the monitoring and co‐ordination tasks of supervisors, substantially reducing indirect labour costs but without adversely affecting objective measures of quality and labour productivity. For technicians, team membership means longer work hours, but higher wages through overtime pay.     

Standards,innovation, and latecomer economic development: Conceptual issues and policy challenges

Little is known about the impact of standards on the economic development of countries which are latecomers to industrial manufacturing and innovation. Standardization is regarded primarily as a technical issue, and hence receives only limited high-level policy support.However, technical standards contribute at least as much as patents to economic growth. As a key mechanism for the diffusion of technological knowledge and due to the dominant leadership by advanced countries in patenting, technical standards have emerged in latecomer countries as an alternative to patenting. However, latecomer countries and their firms have a set of capabilities and constraints that are fundamentally different from that of advanced countries and firms. This paper argues that latecomer countries should adopt assessment criteria that are more fitted with latecomer contexts which emphasize learning effects and building dynamic capabilities. The paper discusses current issues that are essential in understanding the rise of Asian countries in standardization. We also examine the critical role that patents play for standardization and argue that “strategic patenting” to generate rents from de facto industry standards can stifle latecomer economic development.     

Standardization Alliance Networks,Standard-Setting Influence,and New Product Outcomes*

Standardization alliances evolve through collaborations among firms for developing and implementing industry technical standards. Cooperative standard setting can help allied firms to gain access to external knowledge and technologies, but it is unclear how the configuration of a standardization alliance can result in improving a firm’s performance in new product development. This study examines how standardization alliance network-based resource advantages vary across a firm’s network position and the firm’s ability to influence industry standard setting and new product outcomes. Empirical analyses, based on archival data from 170 Chinese automobile manufacturers from 1999 to 2013, indicate that firms that span structural holes in standardization alliance networks gain an advantage when focusing on early new product introductions but suffer a disadvantage when aiming at more innovative products. In contrast, taking a central position in standardization alliance networks is negatively related to a firm’s speed in bringing new products to market but positively related to the firm’s new product introduction rate. Further, standard-setting influence significantly mediates the effect of network position on a firm’s new product speed to market. Increasing centrality and structural holes can lead to the improvement of a firm’s standard-setting influence, and this, in turn, positively affects speed to market.     

Industry and firm effects of privatization in Malawian oligopolistic manufacturing

This study evaluates the impact of privatization on technical efficiency using panel data from privatized enterprises, state-owned enterprises and private enterprises competing in oligopolistic Malawian manufacturing industries in which privatization took place. The results of the technical efficiency model, based on the period 1970–1997, provide evidence that privatization increases the technical efficiency of all firms (industry effects). Further incentives for improvements in technical efficiency are due to more domestic competition, multinationality and structural adjustment.     

Benefiting from network position: firm capabilities,structural holes,and performance

While strategy scholars primarily focus on internal firm capabilities and network scholars typically examine network structure, we posit that firms with superior network structures may be better able to exploit their internal capabilities and thus enhance their performance. We examine how innovative capabilities—both those of focal firms and those they access through their networks—influence the performance of Canadian mutual fund companies. We find that a firm's innovative capabilities and its network structure both enhance firm performance, while the innovativeness of its contacts does not do so directly. Innovative firms that also bridge structural holes get a further performance boost, suggesting that firms need to develop network‐enabled capabilities—capabilities accruing to innovative firms that bridge structural holes. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

以产业集群统筹化工园区发展:发达国家的经验

受技术革命、经济一体化和消费个性化等的推进，以产业集群统筹发展的化工园区已替代工厂体制成为化学工业发展的新范式。受此启发，后发国家要努力从空间特性、技术特性、组织特征、规划特性和演化特性等5个方面来打造集群式化工园区。     

The Roles of Knowledge Providers,Knowledge Recipients,and Knowledge Usage in Bridging Structural Holes

Studies have suggested that firms can benefit from bridging two or more otherwise disconnected firms in their ego networks (i.e., structural holes) as a potentially useful source of external knowledge for innovation. However, past research also noted that the relationship between bridging structural holes and firm innovation varies significantly. Building on the earlier research that has examined the industrial, structural, and institutional dimensions of this relationship, the purpose of this research is to study how the different characteristics of the external knowledge provided by bridging structural holes in a focal firm’s ego network might moderate the relationship between bridging structural holes and firm innovation. Using longitudinal data from the U.S. computer industry, this study showed that focal firms that bridged otherwise disconnected firms in their ego networks enjoyed higher levels of innovation. In addition, it showed that this relationship was particularly stronger when the focal firms and the disconnected firms that they bridged operated in similar rather than different markets but when the focal firms and the disconnected firms worked on different rather than similar technological domains. The results also revealed that the relationship was stronger when the focal firms’ knowledge specialization was low rather than high and when the focal firms emphasized incremental rather than breakthrough innovation. These findings show companies how they can benefit from bridging otherwise disconnected firms in their ego networks and help them make more informed decisions pertaining to such bridging activities.     

Agency,structure, and the dominance of OEMs: Change and stability in the automotive sector

Research summary: This article reviews structural change in the automotive sector from 1997 to 2007. We find that, following internal framing contests, Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) led efforts to change their sector's architecture, starting from both strong and weak competitive positions and working with suppliers to advocate a new vision based on modularity and outsourcing. As the risks and costs of this vision became apparent, OEMs were able to reverse course and reaffirm their hierarchical control on the sector, taking advantage of structural features that weren't salient ex ante. We consider why certain OEMs initiated this status‐quo challenging change, and identify how sector structure mediated their (and suppliers') efforts to implement it. We document the complex change process, driven by agency, structure, and heterogeneity in firms' understanding of their sector's architecture. Managerial summary: We study the “industry architecture” (i.e., division of labor and profit) of the automotive sector. During the late 1990s, Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) embraced a new vision, based on “Modularity + Outsourcing,” inspired by an analogy with Personal Computers (PCs). This seems puzzling since such a change was hard to implement and could have led to OEMs relinquishing strategic control of the sector. The misstep was caused by internal framing contests and the agendas and influence of suppliers, consultants, and academics. We also consider why OEMs were able to partially reverse these changes, and document the role of structural features that let them control their sector and retain value: managing the customer experience, acting as guarantors of quality, and preserving hierarchical supply chains in which they functioned as system integrators. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Philosophical and practical differences in the approaches taken to technology education in England,France and the United States

Conclusion Paradigm shifts do not take place easily; however, it is frequently easier to make a shift if one is outside a particular system. There is always a tendency for an individual, a company or even a country to stay with what has been proven successful in the past-especially a method that has been so successful that the current world prominence of that nation is due, in large measure, to that method.Furthermore, curriculum revision often follows a top-down approach resulting in cosmetic changes made by academicians but limited real change in the classroom. There is also a tendency to promote the idea that there should be a unique way that we, the general public, should view technology and, therefore, only one way it should be taught. This could well be in conflict with the subject itself. Technology is constantly in flux and the clients it serves are as diverse as their ethnic origins and genders.Technology education in England, France and the United States reflect the changes which came about either during their great Revolution or in the years immediately following these events. England's self-made technicians and engineers put England on the industrial map far in advance of the other nations. However, industrial progress slowed considerably in the twentieth century, As England's advantage over other nations waned in the early part of this century industrial production was denigrated and a return to a more idyllic craft era was promoted. Thus, technology education has been variously referred to as craft, design, technology or a combination of these terms, thereby indicating the importance of craft heritage, the role played by designers and inventors, as well as the attempt to place these two within the larger context of technology. Nonetheless, design remains the focal point of the technology curriculum in England and Wales, reflecting the importance of the designers/inventors during the golden age of England's industrial development.French technicians and engineers were making great strides in understanding the scientific bases of many techniques prior to the French Revolution, but their application of theory to practice at that time was of secondary importance. By the time the social aspects of their Revolution has been reconciled England was far in advance and, in an attempt to catch up, France utilized what it knew best. By starting with a solid scientific base and adding practical experiences, it produced versatile engineers like Gustav Eiffel, who could move from one specialized field to another when the need arose. This emphasis on science is reflected in the technology curriculum in France, both in public and private schools, and has been the inspiration for the province of Quebec which is officially unilingual French speaking.Although the United States was born out of close ties with England, it understood French culture through ambassadors to France such as Ben Franklin. Nevertheless, these influences were no match when compared to the urgency to develop machinery which would add power to the pioneers' effort to conquer the new country and expand westward. The machine took on an almost superhuman quality as new industrial techniques were developed and the latest gadgets could be bought by all citizens. Little wonder that industry played an important part in the school curriculum from earliest times and continues to form the center of today's technology education curriculum.Will these three different cultural heritages continue to dominate technology education in each country in the years to come? Will the requirements of a global economy or the culture of other nations exert a greater influence for change than has been experienced in the past? There are no certain answers to these questions, but what is clear is that the past must be understood, as well as the degree of effect it has had on our current choice of curricula, before we can move ahead to create programs suitable for the twenty-first century.     

A Model of Arbitral Decision Making: Facts,Weights, and Decision Elements

This study provides a structural model of arbitral decision making that depicts arbitrators as deciding cases by ascertaining the facts, attaching weights to the facts, and combining the facts and weights to form decision elements that determine their decisions. The model further posits that arbitrators’ biographical characteristics affect their decisions by influencing their fact finding and weight assignments. It also allows for arbitrators’ characteristics to have a direct impact on their decisions. A test of the model indicates that the decision elements determine the arbitrators’ decisions but the arbitrators’ characteristics have a limited impact.     

Knowledge Types in Technology

Starting with the distinction of natural science, engineering science ("technology") and engineering practice ("technics"), the paper will stress the difference between technological and technical knowledge. The first part will discuss the relationship between science and technology, arguing that technology is a genuine type of knowledge rather than "applied science". In technics, however, even technological laws, as transformations of scientific laws, cover a certain part of knowledge only. The greater part of technical knowledge includes technical know-how, functional rules, structural rules, and socio-technological understanding, which is just developing in our times. The classification of knowledge types will be used for determining which kind of knowledge may seem appropriate to general technological education.     

Science and Technology as Social Relations Towards a Philosophy of Technology for Liberal Education

This paper raises the question of the philosophical base of a liberal technology education, assuming that it cannot be provided simply by an engineer's perspective. It therefore reconstructs known ideas about technology in terms of the social relationships inherent in the development, gestalt and use of technical artifacts. The outcomes of this reconstruction are perceptual relationships in the phenomenology of technology, power relationships in critical theory, and artifact-designer relationships in social constructivism. Based on these outcomes, the paper suggests a series of questions for reconstructing the cultural meaning of technology and a structural model that shows how meaning is generated through a variety of social relationships. The final section deals with the educational implications of this approach. These include a shift from teaching content matter isolated from social considerations towards a dialectic engagement with the social and technical dimensions of technological activity in order to make technology education meaningful for all students.     

Firm orientations, innovativeness, and business performance: Advancing a system dynamics view following a comment on Hult, Hurley, and Knight's 2004 study

Hult, Hurley, and Knight's [Ind. Mark. Manage. 33 (2004) 429.] study reports correlations for each of the three subfactors of market orientation (competitor orientation, customer orientation, and interfunctional coordination) and innovativenss. However, their report fails to discuss the nature of these relationships. Such findings are worthy of discussion because they support prior evidence demonstrating the centrality of customer orientation in linking competitor orientation and interfunctional coordination with both innovativeness and business performance. Also, the finding that interfunctional coordination relates strongly with innovativeness supports the paradigm shift toward relationship marketing. The point needs mentioning that several different (more than one) standardized effects, structural equation models explain similar amounts of variance of business performance besides the models that Hult et al. examine. Thus, the implication by Hult et al. (p. 436) that “…learning orientation has no significant direct effect on performance” is accurate only for the model tested (shown in their Fig. 2). Applying the “quick clustering” method helps to inform interpretation when nearly all relationships among variables are statistically significant. The present article includes a proposal for advancing from one-directional structural equation modeling of innovativeness and business performance to system dynamics modeling that includes real-world feedback loops.     

Technical,quality and environmental efficiency of the olive oil industry

This paper studies the level of technical efficiency in the olive oil industry from a multi-output perspective, and examines olive oil production in quantitative and qualitative terms. The study also covers the environmental impact of the production process. These are key issues due to the current environmental, organoleptic and food traceability requirements of the EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Furthermore, product differentiation is sought after in today’s ever more demanding markets. The production of olive oil in Andalusia (Spain) is the most important agricultural food industry in the whole region and it represents 30% of world olive oil production. Three data sources have been used: a comprehensive survey to a sample of olive oil producers, their financial reports, and the opinion of a group of experts in olive oil production techniques interviewed by means of the Delphi survey. With this data and after the construction of indicators, a production frontier is elaborated by applying an extension of the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) technique. This will allow for the measuring of the relative technical efficiency indices and set specific efficiency indices for both the quality of the oil produced and the environmental impact of the production process. Those factors impacting on efficiency are determined by a truncated regression model with bootstrap. The results show a medium–high level of relative technical efficiency and highlight the importance of efficiency factors involving production and marketing associations.     

A Causal Model of the Impact of Skills, Synergy, and Design Sensitivity on New Product Performance

Notwithstanding the best efforts of outstanding managers, project team members, researchers, and consultants, no product development plan can guarantee success. Every new products organization will experience its fair share of failures, but a firm can take steps to ensure that its failures do not outweigh its successes. By benchmarking the competition, a firm can gain insight into best practices–the factors that lead most directly to new product success. To help identify these best practices, X. Michael Song, William E. Souder, and Barbara Dyer develop and test a causal model of the relationships among the key variables leading to new product performance. The proposed model identifies five factors that lead to marketing and technical proficiency: process skills, project management skills, alignment of skills with needs, team skills, and design sensitivity. According to the model, marketing and technical proficiency directly determine product quality, and ultimately lead to new product success or failure. The causal model was tested using information on 65 completed projects–34 successes and 31 failures–from 17 large, multi-divisional Japanese firms. The study participants develop, manufacture, and market high-technology consumer and industrial products. These firms judged the success or failure of the projects in this study by using seven criteria: return on investment, profit, market share, sales, opportunities for technical leadership, market dominance, and customer satisfaction. These firms generally assigned the greatest importance to customer satisfaction, opportunity creation, and long-term growth. For the most part, the responses from these firms support the relationships presented in the causal model. According to the respondents, marketing proficiency and product quality have a strong, positive influence on their new product performance, as do process skills, project management skills, and alignment of skills and needs. The responses highlight the importance to these firms of responsiveness to customer wants and needs, as well as ensuring a close fit between project needs and the firm's skills in marketing, R&D, engineering, and manufacturing. Somewhat surprisingly, the responses do not support the model's suggested relationships between skills/needs alignment and technical proficiency or between technical proficiency and product quality.