Factors influencing the user acceptance of digital home services

Digital home services provide multimedia entertainment, communication, and healthcare services to the public in order to make their lives more convenient. Many articles predict that the digital home service market will be huge and that many will take advantage of this situation. The purpose of this paper is to identify the future market for digital home services in South Korea by exploring the existing critical information and literature. This study proposes a conceptual model for assessing the adoption of digital home services, for which survey data from 600 heads of households in Korea were collected and used to test the proposed model. This paper also examines customer characteristics and their relationship with the acceptance of digital home services. First, the findings indicate that infra-service is mainly determined by age, region, job, family type, house type, and attitude towards adoption of new products. Second, home entertainment service is also significantly affected by gender, age, region, family type, family member, house type, and attitude towards adoption of new products. Third, home healthcare service was positively affected by gender, region, job, and usage period of high-speed internet. This study may provide companies with valuable guidelines for the implementation of digital home services.     

What will be the possible barriers to consumers’ adoption of smart home services?

Recently, smart home services have come to the forefront as part of the growing market for the “Internet of Things.” Since these smart home services were introduced, they have been expected to grow rapidly. However, contrary to optimistic expectations for future market growth, the smart home market has appeared to hit a roadblock and remains at an early market stage. This study attempts to identify the possible barriers that consumers perceive when they are introduced to smart home services. Based on the resistance theory and perceived risk model, we investigate the relationship between perceived risk and resistance to smart home services, using technological uncertainty and service intangibility as the antecedents of perceived risk. Dividing perceived risk into four dimensions—performance risk, financial risk, privacy risk, and psychological risk—the empirical results show that these four risk types are affected by technology uncertainty and service intangibility, and the perceived risks, except for financial risk, have positive effects on the resistance to smart home services. When the survey respondents are divided into two types, postponers and rejecters, the result of postponers is similar with that of total sample, except that privacy risk is unimportant to postponers, and the result of rejecter cannot satisfy the recommended model fit.     

基本医疗卫生制度公共提供的经济学分析——对“新医改方案”基本医疗卫生制度公共提供的政策解读

我国城乡居民普遍存在＂看病难、看病贵＂的现象,造成这种现象的一个重要原因是基本医疗卫生制度的提供过度市场化。基本医疗卫生制度具有公共产品的属性,应该采用公共提供的方式。2009年4月7日我国出台了＂医药卫生体制改革近期重点实施方案（2009-2011年）＂,＂新医改方案＂要求把基本医疗卫生制度作为公共产品向全民提供。在对基本医疗卫生制度的公共产品属性进行了分析之后,探讨了＂新医改方案＂对于缓解我国城乡居民＂看病难、看病贵＂的积极作用。     

A bell system view of videotex

Within the last few years videotex has attracted considerable attention. Unfortunately, but as frequently is the case with novel services that are still evolving, a precise definition of videotex is somewhat difficult to obtain. To some people the term videotex applies to a wide variety of time-shared computer services for the home and business market, while to others, the term videotex is very specific perhaps best exemplified by the UK Prestel service. In its most narrow and specific meaning, videotex is a subset of online, time-shared computer services. It utilizes the home TV set for display to access a large, central database of frames of general information in colour with graphics. The database is organized in a tree fashion, and the main target is the home market.     

User preference for an IoT healthcare application for lifestyle disease management

The current convergence between information and communications technology (ICT) and medical fields reflects a shared vision of seamlessly connected sensors and devices that can improve healthcare services, and an expectation of the emergence of Internet of Things (IoT) healthcare. This study provides a relevant guide for IoT healthcare service developers, from the perspective of the technology user. Particularly, we propose critical factors that will potentially influence users’ acceptance of an IoT lifestyle disease management service. Information on the profession of service providers, task scope, devices, expert support, and a range of shared personal medical data were suggested as important attributes. Conjoint analysis was adopted to estimate the relative importance of proposed attributes and preferences for service specifications. Data and medical history were collected from 435 respondents. The model was analyzed and compared between the groups with different medical histories, respectively. The results showed that potential users, in general, require a safe and trustworthy healthcare service, rather than greater functionality, while medical history has a considerable influence on the perceived importance of the proposed attributes.     

Introduction to the Special Issue on “The Intersection Between Industrial Organization and Healthcare Economics”

This article introduces the special issue on the intersection between industrial organization and healthcare economics. This intersection has received increasing research interest, growing from 2% of the industrial-organization literature in 1991 to 6% in 2016. We describe the nine included articles, which cover a range of healthcare markets that include hospital services, insurance, and pharmaceuticals.     

Competitive relationships between traditional and contemporary telecommunication services in Taiwan

This study sets out to examine the competitive relationships that exist within the telecommunications market using the niche theory on the personal gratifications and system gratifications dimensions. The findings from the analysis of 363 survey responses indicate that traditional and contemporary telecommunication services offer different specializations to satisfy their consumers. Overall, mobile telecommunication services partially replace wired services, on personal gratifications dimensions in particular. The system gratifications dimensions of the wired telecommunication services facilitate the existence of wired services. New telecommunication services (3G and VoIP) partially replace old telecommunication services (home landline and 2G) in providing greater satisfaction in entertainment. The results also demonstrate that VoIP does not impose competitive displacement effects on home landline, 2G, and 3G services. Limitation and suggestions are discussed.     

Potential for videophones in Japan: A service proposal

The author proposes the introduction of a videophone communication service to cater for workers temporarily relocated away from their homes and families. An NTT market survey suggests that there is a perceived need for such a service. If the toll for the service is kept low, and communication centres are easily accessible, significant use of videophones may be expected in Japan.     

Innovation management techniques and development degree of innovation process in service organizations

Service markets are becoming global, open and competitive. Knowledge is more available, technology more complex and service life‐cycles are shortening. In order to satisfy this challenge, more innovation management tools are required to get better and more successful new or improved products and services. This paper analyzes the relationship between the use of innovation management tools (IMT) and the degree of development of innovation process through the application of a five phase innovation model (TEMAGUIDE). This is undertaken in a group of service organizations from three sectors: trade, healthcare and education. The sequence of the innovation process development is defined between activities and use of innovation tools. Results show that activities and practices are more developed than use of innovation management tools, and also show that leading innovation organizations have a higher use of IMT.     

DOES ORGANIZATIONAL FORM AFFECT INVESTMENT DECISIONS?*

I investigate whether organizational changes affect investment decisions using evidence from the hospital industry in the United States. During the 1990s, hospitals and physicians have reorganized the way they trade with each other, vertically consolidating the provision of healthcare services. I provide empirical evidence that hospitals adopting the new organizational forms add more healthcare services over time than hospitals that are independent of their physicians. I also find that when the average percentage of county population covered by each HMO increases, the differences in investment behavior between vertically consolidated and independent hospitals become larger.     

eHealth in Egypt: The demand-side perspective of implementing electronic health records

The present study sheds light on the expected factors that would impact the adoption of the Electronic Health Records (EHR) service in Egypt from the demand-side perspective, i.e. the healthcare consumer's standpoint. This empirical study is motivated by the use of EHR in many countries as a method of promoting healthcare services. Another incentive for the present study is to look at EHR as a top layer in the Next Generation of Information Infrastructure (NII). EHR is considered an efficiency-enhancing and cost-effective technology. Moreover, the issue of developing the healthcare sector in Egypt has the attention of government policymakers, who have a comprehensive healthcare and social insurance law that will be discussed in the Egyptian Parliament, in the near future. The study highlights the socio-technical approach used in analyzing the EHR as an eHealth application in Egypt. The underlying theoretical framework of this study implicates the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology in the Consumer Context (UTAUT2) model. It also applies an integrated framework of multifaceted perceptions used to explain the expected adoption or behavior of the Egyptian consumer vis-à-vis EHR. The study relies on primary data collected after surveying 559 respondents. Results reveal that determinants of EHR include demographics such as place and gender, but more importantly constructs such as price value, effort expectancy and facilitating conditions are key factors that play a part in the decision made by the Egyptian consumer to adopt EHR technology. Finally, additional insight and recommendations are offered to the policymakers.     

COVID-19 and changes in content usage behavior: The case of South Korea

This study examines changes in content usage time due to the COVID-19 pandemic in South Korea using Korean Media Panel data for the period 2011–2020 and explores the reasons for these changes. This study focuses on four principal contents: television programs, movies/videos/user-created content, traditional telecommunication services, and chatting/messenger/social network services. The empirical results indicate an increase in usage time for the four principal contents, as well as total content usage time because of the pandemic. The results also show that average Korean people stayed longer at home after the onset of the pandemic, leading to an increase in the time spent on all the principal contents, except for traditional telecommunication services, as well as an increase in total content usage time. Furthermore, this study suggests that whereas the effect of the pandemic on television program viewing time was mainly attributable to changes in time spent at home because of the pandemic, the effect on other contents was mainly caused by non-location-related factors. This study predicts changes in content usage time after the end of the pandemic and provides strategic suggestions.     

宝维士联盛——服务客户，善待员工

描述了全球著名承包商一宝维士联盛的总体运营情况,重点从艺术与文化建筑、商业建筑、教育机构以及卫生机构四个方面,对其专业化业务房屋建筑进行了代表性的分析。从其核心价值观以及长期的可持续理念,对其发展战略进行了全面的剖析。指出其真诚服务客户、引领行业“健康与安全”发展以及专业化业务,全面化发展,值得我们借鉴参考。     

Servicing the media: freelancing, teleworking and 'enterprising' careers

This article examines the working lives of people offering services to the media on a freelance basis. Almost all work from home using information and communication technologies but isolation in the home is not the norm as most maintain extensive personal networks in the industry. Nevertheless, popular imagery of the 'electronic cottage' and the 'virtual organisation only superficially capture their experiences. Insecurity and weakness in the market are suggested by histories of redundancy and dependence on single client organisations including former employers.     

Serving the poor: Multisided mobile service platforms,openness, competition,collaboration and the struggle for leadership

Four billion people at the base of the economic pyramid live on incomes below $3000 a year in local purchasing power, and more often than not, lack consistent access to services, such as water, healthcare, banking or agricultural know-how. Rapid advances in mobile technology offer the potential to mediate access to essential services. Through this research, the answers to the following question were explored: will mobile service platforms bridge the gap between service providers and people living at the base of the pyramid in developing countries? Anchored in interviews with 31 experts in the field of mobile and ICT, qualitative analysis starting from platform leadership to explain the role of mobile service platforms is presented: how operator, device and service provider centric platforms compete, collaborate and open up (or not) for delivering scalable services to the poor. Based on the analysis in this paper, it is portended that although operator centric platforms are in pole position, device centric platform providers, being astute innovators, are positioned to close the lead by presenting alternatives to bridge the gap in developing countries. This paper frames the current debate on M4D through the lens of platform theory, and aims to provide guidance to policy makers to improve access to services for the poor.     

The diffusion of new telecommunication technologies

This article assesses the recent diffusion of new telecommunication technologies. Drawing upon an historical framework, the authors find that new technologies face significant barriers to rapid penetration in the home and office. Data on cable television, electronic text services, teleconferencing and alternative video distribution technologies are analysed to highlight the constraints facing the growth of new telecommunications services.     

Impact of standards adoption on healthcare transaction performance: The case of HIPAA

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is a standard for the healthcare industry mandating, in part, use of the EDI X12 protocol set for data exchanges among industry members. The motivation underlying this change was the view that lack of a standard format for healthcare data created significant inefficiencies, resulting in increased costs within the industry. With regulators’ supposition that the standard would improve data exchange performance, we set out to determine the actual performance implications of HIPAA.Using data on transactions occurring over 106 months from 1998 to 2004, we study the impact of the HIPAA standardization requirement on transaction performance in the form of transaction delivery time and transaction quality measured as percentage errors. Performance is expected to deteriorate immediately following HIPAA compliance, due to system disruption, before a longer-term trend toward improved performance. Transaction performance immediately following HIPAA compliance shows deterioration in transaction delivery time, as expected, but a surprising improvement in transaction quality. The longer-term trends associated with HIPAA compliance for both transaction quality and transaction delivery time show that both are trending toward improvement. However, when we compare performance three, six, and 12 months before and after HIPAA compliance, we find that neither delivery time nor quality has improved. The implications for practice and theory are discussed.     

Searching for Goldilocks: The Distance‐Based Capitalization Effects of Local Public Services

This article empirically models the effect of distance on residential property values of three different types of services, fire, police and emergency medical services. Interesting economic trade‐offs emerge as service station proximity provides both amenity and disamenity effects. Using over three million home sales from the state of Florida along with two different measures of distance, this study provides evidence of nonlinear capitalization effects on local housing values. A difference‐in‐difference model utilizing new facility construction provides corroborating evidence of these findings.     

Introducing the Vista system

In February 1978, Bell Canada initiated the pilot demonstration of an experimental system called ‘Vista’, which provides immediate and on-demand access to information and communication services, using a conventional telephone line and an adapted television receiver. Users will be able to acess computer-based information sources using the home television as the display for text and simple graphics in colour.     

住房抵押贷款提前还贷风险管理研究

从现代金融和风险管理角度看,住房抵押贷款提前还贷对商业银行是一种期权性风险,对其收取违约金并非国际惯例,也并不是有效的风险补偿方式。商业银行应适应市场竞争需要,接受风险转嫁并提供风险管理服务,运用风险定价技术在按揭交易价格中对提前还贷风险进行补偿。对于已承担的风险,商业银行应构建抵押贷款提前还贷的数据库,通过表内对;中和市场对冲,推出多样化的住房抵押贷款方式,积极推进住房抵押贷款证券化．从而最终增强银行的盈利来源和核心竞争力。