Passage on the rope bridge between science and technology: Tales of valor with virtue and vanity with vertigo

The decline of U.S. productivity and competitiveness has been represented as a death by a thousand cuts. Remedies, however, must center on something more than a thousand band-aids. They are best directed to the critical determinants of decline. Next to the need to undertake a radical restructuring of education, we must secure a much more effective exploitation of scientific advance already in hand. This essay does not propose a redistribution of funds away from science to make technology transfer affordable. It urges much expanded attention within the academy to competitiveness issues centering on process and product innovation. There is little attention here to the well-deserved accolades enjoyed by science; this essay focuses instead on the sources of vertigo we collectively suffer in effecting the science-to-technology passage, represented metaphorically as a rope bridge. The catalog of causes for the fragile nature of that construct is followed with suggestions for giving it tensile strength.     

Antecedents and Consequences of Information Technology Usage in NPD: A Comparison of Dutch and U.S. Companies*

This study examines information technology (IT) usage for new product development (NPD) in a global context. Specifically, this research seeks to ascertain the factors that influence IT usage and the relationship between IT usage and new product performance in two different countries—the United States and the Netherlands. The interest here is in discovering if, and how, these relationships may be different depending on the country within which the NPD effort is undertaken. Employing a mail survey methodology, the present study uses data from a sample of U.S. practitioner members from the Product Development & Management Association (PDMA) and new product managers from Dutch manufacturing companies to examine the effect of IT infrastructure, IT embeddedness, NPD process formalization, colocation, outsourcing of NPD projects, and length of time on the job on the extent of IT usage. The data are also used to explore the impact of IT usage on speed to market and market performance. The results indicate that IT embeddedness and NPD process formalization positively influence IT usage in both the United States and the Netherlands. Colocation and length of time on the job are negatively associated with IT usage only in Dutch firms. Similarly, outsourcing of NPD projects is positively related to IT usage only in U.S. firms. Finally, IT usage has a positive relationship with speed to market in the Netherlands and with market performance in the United States. An important implication of the present study is that IT usage does impact speed to market and market performance, confirming anecdotal evidence. However, these relationships are not the same in each country. Moreover, the antecedents to IT usage also vary by country. Thus, the precursors and consequences of IT usage in NPD are context specific. Another implication of this research is that unless IT is embedded into the NPD process, it is unlikely that the benefits of IT will come to fruition. Finally, this study suggests that as firms use more globally dispersed teams for NPD and outsource more of their development activities, IT usage is likely to increase to facilitate communication and cooperation.     

Ethical Reasoning and the Use of Insider Information in Stock Trading

The cognitive developmental theory of ethics suggests that there is a positive relationship between ethical reasoning and ethical behavior. In this study, we trained a sample of accounting and finance students in performing competitive stock trading in our state-of-the-art trading room. The subjects then performed trading of stocks under two experimental conditions: insider information, and no-insider information where significant performance-based financial awards were at stake. We also administered the Defining Issues Test (DIT). Ethical behavior, as the dependent variable was measured in a binary scale: whether the subjects used insider information for trading of stocks or not. Ethical reasoning as measured by the DIT P-score indicated statistically significant effect on ethical behavior. The results have important implications for recruitment and training of professionals engaged in the use of financial markets for securities trading.     

Preference Ordering Cash,Near Cash,and Electronic Cash

ABSTRACT

This research investigates the impact of sociocultural determinants on people’s perceptions and usage of smart systems in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). This research used the Theory of reasoned action, Unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) and Frambach and Schillewaert’s framework. These theories which focus on the determinants of technology acceptance behavior of users have been widely used in contemporary technology acceptance research. Data were collected from the UAE Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Health, and Economy using structured questionnaires. A total of 357 responses were analyzed using multivariate statistical techniques such as regression analysis and factor analysis. Multiple regression analysis helped to determine the direction of relationships between the constructs representing users’ sociocultural orientation, attitude toward smart systems and acceptable behavior. Factor analysis served to identify the underlying dimensions of the above constructs. The major finding of this research is that cultural values and peers’ influence significantly affect users’ perceptions and applications of technological innovations. Furthermore, the study reveals that users’ age and gender wield critical moderating effects on the relationship between cultural values and attitude toward smart systems. These findings have important implications for acceptance and implementation of smart systems in the UAE which are highlighted in this paper. This paper also identifies the limits of this research and explores the venues of further research in this field.     

The choice of an invoicing currency in international trade and the balance of trade impact of currency depreciation

Cross-country differences in the choice of an invoicing currency in international trade is one reason for cross-country differences in estimated exchange rate coefficients in short-run balance of trade equations. If exports are invoiced in domestic currency while imports are invoiced in a foreign currency, a depreciation will increase the domestic currency value of outstanding import contracts, and may cause the balance of trade to fall in the short run. Countries with different invoicing patterns will have different effects on the short-run trade balance following a depreciation. We explore a simple theory of invoicing currency choice, drawing inferences regarding the likely choices for 14 countries. This allows a classification of countries according to the expected short-run balance of trade effect of a currency depreciation. Empirical estimates support the hypothesized groupings based on suggested currency invoicing patterns.