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We analyze the impact of information technology (IT) on the technical efficiency of firms in the context of their observed competitive settings. Because competition can be a driver of efficiency [...]

Information and communication technologies (ICT) offer innovative formats for promoting healthy lifestyles and reinforcing public health initiatives. They can be applied to large population segments without losing the functionality of being tailored to individual fluctuating needs. Advantages of ICT include real-time provision and adaptation of nutrition and health recommendations based on an individual's particular situation, the potential to combine assessment procedures with healthy lifestyle support and the ability to unify psychosocial and cultural dimensions to enhance adherence. Two pilot programs are presented that show the potential for applying ICT to the promotion of healthy eating and physical activity habits.

X party material flow (XPMF) is a new type of material flow (MF) under the emerging new information technology. Based on the theory of MF, this paper analyses the recent research progress that was made in XPMF from the angle of bio-evolution complexity including factor type primitive reconstruction driving type XPMF, enterprise primitive fractal synergetic type XPMF, adapting primitive swarm intelligence XPMF. Such progress has enriched and systematized the research of XPMF theory. Keywords X party material flow; PMF; supply chain; material flow mode; PMF fractal; PMF swarm intelligence; systems research, INTRODUCTION Based on the theory of material flow (MF) (Xu, 2002a, 2002b, 2003) and the theory of labour division and organization, the theory of X party material flow (XPMF) has [...]

The pathways of development and innovation in information technology involve interactions among a number of sciences and technologies and the social, political, and economic milieu in which they find themselves. No single factor will decisively determine the direction, the success or failure, or the competitiveness of one country relative to others, which makes grand strategies for specific technological development and innovation notoriously unreliable. Therefore, although growing technical capacity in developing countries helps their economic growth, the world is not quite flat. In fact, information technology may exacerbate national differences, rather than lead to international homogenization, and technological developments in general may be differentially affected by a nation's traditional regulatory and legal institutions. All of these issues reinforce the need to approach modern technological development and innovation as a systems problem with technical and social dimensions, not reducible to a separate consideration of its technical, government, and sociological parts. Keywords: Technology; innovation; complexity; systems approach

The adoption of enterprise-wide information and communication technologies (ICTs) has become a growing trend in a wide range of industries. Resistance has been identified as one of the most common reasons for unsuccessful implementations. Assuming technologies as fixed objects, many existing theories tend to reduce resistance to psychological mechanisms or structural misalignment. The purpose of this study is to retheorize resistance to ICTs by integrating a social constructionist perspective of technology and a framework of organizational tensions. By employing qualitative methods, a case study examined the adoption, implementation and use of an enterprisewide software system in a technology service organization. The in-depth case analysis revealed a tension-centered process model, which shows that resistance to ICTs is constituted in a dynamic, reflexive interplay between the ongoing construction of ICTs and organizational tensions. In this process, an ICT adoption brings into play various organizational tensions, which then shape the interpretations of the ICT in oppositional terms, and reactions to these tensions and oppositional interpretations result in various forms of resistance behaviors. This tension-centered process model offers a useful alternative to existing research on resistance to ICTs in the workplace. Keywords: Workplace Resistance; ICT Implementation; Social Construction of Technology; Organizational Tension; Technological Change

The potentials of using new free and low-cost technologies in library services are analyzed. Technologies such as podcasts, blogs, web conferencing, wikis and instant messaging have been proven to improve clients' access to and usage of the library and its collection. Examples of public libraries which make use of new technologies are given.

Twenty years of information technology (IT) innovation have transformed American higher education. From the introduction of personal computers to the spread of the Internet and e-mail, information technology innovation has [...]

ABSTRACT This paper explores the nature of a firm from an innovation perspective. An organization may be thought of as a collection of networked resources. Developments in information technology enable [...]

Byline: V. Grech (1) Keywords: Key words: Heart defects, congenital -- Information systems -- Databases, factual Abstract: Inexorable progress in information technology has been the driving force behind much of the progress that has been achieved in the fields of pediatric cardiology and cardiac surgery since the inception of these two subspecialities during the middle of the 20th century. This article outlines the influences of the digital age and speculates on likely future developments in these two subspecialities. Author Affiliation: (1) Pediatric Department, St. Luke's Hospital, Guardamangia--Malta, MT