Participatory design for technological disruption within the agricultural sector

Agricultural adoption of innovation has traditionally been described as slow to diffuse. This paper therefore describes a case study grounded in PD to address a disruptive technology/system within the livestock industry. Results of the process were positive, as active engagement of stakeholders returned rich data. The contribution of the work is also presented as grounds for further design research in the livestock industry.

Sustainable fashion textiles design : value adding through technological enhancement

A key concern in the field of contemporary fashion/textiles design is the emergence of ‘fast fashion’: best explained as "buy it Friday, wear it Saturday and throw it away on Sunday" (O'Loughlin, 2007). In this contemporary retail atmosphere of “pile it high: sell it cheap” and “quick to market”, even designer goods have achieved a throwaway status. This modern culture of consumerism is the antithesis of sustainability and is proving a dilemma surrounding sustainable practice for designers and producers in the disciplines (de Blas, 2010). Design researchers including those in textiles/fashion have begun to explore what is a key question in the 21st century in order to create a vision and reason for their disciplines: Can products be designed to have added value to the consumer and hence contribute to a more sustainable industry? Fashion Textiles Design has much to answer for in contributing to the problems of unsustainable practices on a global scale in design, production and waste. However, designers within this field also have great potential to contribute to practical ‘real world’ solutions. ----- ----- This paper provides an overview of some of the design and technological developments from the fashion/textiles industry, endorsing a model where designers and technicians use their transferrable skills for wellbeing rather than desire. Smart materials in the form of responsive and adaptive fibres and fabrics combined with electro active devices, and ICT are increasingly shaping many aspects of society particularly in the leisure industry and interactive consumer products are ever more visible in healthcare. Combinations of biocompatible delivery devices with bio sensing elements can create analyse, sense and actuate early warning and monitoring systems which can be linked to data logging and patient records via intelligent networks. Patient sympathetic, ‘smart’ fashion/textiles applications based on interdisciplinary expertise utilising textiles design and technology is emerging. An analysis of a series of case studies demonstrates the potential of fashion textiles design practitioners to exploit the concept of value adding through technological garment and textiles applications and enhancement for health and wellbeing and in doing so contribute to a more sustainable future fashion/textiles design industry.

Clinical factors and technological barriers as determinants for the intention to use wireless handheld technology in healthcare environment: an Indian case study

Abstract]: Traditional technology adoption models identified ‘ease of use’ and ‘usefulness’ as the dominating factors for technology adoption. However, recent studies in healthcare have established that these two factors are not always reliable on their own and other factors may influence technology adoption. To establish the identity of these additional factors, a mixed method approach was used and data were collected through interviews and a survey. The survey instrument was specifically developed for this study so that it is relevant to the Indian healthcare setting. We identified clinical management and technological barriers as the dominant factors influencing the wireless handheld technology adoption in the Indian healthcare environment. The results of this study showed that new technology models will benefit by considering the clinical influences of wireless handheld technology, in addition to known factors. The scope of this study is restricted to wireless handheld devices such as PDAs, smart phones, and handheld PCs Gururajan, Raj and Hafeez-Baig, Abdul and Gururajan, Vijaya

Make-buy decisions in the face of technological change: does industry clockspeed matter?

Some evidence in the area of make-buy decisions for new technologies suggests that it is a good idea for a company to pursue a fairly rigorous ''make'' policy in the early days of a potentially disruptive innovation. Other studies prescribe exactly the opposite, promoting instead a ''buy'' strategy. This paper seeks to bridge the gap between these perspectives by suggesting that both strategies are valid, but that they are most successfully applied in different market environments. The ''make'' prescription may be more suited to either extremely fast or extremely slow rates of technological change, while a ''buy'' strategy might be more appropriate in market sectors where technologies evolve at a medium pace. This paper highlights the importance of industry clockspeed and supplier relationships in make-buy decisions for new technologies, and puts forward two new hypotheses that require empirical testing.

Technological innovation and operational effectiveness : their role in achieving performance improvements

The purpose of this article is to examine the role of the alignment between technological innovation effectiveness and operational effectiveness after the implementation of enterprise information systems, and the impact of this alignment on the improvement in operational performance. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to examine structural relationships between the set of observed variables and the set of continuous latent variables. The findings from this research suggest that the dimensions stemming from technological innovation effectiveness such as system quality, information quality, service quality, user satisfaction and the performance objectives stemming from operational effectiveness such as cost, quality, reliability, flexibility and speed are important and significantly well-correlated factors. These factors promote the alignment between technological innovation effectiveness and operational effectiveness and should be the focus for managers in achieving effective implementation of technological innovations. In addition, there is a significant and direct influence of this alignment on the improvement of operational performance. The principal limitation of this study is that the findings are based on investigation of small sample size.

Bringing skills and general competences back into technological education

In this paper we show that industry-based student training is not limited to work experience; work integrated learning, internship or extended vacation work. It is also about bringing back the lost parts of technological education. We experience the unilateral focus on theoretical knowledge at the expense of skills and general competences as one important challenge in technological education. The lacking facilitation and training of practical skills and general competences in the curricula and programs are identified, but many institutions have failed to address the problem. Today’s curricula in many ways reduce technology to abstract concepts, calculations and models, and create a gap between the academic programs and the practical applications in the society. We explore two (Australia and Norway) initiatives on industry-based student training and discuss how these initiatives address and bridge the gap. We argue that these initiatives of industry-based student training contribute to bringing skills and general competences back into technological education, and that the effects are not limited to increased employability, but also include increased academic performance.

Employees' adoption of enterprise web 2.0 : the role of technological attributes

Although the adoption of Enterprise Web 2.0 within organisations is beneficial, it could meet with employees’ resistance and the adoption process can be lengthy. The successful implementation of Enterprise Web 2.0 is based on employee involvement and adoption of such social technology. This paper is part of a larger research project that explored the adoption of Web 2.0 by individuals within enterprises. Using a qualitative study, the findings show that there are number of adoption influences including technological, individual and contextual issues. This paper presents Web 2.0 technological attributes that influence its adoption. The found attributes are: friendliness, reliability, mobility, technical compatibility, discoverability, transparency and Web 2.0 type.

Technological Advances in Geotextiles

The role of polymer chemistry (pure and applied sciences) is very prominent in the world of science today, but it is heading away from polymers and polymer blends towards composites and nanocomposites. This allows for the creation of new materials with unique properties and new possibilities which is the subject of this new book.