Journal articles on the topic 'Technological innovations – Social aspects – Namibia'

Areas of research in economics and management science become increasingly close – they overlap and become very similar. New events, new products of people’s actions, new patterns of behaviour arise with a pace unknown before. Institutionalisation of these phenomena aimed at their broad codification also takes on new forms. We live in an age of ubiquitous innovativeness. Naturally, the question arises: should innovations be perceived in the same way as in the past? Are there any new types of innovations that have appeared lately? Are the current definitions of market and social innovations still up to date? The aim of the article is to present a change in approach to innovations over time, with particular focus on their market and social aspects. The author attempts to answer the following questions: how did technological progress visible in the networking of economy influence the understanding of social innovations, what is the role of social production and exchange which replace gradually market exchange, in the social innovation definition, to what extent is the cooperation within a community in the virtual space characteristic of a special class of social innovation? The research method used by the author is based on literature studies on innovations and on the economics of cooperation (access, sharing, co‑use). It comprises an analysis of different concepts of innovation, in particular different definitions of the name, an analysis of different approaches to cooperation economics, comparisons of the obtained results, and conclusions formulation. The approach to innovation changes over time – from a technical, social and market approach to a differently understood today social approach. Contemporary, the criteria for innovation “society” are different. The understanding of innovation is influenced by the increased role of social production and exchange at the expense of market exchange. The networking of the information economy significantly strengthens the social aspect of innovation. Cooperation within a community, including co‑creation of goods, access to them, their co‑use and sharing, is an extreme example of the advantage of the social dimension of innovation over its market aspect.

Innovations are considered as a factor of consolidation of society, taking into account the definition of innovations as a complex phenomenon containing scientific, technical, technological, economic, environmental, social, legal, safety aspects. However, during the longtime scientific, technical, technological aspects of innovations were considered as driving force for the economy economic growth. Innovations directly or indirectly affect all spheres of social life, going far beyond the boundaries of purely market relations. Limitation of purely economic and scientific-technological definition and evaluation of innovations became obvious in 1960s on the wave of economic growth after the World War II and popularization of post-material values, on the one hand, and because of increasing social tensions, environmental crisis, deepening the gap between economically developed and developing countries, as well as between differed groups of the population within society, on the other hand. Social, ethical and environmental aspects of innovation were put on the agenda. Consequently, innovations should be measured not only in figured of benefit, but also in terms of health, education, safety, environmental impacts, saving energy and materials, etc. The study of the economic aspects of innovation were complemented by the following areas: 1) prevention of inequality due to innovative development; 2) combination of innovation with social entrepreneurship; 3) innovation as a factor in achieving sustainability; 4) innovations for environmental protection. This logically follows from the concept of sustainable development grounded on the coherence of social, economic and environmental parameters. Shortly, the complex of updated innovation criteria as a driving force of socio-economic development is formulated by the framework of «3Ps – profit, people, and planet», which accounts economic/financial, social and environmental aspects. The «3P» framework is a basis for development of new business ethics.

Water scarcity has prompted an increasing number of cities to look for non-conventional sources of clean water. One of these sources is reused water, or highly treated reclaimed or recycled wastewater, a worthy addition to the portfolio of water-resource alternatives that increasing cities are considering in view of demographic and environmental changes. In this paper, we analyse communications from the media, policymakers and utility managers on the technology used to produce reused water for potable purposes. The focus of our analysis is technology as a means for producing safe and reliable water supply in the long-term. Three places were selected because of their differing experiences with social acceptance: Singapore, Orange County (California, United States), and Queensland (Australia). We found distinct differences in the communications used in the three places, which we believe have strongly influenced public opinion on the provision of clean water through potable water reuse. In communicating technological innovations to the public, it is essential to also discuss the broader framework affecting reliable water supplies. In this light, planning, legal and regulatory frameworks, institutional coordination, financial sustainability, and operational aspects should also be communicated.

This paper describes an analytical approach based on a non-conventional ecological perspective to evaluate the quality of technological innovation projects. The approach is semi-qualitative and focuses on aspects of cooperation in projects and companies with favorable conditions regarding technological advancement and learning maturity, highlighting contributions of these aspects to the sustainability of R&D projects. Moreover, it considers the multidimensionality of a project in order to classify how its innovations align with sustainable principles, in terms of balancing the needs of all stakeholders. Beyond technology, the multiple dimensions associated to a project and its impacts comprise, for example, the economic, social, human and environmental spheres; similarly to the arrangement of forces for survival and evolution in comprehensive ecosystems, hence the allusive use of the term “extended ecological perspective”. Complexity theory and interrelation of the concepts of sustainability, cooperation, learning and multidimensionality underlie this analytical approach of innovations resulting from R&D efforts.

The modern electricity market is in the process of transformation generated by the influx of technological innovations and social mood in society. The article considers the features of using renewable energy sources in the world and in Russia, their importance and economic potential for sustainable development. Significant problems that arise when using renewable energy sources are identified, and ways to overcome them and prospects for further use are considered.

In recent years, financial markets have been fundamentally transformed by innovations in information technology, in particular with regard to the web, social networks, high-speed computer networks and mobile technologies. We borrow the concept of Social Machines from Web Science as a single concept that captures the essence of all these recent technological changes to argue that the emergence of these Social Machines has aided the transformation of financial markets and society. This study explores the formation of these Social Machines with three sample disruptive technologies – automated/high-frequency trading, social network analytics and smart mobile technology. Through critical reflective analysis of these three case studies, we assess the impact of information technology innovation on financialisation. We adopt three case studies – automated trading; market information extraction using social media technologies; and information diffusion and trader decision-making with mobile technology on financial and real sector changes – which demonstrate the increasing trend of transaction velocity, speculative trading, increased complex information network, accelerated inequality and leverage. Our findings demonstrate that technologically enabled financial Social Machines harness crowd wisdom, engage disparate individual traders to produce more accurate price estimations, and have enhanced decision-making capability. However, these same changes can also have a simultaneously detrimental effect on financial and real sectors, in some situations exacerbating underlying distortions, such as misinformation due to complex information networks, speculative trading behaviour, and higher volatility with transaction velocity. Overall, we conclude that these innovations have transformed the fundamental nature of key aspects of the finance industry and society as a whole.

In this article the author, using examples from the recent past on data of the all-Russian polls, remarks on changing human environment innovations, which provide scientific and technical progress. The article investigates the impact assessment of the results of scientific and technical achievements, positive and negative predictions of the effects of an increasingly wide application of high-tech products in everyday life. A comparative sociological analysis of the studies' results, conducted in Russia and foreign countries regarding the impact of progress on humanity, is shown. The author's conclusions are presented: Russians refer to the achievements of scientific-technical progress as positive, but not so optimistic as, for example, Americans. The respondents are afraid of the intervention of new technologies in natural evolutionary and genetic processes, substitution of human relations to relations of order "technology and people", the proliferation of military equipment in civilian life. The author pays special attention to the role of women in environmental issues, which exhibits a strong response to the threats of environmental pollution and, as a rule, more critically perceive the environmental situation.

Technological development of society is of unequal cyclic nature and is characterized by changing periods of economic growth, stagnation phases, and technological crises. The new wave of technological changes and new technological basis corresponding to the technological paradigm boost the role of innovations and displace the traditional factors of economic growth. Currently, intellectual and scientific-technical capacity are the main economic development resources. The use of innovation and new knowledge change the technological structure of the economy, increase the elements of the innovative economy, knowledge economy, and digital economy, i.e. the new technological paradigm is formed. The paper aims to research the basic determinants of technological paradigms’ forming and development, and determining their key features, as well as to analyze social transformations of the EU Member States and Ukraine. The paper focuses attention on the research of the features of social transformations. The structural transformations are analyzed based on the Bertelsmann Transformation Index that estimates the quality of democracy, market economy, and political governance. The transformation processes are assessed on the example of the EU Member States and Ukraine. The authors argue that social transformations and structural changes in the economy are related to the change of technological paradigms that boost the economic modernization and gradual progressive development of humanity in general. The nature and main determinants of 5 industrial and 2 post-industrial technological paradigms are outlined. Their general features and main areas of basic technologies implementation emerging in the realization of a certain technological paradigm are explained. The conclusions regarding the fact that innovative technologies and available scientific-technological resources define the main vector of economic development are made. The new emerging technological paradigm is of strategic importance for society development.

AbstractIntroduction: Computers and the applications of today’s high technology can simulate reality so realistically that virtuality has become part of both children’s and adults’ lifestyles (Nagy & Kölcsey, 2017; Szécsi, 2012). However, it did not emerge with the computer applications, but with human thinking and part of that, the virtual conception of the world. In addition to social changes this development can be observed on individuals as well.Purpose: This study shows the development of virtuality through the examples of cultural, philosophical, aesthetic, then the psychological and pedagogical development of the individual with the help of some important studies.Methods: This study presents the social and individual development of virtuality throughout theoretical analysis of the research results.Conclusion: Virtuality has already an important role in the technological and economic sphere and its impact on social innovations, individual and social life can be felt as well. Virtuality-research, its application and improvement contribute to experience a more complete reality and to the improvement of human life quality.

ABSTRACT Purpose: Against the backdrop of clear paradoxes and confusion in prevailing innovation policies, the contours of a new innovation paradigm, as elaborated in this paper, are becoming visible and causing social innovation to grow in importance. Originality/gap/relevance/implications: However, innovation research is still lacking sustained and systematic analysis of social innovation, its theories, characteristics, and impacts. The purpose of this paper is to focus on a theoretically sound concept of social innovation as a precondition for an integrated theory of socio-technological innovation in which social innovation is more than an appendage of technological innovation. Key methodological aspects: The paper presents first empirical results of the global research project "SI-DRIVE: Social Innovation - Driving Force of Social Change" and introduces key findings of a global mapping of social innovation initiatives. This quantitative mapping is based upon 1.005 social innovation initiatives. Summary of key results: The mapping underlines the broad range of actors involved in the mapped initiatives and thereby confirms the need for a cross-sectoral concept of social innovation. It reveals a high diversity of social needs and societal challenges addressed by the initiatives as well as a high dependency on networks. The results also show that 90% of the initiatives are scaling. Key considerations/conclusions: Finally, on the basis of these empirical results, a recourse to Gabriel Tarde's social theory allows us to widen a perspective which was narrowed to economic and technological innovations by Schumpeter and after him by the sociology of technology, and to include social innovations in all their diversity.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to discuss recent developments in the fields of management innovation and social innovation, in order to discover any possible convergences and divergences between them. Design/methodology/approach By examining the state of the art of the literature in both fields of study, this paper proposes a framework of theoretical approaches, conceptual dimensions, goals and objectives, processes, agents, outcomes, methods, and literature gaps. Findings There are substantial differences between management and social innovation in terms of theoretical and conceptual foundations. Although both share similarities given the relevance of technology and their focus on social relations, their generation and diffusion processes, among their other characteristics, are distinct. Research limitations/implications As this is a theoretical paper concerning innovations that involve social elements at their core, the challenge is to incorporate technological innovation into the theoretical framework. This would help empirically oriented research on more types of innovation. Practical implications The agenda of practitioners, scholars, government, and civil society should take different types of innovation into account, particularly those that go beyond technology. Originality/value This paper contributes to a better understanding of innovations that go beyond technology, by analysing innovations (i.e. management and social innovation) that involve social aspects at their core. Few researchers have analysed these types of innovations jointly.

The paper presents the main aspects of the environmental technologies sector nowadays in Japan. Basing on the governmental definition of «ecological innovations», eco-innovations are developed according to the traditional Japanese concept of value creation – «monozukuri». Ecological innovations include technological improvements as well as social reforms. So far the paper draws an attention on two types of innovations: engineering technologies and social reforms (programms, education etc.). Basing on governmental Programs and open data bases the most important environmental technologies for nowadays in Japan are defined. From author’s point of view the first vector for Japan is «green energy» (alternative energy, energy efficiency) – innovations concern the challenge of climate change. Regarding this issue the aspects and technologies from «The Cool Earth Innovative Energy Technology Program» are described. The second vector is eco-innovations for pollution control and waste utilization – the traditional sector for Japan from 1970s. And the third one is defined as information and communication technologies for environmental challenges («green ICT») – the new vector for Japan as well as for the other countries. In the paper the issues of research and development activities, financial issues eco-innovations’ management and transfer are considered. The role of Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) and National Institute of Science and Technology Policy (NISTEP) is discussed. The significant issue of verification of new technologies realized by Ministry of Environment in Japan is mentioned.

The cost of modern innovative methods in winemaking requires finding ways to optimize the use of enterprise resources and reduce production costs. Another effective way is to introduce process innovation. The purpose of the article is to substantiate the feasibility of implementing managerial innovations in wineries and to determine the algorithm for assessing the readiness of the environment for their implementation. The directions of introduction of managerial innovations are considered. The types of managerial innovations in the field of personnel management are presented: recruiting, personnel audit and personnel coaching. The experience of foreign countries in the managerial innovations implementation is considered. Aspects of the analysis of the need for managerial innovations implementation are identified: as a tool and as a consequence. The introduction features of product and technical and technological innovations are determined. The definition of the concept of «organizational lag» has been given, which reflects the implementation of industrial innovations in the old management structures and methods, which reduces both their efficiency and the enterprise as a whole. The role of communication process in the enterprise management system is considered. The algorithm of communication aspects estimation of managerial innovations implementation at the enterprises by organizational, information, technological, social and psychological subsystems is presented. The role of the organizational management structure and the information subsystem in providing effective communications is presented. The role of the human factor in the communication process is defined. Using the developed algorithm will allow to identify bottlenecks in the communication process and to determine ways of overcoming them. Depending on the problems identified, their depth, importance and urgency, various measures may be taken to improve the enterprise communication system and approaches to regulating staff work: economic stimulation, adjustment of the social and psychological climate in the team, conflict resolution, professional development and training in terms of preparing staff for innovative changes etc. Keywords: management, innovation, communication, organization, personnel, enterprise, algorithm, socio-psychological climate, conflict, labor productivity, efficiency.

ABSTRACTWhile the basic sequence of innovations that characterise ceramic production in southern Britain during the first centuries b.c. and a.d. is well-established, our understanding of resistance to these innovations remains in its infancy. Led by the theoretical principles of social constructionism, this paper presents a detailed technological characterisation of Silchester ware, a hand-built ceramic type common in late Iron Age and early Roman Berkshire and northern Hampshire, and a conspicuous example of technological and stylistic anachronism when compared to contemporary wheel-made pottery. Multi-period analyses using radiography, petrography and typology indicate that Silchester ware was not merely a technological ‘hangover’, but a traditional form of material culture with its own role in changing socio-economic structures. Contextualisation of the findings within the local archaeological background further suggests that Silchester ware may have been instrumental in the maintenance of local community and identity at a time when these aspects of social life were under threat. Supplementary material available online (https://doi.org/10.1017/S0068113X20000355) comprises a characterisation of the chaînes opératoires of Silchester ware and its middle Iron Age antecedents, and a summarised version of the data, interpretations and the original radiographs.

The authors concentrate their attention on the problem of the future of Russian education in connection with the changes in the classifier of professions. The paper analyzes the prospects for Russian higher education in personnel training in the context of growing technological innovations. In this regard, attention is drawn to two aspects. The first aspect covers the question of how sensitive Russian higher school is to the existing and future changes in the requirements of the employer and the labor market, and in general to the training of graduates. The second aspect is an attempt to connect the impending deformations, social and humanitarian, of professional reproduction with the mission of higher education. The key question reads as follows: can a university change its mission towards solving the social task of overcoming the crisis of “unemployed young people” that is looming along with the growth of technological innovations and the robotization of labor?

The subject of this research is the influencing factors of information and communication technologies upon the theory and practice of teaching English language in the institutional and noninstitutional environments. The object of this research is the analysis of structure and content of Android and iPhone applications. Special attention is given to the development of mobile services as a prevalent model of using information and communication technologies, which open the possibility for individualized range of hyperconnectivity regulated by resource of a personal phone. The authors examine distance learning, which allows implementing innovations and creativity, employs new technologies, performs social task on expansion of technologically uniform educational space. The main conclusions are as follows: 1) of e-learning pedagogy requires the results of pedagogical practice in both, institutional and noninstitutional programs and courses; 2) the modern online learning of English language features new methods of implementation of hyperconnectivity in the Internet on the basis of technological and pedagogical innovations, active interactions and common culture. The scientific novelty consists in the statement that the use of distance learning is especially relevant on the current stage of modernization of education system, as it incorporates innovation technologies of teacher-student interaction. The current situation is characterized by the long-term trends associated with globalization socioeconomic relations, as well as by COVID-19 pandemic that requires taking immediate and radical measures in order to ensure protection of educational community from possible disastrous consequences in record time. The primary task of the authors consists in the analysis of relevant aspects of using information and communication technologies of teaching foreign languages, namely mobile applications, as well as in substantiation of the thesis on transition from collective connectivism towards individual hyperconnectivity in the educational process.

The article is aimed at consolidating the theoretical aspects of formation of a management system for innovatively oriented development of enterprises. According to the results of the carried out research, it is identified that modern industrial enterprises are in a crisis state, which causes the need to develop an economically substantiated program for their reform, focusing on expanding innovation-technological activities and increasing investments in the real sector of the economy, as well as increasing the efficiency of their use. It is defined that the need for research, namely, the formation of a management system for innovatively oriented development of enterprises, is determined by its role in accelerating the growth rate of social production, improving the quality of products and increasing scientific-technological progress, which are the main directions of economic strategy, planning and forecasting of production. The results of the analysis of the economic essence of the concepts of «management», «system», «management system», «innovations», «development» and «innovative development» allowed to define that a management system for the innovatively oriented development of enterprises represents an orderly set of elements interaction, which is directed towards the continuous and comprehensive process of introducing innovations for the formation of efficient activity in the strategic perspective, taking into account the factors of internal and external environment together with the laws of development of social production aimed at concentration, parallelism, adaptability and rhythmicity of the enterprise management system.

In this article the authors address the question of how IT innovations affects public organizations concretely exploring the emerging attitudes of public government employees towards new forms of work with electronic tools. The authors bring our analysis and theoretical discussion beyond the widely applied technology acceptance models to examine the introduction of electronic tools too focused on technology functionality and short time analysis sights. Organizational and socioeconomic aspects together with the functionality of new concrete technological tools influence the innovation processes including work transformations. Based on the model of innovation proposed by Ebbers and Van Dijk (2007) the article focuses on the analysis of employees' resistance and support in innovation processes of the introduction of public government electronic tools. The authors apply the model to the case of the introduction of the Electronic Records System (ERS) (an electronic tool for the document management of unemployed persons) in a public organization in Germany. The analysis reveals that technology driven innovation ignoring work habits and transformations leads to employees` resistance to change. A conceptual redefinition of Ebbers and Van Dick's model based on the analysis results of the ERS including an extension of the resistance and support concepts as well as indicators is proposed.

Introduction. One of the complex social and economic problems facing Ukraine in the XXI century, is the urgent need to transfer the economy to a new technological base of post-industrial development. This becomes the most important condition for rapid overcoming of the technological backwardness of the country. This problem can be solved by relying on innovative technologies in production and management.The research hypothesis. The practical implementation of tactical and operational management in accordance with the chosen strategy of innovation and investment activities of the enterprise will achieve a positive economic effect based on the optimization of technological and business processes, marketing, logistics, financial relations.Objectives to offer methodological tools for evaluating the effectiveness of management of innovation and investment activities of enterprises.The methodology of the study: methods of comparative analysis, rating, tabular, graphical, cluster analysis.Results. The key feature of the proposed approach is the choice of innovation strategy based on the effectiveness of management of innovation and investment activities of enterprises, analysis of the parameters of the projected stability of the enterprise under given conditions of implementation of both product and technological and managerial innovations by attracting foreign investment.Conclusions. Methodical tools for evaluating the effectiveness of management of innovation and investment activities of enterprises are proposed.

This article discusses the widespread use by countries of environmental innovations and new technologies, which will soon bring serious economic and social changes to the life of all mankind. The need for radical changes in methods and means of environmental protection, which reduce the technological impact on the biosphere of the earth, and contributing to the preservation of human health, is shown. Under the conditions of technoglobalism, the development of environmental innovations brings serious economic and social changes to the life of all mankind, the transition of national economies to a system of qualitatively safe energy and environmental development. This is due to the fact that the planning and implementation of the material progress of society often does not take into account the ecological foundations of the coexistence of society and the environment. The modern concept of quality of life covers all aspects of the interaction between man and the environment, and ecology is becoming a priority for the development of innovative economies in developed countries. In this context, Kazakhstan intends to continue to work to stimulate and encourage innovation and investment in the environmentally friendly production of goods and services, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and apply climate-resilient technologies.

Social commerce is one of the most relevant technological innovations in recent years. It has strongly benefited many industries, including tourism. While many studies on social commerce have been conducted from the user perspective, less attention has been paid to the organisational perspective, particularly that of hotel organisations. To help understand the key drivers of hotel social commerce usage and their effects on hotel business performance, this study augments the integrated model of e-business usage and impact with hotel social media characteristics. Using stratified random sampling, data from 146 hotels in Lebanon were collected and analysed with the PLS-SEM approach. The model represents a theoretical advancement by offering an organisational perspective to the social commerce literature. It shows there is a significant impact of environmental, organisational, and innovation drivers and social media characteristics. The findings help hotels assess their existing social commerce utilization and identify aspects in need of more attention and improvement.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyse the determinants and the impact of some of the more significant innovations applied to the localised agri-food systems (LAFSs) bearing a (Geographical indication) GI product, considering the multi-faceted aspects of innovation and how the producers have managed the implementation of such innovations. Design/methodology/approach Parmigiano Reggiano (PR) system is considered as a representative GI product, with the system showing the features of an LAFS in terms of governance, territorial reputation and quality perceived by consumers. PR innovations from 1860 to 2015 are analyszed and classified as technological and organisational. Three determinants of innovations are identified in the PR LAFS: consumer needs; value chain (VC) strategies; and governance. Finally, the innovation impact on the VC, product quality and rural development are studied. Findings The analysis shows the positive and negative impacts of innovations. The main finding is that governance action is crucial to pursuing quality strategies and maintaining economic value at production level. Research limitations/implications The research analyses some of the more significant innovations applied to the PR VC. Despite a large number of innovations were introduced from 1860, the authors had to choose just some of them, considering also the availability of dates. Practical implications The research gives some recommendation to the PR Consortium, in specific, or governance institutions in LAFS context in general, to achieve rural development goals. The research shows that governance action is crucial to pursuing quality strategy and to maintaining economic value at production level. This implies that instead of simply raising yield per cow, the VC should aim at increasing (or maintaining) the value of production by the way of marketing strategies. Organisational, marketing and technological innovations adopted in synergy and in joint agreement among the chain actors would bring mutual benefit for the VC and for the territory. Social implications The research shows the trade-off between VC competiveness and rural development. In fact, the increase of VC competiveness involves a growth of cost of production and the decrease of labour force. Thus, it creates a loss of employee and increases the distance between dairies with high amount of capital and familiar/smaller dairies which have low amount of capital to invert, that obstructs rural development especially in disadvantage area. Originality/value The paper analyses the determinants and the impact of some of the more significant innovations applied to LAFS which are home to a GI product, considering the multi-faceted aspects of innovation and how producers have managed the implementation of such innovations. It underlines implication on territory and sustainability.

Rainwater harvesting to irrigate small-scale gardens enhances food self-sufficiency to overcome rural poverty. So far rainwater harvesting is not encouraged by the Namibian National Water Supply and Sanitation Policy nor supported financially by the Namibian government. This study proposes two rainwater harvesting facilities to irrigate gardens; one collects rain from household roofs with tank storage, the second collects rain on a pond roof with pond storage. The aim of this paper is to assess the benefits of rainwater harvesting-based gardening and to propose policy and financing implications for the Namibian government. We investigate the benefits of rainwater harvesting through a literature review, a cost–benefit analysis, monitoring of project pilot plants and a comparison with the existing irrigation and drinking water infrastructure. The results indicate that rainwater harvesting offers numerous benefits in technological, economic, environmental and social terms. The facilities have a positive net present value under favourable circumstances. However, material investment costs pose a financing problem. We recommend that government fund the rainwater harvesting infrastructure and finance privately garden and operation and maintenance costs. Integrating these aspects into a national rainwater harvesting policy would create the conditions to achieve the benefits of an up-scale of rainwater harvesting based gardening in Namibia.

The main objective of the article is to substantiate a systematic approach to the introduction of all types of innovations in the development of the military-industrial complex of the Russian Federation. The relevance of the study is due to the fact that in the modern world it is especially important to ensure the national security of the country and the defense industry plays a crucial role in this. At the same time, one cannot but note the importance of the defense industry in the production of high-tech civilian products and dual-use products, which enhances the country's competitiveness in the world market. In addition, the relevance of the topic is due to the presence of rather serious problems in the Russian defense industry, which require immediate resolution. The article uses the methodology of structurally functional analysis, the institutional approach and the method of comparative assessments. The authors conclude that technological innovation alone will not be able to achieve strategic results for ensuring national security, only in conjunction with organizational, product, social and marketing innovations, the domestic defense industry is able to solve its tasks.

As hospital ethics committees (HECs) become more common in American hospitals, their degree of success should be measured. Just as new technological procedures are evaluated, institutional innovations should also be evaluated. Currently, little is known about the success of HECs, and some authors have wondered whether these committees serve any useful purpose at all. This article reviews the descriptive results of a 1990 study on HEC success as they pertain to the question of how to measure committee success.

In the field of district heating the process of social innovation has been initiated for the betterment of environmental conditionsand contributes to the improvement of the quality of life at the given locations and to the general well-being of the local community. The aim of this study is to present a good practice of social innovation. The technological development and the implementation of professional innovations at the Miskolc District Heating Ltd. established an operational environment of district heat production that, via the model of optimal heat source mix, can serve as an example for the planning of heat-source portfolios at the Hungarian district heating systems. The study shows how it contributes to the accomplishment of the European and Hungarian energy strategy. It also focuses on the use of eco-label and good examples of using renewable energy sources in district heating. The results of the study are applied to prepare a detailed map of the element of social innovation networks in the field of district heating and to determine the indicator groups with a special focus on its financing and economy.

The human universe in its development has undergone several stages of civilization transformation. Each of these stages is characterized by a set of etiologic features that directly influenced the quality of life of the society, and hence on all aspects of being at both the micro and macro level, if we consider the existence and functioning of social and political organisms as a system. Technological innovations almost always throughout the studied history in any society reflected social values and, in turn, transformed society in varying degrees. The development of machine-based information processing techniques has influenced the rapid transformation of a modern society from industrial to post-industrial information society. The article briefly describes the key moments of the emergence of the fundamental machine methods of information processing and digital technologies that influenced the formation of the modern information society and its functioning in all aspects of life in the general daily accessibility of a large array of the information which is different by quality.

Abstract In this special issue we will investigate, from the perspective of agricultural ethics (e.g. animal welfare, agricultural and food ethics, environmental ethics etc.) the potential to develop a Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) approach to agriculture, and the limitations to such an enterprise. RRI is an emerging field in the European research and innovation (R&I) policy context that aims to balance economic, socio-cultural and environmental aspects in innovation processes. Because technological innovations can contribute significantly to the solution of societal challenges like climate change or food security, but can also have negative societal consequences, it is assumed that social and ethical aspects should be considered during the R&I process. For this reason, the emerging concept of RRI calls for ethical reflection on the nature, scope and applicability of responsibility and innovation in innovation practices in general, and the way social–ethical issues can be applied and addressed in agriculture.

The article presents reflections on the problems and prospects of humanities and humanitarian education in Russia, taking into account the basic program documents of the Russian state in the field of science and education. The author believes that in these documents the so-called social and humanitarian aspects characterizing functioning of science and innovations are insufficiently thought out. Meanwhile, these aspects reveal a powerful conglomerate of problems and opportunities – from the use of social and cultural knowledge as one of the sources of creativity and innovation, to the the implementation of forecasts and foresight, expert perception of development scenarios and managerial decisions, identifying risks and consequences in the process of increasing influence of science on nature, society and man, formation of value orientations and educational prospects. It is noted that in this situation it is very important to move away from a predominantly technocratic and economic understanding of the priorities and results of the scientific and technological development of Russia for a historical perspective, to avoid reducing information about the progress of a person, society, and the state to technological and economic criteria; to recognize a special status of Humanities, social sciences, and education as the most important resource confronting the technologically accelerated destruction of nature and society, to view them as a factor of cognition, dialogue and management.

Globalization is a process connected with economical, social, technological, political and other changes, as a result many countries of the world and geographical regions are becoming more related, but also more dependent from each other. In practice the globalization can be expressed as increasing flow of goods and services, as well as capital, money and workflow among countries. The globalization process can be also described as distribution of more intense information and knowledge, as well as technologies and innovations in the world. The article examines the theoretical aspects of globalization impact on changes in labour market. The author analyses impact of migration process on labour market and its development tendencies in Latvia.

Technological innovations have transformed our culture's ways of thinking about procreation and pregnancy, and about health and illness. Until not so long ago, the ongoing processes inside women's bodies as they gestated their future babies was up to conjecture. In Western industrialized countries, pregnancy was the slow process during which a woman gradually came to accept the fact that she was sharing her bodily space with another, and that now, as well as after the baby emerged, the primary responsibility for that new person's survival would be hers.

Social innovations are activities aiming at implementation of social objectives, including mainly the improvement of life of individuals and social groups, together with public policy and management objectives. The essay indicates and discusses the most important contemporary problems, solving of which requires social innovations. Social innovations precondition the progress of civilisation. The world needs not only new technologies, but also new solutions of social and institutional nature that would be conducive to achieving social goals. Social innovations are experimental social actions of organisational and institutional nature that aim at improving the quality of life of individuals, communities, nations, companies, circles, or social groups. Their experimental nature stems from the fact of introducing unique and one-time solutions on a large scale, the end results of which are often difficult to be fully predicted. For example, it was difficult to believe that opening new labour markets for foreigners in the countries of the European Union, which can be treated as a social innovation aiming at development of the international labour market, will result in the rapid development of the low-cost airlines, the offer of which will be available to a larger group of recipients. In other words, social innovations differ from economic innovations, as they are not about implementation of new types of production or gaining new markets, but about satisfying new needs, which are not provided by the market. Therefore, the most important distinction consists in that social innovations are concerned with improving the well-being of individuals and communities by additional employment, or increased consumption, as well as participation in solving the problems of individuals and social groups [CSTP, 2011]. In general, social innovations are activities aiming at implementation of social objectives, including mainly the improvement of life of individuals and social groups together with the objectives of public policy and management [Kowalczyk, Sobiecki, 2017]. Their implementation requires global, national, and individual actions. This requires joint operations, both at the scale of the entire globe, as well as in particular interest groups. Why are social innovations a key point for the progress of civilisation? This is the effect of the clear domination of economic aspects and discrimination of social aspects of this progress. Until the 19th century, the economy was a part of a social structure. As described by K. Polanyi, it was submerged in social relations [Polanyi, 2010, p. 56]. In traditional societies, the economic system was in fact derived from the organisation of the society itself. The economy, consisting of small and dispersed craft businesses, was a part of the social, family, and neighbourhood structure. In the 20th century the situation reversed – the economy started to be the force shaping social structures, positions of individual groups, areas of wealth and poverty. The economy and the market mechanism have become independent from the world of politics and society. Today, the corporations control our lives. They decide what we eat, what we watch, what we wear, where we work and what we do [Bakan, 2006, p. 13]. The corporations started this spectacular “march to rule the world” in the late 19th century. After about a hundred years, at the end of the 20th century, the state under the pressure of corporations and globalisation, started a gradual, but systematic withdrawal from the economy, market and many other functions traditionally belonging to it. As a result, at the end of the last century, a corporation has become a dominant institution in the world. A characteristic feature of this condition is that it gives a complete priority to the interests of corporations. They make decisions of often adverse consequences for the entire social groups, regions, or local communities. They lead to social tensions, political breakdowns, and most often to repeated market turbulences. Thus, a substantial minority (corporations) obtain inconceivable benefits at the expense of the vast majority, that is broad professional and social groups. The lack of relative balance between the economy and society is a barrier to the progress of civilisation. A growing global concern is the problem of migration. The present crisis, left unresolved, in the long term will return multiplied. Today, there are about 500 million people living in Europe, 1.5 billion in Africa and the Middle East, but in 2100, the population of Europe will be about 400 million and of the Middle East and Africa approximately 4.5 billion. Solving this problem, mainly through social and political innovations, can take place only by a joint operation of highly developed and developing countries. Is it an easy task? It’s very difficult. Unfortunately, today, the world is going in the opposite direction. Instead of pursuing the community, empathic thinking, it aims towards nationalism and chauvinism. An example might be a part of the inaugural address of President Donald Trump, who said that the right of all nations is to put their own interests first. Of course, the United States of America will think about their own interests. As we go in the opposite direction, those who deal with global issues say – nothing will change, unless there is some great crisis, a major disaster that would cause that the great of this world will come to senses. J.E. Stiglitz [2004], contrary to the current thinking and practice, believes that a different and better world is possible. Globalisation contains the potential of countless benefits from which people both in developing and highly developed countries can benefit. But the practice so far proves that still it is not grown up enough to use its potential in a fair manner. What is needed are new solutions, most of all social and political innovations (political, because they involve a violation of the previous arrangement of interests). Failure to search for breakthrough innovations of social and political nature that would meet the modern challenges, can lead the world to a disaster. Social innovation, and not economic, because the contemporary civilisation problems have their roots in this dimension. A global problem, solution of which requires innovations of social and political nature, is the disruption of the balance between work and capital. In 2010, 400 richest people had assets such as the half of the poorer population of the world. In 2016, such part was in the possession of only 8 people. This shows the dramatic collapse of the balance between work and capital. The world cannot develop creating the technological progress while increasing unjustified inequalities, which inevitably lead to an outbreak of civil disturbances. This outbreak can have various organisation forms. In the days of the Internet and social media, it is easier to communicate with people. Therefore, paradoxically, some modern technologies create the conditions facilitating social protests. There is one more important and dangerous effect of implementing technological innovations without simultaneous creation and implementation of social innovations limiting the sky-rocketing increase of economic (followed by social) diversification. Sooner or later, technological progress will become so widespread that, due to the relatively low prices, it will make it possible for the weapons of mass destruction, especially biological and chemical weapons, to reach small terrorist groups. Then, a total, individualized war of global reach can develop. The individualisation of war will follow, as described by the famous German sociologist Ulrich Beck. To avoid this, it is worth looking at the achievements of the Polish scientist Michał Kalecki, who 75 years ago argued that capitalism alone is not able to develop. It is because it aggressively seeks profit growth, but cannot turn profit into some profitable investments. Therefore, when uncertainty grows, capitalism cannot develop itself, and it must be accompanied by external factors, named by Kalecki – external development factors. These factors include state expenses, finances and, in accordance with the nomenclature of Kalecki – epochal innovations. And what are the current possibilities of activation of the external factors? In short – modest. The countries are indebted, and the basis for the development in the last 20 years were loans, which contributed to the growth of debt of economic entities. What, then, should we do? It is necessary to look for cheaper solutions, but such that are effective, that is breakthrough innovations. These undoubtedly include social and political innovations. Contemporary social innovation is not about investing big money and expensive resources in production, e.g. of a very expensive vaccine, which would be available for a small group of recipients. Today’s social innovation should stimulate the use of lower amounts of resources to produce more products available to larger groups of recipients. The progress of civilisation happens only as a result of a sustainable development in economic, social, and now also ecological terms. Economic (business) innovations, which help accelerate the growth rate of production and services, contribute to economic development. Profits of corporations increase and, at the same time, the economic objectives of the corporations are realised. But are the objectives of the society as a whole and its members individually realised equally, in parallel? In the chain of social reproduction there are four repeated phases: production – distribution – exchange – consumption. The key point from the social point of view is the phase of distribution. But what are the rules of distribution, how much and who gets from this “cake” produced in the social process of production? In the today’s increasingly global economy, the most important mechanism of distribution is the market mechanism. However, in the long run, this mechanism leads to growing income and welfare disparities of various social groups. Although, the income and welfare diversity in itself is nothing wrong, as it is the result of the diversification of effectiveness of factors of production, including work, the growing disparities to a large extent cannot be justified. Economic situation of the society members increasingly depends not on the contribution of work, but on the size of the capital invested, and the market position of the economic entity, and on the “governing power of capital” on the market. It should also be noted that this diversification is also related to speculative activities. Disparities between the implemented economic and social innovations can lead to the collapse of the progress of civilisation. Nowadays, economic crises are often justified by, indeed, social and political considerations, such as marginalisation of nation states, imbalance of power (or imbalance of fear), religious conflicts, nationalism, chauvinism, etc. It is also considered that the first global financial crisis of the 21st century originated from the wrong social policy pursued by the US Government, which led to the creation of a gigantic public debt, which consequently led to an economic breakdown. This resulted in the financial crisis, but also in deepening of the social imbalances and widening of the circles of poverty and social exclusion. It can even be stated that it was a crisis in public confidence. Therefore, the causes of crises are the conflicts between the economic dimension of the development and its social dimension. Contemporary world is filled with various innovations of economic or business nature (including technological, product, marketing, and in part – organisational). The existing solutions can be a source of economic progress, which is a component of the progress of civilisation. However, economic innovations do not complete the entire progress of civilisation moreover, the saturation, and often supersaturation with implementations and economic innovations leads to an excessive use of material factors of production. As a consequence, it results in lowering of the efficiency of their use, unnecessary extra burden to the planet, and passing of the negative effects on the society and future generations (of consumers). On the other hand, it leads to forcing the consumption of durable consumer goods, and gathering them “just in case”, and also to the low degree of their use (e.g. more cars in a household than its members results in the additional load on traffic routes, which results in an increase in the inconvenience of movement of people, thus to the reduction of the quality of life). Introduction of yet another economic innovation will not solve this problem. It can be solved only by social innovations that are in a permanent shortage. A social innovation which fosters solving the issue of excessive accumulation of tangible production goods is a developing phenomenon called sharing economy. It is based on the principle: “the use of a service provided by some welfare does not require being its owner”. This principle allows for an economic use of resources located in households, but which have been “latent” so far. In this way, increasing of the scope of services provided (transport, residential and tourist accommodation) does not require any growth of additional tangible resources of factors of production. So, it contributes to the growth of household incomes, and inhibition of loading the planet with material goods processed by man [see Poniatowska-Jaksch, Sobiecki, 2016]. Another example: we live in times, in which, contrary to the law of T. Malthus, the planet is able to feed all people, that is to guarantee their minimum required nutrients. But still, millions of people die of starvation and malnutrition, but also due to obesity. Can this problem be solved with another economic innovation? Certainly not! Economic innovations will certainly help to partially solve the problem of nutrition, at least by the new methods of storing and preservation of foods, to reduce its waste in the phase of storage and transport. However, a key condition to solve this problem is to create and implement an innovation of a social nature (in many cases also political). We will not be able to speak about the progress of civilisation in a situation, where there are people dying of starvation and malnutrition. A growing global social concern, resulting from implementation of an economic (technological) innovation will be robotisation, and more specifically – the effects arising from its dissemination on a large scale. So far, the issue has been postponed due to globalisation of the labour market, which led to cheapening of the work factor by more than ten times in the countries of Asia or South America. But it ends slowly. Labour becomes more and more expensive, which means that the robots become relatively cheap. The mechanism leading to low prices of the labour factor expires. Wages increase, and this changes the relationship of the prices of capital and labour. Capital becomes relatively cheaper and cheaper, and this leads to reducing of the demand for work, at the same time increasing the demand for capital (in the form of robots). The introduction of robots will be an effect of the phenomenon of substitution of the factors of production. A cheaper factor (in this case capital in the form of robots) will be cheaper than the same activities performed by man. According to W. Szymański [2017], such change is a dysfunction of capitalism. A great challenge, because capitalism is based on the market-driven shaping of income. The market-driven shaping of income means that the income is derived from the sale of the factors of production. Most people have income from employment. Robots change this mechanism. It is estimated that scientific progress allows to create such number of robots that will replace billion people in the world. What will happen to those “superseded”, what will replace the income from human labour? Capitalism will face an institutional challenge, and must replace the market-driven shaping of income with another, new one. The introduction of robots means microeconomic battle with the barrier of demand. To sell more, one needs to cut costs. The costs are lowered by the introduction of robots, but the use of robots reduces the demand for human labour. Lowering the demand for human labour results in the reduction of employment, and lower wages. Lower wages result in the reduction of the demand for goods and services. To increase the demand for goods and services, the companies must lower their costs, so they increase the involvement of robots, etc. A mechanism of the vicious circle appears If such a mass substitution of the factors of production is unfavourable from the point of view of stimulating the development of the economy, then something must be done to improve the adverse price relations for labour. How can the conditions of competition between a robot and a man be made equal, at least partially? Robots should be taxed. Bill Gates, among others, is a supporter of such a solution. However, this is only one of the tools that can be used. The solution of the problem requires a change in the mechanism, so a breakthrough innovation of a social and political nature. We can say that technological and product innovations force the creation of social and political innovations (maybe institutional changes). Product innovations solve some problems (e.g. they contribute to the reduction of production costs), but at the same time, give rise to others. Progress of civilisation for centuries and even millennia was primarily an intellectual progress. It was difficult to discuss economic progress at that time. Then we had to deal with the imbalance between the economic and the social element. The insufficiency of the economic factor (otherwise than it is today) was the reason for the tensions and crises. Estimates of growth indicate that the increase in industrial production from ancient times to the first industrial revolution, that is until about 1700, was 0.1-0.2 per year on average. Only the next centuries brought about systematically increasing pace of economic growth. During 1700- 1820, it was 0.5% on an annual average, and between 1820-1913 – 1.5%, and between 1913-2012 – 3.0% [Piketty, 2015, p. 97]. So, the significant pace of the economic growth is found only at the turn of the 19th and 20th century. Additionally, the growth in this period refers predominantly to Europe and North America. The countries on other continents were either stuck in colonialism, structurally similar to the medieval period, or “lived” on the history of their former glory, as, for example, China and Japan, or to a lesser extent some countries of the Middle East and South America. The growth, having then the signs of the modern growth, that is the growth based on technological progress, was attributed mainly to Europe and the United States. The progress of civilisation requires the creation of new social initiatives. Social innovations are indeed an additional capital to keep the social structure in balance. The social capital is seen as a means and purpose and as a primary source of new values for the members of the society. Social innovations also motivate every citizen to actively participate in this process. It is necessary, because traditional ways of solving social problems, even those known for a long time as unemployment, ageing of the society, or exclusion of considerable social and professional groups from the social and economic development, simply fail. “Old” problems are joined by new ones, such as the increase of social inequalities, climate change, or rapidly growing environmental pollution. New phenomena and problems require new solutions, changes to existing procedures, programmes, and often a completely different approach and instruments [Kowalczyk, Sobiecki, 2017].

Purpose This paper aims to research how technology transfer occurs, based on the Schumpeterian approach to innovation trilogy focusing on the interaction between the university and the company. Design/methodology/approach The methodology used for this study was the analysis of two cases with an exploratory and qualitative approach. The case study subjects were two Brazilian universities: University of Campinas (UNICAMP) and University of Vale do Rio dos Sinos (UNISINOS). Semi-structured interviews were used as the data collection technique, whereas content analysis was used as the analysis technique. Findings The main results showed the need of companies and universities to understand that working in collaborative technology research contributes to the transformation of applied research into technological innovations that can transform society. Research limitations/implications The research’s limitations were the unfeasibility of studying the government helix, the lack of clear and established processes within universities so that a comparison between the cases would be possible and the lack of access to technology contracts, as they are considered confidential. In addition, the use of two cases is considered a limitation, as it is not possible to generalize the conclusions pointed out by the study. Originality/value With this research, the authors were able to conclude that the university–industry interaction process has been improving, but it still needs to advance in organizational aspects. Some of the aspects to be considered are the adjustments for the institutions’ internal policies, the existing negotiations, the researchers’ behavior regarding the dissemination of the innovation culture and the performance of the technological innovation centers, which gradually are being trained to work in the market as well as in the university. It is necessary that primarily companies and universities understand that they must join efforts in collaborative technological research, so that the financial resources invested are not only accepted as published articles in qualified journals but also turn into technological innovations accepted by the market. All this investment must return as new products, services and technologies that generate local, regional, national and even international impact, implementing new types of businesses and new markets and yielding an economic impact in the country, thus generating innovation and social well-being.

Responsible innovation combines philanthropic and economic aspects and it is common to refer to entrepreneurs who lead it as “social entrepreneurs”. The present study of 100 Mexican small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), provides knowledge of an exploratory nature about what the models of organization are conducive to SMEs in the generation and development of responsible innovations. Through the statistical technique of cluster analysis, this study identified and characterized four models of organization according to the level of social entrepreneurship intentions reached: (1) “The techno-scientific organization”, (2) “The techno-social organization”, (3) “The capitalist-social organization” and (4) “The capitalist organization”. While in Europe the dominant discourse about responsible innovation focuses on the control of the risk of social rejection of the advance of science and technology. In contexts, such as the Mexicans, the phenomenon is configured as the mechanism through which entrepreneurs articulate its technological and scientific capabilities to solve priority and specific problems of the society, however, the social impact does not crucially affect their business initiatives. The techno-scientific organization (50% of studied SMEs) is proposed as the model of organization with greater viability for Mexican entrepreneurs.

AbstractIn recent years, technological developments in engineering and meteorology have provided the opportunity to introduce innovative extensions to traditional surface mesonets through the application of uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS). This new approach of measuring vertical profiles of weather variables by means of UAS in the atmospheric boundary layer, in addition to surface stations, has been termed a 3D mesonet. Technological innovations of a potential 3D mesonet have recently been described in the literature. However, a broader question remains about potential socioeconomic and environmental benefits and beneficiaries of this new extension. Given that the concept of a 3D mesonet is a new idea, studies about socioeconomic and environmental advantages of this network (as compared with traditional mesonets) do not appear to exist in the peer-reviewed literature. This paper aims to fill this gap by providing a first perspective on potential benefits and ripple effects of a 3D mesonet, addressing both the added value and prevented losses in specific sectoral applications and for different groups. A better understanding of qualitative economic aspects related to a 3D mesonet can facilitate future developments of this technology for more cost-effective applications and to mitigate environmental challenges in more efficient ways.

The relevance of the study is conditioned by changing approaches to the development of the national economy based on energy innovation in the context of aspects of greening the economy, energy independence, energy conservation and synergy of innovation. The purpose of this study is to develop a conceptual model of innovative development of the national economy in the energy sector in the context of established trends of increasing energy consumption. The study was conducted in two stages based on a systematic approach involving general scientific theoretical methods, namely analysis, synthesis, systematisation, generalisation, and structural method. The paper substantiates the need to study innovative national economic development within the energy sector based on the works of foreign scientists. The study considered the main approaches to the definition of the term “innovation” in the context of economic space, including process-oriented and functionally effective ones. The paper established the relationship between the stages of the life cycle of innovation and the development level of the national economy. The study also provides the characteristic of change of technological ways of social and economic relations within the limits of historical retrospect. The structural and functional features of the category “development” are determined in order to study the conceptual foundations of innovative development of the national economy. The study highlights the main models of innovative development in world practice. The author identified the specific features the basic concepts of innovative development of the national economy in the energy sector, including “cluster concept”, “alternative energy”, “Smart Grid”, “concept of sustainable development”, based on which the author created the conceptual model for the innovative economic development in the energy sector. Prospects for further research involve the study of the practical application of the model created for the innovative economic development in the energy sector

Research on information technology has been focused primarily on the worlds of IT and management systems for business and government to the relative neglect of research on the digital and institutional infrastructures that underpin the research enterprise itself. When digital research is studied, the emphasis has been on the diffusion of technological innovations, rather than the social and political dynamics shaping the design and role of technologies in research. However, what researchers know, and with whom they collaborate, could be transformed through the strategic use of advances designed to support research, defined here as ‘research-centred computational networks’. This article presents a framework for conceptualizing the social and technological choices shaping the next generation of research in ways that could open – democratize – key aspects of the research process that move well beyond academic publication. The framework highlights the limited scope of innovation to date, and identifies a variety of factors that maintain and enhance institutional control over the research process, at the risk of losing the creative and productive bottom-up participation by networked researchers and citizen researchers among the public at large. Conceptualizing, prioritizing and advancing study of next generation research is one of the most significant but difficult challenges facing scholars of information technology.

Morelli, Potosky, Arthur, and Tippins (2017) are correct in calling for more conceptual models explicitly linking technology to industrial-organizational (I-O) psychology. As these authors note, in the absence of models and theories of technology to guide the research and practice of I-O psychology, the field runs the risk of chasing the impacts of specific technological innovations and devices rather than guiding organizations on best practices regarding the use of technology. Building theories and models that directly involve technology and placing them within individual psychological and larger organizational processes provides researchers with a way to stay ahead of the fast pace of technological innovation and anticipate its effects on measurement and prediction. Moreover, there are aspects to the use of technology that I-O psychologists are uniquely qualified to consider, including legal considerations (e.g., accessibility concerns), ethical questions (e.g., access in disadvantaged communities), practical concerns (e.g., user and target reactions), and measurement issues (e.g., construct irrelevant variance). In this commentary, we present two main points of consideration that demonstrate how I-O psychologists might use and create technology to improve assessment. First, we argue that technology can improve the measurement of psychological variables if we critically consider how technology can positively influence various parts of response behavior. Additionally, we encourage future research to consider the effects of technology in I-O psychology more comprehensively by extending the emphasis on psychological processes beyond cognition and behavior to include affect and motivation.

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to focus on consumer’s perceptions of ethical and innovative aspects of cloud computing services. Cloud computing is a technological innovation that more consumers are adopting because of its mobility and accessibility in storing data. While there has been an increased awareness of cloud computing by consumers, there is limited research about the factors influencing consumers to purchase cloud services. Design/methodology/approach – This study uses the technology acceptance model and the social cognitive theory as the theoretical frameworks to understand how perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, ethical self-efficacy, innovation self-efficacy, performance expectancy and privacy impact purchase intention of cloud computing services. Research hypotheses are developed from the literature and tested by a survey questionnaire in India and the USA. Findings – The results of the analysis suggest that consumers in India and the USA are affected by similar factors when deciding to purchase cloud computing services, but differ in expectations about performance. Originality/value – This study utilizes Indian and US consumers to compare purchase intentions of technological innovations showing that there are more similarities than differences towards ethical and consumer innovativeness in both countries.

This article presents discoveries and inventions from different periods of mankind, which played an important role in social and technological evolution. Thus, from the period of the Ancient World (prehistory - 400 AD), we present: the appearance of stone tools (which occurred in East Africa and belongs to the first hominids); pottery (appeared in 10500 BC); the development of metallurgy (began in the Middle East, around 6500 BC); the invention of the ox-drawn plow (which occurred around 4000 BC); the construction of the first pyramid in Egypt (2600 BC); the development of iron processing (as part of the development of metallurgy, it occurred around 1400 BC); modernization of papermaking technology (attributed to Tsai Lun, China, around 105 AD); Another historical period that we analyzed in terms of discoveries and innovations that revolutionized humanity was the Middle Ages (400 - 1500). Thus, from this period we presented the following discoveries and inventions: the discovery of the number zero (occurred in 520 and belongs to Indian mathematicians); woodcut printing (appeared in sixth century China); the first printed newspaper (year 700); the development of algebra (it belongs to the Greek mathematician Diophantos, 3rd century AD); gunpowder (it was discovered around 850); the establishment of the University of Bologna (made in 1088); The last period approached was the current one. From this period we presented the following discoveries: magnetism - a new form of electricity; devices controlled only by hand gestures.

Abstract. The modern world is fast in many ways and a place where technological innovations can be adapted immediately. This speed and technological progress can be seen as a kind of development. It has positive as well as negative aspects. Economic and social problems, population growth, consumption of resources, high energy use, environmental pollution and climate change are negative phenomena brought by the modern world. Cities can also be seen as units that work on different strategies and models due to fast living, environmental, social and economic problems. Especially developing urban technology, the increase in the population rate in the cities and environmental problems have led to the development and discussion of many terms and concepts in the architecture and design literature in the urbanization process. The word and concept accumulation they possess is too much to ignore. The concepts of smart city, digital city and intelligent city are the concepts put forward to solve the problems caused by the urban developing world. These three concepts are based on the use of urban technology and they are either confused with each other or their boundaries are not determined too much. In this study, while determining the boundaries of these concepts, which have a lot in common with each other, similarities and differences between the concepts were revealed and suggestions were made regarding the definitions of the concepts.

In this paper an attempt is made to integrate discussions on social and technological aspects of Copper Age metallurgy. The South-east European Copper Age is widely held to be characterised by newly emerging elites and a strong societal impact of metallurgy. It is shown that much of this discussion is influenced by the evidence of the exceptionally rich Varna cemetery in Bulgaria. This is not a suitable model for Copper Age social structure in general because Varna is an extremely short-lived phenomenon and may reflect aspects of culture and identity other than our search for social elites implies. In any case there is no comparable evidence throughout the rest of Copper Age Europe. In the Carpathian basin, for example, Copper Age society certainly did not know permanent hierarchies, centralised control over dispersed settlements units, or distinctions in personal identity other than age and gender. Against this background metallographic data are used to establish the state of knowledge of Copper Age metalworkers. There are similarities in overall approach, yet within this broad tradition two distinct horizons of metallurgical knowledge and practice can be distinguished. The reasons of the differences observed in casting technique and forging are discussed. Drawing on ethnographic data a model is presented to account for uniformity in the basic parameters on the one hand and the spread of innovations in Middle to Late Copper Age society on the other without social elites being in control of raw materials, metalworking, and exchange.

Sustainable development has recently become the driving force of all the policies leading environmental, economic, and social aspects of our life. In the construction sector, a large number of technological innovations has been introduced thus leading to an assessment of the environmental impact of the production processes. In the present study, the environmental impact of the Italian ceramic tiles production is analyzed and discussed. The evolution trends of the main atmospheric pollutants and the management of water and solid wastes of ceramic tile plants have been investigated over a period greater than 10 years, considering three different layouts of production cycles. The current evaluation shows that the Italian ceramic tiles industry has considered the environmental assessment as a fundamental practice for its development since the late 1980s. The reported data prove the high level of excellence reached by the Italian ceramic tile production and demonstrate how attention to the environmental impact is a fundamental key for the ceramic tile sector.

John J. Emery's Carew Tower complex in Cincinnati, Ohio, was an unusual example in the 1920s of the congruence between progressive skyscraper design and planning on the one hand, and progressive social and political tendencies on the other. Although its massing and major ornamental motifs were derived from other work in the decade by French and American designers, it nevertheless exhibited a spatial and circulatory originality unmatched by office buildings, hotels, or mixed-use skyscrapers prior to Rockefeller Center. More fully than any other skyscraper development between 1920 and 1935, the Carew Tower complex integrated significant aspects of local history with the architectural sophistication and the large-scale technological and organizational innovations generally identified with New York City and Chicago. At the same time, in an era when boss rule and political patronage dominated the governments of most large American cities, Emery and the Carew Tower complex were integrally associated with the extensive programs of public works and governmental reforms instituted in Cincinnati between 1924 and 1936.

Abstract Public administration is constantly changing, with the objective of keeping up with the social, economic and technological developments of the modern world. It is opening up to modern technologies, introducing ever newer innovations and attempting to satisfy the needs of the citizens. It is no longer seen to such a large extent as an archaic structure that is blind to reforms and modernization; as a result of which, it can start to be perceived as a smart organization. New instruments are being introduced in many areas of administration, one of them being the fiscal administration. The changes related to the ability to communicate electronically with the tax authorities, submit electronic tax returns or pay stamp duty electronically are certainly aspects that have a positive impact on the whole image of administration, enabling it to be referred to as ‘smart’. The paper provides an overview on the fiscal administration system in Poland and e-services provided thereby.

AbstractIn the paper it has been grounded that under the conditions of forming postindustrial epoch, which is characterised by the processes of globalisation and informatisation, there exists a social demand for the specialists who have a formed preparedness for continuous self-education, including linguistic self-instruction. This presupposes developing innovative and strategic thinking as well as realising the objective necessity of continuous enhancing of their proficiency level, which is a key factor of interaction with dynamic and changeable professional environment with rapid obsolescence of knowledge, constant technological advancement, etc. It has been proved that nowadays the role of self-education, as the instrument of forming highly-qualified professionals with sufficient knowledge of foreign languages, is always growing in different countries. Therefore, educators are continually facing the task of improving the theoretical and methodological base of teaching students to be autonomous in their studies. It has been substantiated that, in view of the principle of continuity in science, introducing any innovations into the learning process in linguistic self-education should be preceded by the profound studying of the pedagogically valuable theoretical and practical experience, gained by the previous generations of researchers. Thus, the retrospective analysis of basic historical milestones of evolving the phenomenon “linguistic self-education” has been conducted and its results have been presented in this work.

The relevance of the subject matter lies in the low efficiency of generally accepted methods of legal research, the lack of modification and transformation from due to obsolescence and inconsistency with modern tendencies in the development of the legal scientific framework and legal thinking of subjects of such activities. This paper is not limited to the classical methods of cognition, it also touches on the topics of basic legal concepts, theories, and well-known approaches in legal science. The main purpose of this paper is to designate the modern methodology of legal science through the lens of innovations in legal thinking, methods of applying methodological approaches, including an in-depth analysis of research methods in legal disciplines with the use of a comparative analysis of Ukraine and countries of the European economic zone. To achieve this purpose, the following special methods of legal analysis were applied in the scientific paper: analysis, synthesis, generalization, hermeneutic method, historical method, comparative and structural-functional methods. As a result of the study, the already existing methodological approaches will be expressly outlined, as well as those that emerged due to innovations in legal thinking and are capable of covering the features of knowledge of law as a social phenomenon. Furthermore, urgent problems of theoretical and methodological aspects of the study of modern legal systems were identified on the example of different states. One of the successes of the scientific analysis of the methodology of legal science lies in the proposal of methods for conducting complex legal research, described by the features of modernity, relevance, and compliance with the information and technological development of social relations. In addition, the sources regarding the methodology of law in Ukraine and foreign countries are systematized. A historical insight into the becoming of the main tendencies and qualities of the evolution of views on the methodology of law will be the subject of comparative analysis in order to identify new methods of legal cognition. Recommendations regarding the subject matter are expressed in the prospects for further research on the problems of the methodology of legal science and the creation of ways to overcome them. Furthermore, research materials can be used in the preparation of training materials, teaching aids, as well as in the learning process in various areas of legal disciplines.

The beginning of the information age is associated with the intensive development of fundamentally new information technologies. On their basis, the screen culture is formed generating the formation and development of the virtual reality sphere. This artificially created space is a consequence of scientific progress, the result of technological innovations. Virtual reality is currently perceived as an integral part of social life, as a socio-cultural environment, as a living space of a person. In turn, the virtual environment affects the man himself. The impact of this sphere is one of the central moments in the profound transformations of the lifestyle and mentality of our contemporary. In this regard, there are complex problems associated with understanding the expansion of screen technology, with the paradox of the existence of artificial worlds. Virtual reality is becoming more and more widespread in various fields, including art, especially cinema, gaming and entertainment. Being an integral attribute of modern civilization, it has a contradictory, paradoxical character. It is marked by an anthropic principle, a variety of interpretations, and polarization of social assessments. The article considers its genetically mediated features, ontological, social, axiological and communication aspects. As a result of this analysis, conclusions are drawn about the emergence of new trends in social life and in art.

Objectives: The current digital revolution is particularly relevant for interactions of healthcare providers with patients and the community as a whole. The growing public acceptance and distribution of new communication tools such as smart mobile phones provide the prerequisite for information and communication technology (ICT) -assisted healthcare applications. The present study aimed at identifying specifications and perceptions of different interest groups regarding future demands of ICT-supported doctor–patient communication in Austria.Methods: German-speaking Austrian healthcare experts (n = 73; 74 percent males; mean age, 43.9 years; SD 9.4) representing medical professionals, patient advocates, and administrative personnel participated in a 2-round online Delphi process. Participants evaluated scenario-based benefits and obstacles for possible prospect introduction as well as degree of innovation, desirability, and estimated implementation dates of two medical care-related future set ups.Results: Panelists expected the future ICT-supported doctor–patient dialogue to especially improve the three factors doctors–patient relationship, patients’ knowledge, and quality of social health care. However, lack of acceptance by doctors, data security, and monetary aspects were considered as the three most relevant barriers for ICT implementation. Furthermore, inter-group comparison regarding desirability of future scenarios showed that medical professionals tended to be more skeptical about health-related technological innovations (p < .001).Conclusions: The findings of this survey revealed different expectations among interest groups. Thus, we suggest building taskforces and using workshops for establishing a dialogue between stakeholders to positively shape the future of ICT-supported collaboration and communication between doctors and patients.