...The Home of the Future Technology has become an essential part of our daily lives. From computers and tablets to smartphones and other gadgets, technology has dramatically changed the way we live. And as modern technology progresses, expect it to have an even greater impact in the years to come. In the real estate forefront, even homes are being built using new innovations and state of the art facilities. With home construction breakthroughs, you now have more options available to make your home as convenient, efficient, and functional as possible. Depending on your lifestyle and budget, you can construct or purchase a home that is sleek and stylish, complete with remote control or even voice or motion activated doors and windows and fully equipped with space saving and energy efficient appliances and furnishings. Ultramodern Concepts Impressive modern design concepts with a futuristic vibe are the current must-haves for homes. Now, to aid you in your quest to get hold of a cutting edge living space, here are some key factors that you should carefully consider. Security Feature. From high definition CCTV cameras, electronic door locks, smart alarm systems to security shutters – you name it and the home of the future has it. Aside from convenience and efficiency, putting a premium on security and ensuring peace of mind is of utmost importance. While some of these home security features have been around for decades, the technology behind it has grown leaps...
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...Driverless cars: applying existing laws to innovative technologies won't work With changing needs and advanced technology humans are able to create variety of innovative products. Simon Hobday, energy partner at Osborne Clarke writes this article about driverless cars. The good news for the governments and manufacturers backing a driverless car revolution, however, is that 46% of us would appear to have no qualms about being driven around by a computer. With testing due to start this year in Bristol, Coventry, Greenwich and Milton Keynes, it’s now vital for the UK government to win over opponents and “don’t knows” alike. These cars are intelligent transport mix is important element of a smart city and that is what the government is aiming to build. These cars will be able to access targeted, fast and efficient transport systems as well as will have the biggest impact on the wellbeing of the citizens and economic growth. One of the major effects of driverless cars is that a reduction will be seen in car ownership. Mostly cars will be used for specific journey types and shall be hired for short periods. Another change would be fuel consumption will be reduced along with carbon and particular emissions. The other benefits include increasing mobility and safety of the elders, blind and disabled. There’s also the potential for stress reduction and the eradication of road rage. Driverless cars could be a huge force for good, but buying into the concept is a huge leap for many. However...
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...1.0 Introduction According to Leslie and Philip (2012), innovation is the commercial exploitation of new knowledge, in other words, developing new ideas into products and production processes and selling them on to customers. Innovation is also the process of translating an idea or invention into a good or service that creates value or for which customers will pay. The term innovation can be defined as something that are original and, as consequence, new that ‘breaks into’ the market. Innovation is needed for businesses to produce new products. Multinational Companies (MNC) can be defined as corporations which have their home in one country but operate and live under the laws and customs of other countries as well according to Ruth and Michael (2000). Generally, any company or group that derives a quarter of its revenue from operations outside of its home country is considered multinational companies. It can also be referred to as an international corporation. One of the examples of MNC is Starbucks. Starbucks Corporation is an American global coffee company and coffeehouse chain based in Seattle, Washington. Starbucks is the largest coffeehouse company in the world, with 20891 stores in 64 countries (Wikipedia, 2013). According to Leslie and Philip (2012), the global business environment can be defined as the environment in different sovereign countries, with factors exogenous to the home environment of the organization, influencing decision making on resource...
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...Title Page Module: MGT3130 Innovations and Technology Management Name : Abdo Abdullahi Student Number: M0027455 Module leader: Mr Hong Woo Question 1: In the Skullcandy case (Chapter 12, Schilling 2010), would you characterise Skullcandy’s new product development team structure as Functional, Lightweight, Heavyweight or Autonomous and why? Provide your analysis with justifications. Question 2: Discuss the main sources of innovation, and what are particularly important for a company such as Skullcandy and why? MGT3130 Innovation and Technology Management – CP2 Question 1 Skull candy team structure can be characterised as hybrid lightweight and heavyweight. On the basis of it being lightweight the skull candy team members would still reside in their functional departments (Melissa A. Schilling 2010). The light weight teams at Skull candy have a very clear functional affiliation and would only work on the project that is given part time. The location of the team members of the Skull candy will always be in their functions thus allowing them to easily work together. Therefore the team members conduct the projects in their own departments (V. Patrick et all 2007). The functional departments will always have the responsibility of the work being done in that department. The skull candy case shows that there is close contact between the team members and also the functional managers and the project manager. Skull candy light weight team structure is cross-functional...
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...Technology Brokering and Innovation in a Product Development Firm Author(s): Andrew Hargadon and Robert I. Sutton Reviewed work(s): Source: Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 42, No. 4 (Dec., 1997), pp. 716-749 Published by: Sage Publications, Inc. on behalf of the Johnson Graduate School of Management, Cornell University Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2393655 . Accessed: 29/01/2013 01:51 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. . Sage Publications, Inc. and Johnson Graduate School of Management, Cornell University are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Administrative Science Quarterly. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded on Tue, 29 Jan 2013 01:51:00 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Technology Brokering and Innovationin a ProductDevelopment Firm Andrew Hargadon StanfordUniversity Robert 1. Sutton Universityof California, Berkeley We blend network and organizational memory perspectives in a model of technology brokering that explains...
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...done on a larger scale than with a smaller company. The different sites have to communicate on the plans of action. It could affect the functions negatively , in that there are so many sites that need to be considered when planning. It could be hard to get all of the management team onboard at the same time., Technology Starbucks has always been on top of it in regards to technology. They are one of the first coffee places to offer free wi-fi. They are known for being an upscale coffee spot. This is where technology comes into play. Starbucks has to be on top of the technology scene being that they are a worldwide company. The functions can be affected by this fact. For the company to stay as successful as it is, they need to stay up to date with the latest technology. If it has the most up to date technology then it can interact with the stores with efficiency. Innovation Innovation parallels with technology. If the management team at starbucks is trying to get more innovative. They need to make sure they have younger management teams. The younger generations are able to think “outside of the box”. The younger generation is more up to date on the new technologies that are coming out. They have graduated recently so they know what the younger people are interested in. This can affect...
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...capital that may be protected under law. Just like material assets, intellectual capital enables the firm to gain competitive advantage. With knowledge specific process the firm is able to reduce cost and sell its technology to recover the invested funds for this development. Since intellectual capital is the key for competitive advantage and profitability, in a free market economy, competitors try to appropriate it for their own. Thus a firm might lose its intellectual property to its competitors; this could happen in three ways (Narayanan, 2000): Imitation: It is the serious threat to any competitive advantage. If the imitators were faced by the high cost of the imitation or a legal notice they cannot benefit from the innovators idea. Obsolescence: competitors can engage in innovation and they enhance the innovation into a product more superior to the original product. Infringement: competitors sometimes steal the original idea from other firm’s knowledge. Hitachi and Mitsubishi stole technological secrets from IBM. With these issues the firms need to protect their intellectual property in order to keep the advantage and survive in the market of competition. This could happen in several ways: A firm may take several actions in order to protect their innovations and the power of their products. They may invest in advertising, or develop arrangements with licensing; sometimes they shut down the distribution channels to cut the way on those imitators. Another way the...
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...MANAGEMENT OF TECHNOLOGY, INNOVATION AND CHANGE – MS(WE) 114 MBA 2nd Semester (2014-15) TERM PAPER On Promotion of Technology & Innovation by Indian Govt. Submitted By: Name- Shivam Sharma (Enrolment No 05316603914) Submitted To: Prof. Anil K Saini USMS GGS IP University, New Delhi INDEX S.no | Topic | Page no. | Signature | 1 | Introduction | 3 | | 2 | Objective | 4 | | 3 | Findings | 5 | | 4 | Conclusion | 12 | | 5 | References | 13 | | Introduction In spite of having a large publicly funded science and technology infrastructure and a sizeable education base, India has not been able to realize its innovative potential due to a fragmented innovation ecosystem. The government of India has taken many initiatives towards strengthening the innovation ecosystem, the most important of which are: i) the establishment of the National Innovation Council, whose mandate is to coordinate various innovation-related activities, and ii) the new Science, Technology and Innovation Policy 2013, which is intended to promote entrepreneurship and science-led solutions for sustainable and inclusive growth. This article describes the current innovation ecosystem and the challenges it faces, and it discusses the efforts made by the government towards the promotion of innovation. With the implementation of this new policy the early indications are that India is poised to take a big leap towards innovation-led growth. In...
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...Technology and Innovation in Business Names Kenya Methodist University Question 1 Technology continues to have a large influence in business today. Businesses are depending on technology that virtually all business activities around the world would shut down in its absence. Industries attribute the use of technology in their economical development. Most industrial operations nowadays depend on technology for progress. Thus it is concluded that firms are leaning towards technology because they need it for sustenance (Oklahoma Small Business Developments Centers, 2013). Technology is the cause of growth of all economical advancements today. Business activities have been ongoing before emergence of computers and other technology. The use of barter trade was the norm before introduction of currency but business process was slow and not reliable. Technology saved the day with introduction of computers that revolutionized commerce. Today computers are used in all aspects of business such as research, production, maintenance and delivery of all commodities of production. All businesses regardless of size rely on computers in undertaking their daily operations ranging from maintenance of client profile, employee systems, sales systems, accounting systems to automation systems for large scale production. In addition to that, technology boosts communication and marketing of end products. Furthermore, transport details involve logistic systems that ensure safety of manufactured goods...
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...peeling machine innovation form, which improves corn products value greatly. Therefore, in purchasing corn peeling machine, we should notice the corn peeling machine innovation form and the after-sales service. In China, there are three kinds of patents: patent for invention, patent for utility models and appearance patent. And patent for invention is difficult to obtain, because it should have the feature of innovation and has high gold content. But patent for invention stands for the innovation strength for corn peeling machine manufacturer. If a corn peeling machine manufacturer can produce CORN PEELING MACHINE innovation form, then it is a substantial manufacturer. Each product has its own systematic and self-improving process. And one of the important signals for an innovative corn peeling machine manufacturer is whether it has patent for invention. Its corn peeling machine innovation form can ensure high quality and reliable performance of the products. Due to the difficulty of the patent for invention, some corn peeling machine manufacturer that has no innovation ability may adopt inferior products to reduce price and improve sales. But there products always have lots of flaws, which may cause various kinds of running malfunctions in corn peeling machine usage. Which kind of products should you choose, corn peeling machine innovation form, or inferior form? The answer is obvious. From the above, it is necessary to choose corn peeling machine innovation form for customers...
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...Incremental Innovation in Technology, Advantages and Disadvantages. Introduction: The objective of this paper is to examine the techniques related to incremental technological innovation in light of its advantages and disadvantages. Many studies focus on techniques of speeding up the cycle of product design. However, the fastest and most effective way to speed up the introduction of a product is to execute an incremental improvement – to an existing produce - that could serve a new and particular need. On the other side of the spectrum, there is what is called the megaproject. A project that starts out with over-the-top ambitious objectives, it requires almost extraordinary effort to accomplish, it demands enormous financial budgets, it typically runs over time and misses many deadlines, and at the end, few examples make a splash and many are written as “tax deductions”. While these heroic projects make good news stories, they do not always make money. They can fail very dramatically and expensively. Since these failures do not make such good new stories, we hear less about them, and overestimate the success rate of megaprojects. We underestimate the importance and value of incremental programs and mislead ourselves about the true risk of the megaproject. We need to look more carefully at these two approaches. Therefore, the opinion expressed here is that the incremental innovators are in fact the unsung heroes of product development. In examining the advantages...
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...Discussion 2: Shared Practice: How Can Technology Innovations Affect Marketing Strategies? The vast development of technology has a tremendous effect on marketing strategies. More and more business are getting on board in fear of being left out and eventually not being able to keep up. This rapid change has increase collaboration through effective communications within organization and also consumers and businesses. The companies that have effectively integrated innovation technologies into their prospective marketing strategies are Xpress GRTA, Georgia United Credit Union and Department of Human Resources. Xpress is a transportation services that serves the metro Atlanta region with valuable transportation. Also known as (GRTA) Georgia Regional Transportation Authority, (GRTA) provides reliable and stress-free commutes for workers to get to and fro their places of employment. Earlier this month Xpress has incorporated some major changes that will provide more efficiency service to their consumers. More buses, more schedules, and more stops. (GRTA) has effectively integrated innovative technologies by providing an app where consumers can track their track the status of their bus. Where is my bus? Schedule and locate me. Consumers are able to know what time the next bus is...
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...The paper introduces the category of “architectural innovation” on the basis that seemingly minor changes to technology which may earlier be classified as an incremental innovation can have competitive consequences of a radical one. The key concept is the distinction between component knowledge and architectural knowledge. The paper argues that firms concentrate on refining components within a stable architecture established by a dominant design, and consequently, their “information-processing capabilities” are shaped by the existing architecture. While building upon component knowledge, their architectural knowledge is outmoded and made obsolete by architectural innovations. Their resulting inability to identify or understand new interactions between components has serious competitive consequences. The conceptual framework of the paper is clear and straightforward. The main argument is advanced in a logical manner, and supporting premises (such as the way organizations manage knowledge) are supported by prior literature. Within the boundaries of the paper’s assumptions, the argument is persuasive. Furthermore, the application to the photolithographic alignment (PA) equipment industry justifies the model. The trends in the industry suggest the conceptual framework is largely accurate. Nonetheless, the assumptions made limit the usefulness of the concept. Firstly, the analysis of firms’ information-processing is restricted to communication channels, information filtering...
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...The ability to use past innovations to chart future shifts in the relationship between science, technology and culture. Abstract The study of history can easily have a somewhat anecdotal purpose behind examining it, but with the advent of Winston’s ‘Modeling for change’ we are able to discern a concentration of social forces working directly on the process of innovations rather than being a force on innovation. It is for this reason that we have the ability to chart future shifts in science, technology and culture through an evolutionary social based process that exist in a perpetual dialogue always tinkering, refining and suppressing devices throughout the ages. There has been a popular contention, a somewhat anecdotal purpose behind studying the past that has something to do with making sure that 'we learn from it' and are not destined to 'repeat it' as such. (Santayana 1906) But when it comes to new technologies it is easy 'at first glance, that there seems to be no patterns in the changes…In some cases the new technologies swept through quickly; in others the transition took decades. In some, the new technologies were complex and expensive to develop. In others… technologies were simple extensions of what the leading companies already did better than anyone else.' (Christensen 1997) What Winston has for the most part provided us, is a more 'crucial overview of how communication technologies develop' (Winston 1998 p11) within the social sphere, to that which 'Modeling...
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...Copenhagen Business School Cand. Merc. M. Sc. IBS - International Business Department of International economics and management, 15 June 2012 Strategic Analysis of the Geox Group Councellor: Bersant Hobdari, Copenhagen Business School Student name: Valeria Serra N. of pages: 79.7 Total n. of characters: 181,415 N. of characters (without figures): 165,415 N. of figures: 20 Executive Summary The purpose of this thesis is evaluating the sources of the extraordinary success of the Italian company Geox S.p.A. in order to assess whether its triumph is sustainable or not in the future. Geox S.p.A. is an Italian company based in Montebelluna (Treviso, Italy). It produces high quality and innovative shoes and apparels, and it is considered one of the most successful Italian firms. The company was born thanks to an innovative idea of its founder, Mr. Mario Moretti Polegato, and its fast growth has been due not only to the knowledge of the district, but also to its strong management and its strategies. All these factors have contributed to Geox’s fast growth in a market that was already mature. Notwithstanding Geox’s leadership position in Italy, the company is not immune from the negative effects of the economic and financial crisis and of globalization. The main challenges that the company is facing are mainly constituted by increasing and labour and raw material costs. The crisis, which has been particularly strong in Italy, has made people poorer. Thus, consumers have became...
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