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The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the effectiveness of video‐conferencing as a suitable technology for business process reengineering (BPR) training of 12 health sector participants located in Prince Edward Island, Canada.

An action research was adopted. The participants received training from a remote BPR consultant located in Northern Ireland (UK), with the assistance of local moderators. The focus of the study is concerned with the quality of the learning experience and the important role played by local moderators.

Overall, the use of video‐conferencing technology provided a valuable learning experience. It was also cost effective and an efficient use of both the consultant's and the participants' time. A key part of the success of the exercise was the role of one of the local moderators who acted as the “eyes and ears” of the consultant.

A general contribution to knowledge is the positioning of the argument developed within the technology diffusion literature. The paper offers important insights into the effective use of video‐conferencing technology for BPR training purposes; and Knipe and Lee's evaluation of a video‐conferencing experiment in terms of the relationship between the human actors at the remote and local sites is discussed and extended.

Purpose – The technologies teams use in organizations have dramatically changed in the 11 years since the 2000 Volume, Research on Managing Groups and Teams: Technology. This is an update focusing on new research and perspectives.

Approach – I recall where we left off in 2000 and then present a plea for changing our research approach to one that focuses on actionable research more aligned on how teams design their work than the effects we see when they do. I review a variety of literatures relevant to teams and technology and then suggest what the next 10 years may bring.

Findings – The scholarship on teams, technology, and teams and technology has blossomed, though not evenly. We are only beginning to see actionable research related to teams and technology.

Practical implications – The pace of organizationally relevant technology change has outstripped our ability to provide high-quality research in a timely manner if we maintain our current practices of studying individual or even interactions of effects as they exist in organizations. Our research will be more helpful if we shift our focus to how team members design their work.

Originality – I make two direct and dramatic requests of my colleagues. First, that they become more precise in their presentation of or at least specify the technological settings used in their research. Second, that they shift to actionable research that explicitly considers team, technology, and the processes through which team members design their work.

An empirical advanced manufacturing technology (AMT) taxonomy with three groups was identified from cluster analysis. The analysis was based on a survey of Swedish metal‐working industries and 324 relevant responses were received (response rate of 38 percent). The first group, “the traditionalists” is characterised by firms of relatively small size with low levels of investments in AMT. “The hard integrators” emphasise computerised transactions between sub‐units and processes to a larger extent than the investment in administrative, design and manufacturing technologies. “The high investors” group contains relatively large firms that have invested in most technologies and have computerised their transactions significantly more than both the other groups. Companies with heavy investments in AMT had developed the infrastructure (worker empowerment, improvement programmes and organisational design) and maintenance (prevention and integration) aspects to a greater extent than low investors. They also performed better.

This paper aims to explore the inverse consumer socialization processes, differences in technology adoption and changes in extended family dynamics occurring between adult children and their middle-aged and elderly parents when technology is consumed.

Six focus groups, segmented into parents (50 to 75 years old) and adult children (18 to 35 years old) and grouped by gender and marital status, were conducted. Research questions examined consumption patterns, technology use, family structure and interactions between parents and adult children when consuming technology.

This study acknowledges different levels of technology adoption coexisting in extended families between adult children, who act as influencers, and their parents, who model their technology consumption after them. It further reveals a limited inverse consumer socialization process, as parents’ resistance to change hinders them from acquiring from their adult children significant knowledge, skills and attitudes regarding new technologies. This process is complicated by frustrations resulting from the parents’ limited ability to learn new technologies and their children’s lack of knowledge regarding andragogy (the art and science of teaching adult learners). Finally, this study reveals intergenerational alterations in extended family dynamics as aging parents depend on their adult children for their expertise with technology and children gain authority in an asymmetrical, two-way process.

This research reveals important limits in the inverse socialization process into technology between adult children and their parents, with attention to its effects on families and society.

A large multi‐national Engineering company, with production facilities in the UK, recently undertook a study into the possibility of using Group Technology in a proposed “focused factory” for the manufacture of transmission gears and shafts. This paper briefly describes the reasons for considering this type of change. It also describes the methods used to predict the likely benefits in comparison with conventional forms of organisation and to plan the machine groups and part families for Group Technology.

In this paper, we examine the comparative advantage of Korea and China while focusing on their technology level. The three digit SITC (Standard International Trade Classification) data is classified by technology level and the revealed comparative advantage (RCA) is derived from 1992-2009 by using UN COMTRADE data. For careful interpretation of the comparative advantage and technology levels, we also examined intra-industry trade and unit values of bilateral Korea-China trade, and semi-conductor industry technology. We found that the revealed comparative advantage has moved from low technology products to high technology products in Korea. China still maintains a comparative advantage in low technology products such as textiles and clothing, but at the same time, China’s high and medium-high technology products have recently gained a comparative advantage. The perception that China only has a comparative advantage for labor intensive products with low technology should be changed based on our analysis. However, China’s advancement in technology should not be overestimated. When comparing the unit value of basic materials of Korea’s and China’s exports, we found that Korea’s export product prices are on average higher than that of China’s, although the gap is reducing. A wider technology gap between Korea and China still exists in the semi-conductor industry, which is one of the most advanced high technology industries throughout the world.

Purpose – The purpose of the chapter is to provide an analytical overview of information research in the United Kingdom and of the role of the Research Assessment Exercises (RAE) in shaping the form and structure of that research.

Design/methodology/approach – The approach adopted is a detailed content analysis of the submissions made to the last UK RAE. This analysis is carried out in relation to four broad subject categorisations, and specific analysis of accounts of research carried out in the departments and research groups.

Findings – The RAE have played a key role in promoting research specialisms in library and information studies (LIS) research in the United Kingdom. The former general approach to research in information studies has been replaced by more focused research activities carried out in a variety of research groups spread across a diverse range of disciplines and departments, from LIS, to business and management, information systems, and computing and engineering.

Research implications – The prospects for general LIS research departments may be increasingly limited, as research becomes concentrated in sub-groups within larger organisational structures, subverting both departmental lines and conventional subject boundaries.

Originality/value – This overview provides a novel synthesis of information research in the United Kingdom in relation to four broad categories of research in information studies and information science, information management and social informatics, information systems and information interaction, and social computing and computational informatics. The account brings together a fragmented field of research in a compact and intelligible form.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the extent to which the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), and personal characteristics such as threat and challenge, self-efficacy and openness to experience, explain information professionals’ and educational technology experts’ perspectives about cloud computing. In addition, the study will investigate any differences between these two tech-savvy groups concerning cloud computing adoption.

The research was conducted in Israel during the second semester of the 2013 academic year. Researchers used seven questionnaires to gather the data.

The current study found that the behavioral intention to use cloud computing was impacted by perceived ease of use and personal innovativeness. Further, the study demonstrated that respondents’ intentions to use cloud computing are affected by personal characteristics such as threat and challenge, self-efficacy, and openness to experience. In addition, it seems that each group has a different perspective about technology.

Findings reveal that newest technologies are not the main focus of information professionals. Therefore, if information organizations directors would like their employees to enhance their use of technological innovations, they should expose them to the latest technologies, emphasizing their usefulness, ease of use, and benefits.

In the history of technology transfer in Arab countries, it is probably true that there has been more failure and disappointment than satisfaction and success in achieving the expected results from the technology transfer agreements. Many complex issues are involved in the consideration of technology transfer in Arab countries. The purpose of this study is to identify, analyse and discuss the major issues for successful information technology (IT) transfer in Arab countries.

A three‐round, non‐anonymous, Delphi‐type survey is designed and connected to understand and explicate major issues from the perceptions of stakeholder groups in Arab countries.

The coding approach and synthesis procedures result in a master set of ten major issues categories for successful IT transfer in Arab countries.

This paper serves to focus discussion and promote constructive interaction for the purpose of developing an increasingly sophisticated understanding of the nuances of IT transfer process in Arab countries.

Examines the impact of the intensity level of Just‐in‐time (JIT) on quality. The intensity level of JIT is operationalized as a function of four variables: the existence of JIT as a timebased technology; the utilization of JIT to a certain extent; the integration of JIT with other time‐based technologies such as Group Technology (GT), Design for Manufacturability (DFM) and Total Quality Management (TQM); and the percentage of facilities that has been converted to using JIT. The term “quality” in this study is a composite construct of product quality, manufacturing workmanship, design and engineering quality, and vendor quality. This study was based on empirical data collected from 165 manufacturing firms in three industry groups in the USA: industrial machinery equipment, electronic and electric machinery equipment, and transport equipment. The two digit Standard Industrial Classification Codes (SIC) for these industry groups are 35, 36 and 37 respectively. The analysis of the results suggests that statistically significant differences in quality exist among firms with different intensity levels of JIT. The study has many implications for both academicians and practitioners.