Search results

Tariffs for international mobile roaming (IMR) are often viewed by governments as an additional tax on international trade and on tourism. IMR customer bills may appear to be arbitrary and sometimes excessive. The purpose of this paper is therefore to set out a pragmatic approach to assessing international charges for mobile roaming, making use of a realistic cost model of the international roaming process and its cost elements, at a level that is useful to regulatory authorities and operators.

The discussion presented is based on industry practices for handling voice calls and data sessions with the mobile network operators (MNOs) business model, based on industry sources. The basic mechanisms use two common constructs from business analysis – business processes and use-cases – to provide a simplified form of activity-based costing. This provides a model suitable for national regulatory authorities to move towards cost-based IMR tariffs.

Using a perspective on costs based on a bottom-up survey procedure for elucidating the key information, the paper presents the cost elements for the various IMR network components and business processes, with an approach suitable for analysing both wholesale and retail pricing.

The method is specifically designed to overcome the key problem of such approaches, the limitations set by differences in network technologies, network topology, operational scale and the engineering, as well as MNO business model and accounting practices, which otherwise would preclude the method presented here from being vendor neutral.

Vendor and network engineering neutrality implies the approach can be used to compare different MNOs in terms of the validity of their IMR charges and whether they are cost based.

Impacts on society of so-called “bill-shock” have become quite common, increasingly for data sessions. The cost model presented here was developed with the intention of improving the accountability and transparency of the mobile roaming market. It thus assists in the introduction of cost-based tariffs over an economic region, such the European Union.

The paper examines the practical implications of building large-scale cost models for assessing the real IMR costs, a modelling exercise that has not been seen elsewhere in terms of its approach and neutrality as to MNO structure and assets.

3G is important for developed countries but the stakes are even higher for developing countries since failure to develop 3G could widen the “digital divide” even further. While successful development of 3G services will depend on the private sector, it will also be crucially influenced by the policy and regulatory environment, in particular by the facilitation of market entry through appropriate licensing policies, as well as post‐entry competitive conditions. This article reports on the findings of a workshop organized by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) which identified critical policy issues with respect to the deployment of 3G mobile, including the regulatory status of mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) and the facilitation of global roaming. The potential role ITU could play as a facilitator of harmonized approaches for the global mobile information society is also explored.

Outlines Japan’s journey to third‐generation mobile (3G). Posits a number of factors have been responsible for driving Japan in the direction of 3G. Examines developments in 3G mobile phones and the situation reached in that country. Sums up that there are a number of lessons to be learned from the Japanese experience, notably on market structure.

Broadband networks, enabling high‐speed and always‐on Internet connections, are now seen by many to be critical for economic growth and development, both at the national and global level. Much energy has been invested in the deployment of broadband infrastructure around the world, and governments and industry have now begun addressing the demand side of the broadband challenge, i.e. ways in which to encourage take‐up among users. The present article zooms in on one of the leading countries in broadband, Iceland. It examines the main strategies, policies and regulations in place for promoting broadband in a country that has the world’s highest number of Internet users per capita, and posits on the main opportunities and challenges that lie ahead.

This paper aims to discuss the burgeoning area of radio‐frequency identification (RFID), which uses radio waves to automatically identify and track individual items.

The paper begins by outlining the benefits and utility of RFID technology, through an examination of its technological characteristics, current applications, state of the market and future trends. The paper focuses on consumer applications for RFID, such as sports, lifestyle and leisure, and personal safety. It then explores some of the important implications of the technology and concludes with considerations of a socio‐ethical nature, including concerns related to individual privacy and human development.

The paper finds that RFID technology has tremendous potential to ease life and to improve the human condition. Still, further innovation and industrial deployment of this technology should be done in parallel with a careful exploration of all related aspects. No one can deny that the expansion of such “anywhere, anytime” communication technologies, for “anyone and anything”, will bring about increased convenience, greater access and a whole host of innovative applications and services. However, the capacity of these technologies to impact human lives (private and public) will grow correspondingly. This brings to mind the notion of the “Faustian Bargain” in the context of technological change: while a given technological advancement may improve many aspects of daily life, it also runs the risk of reducing the advantages of earlier developments or earlier ways of life. It is only through an increasing awareness of this risk that humanity (and societal progress) can be preserved in what has become an ever‐expanding sea of technology and automation.

The study presents an overview of technological benefits while expressing a balanced approach as to the potential concerns and implications.

Mobile communication technologies have come a long way, but they are far from completing their evolutionary path. An examination of the Japanese mobile sector, with its cutting‐edge technologies, may provide a glimpse of what is to come for the rest of the world. Japan's mobile users are demanding ever more functionality, and service providers are responding. Moreover, the mobile phone is affecting social norms of behaviour and its use has become integrated within Japanese society as nowhere else. Even though the technology is developing rapidly, the case of Japan suggests that self‐regulation and individual restraint can work.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between the strategy of market orientation and organizational innovation.

This research adopted a cross‐sectional study using questionnaires to gather research data. Research subjects were presidents and high‐level managers at 491 hospitals, at the level of district hospital or above, in Taiwan. Questionnaires were distributed and 104 valid questionnaires were retrieved, resulting in a response rate of 21.18 per cent.

The results demonstrated that the strategy of market orientation is positively correlated with organizational innovation; the strategies of customer orientation, competitor orientation, and inter‐functional coordination have a positive correlation with technical innovation.

The results of this study provide hospital administrators with a practical method for developing a useful management strategy in order to improve service quality for customers.

The majority of studies on market orientation and innovation have focused primarily on business organizations, particularly western businesses, and not on non‐profit organizations and Chinese businesses. However, the goal of non‐profit organizations when restructuring or improving their management processes is not the pursuit of profit; rather, they engage in these innovative activities in order to boost organizational performance. This study selected Taiwanese hospitals as the research target for the study of non‐profit organizations, and offers an in‐depth discussion.

This paper aims to compare brand equity strength, i.e. the extent to which brand awareness and brand image contribute to purchase propensity, for different segments of consumers (non-users, light users and heavy users) and two different markets (soft drinks and banking, representing a repertoire and a subscription context, respectively).

This aim is pursued using a scalable customer-based brand equity (CBBE) framework, which captures how brand awareness and brand image, on a continuum of brand knowledge, underpin purchase propensity. The framework constitutes a “tool” for the analysis of brand equity strength, and it is applied, alongside a suite of empirical tests, to a large set of longitudinal consumer survey data collected from the same consumers and for both markets.

There are meaningful differences across the three consumer segments considered, especially in relation to brand image values, which are generally greater for more loyal consumers. Furthermore, the overall strength of brand equity is greater for banking brands compared to soft drinks brands.

This research highlights the practical importance of detecting and managing differences in brand equity strength across consumer segments with dissimilar brand loyalty. It also suggests that there is relatively more value in evaluating and managing the CBBE process in subscription markets, than in repertoire markets.

The contribution of this research to brand equity knowledge is twofold. It addresses concerns in relation to the need to analyze brand equity at a disaggregated level and it sheds light on inconclusive findings in relation to the generalizability of CBBE principles across different types of markets.