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Many countries today, especially in Europe, provide publicly funded public services in quasi-markets. As these markets commercialize, agencies of various types are providing technologies that support citizens’ choice of services. Citizens’ use of technologies for service provision is studied as e-government under labels of channel management, e-service uptake or adoption. In contrast, by using actor–network theory (ANT), the purpose of this paper is to focus on the marketing devices that are used to enroll citizens to choose technologies in a context with large penetration of quasi-market arrangements.

Based on a Swedish case study, this paper uses qualitative data from 11 occurrences of technologies to support citizens’ choice (“market devices”) in education, healthcare and public pension in an analysis of the means taken (“marketing devices”) to increase their use. The study formulates a tentative typology of these devices.

The marketing devices are intended to attract citizens’ attention to the possibility of choice (e.g. catalogs, postcards and commercials), invite interaction (e.g. various social media platforms), improve the technological support in line with user needs (e.g. user participation in development), increase visibility of technological support (e.g. search optimization) or directly connect citizens to technological support (e.g. via links).

The paper contributes to e-government research through a typology of means taken to increase citizens’ technology use based on selected concepts from ANT, and to a discussion of technologies and humans.

Notwithstanding the novelty and importance of wearable fitness devices, few studies have focussed on comparing the drivers of adoption and usage of wearable fitness in the context of developing countries. This study aims to explore factors that drive overall acceptance of wearable fitness devices in developing countries (India and the Philippines) and whether the impact of these factors on the intention to adopt (INT) differs by country and gender.

The study extends the existing body of knowledge by developing a model that integrates the impact of various perceived benefits (health, autonomy, social, hedonic, symbolic), health self-efficacy (HEALTHSE) and individual characteristics (technological innovativeness [TI]) on the INT wearable fitness devices and the moderating impact of country and gender. The analysis was carried out using partial least square and data of 343 respondents.

This study finds that the INT wearable fitness devices by consumers in developing countries are positively impacted by hedonic, health and autonomy, HEALTHSE and TI. Symbolic and social factors do not have any significant impact on the overall INT wearable fitness devices. However, there are country and gender-specific differences that are consequential to the development of marketing strategies.

The framework and results are specific to the two countries and limited by convenience sampling. Future research can focus on replication across different countries and extend the model with additional contextual factors such as perceived risks.

To the best knowledge of the authors, this is one of the few studies to examine and compare the drivers of adoption of wearable fitness devices in lesser researched developing countries. Also, it is one of the few studies to compare the moderating impact of country and gender in the context of the INT wearable devices. The study provides a theoretical and methodological foundation for future research, as well as practical implications for global companies developing and promoting wearable fitness devices.

‘What is the meaning of the process of body quantification?’ – This is the central question of this chapter. With it, the author intends to question and analyse the way the body relates to new technologies and new technical procedures, and how these depend on the body itself to constitute themselves as mediating cultural forms. To make this enquiry feasible, the author shall critically examine the status of ‘object’ to which the body has been relegated by the myths of quantification, notably those concerning the universal symbolic character of numbers and measurement techniques. If the body is considered as a mere ‘quantified object’, then it is unlikely to be distinguished from other objects subjected to the same process. Consequently, it will easily tend to support the imaginary of technological determinism that prevails in our societies. Health trackers for personal use are, today, a good example of how the body is a fundamental element of such imaginary, since the feeling of control that they nurture in their users is also connected with the possibility of sharing information about the body itself. Given all these factors, the author intends to argue that, instead of being a simple quantified object, the body is, for new quantification technologies (namely those related to self-care), a ‘medium of the media’, insofar as it reinforces the effects of technological mediation processes, and potentialises the increased digital convergence of media. Recognising this means, finally, that the imaginary of quantification and associated techno-myths are also stimulated and reproduced by an extra-discursive somatic level inherent in the empirical use we make of technological devices.

Leading up to and now living amid the Covid-19 pandemic, teachers are faced with strong incentives, even pressure to adopt and use digital technologies. Previous research has focused on teaching with digital technologies as a matter of believing in their importance and receiving specific preparation for integration strategies. Further, teaching with technologies must appear “seamless” during instruction to not distract from what is regarded to be the more important subject matter knowledge. In this chapter, I review and problematize digital instruction focused on convincing teachers to integrate strategies that use digital technologies in a “seamless” way and then propose an alternative view emphasizing posthumanist, relational views of integrating digital technologies.

Generation Z refers to those born during a time when the internet and technology were available to practically everyone in education, social life and employment. Because Generation Z was born during a period of rapid technical growth and digital transition, it is also known as the ‘Digital Generation’. Digitalization is one of the developments that best symbolizes the twenty-first century, and it has both benefits and drawbacks. Because of its strong link with digitization, Generation Z is seen as the generation that experiences these benefits and drawbacks the most intensely. For this reason, the disadvantages as well as the advantages it provides to Generation Z come into question as an important issue. Generation Z benefits from digitalization in many ways, including faster and easier access to information, the elimination of time and space constraints in many issues, easier access to various needs such as shopping, education, entertainment and communication, faster completion of work that needs to be done, the ability to perform multiple tasks at the same time and the establishment of a universal perspective. Disadvantages include distraction, screen addiction beginning in childhood, diminished capacity to conduct business using traditional ways, cyber dangers and decreases in personal information security, and future risk to individual security from sharing on social media platforms. All of this highlights the necessity of understanding the benefits and drawbacks of digitalization for Generation Z, called as the Digital Generation.

Developing methodically sound approaches for defining and analysing measurements of sectoral science and technology (S&T) priorities is a key pre-requisite of a successful and effective state science, technology and innovation management system. This paper aims to present the results of research into the evolution of Russia’s S&T priorities in information and communication technologies (ICTs) based on a system founded on detailed profiles for sectoral critical technologies (CTs) supplemented by quantitative statistics on the development of the information society in Russia.

This analysis of Russia’s ICT S&T priorities was broken down into three periods which tie in with milestones when large-scale changes in ICT were observed: 2002-2006; 2007-2010; 2011-2015.

This paper presents the results of research into the evolution of Russia’s S&T priorities in ICTs based on a system founded on detailed and carefully studied profiles for sectoral CTs supplemented by quantitative statistics on the development of the information society in Russia. An important aspect in support of this approach is regular large-scale processes to update the profiles of sectoral CTs (on average once every five years) and to conduct statistical observations in ICT (once every year). The involvement in this process of updating CTs of large (500 or more) numbers of sectoral experts representing industry leaders, research and educational institutions, core ministries and regulatory bodies guarantees a comprehensive cross-section in researching and profiling CTs in different important areas: science, production and government administration.

For more than 15 years, the Higher School of Economics has been conducting a range of statistical studies on ICT: the amount of goods and services output in the ICT sector and the level of diffusion and use of ICT in the economy, social sphere and public and private life. The results of these studies are used as an evidence base when defining and updating STI priorities to develop Russia’s ICT industry. This paper presents a retrospective view of the evolution of Russia’s S&T priorities from 2002 to the present and discusses the effects of ICT’s transformation in specific changing markets and identifies priority areas for the future.

The purpose of the study is to investigate critical factors affecting individuals’ intention to adopt internet of things (IoT) products in healthcare.

An integrated model was developed based on technology acceptance model (TAM), innovation diffusion theory (IDT), technological innovativeness (TI), protection motivation theory and privacy calculus theory. The model was tested with 426 respondents (222 females, 204 males) using partial least square structural equation model with all data grouped by gender.

Based on the results of the complete model, perceived advantage (PA), image and perceived ease of use (PEOU) constructs have a significant effect on intention to adopt IoT healthcare technology products. The results show that for females, compatibility and trialability have more impact on PEOU whereas for males PA has more impact on PEOU. Image, perceived privacy risk, perceived vulnerability have more impact on males when compared to females.

Research conducted only among Turkish people.

This study investigated adoption of future technology, “internet of things”, products in healthcare from a behavioral perspective by integrating various theories. The reason is that before launching any technology into the market, its facilitative factors should be researched for the people who are going to use this in their daily routine.

The purpose of this paper is not to present a crystal ball, but to outline the conceptual strands – some already evident, others only dimly perceivable in emergent forms – that might drive the coming transformations and to weave the strands into a preliminary framework. The stance (and the political perspective) of the paper is informed by critical marketing studies (Tadajewski, 2010), the subfield of marketing that is vibrant in Europe but not yet well developed in other regions of the world.

This is a theoretical contribution, relying on discursive analysis.

Before an era of full and all-pervasive automation arrives, there will be a decades-long transitional stage of heteromation. In the heteromation, machines and humans will have to coexist adaptively. The spheres of production and consumption will be affected radically by the patterns of people-machine interactions, including coexistence, cooperation, adaptation, adjustments and conflicts. As the connective tissue between the spheres of production and consumption, marketing would also undergo major transformations in the age of heteromation.

The paper lays out the grounding concepts useful for how heteromation and the subsequent era of full automation could impact organizations and markets. It provides the stepping-stone for further work on how marketing could, would or should transform in relation to the challenges of heteromation and automation.

The paper offers some guideposts for public policymakers, public intellectuals and thought leaders and social activists. It also points to action options for visionary corporate leaders and for researchers wishing to explore the heteromation–automation futures from critical-social perspectives.

Using the concept of heteromation, this paper presents hitherto unexplored and critical implications of potentially epochal transformations for marketing.

The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically transformed higher education policy and practices across the globe, including Bangladesh. Higher education institutions (HEIs) were forced to deliver teaching and learning online. This chapter discusses the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on teaching and learning practice in higher education in Bangladesh and highlights the cultural transformation of policy and practice. In addition, it proposes future directions on how to be prepared and addresses the challenges of emergencies and draws implications of the findings beyond the national context. In the beginning of the pandemic, most universities in Bangladesh had to initially shut down their operations without offering any alternatives. However, a number of universities gradually rolled out some online teaching and learning activities as the lockdowns kept extending. A large portion of the HEIs struggled to continue their online teaching and learning due to the lack of resources, i.e., devices, technological skills and training, lack of policy, negative mindset, poor network infrastructure, and high cost of internet. This unprecedented situation ushered in by the pandemic showed the lack of preparedness and below-par capacity to respond to emergencies for the continuation of higher education in Bangladesh. Furthermore, it highlighted that improving the higher education sector requires tremendous effort from the government, researchers, policymakers, practitioners, the universities, and other industries directly or indirectly related to the sector.

The system of higher education is ineffective – it has to change the concept of educational process, which is peculiar for increase of the volume of education of labor resources. According to this, there is a necessity to pass to the system of higher education with elements of smart technologies. The purpose of this paper is to determine the role of smart technologies as an innovational and intellectual tool in development of the system of higher education and formation of actual skills with students.

The aspects of classical education in universities with elements of remote forms of implementation of smart technologies on IT platforms are studied; peculiarities of smart technology as intellectual tools of higher education are analyzed; perspectives of usage of smart technologies as innovational tools for development of higher education are determined. The research methods include analysis, synthesis, abstraction, comparison and logical method.

Information technologies become an inseparable part of life of society and human. A new network generation of people that cannot imagine life without new technological devices is growing. However, despite this, modern education does not sufficiently influence the development of human capital in the conditions of digital environment.

Scientific novelty consists in conducting the research in the sphere of significance and perspectives of implementing smart technologies into the systems of higher education of the Russian Federation. This paper could be interesting for public officers who form the program of development of higher education and academic staff of higher educational establishments.