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In order to compliment the growing use of renewable energies in the US, additional technologies must be employed on the bulk power system. This paper aims to forecast the most probable energy storage technologies.

The methodology was deployed in two steps: evaluate the potential energy storage technologies that could complement a wind turbine or photovoltaic system; and forecast which of these technologies is best poised to become a viable solution to the energy storage problem facing these renewable technologies.

Based on the publication and patent data, compressed air energy is set to be the fastest growing complimentary technology to wind energy. Two of these types of plants are currently in existence today as mentioned previously indicating the technology is commercially available. This technology has great potential; however, implementing this technology involves finding or creating underground airtight caverns in usable locations.

The number of variables have been limited due to the methodologies chosen for this analysis. The research can be expanded using other criteria such as cost, cost of capital, economies of scale, environmental concerns, social and political constraints.

This paper provides an assessment that was indicated as necessary by those who identified the need for the development of energy storage technologies for future electricity generation.

The electric utility industry, unlike most other technology‐intensive industries, does not spend much money or effort on research and development. Many utilities do not possess an in‐house R&D facility, nor is there an R&D line item in their budgets. Over the last several decades the rate of change in the electric utility industry has been very slow and in‐house R&D efforts have not been required. As the rate of change in the industry is beginning to change, the need to pursue R&D is increasing. The electric utility industry is responding to this increasing requirement by increasing R&D budgets, and in some cases re‐initiating the R&D process within individual utilities. The purpose of this paper is to focus on R&D portfolio management efforts of various actors from different industrial sectors, to find out the best practices by using benchmarking method.

The paper used case study approach and on‐site interviews as research methods.

The authors found that R&D management is in its infancy in the electric utility sector, while the methods established in the manufacturing sector are applicable there.

This study is exploring R&D management in the electric utility sector and contributes to the service innovation research stream.

This paper aims to forecast the future of data storage technologies, using the case of two major technologies driving the data storage world; hard disk drive (HDD) or conventional longitudinal recording and flash memory.

Four principal tools of forecasting technology are applied to present the coming future of data storage technologies. These tools consist of bibliometric trend analysis, patent trend analysis, technology cycle time (TCT), and growth curve. Numbers of publications each year and cumulative patents are used to analyze the future of these competitive technologies. The median age of the patents is applied to find the technology lifecycle of both technologies. Finally, areal density of HDD is plotted on the growth curve to forecast the saturation point of researching on conventional longitudinal recording.

The results produced from utilizing these tools indicate that these two technologies are continuously under development. It is found that the growth of improving areal density of conventional recording will be nearing zero by year 2013 and the maximum growth rate of development was in year 2006.

The forecasting is based on principal technologies of conventional longitudinal recording of HDD. Also, NOR and NAND are considered as two main technologies dominating flash memory. Other emerging data storage technologies such as holographic data storage, phase‐change memory (PCM) are not included in this paper. Likewise, the growth curve of flash memory is not analyzed as part of this paper.

This paper forecasts the future of data storage technologies. Integration of scientific indicators and growth curves is demonstrating a powerful tool for forecasting technology futures.

This paper aims to research literature to describe the business processes used when planning IT infrastructure refreshes.

The paper uses analytical hierarchical process (AHP) and pairwise comparisons to model and quantify the decision process for IT infrastructure refreshes.

The research found that most companies keep their refresh processes private and very little academic research is available on this topic. While supportability, manageability, compatibility, cost, and scalability are important factors to large organizations, performance and availability of the systems are important for smaller organizations.

AHP was not ever used to evaluate the refresh planning. The paper demonstrates that it would be a very useful tool.

Online services have replaced many services that were delivered through other avenues. However, adoption of them has varied significantly. This paper seeks to expand on technology adoption theories by integrating them with those exploring service innovation and attempts to explore factors that help or hinder the attitude towards using online services. Thus, the study aims to provide insight into attributes to which developers and designers of such services should pay attention.

The study accomplishes the purpose stated above through testing a framework that was developed as a result of critical literature review, interviews, a brainstorming session, an expert focus group and a final large‐scale survey. A set of prototypes was developed as alternative interfaces for the online service.

In addition to finding that usefulness and ease of use are affecting the intention to use in the case of online services, the paper also identified that users were positively influenced by their acquaintances, commercials and related news about online ticket reservation positively. Self‐efficacy was also identified as a positive factor. However, a significant relationship between other elements of the user interface, such as task or user characteristics, could not be identified.

There is an increased interest in better service design and development. In the case of online services, developing better user interfaces by different technologies is critical, because capabilities of user interface add a lot to the information technology (IT) adoption process. So putting emphasis on better marketing and user training would help the adoption of online services.

There were a number of hypotheses that were not supported in the paper. Further data collection may help to explore the role of user and service characteristics better.

The study integrates technology adoption and market research theories to assess service innovation.

The objective of this paper is to identify the reasons behind the recent issues of Chinese manufacturing quality. This paper aims to discuss the influence of American managers as well as Chinese business cultural effects on Chinese manufacturing quality.

In this paper, two survey questionnaires have been prepared for the study based on literature review. Survey instruments were sent to American and Chinese business owners and managers who have a considerable amount of professional experience in the manufacturing area.

It is found that both American managers and Chinese business culture have influence on Chinese manufacturing quality.

This paper contributes to an understanding of the reasons behind the recent quality issues in Chinese manufacturing.

The purpose of this paper is to assess effective integration of two emerging technologies, new emerging opportunities for them and their diffusion in China.

A multi‐perspective analysis and causal models were developed to assess the emerging technologies as a result of the integration. In addition, an initial system dynamics model is developed to explore their diffusion.

Based on multi‐perspective analysis and causal models in both global and national environments, problems such as security and reliability are identified. System dynamics modeling is used in this paper to assist such foresight process. Different scenarios are proposed by the modeling to offer possible solutions facilitating the development of voice and video over wireless area network (VVoWLAN) in China.

While, the purpose of system dynamics modeling is to demonstrate the application of the methodology, simplifying assumptions are made. To deliver an accurate foresight model, additional data and modeling details will be required. This will lead to future works as an improvement of the model.

A multi‐perspective analysis and causal models were developed to assess the emerging technologies as a result of the integration. These models can easily be used by decision makers evaluating such technologies. The framework suggests that the diffusion of such emerging technologies like VVoWLAN needs to be planned strategically in order to fully realize the value of the integration opportunities identified in the first step.

The paper provides a framework for assessing emerging technologies in China.