Alfonso Molina

Internet-based tourism services: business issues and trends

Abstract This paper assesses the current state of development among the Internet-based providers of tourism services. The study focuses on leading intermediary businesses and enabling groups: travel agents; specialist service providers; reservation technology providers; and public agencies. In studying some 50 leading web sites, spanning a range of differing groups of intermediaries, we examined how travel agent sites seek to differentiate themselves, how public tourist information bodies are harnessing the Internet, and the role of computer reservation technology providers. We also examined factors shaping the future of the Internet: institutional tensions; competition for end users and investors; and end user expectations. The conclusions highlight a number of implications for the further development of tourism services provision within Europe, where the Internet plays a significant role. For example, the extent and pace of social and economic change that Internet derived information is facilitating.

Insights into the nature of technology diffusion and implementation: the perspective of sociotechnical alignment

Abstract This paper is about the diffusion or implementation of technology in the design process of a microprocessor company. It aims at casting further light on the nature of the processes whereby technologies eventually gain company recognition over (or along with) others. It focuses on the influence of social behavioural factors in the outcome of this process as well as on the role played by the nature of the ‘incoming’ technology and its relation to the company design process. More broadly, it seeks to advance the systematic treatment of these aspects into a unified understanding of intra-company technology diffusion or implementation. The argument deals with the issues through a combination of theoretical analysis and the case study of the British microprocessor company Inmos. It conducts a targeted review of concepts relevant to the nature of implementation, leading to the empirical analysis of a new technology (i.e., formal methods) born in a university environment and later transferred into the design process of Inmo. The discussion uses the authors sociotechnical constituencies approach and treats the industrial diffusion of formal methods as a process of constituency building at an intra-organisational level. Especially relevant to this analysis is the process of sociotechnical alignment underpinning constituency building. The main issues raised by the intra-organisational experience of ‘formal methods’ are discussed.

Understanding the role of the technical in the build-up of sociotechnical constituencies

Abstract This paper aims to advance the systematic understanding of the role of the technical in innovation and technology development. Many studies show explicitly or implicitly that the term technology merely black-boxes the true complexity of an enormous population of specific technologies, each with its own practical implications for technological processes and innovation strategies. The paper signals a direction for future research and lays down the foundations for a generic open-ended taxonomy of technologies designed to help raise the role of the technical in the analysis and practice of innovation. The theoretical case makes use of the authors sociotechnical constituencies approach and includes a selective review of concepts and taxonomic definitions of technologies. The taxonomic instrument is applied to two empirical cases of strategic development of technology—formal methods and microprocessors. A concluding section situates the perspective of the paper within the general relationship between the social and the technical and suggests directions for further research.

Sociotechnical constituencies as processes of alignment: The rise of a large-scale European information technology initiative

Abstract The author discusses the recent emergence of The Open Microprocessor Initiative (OMI), a large-scale European information technology project and draws general lessons from the experience. The target of the initiative, in which many different organizations and nationalities participated, was the development of an autonomous European microprocessor capability. Using the sociotechnical constituencies approach of Organizational Behavior theory, the author describes how initially misaligned players generate the programmatic alignment of a capability-building initiative. He highlights the elements of a process of alignment that gradually and programmatically integrates the attitudes of different organizations, and shapes technology. He uses the concept of diamond of alignment to account for the several directions of social and technical alignments required in the formation of large-scale technological initiatives.

National systems of innovations, industrial clusters and constituency-building in Scotland's electronics industry

This paper is concerned with the development of sustainable industrial capabilities, understood as a countrys ability to shape significantly the content, direction and dynamism of the long-term evolution of target industrial clusters. It purports, on the one hand, to advance the existing theoretical apparatus to deal with the understanding and practice of processes of industrial clusters and innovative capabilities; and, on the other, to implement this theoretical apparatus to the practical experience of electronics cluster fostering in Scotland. The theoretical work focuses on the integration of fundamental insights of industrial clusters and national systems of innovation (NSI) approaches with insights coming from the socio-technical constituencies (STC) approach. The empirical work concentrates on the analysis of the depth and sustainability of Scotlands electronics clustering experience, with particular emphasis on the governance dominating its evolution.

Transforming visionary products into realities: constituency-building and observacting in NewsPad

Abstract In September 1996, NewsPad—one of the first serious prototypes ever of the portable tablet computer went on show during Edinburghs iTV96 Conference. The paper recounts and analyses the NewsPad experience and, simultaneously, tells a story of the explicit implementation of the sociotechnical constituencies theoretical approach to guide and inform the innovation process in highly uncertain conditions. The discussion is structured in short sections from the visions and realities of the portable tablet computer to the successful demonstration of the working NewsPad in Edinburgh.

Issues and challenges in the evolution of multimedia: The case of the newspaper

Abstract This article examines the key issues facing the emergence of multimedia in the newspaper industry. It looks at the underpinning forces coming from both the newspaper industry and the relentless advance in information and communication technologies. The fast growth in the number of newspapers in the Internet is then examined and the major business issues and dilemmas are discussed in detail. The rise of a variety of alliances bears witness to the need to collaborate to reduce the uncertainty of the multimedia newspaper (ad-)ventures.

Sociotechnical alignment in the rise and evolution of a telemedicine constituency in Scotland

The adoption of telematics is proceeding at a painfully slow pace in public administrations and health authorities. This paper tells the story of the emergence and benefits of a telematic-based system in the Scottish health service: telemedicine in Edinburgh and Lothian community maternity care. It looks at the role of visions, the strategies adopted, the role of technology and the tactics implemented to get through the fragile early days, creating new balances of power and favourable conditions for sustained growth. The paper evaluates the impact of the development of a telematic-based system in the Scottish health service and identifies lessons beyond the particularity of the case of maternity care. Copyright , Beech Tree Publishing.

Newspapers: the slow walk to multimedia

Abstract Recently there has been much hype about the development and impact of multimedia on a range of industries. Few studies, however, have examined the developments involved in such a process. This article aims to improve such a situation by reviewing the evolution of multimedia in the newspaper industry. It shows that the bulk of this industry is taking a gradual evolutionary approach to electronic news systems, with the internet emerging as a favourite channel for experimentation. The challenge is the creation of the new world of technical, business and market practices which will realize the promise of multimedia.

Real-time evaluation methodology as learning instrument in high-technology SME support networks

This paper focuses on the philosophy and implementation of an evaluation approach used as a learning instrument in the evolution of a major enterprise support network in the UK Connect Scotland. The Connect real-time evaluation methodology has distinguished and assessed the value flows delivered by the program as perceived by its stakeholders. It has done so not in a post-mortem fashion but in real-time fashion (i.e. during the program), with the aim of capturing strengths and weaknesses and contributing to its further development. The paper discusses the importance of support networks for enterprise development then looks at some of the concepts and limitations facing the evaluation of enterprise support networks. This is followed by a detailed analysis of the real-time evaluation methodology used in Connect Scotland, including an examination of the Connect program itself. The paper then summarises the key results of the value-flows of Connect as perceived by the stakeholders, before ending with a discussion on value for money and key recommendations.