Lidwien van de Wijngaert

Effectiveness and efficiency of RFID technology in supply chain management: strategic values and challenges

In this study, we examine the fundamental components of RFID technology in a comprehensive supply chain strategy that directly support the effectiveness and efficiency of supply chain management. We examine the appropriate business processes affected by the RFID technology, the required planning and examination for successful implementation, and many potential impacts on effectiveness and efficiency of supply chain management. We emphasize on business values and strategic advantages of RFID technology as well as the challenges and recommendations in adoption of the technology particularly when a company extends its supply chain to upstream suppliers and downstream customers, as their external integration needs to gain in capacity planning and in efficiency. Using four major supply chain processes, we highlight economic opportunities and challenges when planning and implementing RFID technology within an existing supply chain framework. We will focus on the capabilities of RFID in providing security, privacy, and integrity of supply chain processes while facilitating sharing information with upstream suppliers and downstream customers, developing alliances, establishing strategic alliances, and gaining competitive advantages.

Would you share? Predicting the potential use of a new technology

In this paper, we describe the case of wireless grids, an emerging technology that enables ad hoc sharing of resources (such as screen, signal and microphone) on edge devices (such as PDAs, laptops and mobile phones). We look at the circumstances under which people are willing to share the resources on their edge devices using a technology with which they are not yet familiar. We collected data among students from a University in the North-Eastern USA (N=284) through a policy capturing design (also known as factorial design or conjoint measurement), and analyzed the information via multilevel regression analysis. This approach allowed us to explore factors that explain the use of emerging peer-to-peer technologies among consumers as well as context-related characteristics. Context-related characteristics, in particular trust in communication partners, explain the willingness to share and, consequently, the use of wireless grids.

Wireless Grids: Assessing a New Technology from a User Perspective

The objective of this paper is to assess the value of wireless grids from the perspective of users. In a ubiquitous information environment, wireless grids allow the ad hoc sharing of resources (e.g., microphones, screens, processing power) of edge devices (e.g., mobile phone, laptop, PDA). Wireless grids are one of the emerging wireless communication concepts that have been developed in university and industry research laboratories. So far, literature about wireless grids has tackled some of the technical and policy issues about the technology. This paper provides the first empirical study about wireless grid technology from the user perspective.

'I Want My HDTV'? Underlying Factors of Perceived Usefulness for High Definition Television

While traditional technology acceptance models concentrate on relationships between usefulness and acceptance, they leave unresolved the questions about why a certain technology is found useful, in which contexts, and by whom. This paper presents an empirical study of some of the factors behind perceived usefulness of HDTV in the Netherlands, where the adoption process has just begun. Results show that HDTV awareness, knowledge about HDTV, daily television viewing habits, household innovativeness and the presence of digital television contribute to perceived usefulness of HDTV characteristics. They also demonstrate that these characteristics accord with Dutch viewer demands for future television.

White spots and black holes: developing a conceptual model for broadband rollout

Purpose – The purpose of this research is to create insight into the way technological, economic or regulatory factors affect broadband rollout in the local loop with the objective of developing a conceptual model that will help us gain insight into critical relationships between these factors and the decision to broadband infrastructure investments, implementation and broadband rollout in the local loop.Design/methodology/approach – To develop a conceptual framework the study used three research methods. A meta‐analysis was conducted to collect and analyze relevant existing literature that discusses broadband rollout in the local loop. Content analysis was used to analyze hypothesis and propositions and network analysis was used to analyze the data extracted from the literature.Findings – The network found provides a valid picture of the complexity involved in broadband rollout. The combination of research methods used has resulted in an approach that is both practical and robust when it comes to describ...

The emperor's clothes in high resolution: An experimental study of the framing effect and the diffusion of HDTV

In this article, an experiment was conducted to measure the effect of framing a high definition television (HDTV) clip. One group of participants was told they were watching a brand new HDTV clip, while the other group was told they were watching a digital DVD clip. Both groups were in fact watching the same (low) quality DVD clip. After watching this clip, the beliefs of the participants and their viewing experiences were measured via a questionnaire. The people framed to watch the HDTV clip were found to have a significantly more positive viewing experience. This shows that participants were unable to discriminate properly between digital and high definition signals but were influenced by the frame set for them. This effect has been shown in many different situations, and has now been established when watching HD-quality television as well. The results still indicate that the HDTV-frame is already associated with a high-quality viewing experience, which may influence the selling strategy and/or speed in the adoption of this technology. In the following discussion we will pay attention to the different ways in which HDTV can be framed in the media.

Ad hoc Networking and Grid Computing from the perspective of the user: The case of screen sharing using Wireless Grids

Recent developments in ad hoc and personal networking as well as grid computing have resulted in a range of new applications. In this paper we examine one of these applications from the perspective of its potential users. During a two week field trial a group of 24 high school students were able to use the ad hoc screen sharing application based on Wireless Grids technology. Results show that although students express a general belief in new technologies, they are also reluctant to use it when it comes to their personal situation. For the further development of applications in this area this means that developers should focus on applications that run within a trusted context and/or hide these applications in the lower levels of the protocol stack.

What You Expect Is What You See

In this paper an experiment was conducted to measure the effect of framing a high definition television (HDTV) clip. One group of participants was told they were watching a brand new HDTV clip while the other group was told they were watching a digital DVD clip. Both groups were in fact watching the same (low) quality DVD clip. After watching this clip the beliefs of participants and their viewing experience was measured through a questionnaire. A significant more positive viewing experience for people framed to watch the HDTV clip was found. This means participants were unable to discriminate properly between digital and high definition signals and were influenced by the frame set for them. This effect has been shown in many different situations and now it has been established for watching HD-quality television as well. The results still indicate that the HDTV-frame is already associated with a high quality viewing experience, which may influence the selling strategy and/or adoption speed of this technology.