1,721,036 research outputs found
Behavioural Modelling for Sustainability in Smart Homes
Full text linkThis paper explores the critical aspects of behavioural modelling for sustainability in smart homes, emphasising the integration of advanced technologies to enhance energy efficiency, convenience, security, and overall quality of life. Smart homes utilise interconnected devices and sensors to collect detailed data on residents' behaviours, energy usage, and environmental conditions. Predictive analytics, leveraging machine learning algorithms and data mining techniques, optimises home systems by anticipating residents' needs and promoting efficient energy use. Behavioural interventions, such as real-time feedback, automation, incentives, and nudges, influence residents' actions toward more sustainable practices. However, privacy concerns about data collection, unauthorised access, and data misuse present challenges. Addressing these issues through robust security measures, transparent policies, and user education is crucial. Additionally, promoting adoption and user engagement requires highlighting the perceived benefits, affordability, ease of use, and trusted brands while overcoming barriers like privacy concerns, technological complexity, and lack of awareness. Practical strategies to enhance adoption and engagement include education campaigns, financial incentives, user-friendly design, robust customer support, and community building. By addressing these factors, smart home technologies can become integral to modern living, contributing to a more sustainable and efficient future. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the current and future directions in smart home sustainability, highlighting the interplay between technology, policy, and user engagement to shape research directions and foster a sustainable and efficient future
Exploratory Innovation in Family-Owned Firms: The Moderating Role of Digital Search
No full textFamily firm research agrees that family involvement in ownership gives rise to idiosyncratic innovation behaviors. However, whether family ownership fosters or hampers innovation is still debated because the distinction among the types of innovation outcomes has been often overlooked. To address this gap, we focus on exploratory innovation intensity as innovation outcome (i.e., the ratio between exploratory innovations and all the innovations developed by a firm) to improve our understanding of the family ownership-innovation relationship. Rooted in socioemotional wealth and social capital theories, our arguments posit that family ownership negatively influences exploratory innovation intensity. Recalling the literature on search and recombination, we further propose that this relationship is positively moderated when family-owned firms rely more heavily on digital, information and communication technologies (ICT) related knowledge components during the innovation process (i.e., on a digital search). A panel data analysis of 504 US public limited companies supports both our hypotheses. This article responds to calls for distinguishing exploitative and exploratory innovation outcomes in family firm research. Furthermore, it adds to the digital innovation research by studying the role of digital search as a contingency factor in the pursuit of exploratory innovations and, relatedly, contributes to the literature on search and recombination by underlying that the ICT domain is a relevant search space where to search knowledge to innovate
A knowledge-based perspective on transgenerational entrepreneurship: unveiling knowledge dynamics across generations in family firms
No full textPurpose: Given the limited understanding of the process of transgenerational entrepreneurship and that knowledge is a fundamental antecedent of entrepreneurial endeavors, this study aims to shed light on how entrepreneurial families (EFs) nurture entrepreneurship across generations, which knowledge is required within the EF to spur new entrepreneurial activities, and how is this knowledge acquired. Design/methodology/approach: Considering the paucity of empirical evidence on the topic under investigation and the related exploratory nature of this study, the authors adopted a qualitative approach by conducting a case study on an Italian wine-making family business. Findings: The case analysis reveals that EF members are required to acquire different types of knowledge at different generational stages to spur new entrepreneurial activities, specifically technical knowledge in the second generation and business knowledge in the third generation. Moreover, the data analysis shows two mechanisms, namely, trust among generations and role separation, that, during both generational transitions, enabled and empowered the younger generations to exploit their knowledge to explore entrepreneurial opportunities and engage in new entrepreneurial activities. Originality/value: This study provides novel insights into the role of knowledge in transgenerational entrepreneurship, particularly looking at knowledge acquired by EF members across generations. Accordingly, this research contributes to the literature streams of transgenerational entrepreneurship, knowledge management in family businesses and broader knowledge management research
Evidence on the Determinants of the Likelihood and Speed of Technological Convergence: A Knowledge Search and Recombination Perspective in Key Enabling Technologies
No full textTechnological convergence is the phenomenon whereby a focal technology, originating in one domain of application, end up as a part of new technologies that pertain to distant domains of application. This phenomenon is assuming increasing relevance due to its potential to create new markets and disrupt existing ones. Therefore, by adopting a search and recombination perspective, we seek to understand if and how the technological search breadth (i.e., the degree of different technological domains characterizing the knowledge base of the focal technology) and the geographical search breadth (i.e., the diversity of the knowledge base available for subsequent inventing activities) influence the likelihood and the speed of technological convergence events. We test our hypotheses on a sample of 135,496 European patents; they are applied between 1990 and 2009 and can be classified as key enabling technologies according to the European Commission. Our analysis shows that the likelihood and speed of technological convergence are positively affected by technological search breadth, negatively affected by the geographical search breadth, and positively affected by the interaction between technological and geographical search breadths
Brokerage dynamics in technology transfer networks: A multi-case study
No full textThis paper examines brokerage dynamics in technology transfer networks (TTNs), i.e., hybrid networks of different actors operating in the transitional area between knowledge and business ecosystems (i.e., innovation ecotones), with research organizations as anchor tenants. This particular type of network is gaining increasing attention. However, despite evidence of the importance of brokerage dynamics for knowledge mobility anchored in science and technology research, three main questions remain open: Who acts as network broker in TTNs? What are their specific functions? What mechanisms do they adopt to support these functions? To answer these questions, we conducted an in-depth multi-case study focusing on three European centers of excellence in scientific research, namely the University of Cambridge (UK), the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (Switzerland), and the Italian Institute of Technology (Italy). We find that institutional actors as well as individuals act as network brokers in TTNs, and that brokerage manifests with varying degrees of formalization related to the TTN's level of maturity. We also identify six network brokerage functions, namely conflict resolution, spreading knowledge, linking idea fragments, connecting problems to solutions, expanding the network, and strengthening the network, and five mechanisms, namely endorsement, mediation, events, antennas, and digital support systems, that support these functions
A tool for IoT Firmware Certification
Full text linkThe rapid growth of the Internet of Things (IoT) has created a fragmented ecosystem, with no clear rules for security and reliability. This lack of standardization makes IoT devices vulnerable to attacks. IoT firmware certification can address these security concerns. It empowers consumers to make informed choices by readily identifying secure products. Additionally, it incentivizes developers to prioritize secure coding practices, ultimately promoting transparency and trust within the IoT ecosystem. Several existing IoT device certifications (e.g. Cybersecurity Assurance Program, British Standards Institution, ioXt Alliance) prioritise cybersecurity through risk and vulnerability assessments. This paper proposes a complementary approach. Our tool focuses on identifying firmware functionality by analysing system calls through static analysis. This allows to publicly identify APIs to assess the actual behaviour of a firmware. The analysis culminates in the generation of JSON manifests, which encapsulate the relevant information gathered during the case study. In particular, this analysis verifies whether the actual behaviour is in line with the developer's statements about the device's functionality, contributing to the security and reliability of a device. To evaluate tool's performance, we conducted a benchmarking analysis which has demonstrated efficient handling of binaries written in various languages, even those with large file sizes. Future will be based on refining the API search and syscall collection algorithms, other than incorporating vulnerability analysis to further strengthen the security of an IoT device
Scoping the state of the sharing economy and its antecedents at the country level: Cross-country differences in Europe
No full textRecent technological advances have contributed to the rise of a new economic paradigm, the so-called sharing economy (SE), where peer-to-peer digital platforms allow individuals to temporarily share their assets. It has involved several industrial sectors generating significant economic impacts worldwide and attracting interest of the academic community. Much emphasis has been put on studying the conditions affecting its growth or establishment. However, these studies have been focused on one or few sectors, or on specific platforms. Moreover, most studies have mainly investigated factors affecting the participation in these platforms at the individual (i.e., user) level even if it has been hinted that the institutional context (i.e., cities or countries) may also affect the state of a SE model. As a result, there is much knowledge about micro-level factors explaining the state of SE, but a comprehensive macro-level analysis is still overlooked. Thus, we aim to fill this gap by performing an empirical analysis on European countries to scope the state of SE and its institutional antecedents
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Understanding the development trends of low-carbon energy technologies: A patent analysis
No full textEco-innovations are being recognized as fundamental means to foster sustainable development, as well as to create new business opportunities. Nowadays, the eco-innovation concept is gaining ground within both academic and practitioner studies with the attempt to better understand the main dynamics underlying its nature and guide policymakers and companies in supporting its development. This paper contributes to the extant literature on eco-innovation by providing a comprehensive overview of the evolution of a specific type of eco-innovations that are playing a crucial role in the current socio-economic agenda, namely low-carbon energy technologies. Accordingly, we focus our attention on the related patenting activity of different countries and organizations over time, as well as on influencing policy initiatives and events. Hence, we collected 131,661 patents granted at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (U.S.PTO.) between 1971 and 2010, and belonging to the "Nuclear power generation", "Alternative energy production", and "Energy conservation" technological classes, as indicated by the International Patent Classification (IPC) Green Inventory. Our findings report the development trends of low-carbon energy technologies, as well as identify major related environmental programs, historical events, and private sector initiatives explaining those trends, hence revealing how these different circumstances have significantly influenced their development over time
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