255 research outputs found
Partner choice and timing of first marriage among the children of immigrants in Norway and Sweden
No full textUsing population register data from Norway (N = 209,532) and Sweden (N = 592,491), this study addressed the relationship between partner choice and the timing of first marriage. We considered all migrant background individuals born between 1972 and 1989, who were either native-born or who immigrated prior to age 18, relative to 10% random samples of the majority populations. Results demonstrate that marital timing patterns of migrant background individuals who married exogamously (i.e., with a majority background spouse or across their global region of origin) were more similar to the majority populations than among those who married endogamously (i.e., with another migrant background individual originating in the same global region). However, among immigrant background individuals who endogamously married, there was evidence of a shift toward the Scandinavian pattern of later marriage across generations. Taken together results provide an important starting point for investigations into the family life courses and social position of children of immigrants in Europe, an increasingly large population subgroup currently entering family formation ages
An exploration of necessary conditions for standard success for complex systems
No full textMany markets are characterized by increasing returns to adoption and, often, in such markets standards battles are fought (Suarez, 2004; Schilling 1998; Van de Kaa 2011). Literature on standards selection predominantly focuses on standards that are part of a new single product or system, such as the internet or a telecommunications network (Bekkers 2002; Funk 2002). In this paper we explore factors for standard dominance for systems that connect multiple already existing subsystems and new subsystems to form a new system. We conduct an analysis of six standards battles for complex systems that have been reported in the literature and find three necessary conditions for standard success for complex systems; technological superiority, network diversity and stakeholder commitment. We contribute to the ongoing research on standards battles by studying success factors for standards for complex systems. Practitioners that are involved in developing standards for such systems can utilize the results from this research in their strategies.Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.Economics of Technology and Innovatio
Exploring necessary conditions for standard success for complex systems
No full textMany markets are characterized by increasing returns to adoption and, often, in such markets standards battles are fought (Suarez, 2004; Schilling 1998; Van de Kaa 2011). Literature on standards selection predominantly focuses on standards that are part of a new single product or system, such as the internet or a telecommunications network (Bekkers 2002; Funk 2002). In this paper we explore factors for standard dominance for systems that connect multiple already existing subsystems and new subsystems to form a new system. We conduct an analysis of six standards battles for complex systems that have been reported in the literature and find three necessary conditions for standard success for complex systems; technological superiority, network diversity and stakeholder commitment. We contribute to the ongoing research on standards battles by studying success factors for standards for complex systems. Practitioners that are involved in developing standards for such systems can utilize the results from this research in their strategies.Economics of Technology and Innovatio
An analysis of Timmermans’ critique of Prospect Theory
No full textIn the European Journal of Transport and Infrastructure Research (EJTIR) Timmermans (2010) discussed the suitability of Prospect Theory for travel behaviour research. In that article appeared an assertion, about the explanatory performance of Prospect Theory with respect to choices in the TV game ‘Deal or no Deal’, which was not true. A thorough examination revealed more untruthful assertions and also inaccuracies in the references, fallacies and selective use of empirical evidence. This working paper offers an extensive documentation of the analysis. A summary was published in EJTIR [Van de Kaa, E.J. (2012) . Timmermans’ misleading critique of Prospect Theory actually supports its relevance for travel choice modelling. EJTIR 12 (4): 440-458]. The same issue of EJTIR contains Timmermans’ rejoinder. In the preface of this working paper I summarize the main findings while taking Timmermans' rejoinder into account. It shows that Timmermans’ criticism is unjust and that the references that underlie it, in connection with findings from other reviews, actually support the suitability of Prospect Theory for travel choice modelling. The "nabeschouwing" provides a summary in Dutch of the main findings.Infrastructures, Systems and ServicesTechnology, Policy and Managemen
On the origin of the river name Kaa-khem and the appellative form ‘khem’ (river)
No full textThe article analyses the problems of the origin of the river name Kaa-khem, which is one of the headwaters of the river Yenisei, and an identification of a linguistic affiliation of the word ‘khem’, acting as a suffix with the meaning "river" in river names. Such type of toponyms with a root or affix ‘khem/hem’ are typical only for the territory of Tuva; appearing rarely in Turkic languages of Southern Siberia, outside of Siberia the word ‘khem’ (river) is completely unknown.
The river Yenisei which Tuvans called Ulug-Khem, ‘big river’, had had a number of different names in earlier sources, but all of them meant the same, ‘big river’. Such were its Ketic names of Hizes ~ Hezes and the hydronym Kaa-khem, which contained the Ketic root Kja – “big”.
According to linguists, the word ‘khem’ (river) appears in Tuvan, Khakass, and Tofalar languages (Turkic), as well as in Kottic language (an extinct language from the Yenisei group). The author of the article shows that the origins of the name in fact lie in Samoyed languages, where the Nenets word ‘хӑмдь’ (cliff, steep slope) precisely describes the relief of the banks of Tuvan rivers
What is the strategic feasibility of NFC mobile payments in the Netherlands? How the individual strategies of stakeholders affect the NFC mobile payment ecosystem as a whole
No full textIn this report the strategic feasibility of NFC mobile payments services in the Netherlands has been assessed. Near Field Communications (NFC) is the enabling technology for proximity mobile payments, which forms the focus of this research. The primary goal was to assess the influence of strategies of individual organizations on the NFC ecosystem as a whole, since collaboration between different stakeholder groups is required in order to deliver an NFC mobile payment service to consumers. As a result, the strategic feasibility has been defined. During this qualitative research grounded theory has been applied in order to find and understand the relevant concepts that define whether NFC mobile payments are feasible in the Dutch market. The research question of this report is: “What is the strategic feasibility of NFC mobile payments in the Netherlands and how do strategies of individual organisations involved affect the NFC ecosystem as a whole?” NB: This version can only be used by participants of this research. Distribution is only allowed after approval of the host institution of the graduate student. Please contact the author of this report.Management of TechnologyInformation & Communication TechnologyTechnology, Policy and Managemen
Social acceptance of smart meters
No full textThe introduction of intelligent meters - smart meters - to the electricity infrastructure should provide the grid intelligence the ability to cope with challenges and changes; thus, it is named smart grid (Verbong et al., 2013). We have learned that the smart grid system is a complex product system because its technologies, components and interfaces are interdependent; hence, the smart meter as its key node is a complex product (Ligtvoet et al., 2015; Suarez, 2004). However, the societal rejection of smart meters detains the introduction of smart meters in the Netherlands. Societal rejection results from a lack of consideration of social ethical values and conflicting values in society (Künneke et al., 2015). The research objective is to determine the most important values for the social acceptance of smart meters and formulate design requirements that facilitate its social acceptance in the Netherlands. We have reviewed social acceptance literature, finding multiple studies (Künneke, Mehos, Hillerbrand, & Hemmes, 2015; Ligtvoet et al., 2015; Narayanan & Chen, 2012; Shin, Kim, & Hwang, 2015) stating that a complex technology such as the smart meter should be assessed from multiple perspectives. We build our concept on the social acceptance concept of Wüstenhagen et al. (2007), adapting the dimensions to socio-political, market and household acceptance, which represent the important stakeholder groups for smart meters. Literature regarding each group of stakeholders’ acceptance was analyzed to derive and define their values, namely energy policy, network economics, technology management, technology acceptance, applied ethics and ethics of technology literature stream (see Appendix 1). Our multidisciplinary approach to analyze the acceptance and selection of a complex technology is a first notion and our theoretical contribution. This framework for the social acceptance of smart meters enables utilizing experts representing and possessing insights into the group of stakeholders to evaluate the importance of the values. After a qualitative validation of the values, the best-worst method (Rezaei, 2015) was utilized to evaluate the importance of the values, which is a first notion to measure the importance of the values with this method, our methodological contribution. Three experts performed the qualitative validation of the values. The evaluation of the values with the best-worst method was conducted with ten experts for smart meters and showed privacy as the most important value for socio-political and household acceptance, as well as cost-effectiveness for market acceptance of smart meters. Due to different regulation about privacy, there was no socio-political acceptance for smart meters (Bellantuono, 2014; Cuijpers & Koops, 2013; Ligtvoet et al., 2015). Several scholars have stated that for end users of smart meters, privacy is particularly important (AlAbdulkarim et al., 2014; Cuijpers & Koops, 2013; Darby, 2012; Verbong et al., 2013). On the other hand, cost effectiveness depends on the size of the market (Erlinghagen et al. 2014), the installed base of smart meters (Van de Kaa et al. 2011), which requires the acceptance of the end users and their importance for privacy. The value hierarchy approach enables to formulate design requirements based on values. We demonstrate how design requirements can be formulated based on the value privacy. These design requirements should foster the social acceptance of the smart meters, although it is limited due the conflict with the other important value of cost effectiveness. Hence, the design requirements should be analyzed and evaluated with the other important values by the groups of stakeholders for acceptance. Further studies should segment the groups of stakeholder (e.g. different end user groups) to analyze their important values, which enables creating service and incentive mechanisms for a particular group of stakeholders. Moreover, other complex products and other regions should be analyzed with our multidisciplinary approach, which would enable us to generalize our approach.Management of TechnologyInnovation SystemsTechnology, Policy and Managemen
The Emergence of De Facto Standards: The value of integrative frameworks in the analysis of standards battles
No full textUsually, no particular framework is used in the analysis of standards battles. Such an approach is good for the discovery of new knowledge, but it cannot reliably lead to a comprehensive analysis of a standards battle. The comprehensiveness of an analysis of a standards battle is currently very dependent on the knowledge and expertise of the researcher. In this thesis we propose to use integrative frameworks for standards battles in the analysis of standards battles. By performing an analysis of the VCR standards battle with a model where we integrate the main aspects of current integrative frameworks for standards battle we showed that this approach can provide valuable new insights that have previously been overlooked. A deductive content analysis of the literature on the VCR standards battle showed that some factors of our model were rarely or not at all mentioned in previous publications on the VCR standards battle. This indicated that an integrative framework could discover new aspects of the VCR standards battle that have previously been overlooked. Through interviews we tried to verify whether or not these “missing” factors were indications of actual gaps in the knowledge on the VCR standards battle. We found that three factors were completely overlooked and the relevance of two factors was underestimated in previous analyses of the VCR standards battle. Moreover, we found that design philosophy was also relevant in the VCR standards battle. This factor was previously not mentioned in any publications on the VCR standards battle nor in any of the integrative frameworks. To analyze this new factor in more depth we borrowed concepts from the field of moral philosophy, more specifically the field of human values. This resulted in a first illustration of the integration of ethics in the analysis of standards battles. The final result of our analysis provides a more comprehensive explanation of the emergence of VHS as a dominant standard and also explains the demise of the competing standards, Betamax and V2000, in more detail than previous publications.Management of TechnologyValues, Technology and InnovationTechnology, Policy and Managemen
Commercial success factors for startups: A comparative case study research exploring commercial success factors for Dutch startups in the sustainable energy industry
No full textTechnology, Policy and ManagementManagement of Technolog
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