The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century Thomas L. Friedman Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005 Thomas Friedman is a widely-acclaimed journalist, foreign affairs columnist for the New York Times, and author of four best-selling books that include From Beirut to Jerusalem (1989). His eminence as a journalist is clearly demonstrated in the way he prepared for The World is Flat. He traveled throughout the world, interviewing in depth the political and business leaders who have the most direct, hands-on knowledge of the truly incredible developments occurring in the business structures and technology of globalization. Only a journalist who moves freely at the highest levels could interview the likes of Sir John Rose, the chief executive of Rolls-Royce; Nobuyuki Idei, the chairman of Sony; Richard Koo, the chief economist for the Nomura Research Institute; Bill Gates of Microsoft; Wee Theng Tan, the president of Intel China; David Baltimore, president of Caltech; Howard Schultz, founder and chairman of Starbucks; Nandan Nilekani, CEO of Infosys in Bangalore - and many others, each of whom gave him the inside story of how, specifically, the barriers of time and space separating economies, workforces, sources of capital, and technical abilities are crumbling. The result of this unfolding story, already far along but with much farther to go, according to Friedman, is that "the world is flat." With some notable exceptions in sub-Saharan Africa and the Islamic swathe, everything is connected with everything else on a horizontal basis, with distance and erstwhile time-lags no longer mattering. Friedman describes in detail the galloping globalization that has unfolded in even so limited a time as the past five years. Under the impetus of a worldwide network of interconnectivity, the world economy is much-changed from what it was at the turn of the century a mere half-decade ago. Friedman quotes the CEO of India's Infosys: "What happened over the last [few] years is that there was a massive investment in technology, especially in the bubble era, when hundreds of millions of dollars were invested in putting broadband connectivity around the world, undersea cables," while (Friedman paraphrases him) "computers became cheaper and dispersed all over the world, and there was an explosion of software - e-mail, search engines like Google, and proprietary software that can chop up any piece of work and send one part to Boston, one part to Bangalore, and one part to Beijing...." Microprocessors today have 410 million transistors compared to the 2800 they had in 1971. And now, "wireless is what will allow you to take everything that has been digitized, made virtual and personal, and do it from anywhere." The effect on productivity is revolutionary: "It now takes Boeing eleven days to build a 737, down from twenty-eight days just a few years ago. Boeing will build the next generation of planes in three days, because all the parts are computer-designed for assembly." The most strikingly informative aspect of this book, however, is not about technology. Most especially, Friedman explores the rapidly evolving global business systems, each constantly regenerating itself to keep ahead of the others. These are systems that span the continents seeking the lowest-cost providers of everything from expert scientific and engineering work to the lowliest grunt work. Friedman points out that India produces 70,000 accounting graduates each year - and that they are willing to start at $100 a month. It is no wonder that Boeing employs 800 Russian scientists and engineers for passenger-plane design when "a U.S. aeronautical engineer costs $120 per design hour, a Russian costs about one-third of that." Friedman describes a call center in India where outbound callers sell "everything from credit cards to phone minutes," while operators taking inbound calls do "everything from tracing lost luggage for U.S. and European airline passengers to solving computer problems for confused American consumers. …

The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century

1. Social Studies of Domestic Information and Communication Technologies Information Technology and Social Change 2. Protraits of American Internet Use: Frindings from the Pew Internet & American Life Project 3. Passing By and Passing Through 4. Older People and New Technologies 5. Information Technology and Family Time Displacement 6. Examining the Impact of Internet Use on TV Viewing: Details Make a Difference 7. The Neutered Computer Technology is Context-Home, Family, and Community 8. The Consumption Junction Revisited: Networks and Contexts 9. Designing the Family Portal for Home Networking 10. Children's Privacy Online: Experimenting with Boundaries Within and Beyond the Family 11. Children's Home Internet Use: Antecedents and Psychological, Social & Academic Consequences 12. Social and Civic Participation in a Community Network New Technology in Teenage Life 13. Teens on the Internet: Interpersonal Connection, Identity, and Information 14. Teenage Communication in the Instant Messaging Era 15. Control, Emancipation, and Status: The Mobile Telephone in the Teen's Parental and Peer Group Control Relationships 16. Intimate Connections: Contextualizing Japanese Youth and Mobile Messaging The Internet and Social Relationships 17. The Internet and Social Interaction: A Meta-analysis and Critique of Studies, 1995-2003 18. Communication Technology and Friendship During the Transition From High School to College 19. Considering the Interactions: The Effects of the Internet on Self and Society 20. Rhythms and Ties: Towards a Pragmatics of Technologically-mediated Sociability

Computers, Phones, and the Internet: Domesticating Information Technology

DESPITE THE RECENT DRAMATIC TRENDS IN THE DIFfusion of information technology, the significance of these developments is still not clear. Also lacking is a critical understanding of these developments and a sound theoretical and empirical base from which to observe and analyze them. Supporting such an analysis, this article raises both empirical and theoretical concerns in an attempt to capture the structure and dynamics of computer adoption and use in the home. Computers and Other Interactive Technologies for the Home A l l a d i V e n k a t e s h

Computers and other interactive technologies for the home : The Internet @ home

The paper takes stock of accumulated knowledge on factors impacting the success of online crowdfunding (CF) campaigns while suggesting opportunities for future research development.,A Systematic Literature Review of 88 academic papers published between 2010 and 2017. Papers were collected from four academic databases and published in 65 different journals. The review addresses issues related to theory, methods, context, findings and gaps. Overall, the paper presents an analysis of 1,718 associations between 111 aggregated independent variables (from 927 variables) with six main aggregated success indicators.,Most research involves quantitative analyses of public data collected from reward-CF platforms. More research is required in equity, lending, donation and other CF contexts. Existing studies are mostly anchored in theories of signaling, social capital and elaboration likelihood. There is a need for wider conceptualization of success beyond financial indicators. And based on aggregated summaries of effects, the paper suggests a series of CF success models, while outlining an agenda for future research.,Studied phenomenon is in its early days of existence, and hence biased by the circumstances of a new industry. Moreover, the current review only covers published journal articles in English.,Findings of factors impacting campaign success can inform fundraisers in building campaigns, as well as platforms in adjusting systems and services toward responsibly enhancing campaign success. Moreover, identified gaps can inform on what has not been sufficiently documented and may be a source of competitive advantage.,A comprehensive review of research on CF success factors at factor level, a coherent agenda for future research development and a series of evidence-based models on most prevalent factors impacting CF success by CF model.

/pdf/crowdfunding-success-a-systematic-literature-review-2010-3u62mn167z.pdf

Crowdfunding success: a systematic literature review 2010–2017

Crowdfunding for sustainability ventures

Online crowdfunding is a popular platform for entrepreneurs to engage consumers by raising funds for creative projects. The purpose of this research was to conceptualize a theoretical framework for crowdfunding appeals and investigate the relationship effect of appeal modes, product, and message characteristics as well as presentation characteristics on donation levels. A stratified random sample of 200 campaigns on Kickstarter.com was analyzed in a regression-based study. Guilt appeals, utilitarian product types, an emotional message frame, and reward tiers were significantly—and positively—related to funding level, measured as a percentage of the funding goals. Entrepreneurs further can use this framework to develop crowdfunding campaigns that can serve as effective marketing tools.

What Really Makes a Promotional Campaign Succeed on a Crowdfunding Platform?: Guilt, Utilitarian Products, Emotional Messaging, And Fewer But Meaningful Rewards Drive Donations

Dynamic Use Diffusion Model in a Cross-National Context: A Comparative Study of the United States, Sweden, and India†

This is intended to assist researchers in employing ethnographic methods in marketing and consumer research. It is our response to the demands of practitioners, students, and academics who want to know more about ethnographic research, but who may not have had a formal training or exposure. Ethnographic research is an instantiation of what is sometimes referred to as interpretive research. Ethnography is increasingly used to explore marketing and consumer issues, designing products, services and systems that improve peopleâ€™s daily lives. We offer a step-by-step approach to conducting ethnography in business and consumer settings with some examples. We also provide a framework and some general principles.

/pdf/ethnography-for-marketing-and-consumer-research-1by3p2q1fl.pdf

Ethnography for Marketing and Consumer Research

The main purpose of the study is to design an interface for family use, the Family Portal, that would address the specific needs of families in the context of their domestic activities and routines. Data were gathered from a select group of families in two stages. First, we gathered information on families' current use of computers. Second, we presented some basic ideas regarding the Family Portal and its characteristics, and obtained detailed reactions and inputs from families as part of our concept testing. As a result of in-depth interviewing, we were able to identify several family-oriented themes concerning computer use. The extensive nature of computer use attests to its growing domestication and integration into the family life. Bearing this in mind, we asked our respondents to consider the Family Portal as an aid to manage various activities that are performed in the family context. There seems to be support for the idea on the basis of a family calendar, event organizer, and other key features. It is also viewed as both reducing and complementing paper-based activity, although families are not willing to give up paper entirely. This suggests some resistance to a total virtual environment in the home. The Family Portal is also viewed as a useful tool for organizing home finances and maintaining financial records. One area of concern is that the families need to be convinced that the Family Portal is in any way better or superior to some existing devices. This will be one main challenge as the concept is put into practice. 3 Introduction The use of information technology at home is a promising area of inquiry among scholars and practitioners (Kraut et al. products such as home Internet appliances, intelligent refrigerators, and WebTV consoles have been released into the market with much promise but somewhat limited success (Bergmann, 2000; Edwards et al., 2003). Despite slow adoption of these home-oriented technologies, commercial interest in introducing information technologies into the home is quite intense. This study reports preliminary findings on ways that the Internet and computer technology could be integrated into the family life. We used a prototype that we call The Family Portal as a tool to help families explore the usability and applicability of home-based information technology. The prototype helped us materialize the concept and define a focal point on which to base our discussion with families. This exercise resulted in findings that we believe …

Designing The Family Portal for Home Networking

http://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/978-3-319-78568-4.pdf

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