Low technology

Abstract: IntroductionOver three decades ago, Collier (1983) heralded the demise of the industrial revolution at the hands of robotics and computerised manufacturing. His examples included pneumatic delivery, automated teller machines, phone answering machines and automated hotel elevators. His prediction of a 32-hour work week by 2000, alas, has yet to come true in most countries.Much work across diverse areas examines the diffusion-that is, the adoption and implement-tation-of new technology at both the organisational and individual level (Rogers, 2003). For example, one early conceptual framework addressing diffusion at the individual level suggested the less advanced the technology, the higher the customer contact (Walley & Amin, 1994). The authors noted that vending machines were low technology but high customer contact. A travel agency IT system however, had high technology but the customer had no capability for direct contact with that technology.Research in service marketing, such as travel IT system interfaces, has been particularly concerned with technology diffusion and its impact on customers (see Kim, Wang, & Malthouse, 2015; Lam & Shankar, 2014 for two recent examples). Service scholars developed the paradigm of eService-providing customer service over electronic networks (Rust & Kannan, 2003, p. 38)-and its impact on the customers (e. g., Collier & Bienstock, 2006; Fassnacht & Koese, 2006; Parasuraman, Zeithaml, & Malhotra, 2005). Almost all eService studies, whether looking at adoption or implementation, focus on software that runs on an inert device such as a desktop computer or a mobile phone. Little in the tourism and hospitality literature or for that matter the service literature in general, examines service delivered by robotic devices.Why should a science fiction phenomenon, which most probably lies only at the margin of today's economy, concern tourism and hospitality academics? In their book The Second Machine Age, Brynjolfsson, McAfee and Cummings (2014) underscore that informa-tion technology cost effectiveness increases exponentially. The capabilities in the simple robots of today will double, and double again every couple of years, assuming that Moore's Law remains in force. Artificial intelligence, sensing, actuator and power technology advances should fuel a robotics explosion comparable to what microprocessors did for computing three decades ago (Touretzky, 2010).A year after Collier's (1983) predictions, a study challenged hospitality educators to consider advanced technology, particularly robots, in their classes and their research (Andrew, 1984). Scholars should examine customer acceptance of robots in foodservice and robots' impacts on the work environment, management training, facility design and bottom line. The objective of this manuscript is to nudge hospitality and tourism academics, again, to think about the applications and subsequent implications of robot delivered service. As such, the paper begins with an overview of the robotics literature, followed by a renewed and extended challenge to hospitality and tourism academics to consider robotics in their classes and research.Literature ReviewThe Rise of the RobotsThe industrial age, science fiction books in the 1800s, and a play in the early 1900s laid the groundwork for the modern concept of robots. Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein, first published anonymously in 1818, conjured gruesome images of combining body parts into a sentient being. Half a century later, Jules Verne introduced a steam-powered mechanical elephant in The Steam House. Then in 1921, the Czech Karel Capek's (2001) play Rossum's Universal Robots introduced the term 'robot'-robuta in Czech, translated as forced labor-and the eventual extinction of the human race at the hands of robots.Today, robotic applications abound in manufac-turing, inside and outside the home, medicine, entertainment, the military and law enforcement and various other applications (Thrun, 2004; Vaussard et al. …

Abstract: Innovation facilitates how SMEs respond to market changes and maintain their competitive advantage. This paper analyses the relationship between the degree of innovation (measured as innovation in products, processes and administration systems) and performance among 1,091 Spanish manufacturing SMEs. The results show that innovation positively impacts SMEs performance in low and high technology industries. Innovation was more important to achieving a competitive advantage to high technology firms than low technology firms. These results support innovation as being important to a firm's sustainable competitive advantage.