The Internet has transformed economic activities in many important ways over the past two decades. This study examines the role of the Internet in narrowing the gender gap in entrepreneurship. ...Building on the assumptions that the Internet facilitates information transmission and breaks down information barriers for aspiring entrepreneurs, the study hypothesizes that (a) the Internet narrows the gender gap in the probability of entrepreneurship, and (b) the gender gap–mitigating effect of the Internet is stronger for the more disadvantaged members of society. These hypotheses are tested with six waves of data from the China Family Panel Studies, a nationally representative longitudinal survey series from 2010 to 2020. Empirical evidence based on the analysis of 25,177 individuals confirms that Internet use is associated with a narrower gender gap in entrepreneurship. In addition, the gender gap–mitigating effect of the Internet is stronger for less educated individuals and those who live in regions with a lower level of gender equality. The gender gap–mitigating effect of the Internet is also stronger for informal (rather than formal) entrepreneurship. The Internet appears to have a democratizing effect by facilitating entrepreneurship among the more socially and economically disadvantaged subsets of society.
•Internet-use helps mitigate gender gap in the probability of entrepreneurship.•The gender gap-mitigating effect of the Internet is stronger among the less-educated sub-population.•The gender gap-mitigating effect of the Internet is stronger among individuals in regions of lower gender equality.•The gender gap-mitigating effect of the Internet is stronger for informal entrepreneurship than formal entrepreneurship.
Social distancing is considered a key mechanism in the global effort to slow the spread of COVID-19. However, social distancing may inadvertently lead to social isolation and exacerbate loneliness. ...Internet-based communication such as videoconferencing has replaced many formerly physical interactions. However, internet access, proficiency, and online social networks are not equally distributed across society. Older adults are particularly vulnerable as they are less likely to engage online and most susceptible to COVID-19. We must take this opportunity to strengthen social bonds while physically distancing and support the development of blended communities.
Current progress in wearable and implanted health monitoring technologies has strong potential to alter the future of healthcare services by enabling ubiquitous monitoring of patients. A typical ...health monitoring system consists of a network of wearable or implanted sensors that constantly monitor physiological parameters. Collected data are relayed using existing wireless communication protocols to a base station for additional processing. This article provides researchers with information to compare the existing low-power communication technologies that can potentially support the rapid development and deployment of WBAN systems, and mainly focuses on remote monitoring of elderly or chronically ill patients in residential environments.
•Importance and frequency of remote online activities significantly increased due to COVID-19.•Increased importance of telework, teleconferencing, e-learning, e-shopping, and telehealth contributed ...to changes in urban mobility.•Frequency of telework, teleconferencing, e-learning, and video calls substantially increased.•Telehealth and e-shopping modestly increased during COVID-19, while online dating remained stable.•Internet, social media, and smartphones were used daily both before and during COVID-19.
This study provides new evidence on changes in a range of online activities due to the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. Online activities replaced physical participation in activities and contributed to changes in urban mobility during the pandemic. Using data from a nationwide survey in Greece, the paper examines changes in the importance and the frequency of engaging in online activities before and during COVID-19. Findings show that both the importance and the frequency of engaging in telework, teleconferencing, online learning (e-learning), telehealth, and online shopping (e-shopping) significantly increased during COVID-19 compared to pre-COVID-19. Substantial increases in importance were reported for telework (31% increase), teleconferencing (34% increase), online learning (34% increase), and telehealth (21% increase). Those who, on a daily basis, teleworked, teleconferenced, and made video calls with family or friends quadrupled during COVID-19, while daily online learners increased seven-fold. Telehealth and online shopping also increased but more modestly. Urban mobility in the post-COVID-19 era is likely to depend on the degree of prevalence and acceptance of these remote online activities, together with a set of complex and interconnected factors related to urban form, the spatial planning and decision-making system, and social awareness about the future of cities.
Reassembling the city through Instagram Boy, John D; Uitermark, Justus
Transactions - Institute of British Geographers (1965),
December 2017, Letnik:
42, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
How do people represent the city on social media? And how do these representations feed back into people's uses of the city? To answer these questions, we develop a relational approach that relies on ...a combination of qualitative methods and network analysis. Based on in-depth interviews and a dataset of over 400 000 geotagged Instagram posts from Amsterdam, we analyse how the city is reassembled on and through the platform. By selectively drawing on the city, users of the platform elevate exclusive and avant-garde establishments and events, which come to stand out as hot spots, while rendering mundane and low-status places invisible. We find that Instagram provides a space for the segmentation of users into subcultural groups that mobilise the city in varied ways. Social media practices, our findings suggest, feed on as well as perpetuate socio-spatial inequalities.
Internet of Things in Industries: A Survey Xu, Li Da; He, Wu; Li, Shancang
IEEE transactions on industrial informatics,
2014-Nov., 2014-11-00, 20141101, Letnik:
10, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Internet of Things (IoT) has provided a promising opportunity to build powerful industrial systems and applications by leveraging the growing ubiquity of radio-frequency identification (RFID), and ...wireless, mobile, and sensor devices. A wide range of industrial IoT applications have been developed and deployed in recent years. In an effort to understand the development of IoT in industries, this paper reviews the current research of IoT, key enabling technologies, major IoT applications in industries, and identifies research trends and challenges. A main contribution of this review paper is that it summarizes the current state-of-the-art IoT in industries systematically.
More than 40 percent of the world’s population has access to the internet, with new users coming online every day. Among the poorest 20 percent of households, nearly 7 out of 10 have a mobile phone. ...This report finds that traditional development challenges are preventing the digital revolution from fulfilling its transformative potential. For many people, today’s increase in access to digital technologies brings more choice and greater convenience. While this is great progress, many are still left out because they do not have access to digital technologies. To deliver universal digital access, one must invest in infrastructure and pursue reforms that bring greater competition to telecommunications markets, promote public-private partnerships, and yield effective regulation. The report concludes that the full benefits of the information and communications transformation will not be realized unless countries continue to improve their business climate, invest in people’s education and health, and promote good governance. The World Bank Group are already working with clients to promote competitive business environments, increase accountability, and upgrade education and skills-development systems to prepare people for the jobs of the future.
Despite the increasing use of digital technology in industrial production, how industrial digitalization affects the environmental performance of production activities remains unclear. This research ...contributes to the literature on the relationship between industrial digitalization and enterprise environmental performance by employing a large sample of Chinese manufacturing enterprises. Results indicate that the environmental performance of manufacturing enterprises has been significantly improved in the process of industrial digital transformation. Structural and technology effects are the transmission channels; additionally, structural effect is the main contributor to the positive environmental effects of information and communications technology (ICT) penetration. Industrial digitalization reduces the production scale of heavy-polluting enterprises and improves product innovation and green total factor productivity, but it has an insignificant effect on total factor productivity. Moreover, industrial digitalization improves enterprise environmental performance by introducing front-end cleaner production technologies, rather than by increasing pipe-end pollutant treatment facilities.
In recent years, there have been many studies evaluating the effects of ICT-based interventions for addictive behaviors. However, as one kind of complex intervention, a systematic evaluation of the ...validity of dimensions across hierarchical levels is lacking.
The aim of this review was to summarize findings from systematic reviews that evaluated the effectiveness of ICT-based interventions for addictive behaviors.
Six electronic databases were searched. All included systematic reviews were checked for quality using the Assessment of Multiple Systematic Reviews tool. We categorized and summarized the findings based on the type of addictive behaviors, types of interventions, and effects.
Forty-eight reviews were included. Interventions were identified and classified into four categories: interventions based on theories; multicomponent interventions; internet interventions (unclassified) and stand-alone mobile phone-based interventions. Internet interventions based on cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) can reduce obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) symptoms and alcohol consumption. Telephone counseling and text message intervention support improve smoking cessation.
Internet intervention based on CBT is effective in reducing OCD symptoms and alcohol consumption. Telephone counseling and text message intervention have a positive impact in reducing smoking cessation rates. ICT-based interventions targeting other addictive behaviors remain under-examined, warranting considerable additional research to assess their effectiveness.
•Inconsistent effects of ICT based interventions for addictive behaviors.•This umbrella review summarized the effect of ICT for addictive behaviors.•ICT based interventions seem promising at reducing addiction behaviors.
•The first systematic literature review on the digitalization-OA relationships.•Uses the dynamic capabilities’ lenses to achieve a holistic understanding of the current and future research ...pathways.•Paves the way for a new corpus of studies investigating the co-evolutionary interconnections between digitalization and OA.•Stimulates a new managerial two-way thinking approach to the digitalization-OA relationships.•Three main thematic clusters are discovered and thirteen new research and managerial perspectives are developed.
This study is the first to provide a systematic review of the literature focused on the relationship between digitalization and organizational agility (OA). It applies the bibliographic coupling method to 171 peer-reviewed contributions published by 30 June 2021. It uses the digitalization perspective to investigate the enablers, barriers and benefits of processes aimed at providing firms with the agility required to effectively face increasingly turbulent environments. Three different, though interconnected, thematic clusters are discovered and analysed, respectively focusing on big-data analytic capabilities as crucial drivers of OA, the relationship between digitalization and agility at a supply chain level, and the role of information technology capabilities in improving OA. By adopting a dynamic capabilities perspective, this study overcomes the traditional view, which mainly considers digital capabilities enablers of OA, rather than as possible outcomes. Our findings reveal that, in addition to being complex, the relationship between digitalization and OA has a bidirectional character. This study also identifies extant research gaps and develops 13 original research propositions on possible future research pathways and new managerial solutions.
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