Communication Technologies: Societal Perspectives, Strategic Management and Impact on Business [1 ed.] 9781622577699, 9781622577682

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Copyright © 2013. Nova Science Publishers, Incorporated. All rights reserved. Communication Technologies : Societal Perspectives, Strategic Management and Impact on Business, Nova Science Publishers,

Copyright © 2013. Nova Science Publishers, Incorporated. All rights reserved. Communication Technologies : Societal Perspectives, Strategic Management and Impact on Business, Nova Science

MEDIA AND COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGIES, POLICIES AND CHALLENGES

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COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES SOCIETAL PERSPECTIVES, STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT AND IMPACT ON BUSINESS

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Communication Technologies : Societal Perspectives, Strategic Management and Impact on Business, Nova Science

MEDIA AND COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGIES, POLICIES AND CHALLENGES

COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES

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SOCIETAL PERSPECTIVES, STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT AND IMPACT ON BUSINESS ALONSA J. SALAZAR AND

CEDRO JIMENEZ EDITORS

Nova Science Publishers, Inc. New York

Communication Technologies : Societal Perspectives, Strategic Management and Impact on Business, Nova Science

Copyright © 2013 by Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means: electronic, electrostatic, magnetic, tape, mechanical photocopying, recording or otherwise without the written permission of the Publisher. For permission to use material from this book please contact us: Telephone 631-231-7269; Fax 631-231-8175 Web Site: http://www.novapublishers.com

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The Publisher has taken reasonable care in the preparation of this book, but makes no expressed or implied warranty of any kind and assumes no responsibility for any errors or omissions. No liability is assumed for incidental or consequential damages in connection with or arising out of information contained in this book. The Publisher shall not be liable for any special, consequential, or exemplary damages resulting, in whole or in part, from the readers’ use of, or reliance upon, this material. Any parts of this book based on government reports are so indicated and copyright is claimed for those parts to the extent applicable to compilations of such works. Independent verification should be sought for any data, advice or recommendations contained in this book. In addition, no responsibility is assumed by the publisher for any injury and/or damage to persons or property arising from any methods, products, instructions, ideas or otherwise contained in this publication. This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information with regard to the subject matter covered herein. It is sold with the clear understanding that the Publisher is not engaged in rendering legal or any other professional services. If legal or any other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent person should be sought. FROM A DECLARATION OF PARTICIPANTS JOINTLY ADOPTED BY A COMMITTEE OF THE AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION AND A COMMITTEE OF PUBLISHERS. Additional color graphics may be available in the e-book version of this book.

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Communication Technologies : Societal Perspectives, Strategic Management and Impact on Business, Nova Science

CONTENTS vii 

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Preface Chapter 1

Strategic Management in World Class Universities Joni de Almeida Amorim and Oswaldo Luiz Agostinho

Chapter 2

Influence of Information and Communication Technologies Tools on Purchasing Orientation Carmen Camarero, Mª. José Garrido and Rebeca San José

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter5

Technologies That Compel Consumers to Patronize Your Store Irene Gil-Saura, María-Eugenia Ruiz-Molina and David Servera-Francés 

1      25 

  45 

The Using of and Attitudes toward Internet and Information and Communication Technologies in Different Age Groups Milan Kubiatko, Zuzana Halakova, Tibor Nagy  and Sona Nagyova 

65 

A Novel Optoelectronic Switch Array for Communication Network Jian-Chiun Liou

83 

Communication Technologies : Societal Perspectives, Strategic Management and Impact on Business, Nova Science

 

vi Chapter 6

Contents A Study on Factors Affecting the Effective Eco-Driving through a Web-Based Information Provision System Ryosuke Ando, Yasuhide Nishihori and Daisuke Ochi 

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Index

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107 

127 

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PREFACE Information and Communications Technology (ICT) stresses the role of unified communications and the integration of telecommunications (telephone lines and wireless signals), computers as well as necessary enterprise software, middleware, storage, and audio-visual systems, which enable users to create, access, store, transmit, and manipulate information. In this book, the authors examine the societal perspectives, strategic management and impact on business of communications technology. Topics include information and communication technologies in world class universities; ICT used by businesses on purchasing orientation; ICT and their impact on customer patronizing behavior; the using of and attitudes toward ICT in different age groups; optoelectronic switch arrays for communication networks; and factors affecting eco-driving through a web-based information provision system. Chapter 1 – This chapter focuses on strategic management in World Class Universities while considering Information and Communication Technologies. In order to reach an elite status on the basis of international recognition, different methodologies are being researched and implemented worldwide. The intent of this chapter is to describe how Universidade Estadual de Campinas developed its strategic planning using the Balanced Scorecard management system and to present a new research-based methodology for World Class Universities that considers process improvement, process automation and massive use of Information and Communication Technologies. The text fosters a discussion on the many possibilities of business analytics software to support all types of decisions on the perspective of automating the strategy management processes with business intelligence software. Chapter 2 – This work seeks to explore the relation between each of the information and communication technologies tools (ICT) used by businesses

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Alonsa J. Salazar and Cedro Jimenez

when purchasing and the various features of purchase orientation (strategic role of purchasing, role of suppliers, relationship with suppliers as well as efficacy and efficiency). The empirical work is based on an analysis of the information provided by postal survey conducted among 149 Spanish firms. The findings highlight that the use of ICT leads to greater purchase orientation. Moreover, the use of ICT seems to prove more efficient in the first three areas of purchase orientation (strategic role of purchasing, role of suppliers, relationship with suppliers) than in purchase outcomes (efficacy and efficiency). This research provides empirical evidence to support the added value of ICT vis-à-vis their capacity to transform the flow of information inside the firm and the consequences this has for the processes that take place in industrial purchases. All of this leads to better purchase decision-making. Chapter 3 – Rivalry in retailing drives to increasing difficulties at retaining customers. In this context, retailers are investing in information and communication technologies (ICT) in order to improve their operational efficiency and provide added-value services to establish closer bonds with their customers. Notwithstanding, academics warn of the risk of overengineering and highlight the need of investing in those technologies that are suitable for the business. Loyalty towards the store depends to a great extent on service customization, personal communication management and feelings of enjoyment with regards to shopping at the store. Since customer loyalty has been pointed out as one of the most important goals of retailers, the present chapter aims to assess the existence of relationship between the retailers’ use of several ICT solutions and customer loyalty, conceptualized both as an attitudinal and a behavioral construct. In this way, the authors expect to help retailers identify the most suitable technologies to be implemented in their stores in terms of their impact on customer patronizing behavior. Chapter 4 – Nowadays the using of Internet and ICT in the society is very intensive. Many people are using Internet and ICT also at home and in work environment. The using of these tools is in narrow/tight contact with opinion and attitudes toward them. In the academic field and also laic society there is common to observe the dividing/distribution of people into some/several groups according to their using/ relationship to Internet and ICT. Millenium Generation is one of these groups – very specific, because the using of the Internet and ICT there is much different from the others. To the Millenium Generation belong people who were born after the year of 1981. In the authors’ research the most important aim is to compare using of Internet and

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Preface

ix

ICT with the respect to two groups – Millenium Generation (Generation Y) and older people (Generation X). The sample size was created by 266 respondents, with the age between 18 and 57 years. The questionnaire was in e-form and it contained 73 items regarding to using Internet and ICT and attitudes toward them. The items regarding to attitudes were 5-point Likert type items and items regarding to using of Internet and ICT was multiplechoice from 2 to 5 possibilities of an answer. The first part of questionnaire included demographic variables like gender, age, the ownership of PC, etc. The analysis of the data was focused on the finding differences in the using of Internet and ICT and on the basis of this, the methods of inductive statistic like Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) were used. For the determination of reliability was used Cronbach’s alpha coefficient and for the determination of the construct validity was used the exploratory factor analysis. Chapter 5 – The advancement of communication technology and growth of internet traffic have continuously driven the fast evolution of networks. Compared to the traditional optoelectronic switch, all-optical switch provides high throughput, rich routing functionalities, and excellent flexibility for rapid signal exchange in fiber optical network. Among various all-optical switches, thermal actuated ring switch provides the advantages of high accuracy, easy actuation, and reasonable switching speed. However, when scale up, thermal ring switch may encounter issues related to fabrication error, non-accurate wavelength response, and large terminal numbers in the control circuit. Planar-lightwave-circuit switch (PLC-SW), employing thermo-optic (TO) effect of silica glass for light switch, is a very promising technique for communication applications because of low insertion loss, high extinction ratio, long-term stability, and high reliability. There have been many matrix switches designed based on the TO effect with low-loss, polarization insensitive operation, and good fabrication repeatability. For example, 8×8 matrix switches were fabricated by using a single Mach-Zehnder (MZ) switching unit and demonstrated well performance in transmission systems, so as an 8×8 matrix switch and a 16×16 matrix switch by the similar MZ switching unit. 32×four-channel client reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexer on planar lightwave circuit. However, when scaled up, thermal ring switch may encounter issues related to large terminal numbers in the control circuit, fabrication error and non-accurate wavelength response. For example, if conventional driving circuits are employed for a 16×28 or even larger switch array, 448 or more terminals will be required for control. Such a large number of terminals would complicate the module structure and occupy a large area. On the other hand, when a DC-current is applied for balancing

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wavelength offset from fabrication error, the input power will result in a temperature elevation of the neighboring switches, thus changes the related refractive indexes and therefore deviate wavelengths. To solve the aforementioned issues, this chapter proposes a ring resonator with silicon nitride as the core layer and silicon dioxide as the cladding layer was designed and fabricated on silicon substrate, a novel architecture of high selection speed three dimensional (3D) data registration for driving large-array optoelectronic packet switches. The 3D driving architecture can successfully reduce the total numbers of control pads into 31 for 448 switches as well as the scanning time up to 67 % reduction with a higher signal rising speed and smaller circuit area. All the sub-circuits, including power control, digital I/O, analog-to-digital converter, power drivers were integrated into a single IC. On the other hand, instead of DC current control, wavelength lock is realized by amplitude and frequency modulated heating pulses for stabilization of temperature and fine-tune of wavelength from fabrication imperfection and environment fluctuation. This planar-lightwave-circuit has been designed, fabricated, and characterized. It is demonstrated not only the functionality in optical packet switches but also the consistency between simulation and experiment results. In this research, the authors design the tuneable micro ring resonators and propose the employment of an integrated ASIC system CMOS technology control circuit to compensate the fabrication error and tune as well as lock the wavelength in a thermal-actuated ring-type optical switch through a frequency modulation scheme. The use of a standard and commercial CMOS technology for designing micro resonators entails a set of limitations, such as layer thicknesses, and available materials in an inalterable process sequence. From the MEMS design point of view, those restrictions will limit the electrical properties of fabricated micro-resonators. On the other hand, MEMS integration into a CMOS technology presents unique advantages, like reduction of the parasitic capacitance due to the possibility to monolithically integrate the circuitry, in addition to an expected reduction of the overall production costs. Additional functionalities can also be added in this circuit by tailoring externally the roundtrip loss or coupling constants of the ring. The design concept can be easily scaled up for large array optical switch system without much change in the terminal numbers thanks to the three dimensional hierarchy of control circuit design, which effectively reduces the terminal numbers into the cubic root of the total control unit numbers. The integrated circuit has been designed, simulated, as well as fabricated, and demonstrated a decent performance with Free Spectral Range (FSR) equal to 1.5nm at 1534

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nm and very accurate wavelength modulation to 0.3 nm within 0.01 nm fluctuation for thermal actuated ring type optoelectronic switch. Chapter 6 – In order to reduce CO2 emission of automobiles, promotion of eco-driving is considered being effective. As a tool of promoting the ecodriving, some driver assistance systems have been developed for improving the drivers’ techniques by providing information after having evaluated the drivers’ behavior when driving. What can make the drivers improve their driving to be more economically and ecologically attracts us to conduct this study. In this paper, factors affecting drivers’ improvement of eco-driving are reported on the basis of the authors’ analysis of the data collected from a social experiment undertaken during October 2009 and January 2010 in Toyota City.

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In: Communication Technologies Editors: A. J. Salazar and C. Jimenez

ISBN 978-1-62257-768-2 © 2013 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

Chapter 1

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT IN WORLD CLASS UNIVERSITIES Joni de Almeida Amorim and Oswaldo Luiz Agostinho

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Department of Manufacturing Engineering (DEF), Mechanical Engineering School (FEM), State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Campinas, SP, Brazil

ABSTRACT This chapter focuses on strategic management in World Class Universities while considering Information and Communication Technologies. In order to reach an elite status on the basis of international recognition, different methodologies are being researched and implemented worldwide. The intent of this chapter is to describe how Universidade Estadual de Campinas developed its strategic planning using the Balanced Scorecard management system and to present a new research-based methodology for World Class Universities that considers process improvement, process automation and massive use of Information and Communication Technologies. The text fosters a 

Department of Manufacturing Engineering (DEF), Mechanical Engineering School (FEM), State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), www.unicamp.br, 0055 Phone (19) 3521-3290, Fax 0055 (19) 3521-3290, Rua Mendeleiev s/n, Cidade Universitária "Zeferino Vaz", Barão Geraldo, Caixa Postal 6122, CEP 13.083-970, Campinas, SP, Brazil. E-mail: [email protected], [email protected].

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2

Joni de Almeida Amorim and Oswaldo Luiz Agostinho discussion on the many possibilities of business analytics software to support all types of decisions on the perspective of automating the strategy management processes with business intelligence software.

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1. INTRODUCTION This chapter focuses on strategic management in World Class Universities (WCUs) while considering Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). For different reasons, Brazilian universities like Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP - http://www.unicamp.br/) intend to develop the capacity to compete in the global tertiary education marketplace. In order to reach an elite status on the basis of international recognition, different methodologies are being researched and implemented. The purpose of this work is to describe how UNICAMP developed its strategic planning using the Balanced Scorecard management system and to present a new research based methodology for WCUs that considers process improvement, process automation and massive use of ICTs. In this way, the Balanced Scorecard strategic management system involves translating the vision to indicators that may be monitored, communicating and linking up and down the organization, integrating the two functions of planning and budgeting and supplying a mechanism for strategic feedback and review as a way to propel reflections on cause-and-effect relationships. The Balanced Scorecard system has four perspectives to be adapted to the context of public universities like UNICAMP: financial; customers; internal processes; and learning and growth. The new research based methodology for WCUs to be presented considers management processes in the perspective of the creation of an office of strategy management, a new unit in the University that may be useful for overseeing all strategy-related activities. The text fosters a discussion on the many possibilities of business analytics software to support all types of decisions on the perspective of automating the strategy management processes with business intelligence (BI) software. In a University, analytics may be descriptive, predictive or prescriptive, being useful for allocating annual budget, establishing financial forecasts, streamlining operational processes, allocating employees’ time and efforts, evaluating employee performance, and much more. As a consequence, ICTs turn to be fundamental to support the strategic management in WCUs.

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Strategic Management in World Class Universities

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After a section on background information, the chapter presents the strategic planning in a Brazilian University, UNICAMP. The need for a model is discussed before the presentation of the WCU Office of Strategy, Analytics and Continuous Improvement (WCU-OSACI) model for Universities. Future trends perceived by the authors will be suggested before presenting the conclusion.

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2. BACKGROUND INFORMATION The mission of an organization is its long-term purpose. Objectives are specific and measurable targets that the organization can use to evaluate to what extent is performing its mission. Good objectives are easy to measure and monitor over time. After determining the goals, it follows with the analyses both internal (strengths and weaknesses) and external (opportunities and threats). Next are the strategic choices. The planning is like a map to be followed by people in their future activities, to help them reach the organization's goals. There are at least three levels of planning: (1) high level: with senior managers, or strategic managers; (2) medium level: with middle managers, or tactical managers, and (3) low level: with front-line managers or operations managers. Strategic planning considers decisions on the objectives and the long-term strategies. The tactical planning translates the strategic planning that is broader and generic into goals and specific plans for a unit in the organization, e.g., marketing and human resource. The operational planning considers very short terms, with the focus on routine activities such as product deliveries, the daily e-commerce sales, customer interaction, and so on. The importance of strategic planning studies, including the undergraduate level, was already known in 1959, according to a 494-page report from that time (Gordon and Howell, 1959). This report, still being discussed by relevant publications, such as "The Economist" magazine (The Economist, 2009, page 1), stated that the report was written by a pair of economists, Robert Aaron Gordon and James Edwin Howell, with the support from the Ford Foundation. Such text was a shock for the schools of the time, determining a syllabus review for the following years and suggesting, for example, that business schools' teachers became more committed to research, and less to consulting. Initially, as explained by Certo and Peter (2005, page 3), the report's objective was the inclusion of a comprehensive business policy discipline, which sought to emphasize broader identification, analysis and real world problem solutions,

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with the development of important skills for future professional activities. Although in the past strategic planning used to be mandatory only for undergraduate students of business administration, today its importance is recognized in several areas, including engineering. Kiechel (2011, p. 11) points out that the consultancies contributed to the businesses' intellectualization, making strategy a fundamental basis for the administration thought. The author records the rise of the consulting sector related to strategic planning: more than five billion dollars a year worldwide, mainly for large organizations. Nevertheless, strategic planning is also important for micro and small businesses, and the planning is seen, by some studies (Sebrae, 2004, page 26), as the most essential issue in the first twelve months of an enterprise's operation. As indicated by Mintzberg, Ahlstrand and Lampel (2010, page 20) there are ten schools of thought on strategic planning, and none of them is sufficiently complete. The authors refer to the "The Blind and the Elephant" fable, to exemplify the problem: without seeing the whole animal, each blind man gives a partial and/or incomplete description of the elephant; the same way that management theorists give an incomplete description of the strategic planning. The authors emphasize that of the ten schools of thought, the first three schools would be prescriptive or more concerned of how strategies should be formulated or prescribed: School of Design, School of Planning, and Positioning School. Then, we would still have seven descriptive schools, focused on describing how strategies are formulated, while the tenth school would be a combination of several others. The authors also point out the existence of many models of strategic planning; however, the majority is reduced to the same basic ideas. Of the ten schools, the School of Design is the most influential in the formulation of the strategy as, e.g., the famous SWOT notion (Mintzberg, Ahlstrand and Lampel, 2010, p. 36), an acronym for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. This school presents seven key assumptions, e.g., the model of strategic formulation should be kept simple and informal. Among the many criticisms, stands the fact that often, the strengths and weaknesses are poorly determined. In the School of Planning, in turn, the strategy formulation becomes a formal process, with focus on the more formalized planning for greatest control. A system is then created (Mintzberg, Ahlstrand and Lampel, 2010, p. 63), with several complementing plans, to enable the control. This school originated with Ansoff in 1965, almost at the same time as the School of Design. In brief, such school assumed that the strategy would be guided by a

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cadre of highly educated planners within the organization; a department specializing in strategic planning, with formal procedures, training, analysis and many numbers. The School of Planning three essential premises are (Mintzberg, Ahlstrand e Lampel, 2010, p. 67): focus on formal planning, a team of planners is responsible for the implementation, and the strategies emerge ready in this process; with detailed attention to objectives, budgets, programs, and operational plans of various types. That is, in this school we have a wealth of formalism and of details. A major problem is the inflexibility of the plans, as this hinders adaptation to the ever-changing external environment. Scenarios development is one of the advances in the School of Planning (Shoemaker, 1995, page 26). In this case, the scenario is based on the assumption that the future is not predictable, but it is possible to speculate about a variety of futures by analyzing several scenarios. The interest for the tool began with Wack in a 1985 article, where he described the construction of the scenarios at the Shell Corporations, in anticipation of the dramatic rise in oil prices in 1973. The planning for scenarios is a disciplined approach to the envisioning of possible futures, which enables organizations to generate and evaluate strategic options. The technique can be applied to virtually any situation, in which the decision maker wants to envision how the future could be. In strategic planning, the strategies can be called intentional, when the intended strategy is originally made, and emerging, when the strategy was unintended. In the real world, the strategies are a mix of both deliberate and emergent (Mintzberg, Ahlstrand e Lampel, 2010, p. 26). Assuming that the organization and/or a unit of this organization have already formulated its strategy, how would they implement it? That is, if the strategic choices were made, how to implement the strategy? How to choose, and develop the indicators? How to develop the implementation plan? This all can be done in the perspective of the Balanced Scorecard (BSC); a management system proposal widely used, including in universities such as the UNICAMP. Robert S. Kaplan, an engineer with a doctorate in operations research and a professor at the Harvard Business School, along with David P. Norton, an engineer with a postgraduate degree in operational research and a doctorate in administration, originally developed this system. Kaplan and Norton (1997, p. 7) believe that the financial accounting model should be expanded to incorporate the evaluation of the intangible, along with the intellectual assets of a public or private organization, such as products and services of high quality, motivated and skilled employees,

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efficient and consistent internal processes, in addition to satisfied and loyal customers. In short, they argue that it is a mistake to focus only on prior financial measures; thus, the BSC seeks to complement the financial measures. Each strategic objective will be associated with one of the four BSC perspectives: (1) Financial Perspective, (2) Customers' Perspective, (3) Internal Process Perspective, and (4) Learning and Growth Perspective. The strategic indicators are linked to the strategic objectives originally set. Thus, we collect data locally, where people work on a daily basis; we transform these data into information, and then update our strategic indicators. Kaplan and Norton (1997, p. 3) advocate that we are in the information age and no longer in the industrial era (1850-1975). Furthermore, with the advent of the information age, many of the fundamental premises of the industrial competition have become obsolete. Concisely, the generation of future value should direct the investments in customers, suppliers, employees, processes, technology, and innovation. The BSC retains the interest in the short-term performance with the financial perspective. However, it also reveals the value drivers for a superior financial and competitive performance over the long term. Thus, the BSC takes the set of objectives for each organizational unit beyond the summarized financial measures. Therefore, the four perspectives allow for equilibrium (balance) between indicators that reflect the mission, and strategy as a whole. The BSC translates the unit's mission and the strategy into tangible objectives and measures. Thus, the intention is to facilitate four critical management processes by using the BSC (Kaplan and Norton, 1997, p. 9): (1) clarify and translate vision and strategy; (2) communicate and link strategic objectives and measures; (3) plan, set targets and align strategic initiatives, and (4) enhance strategic feedback and learning. Therefore, we define the organization's objectives, followed by the indicators and measures with their respective targets that will be achieved through the initiatives. The BSC creates a structure and a language to communicate the mission and strategy. It also uses indicators to inform employees on the drivers of current and future successes. The BSC should be used for communication, information, and learning, and not as a control system (Kaplan and Norton, 1997, p. 25). When a consensus on the importance and relevance of the BSC is reached, it should initialize a search for more clarity in the understanding of the organization's strategy not only as a whole, but also as each separate unit (Kaplan and Norton, 1997, p. 309). In a uniform organization, the units' strategies must match the organizations’ strategy. A very diverse organization will require each unit to understand the organization's strategy before making

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its own, which tends be conflicting. The BSC should reflect the organization's corporate strategy, and articulate the reasons for some units to be independently operating within that organization. Thus, the organization's BSC will be understood by those units, which in turn will generate their specific BSC. The organization's BSC should seek to clarify two of the strategy's elements (Kaplan and Norton, 1997, p. 178): (1) corporate issues such as values, beliefs, and themes that reflect the corporate identity, and should be shared by all units, and (2) the corporate role, as the actions imposed at the corporate level in order to create synergies at the units’ level. Therefore, the units' BSC can be customized, but everyone should have their focus and purpose derived from the corporate BSC. Kaplan and Norton (1997, p. 320) suggest the following essential measures, as the ones frequently appearing in BSCs. For the key financial indicators, e.g., would be as follows: (1a) return on the investment; (1b) profitability; (1c) increased revenues, and (1d) productivity and/or cost reduction. For the customer's key measures, we could have: (2a) market share; (2b) acquisition of new customers; (2c) retention of existing customers; (2d) profitability by customer type, and (2e) customer satisfaction. Moreover, for the essential measures for learning and growth: (3a) employee satisfaction; (3b) employee retention, and (3c) profitability per employee. Finally, concerning the internal process perspective. The authors suggest the resulting key measures most frequent in BSCs. In this case, it is possible to analyze the measures for the other three perspectives, and subsequently define the indicators of this fourth perspective with a focus on making possible to achieve the goals for the unit as a whole, since it depends on the internal processes. Recent researches (www.thepalladiumgroup.com) indicate that combinations of the BSC and the BI software, generally produces much better results than using the BSC alone. BI refers to the use of informatics to gather information, as well as to store and analyze the collected data, prior to the decision making process. In strategic management, BI can help the organization of data by providing information, which in turn is transformed into useful knowledge: raw data is transformed into relevant information through various tools and techniques. The BI software is helpful in providing the best available data. Some of these data will feed useful indicators to the BSC. In this sense, Kaplan and Norton (1997, p. 322) suggest that the BSC implementation plan should include the identification of how the indicators are linked to the databases, and the information systems; thus, communicating

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with the BSC and allowing the development of metrics that will show up later in dashboards. Therefore, in the BSC, the data is used to generate performance indicators for verifying that the strategy is effectively implemented in the units. The increasing use of BI software is just another evidence of the cultural growth oriented toward the analytics, which refers to the use of data and insights associated with these data with the support of disciplines such as statistics, cognitive sciences, applied mathematics, and others. The use of analytics (Kiron et al., 2011, p. 17) allows for the whole process, from planning to the final decisions to be fact based; through the execution, the management, and measurement, including at the end the organizational learning. In simple terms, analytics can be useful for: (A) descriptive analysis, to understand what happened, e.g., to review the data from factory production and to monitor indicators (b) predictive analysis, to predict what may happen, for example, to review data on increased sales and extrapolating using graphs, and (c) prescriptive analysis, suggesting the best course of action, with suggestions like alternative ways to improve the processes. In an analytics data oriented culture, tools and techniques for the so-called big data may well be of interest, which in this case includes new ways to aggregate, manipulate, analyze and visualize large volumes of data, in a flexible and multidisciplinary approach (MGI, 2011, p. 15). Examples of tools and techniques would include: (A) crowd-sourcing, a technique for collecting data submitted by a community or a group of people through networks such as Web 2.0; (b) predictive modeling, a set of techniques in which a mathematical model is created or chosen to best predict an event's probability; (c) simulation, modeling the behavior of complex systems for forecasting, predicting and scenario planning, and (d) visualization techniques used to create images, diagrams or animations to communicate, understand and improve the results of high volumes of data analyses. Therefore, the BSC implementation plan must include the identification of how the indicators of interest connect to the database and the information systems. Furthermore, it should be associated with the use of various tools and techniques, which promote partial or total automation of processes relevant to strategic planning, as well as the collection of data relevant to indicators, which in turn are displayed on dashboards. This apparent complexity now associated with the BSC has forced its creators, Kaplan and Norton, to develop a new concept: the Office of Strategic Management (OSM). OSM (Kaplan and Norton, 2008, p. 289) refers to a unit of the organization that provides support to planning, with a focus on excellence in

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operational execution. The proposed OSM came from the authors’ observation that the performance was not sustainable after the BSC implementation in many organizations, because they based their initial success solely in a strong leadership. The authors noted that the performance was only sustainable in organizations in which a small, but dedicated number of managers were overseeing the various processes needed to implement the strategy. They named this group as the OSM. Confronting theory and practice, the authors identified all the key processes required to implement a very important principle: to translate the strategy into a continuous process. It is thus intended that the organizations start to build strong links between strategy and operations, for the daily operational activities to effectively promote the strategic objectives. Based on their latest findings, the authors integrate the results of their four previous books and create a new management system. Kaplan and Norton developed an independent management system and comprehensive of the closed loop system (Kaplan and Norton, 2008, p. 290). It is a cycle, therefore, with six stages that seek to unite the methods and practices developed around the BSC books. The OSM would be responsible for new processes related to the cycle's stages. The office has three important functions: (A) devise strategic planning, which involves creating new management strategy and operations processes; (b) to integrate and synchronize the various organizational processes, which are interconnected with the strategy, e.g., management of human resources (HR ), project management (PMO), financial resources, information technology, etc., and (c) to own the processes required to manage the strategy, such as running processes that transcend unit boundaries, which appear in the sixth stage of the proposed management system cycle. The following section presents the strategic planning in a Brazilian university, and discusses the need for a transformation in organizational culture, in order to be successful while using the methods and practices based on solutions such as BSC and OSM. Therefore, the need for managerial changes is discussed.

3. ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE AND STRATEGIC PLANNING IN A BRAZILIAN UNIVERSITY The reasons for planning in a public university like UNICAMP may include: organizational effectiveness, appropriate allocation of liability arising

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from regulations established by the government and society, commitment and engagement with the community both internally and externally, clarifying the university's purpose and priorities, and recognition of its identity. UNICAMP is one of the few Brazilian universities to have a structured strategic planning. That is why it became a reference on the subject, both inside Brazil and abroad. Its methodology was presented to universities in countries like Ecuador, Dominican Republic, Canada and Turkey and serves as a benchmark (Gardenal, 2008) for other higher education institutions seeking to maximize their performance. This methodology, which began to be used more systematically from 2002 with the community's sensitization, makes periodic reviews of actions and strategic projects that are either underway or already planned. Thus, the Strategic Planning at the University of Campinas, PLANESUNICAMP (http://www.cgu.unicamp.br/pei/) is an academic and administrative process that seeks the establishment of priorities for the medium and the long terms, while favoring the formulation and implementation of policies leading to the fulfillment of these priorities. According to Barbieri (2008), PLANES was devised by Eliezer Arantes e Costa, an electronics engineer, who defended his doctoral thesis at the School of Electrical Engineering and Computing (FEEC) in April 2008. The PLANES reveals the mission, principles, values, and vision for the University's future. It contains five strategic areas (CGU, 2008, p. 3): (A) Education, (b) Research; (c) Extension and Technical-Scientific and Cultural Cooperation; (d) Administration and Management and (e) Quality of Life. For universities similar to UNICAMP to succeed in using the methods and the practices based on solutions such as BSC and OSM, it requires a transformation in the organizational culture that leads to a change in the administration. To make a transition one must go from an initial A to a final B. Examples of changes: (1) an organization needs to have access to management information systems, or Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), to be able to compete in today's business environment; (2) needs to start to consider environmental sustainability, since consumers only want products that do not harm the environment, etc., (3) must upgrade to high quality planning system such as the BSC, since the employees are not currently participating in the process. The problem with transitions is that not everyone wants change. It relates to the resistance to change; often, people struggle with transitions because it involves new learning, and so on. The Management of Change (MoC) can be used for transitional situations. For instance, Kotter (1996) suggests the

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following essential activities for a manager to lead the transition: (1) establish a sense of urgency; (2) join a group with power to help you; (3) create a vision for after the change; (4) communicate (explain) the vision to everybody; (5) motivate people to help with the change; (6) show each small victory; (7) promote further changes; and (8) set the change in the culture. In discussing the management of change (MoC), Harrington, Conner and Horney (1999, p. 100) define the Business Process Improvement (BPI), as a set of methodologies used to improve the processes, including process redesign, process re-engineering, benchmarking, restructuring and software implementation projects such as ERP. These authors report that MoC does not focus on "what" will be changed, such as the BPI solution, but rather "how" the solution will be implemented, thereby aiming to substantially increase the possibilities of success by considering aspects related to the social change. In this perspective, some of the MoC processes would be the construction of the implementation architecture, the management of individual resistance to change, the building of individual commitment to the change, the cultural management of the change, and the selection and delivery of the change agents. Some of the MoC tools would be: description formulary of the change project; predicting the change impact; historical research of changes; mapping tool; plan the notice of change; assessment of sponsors; research scenarios; scale of resistance to change; assessment of the change agents, and implementation plan for the organizational change. Harrington, Conner and Horney (1999, p. 155) expose seven major stages, by which people go through when they perceive a change as being negative: (1) immobilization; (2) denial; (3) anger; (4) negotiation; (5) depression; (6) test; and (7) acceptance. On the other hand, when they perceive the change as being positive, people go through five stages: (1) uninformed optimism, or assurance; (2) informed pessimism or doubt; (3) hopeful realism; (4) informed optimism, or confidence, and (5) completion or satisfaction. These authors point out that many do not complete the stages mentioned, by repeating them in part or completely, and those who complete the transition respond to it with different intellectual and emotional rhythms. In this context, it is essential for the project manager to understand that the increasing resilience of the team, as well as the minimization of the chance of dysfunctional behavior, depends on the degree to which the mentioned manager understands the organizational culture; thus avoiding discrepancies between the current culture and the objectives of the project. With this, one should seek an implementation of architecture from the MoC with the following phases: (1) clarify the project's scope; (2) advertise the project; (3) lead the diagnosis; (4) develop an

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implementation plan; (5) execute the plan; (6) monitor the progress and problems, and (7) evaluate the results. Obviously, over time an organizational change can be understood as a difference in shape, quality, or state. A change affects not only an entity, but also an individual, a group of individuals, an organization, or set of organizations; with the change being detected by some type of measurement performed in two or more intervals over time, it turns to be possible to compare between the initial and final state. The literature on organizational change discusses the nature of the difference between one state and another, which resulted in the transition and which were the consequences, establishing relationships between MoC and the innovation management. In this perspective, Poole and Van De Ven (2004, p. 375) present a typology of the theories of organizational change and innovation, thus suggesting that simple models can be combined to generate more complex theories. According to Poole and Van De Ven (2004, p. 375), the theories of organizational change and innovation tend to be complex, often combining many different generating mechanisms. These authors present a foundation for the study of this theme with four basic possibilities; each would have a different motor-generator driving the change process: (1) the life cycle theory; (2) theory of teleology; (3) dialectical theory and (4) theory of evolution. In practical situations, always two or more of these four theories would operate as a group in different levels or at different periods. The theories can be discussed in the following terms: (I) the process's final state with or without forecast; (ii) the development trajectory with or without predetermination; (iii) convergence or divergence of the process, and (iv) if the time is based on events or cycles. These four theories are briefly presented below. The life cycle theory (Poole and Van de Ven, 2004, p. 376) is defined by the progress of change through a sequence of stages or phases, as prescribed or regulated by an institutional program, either logical or natural being defined early in the cycle. The engine for change is a derivative from a form or pattern inherent to the transition entity or imposed by an external institution via rules and regulations. As soon as it reaches the end of the cycle, a new process starts with the same or a different entity. The theory of teleology (Poole and Van de Ven, 2004, p. 378), or the intentional transition, sees the transition as a cycle of the objective formulation, implementation, evaluation and modification of actions or goals based on what was either learned or desired by the organization. This sequence comes from the social construction of a final state desired by the individuals from the transitioning entity. Therefore, to define an objective in response to a

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perceived problem or to an opportunity that starts the process moving. Given the objectives' direction, multiple pathways are possible, which does not allow the previous definition of stages or steps to be followed. The dialectical theory (Poole and Van de Ven, 2004, p. 379), or transition by conflict, refers to the change caused by the efforts for dealing with contradictions, conflicts, or tensions within or outside the transitioning organization. In this case, the goal or end of the change process is not clear at the beginning, emerging from this dialectical process. Consequently, the response to events generates paths with steps that vary greatly in each case. The theory of evolution (Poole and Van de Ven, 2004, p. 380), or change by the competitiveness, consists of a repeating sequence of events of variation, selection, and retention among entities of a certain population. The context is the competition for scarce environmental resources among the entities that comprise a given population. Thus, the steps during the selection and retention cannot be planned over time because of changes in the competitive pressures for the resources, which creates paths with weakly predetermined steps, with one or more cycles of variation, selection, and retention with activities undetermined through these cycles. Certainly, most of the processes of organizational change and innovation observed are more complex than the four discussed theories: (1) life cycle; (2) teleology; (3) dialectic and (4) evolution. Therefore, more than one engine of change can act in a particular case. Furthermore, Van De Ven and Poole (2004, p. 382) discuss in depth the interaction between different engines while explaining how to generate theories composed by the combination of engines from the perspective that the units from an organization are located in a system of various levels, with individuals in departments within the organizations, which in turn are part of an industry sector or communities within nations or cultures. Moreover, there are situations where the units suffering the transition, nestle into hierarchies that make the change also dependent on the lower or higher levels units, scenario that requires more complexity from the models to be employed. In the case of the UNICAMP, there are some characteristics of the solution known as life cycle theory, as discussed above, which is defined by the progress of change through a sequence of stages or phases as prescribed or regulated by an institutional program. Either logical or naturally defined at the start of the cycle, with the motor of change being a form, a pattern, a set of rules or regulations. Thus, at UNICAMP, we see a quest for the institutionalization of the methods and practices related to the BSC in the PLANES-UNICAMP, as shown below.

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The UNICAMP uses the BSC with the establishment of strategic objectives for which are defined the indicators that will have specific goals that can be verified. According to the report "Strategic Management: Strategic Planning and Institutional Assessment" (CGU, 2012, p. 4), it is evident that the efforts to the BSC implementation into Higher Education Institutions and specifically into institutions with the characteristics of UNICAMP are still very incipient. There are five strategic areas in the PLANES-UNICAMP: (1) Education; (2) Research; (3) Extension; (4) Administration and (5) Quality of Life. Each strategic area has defined strategies, programs and courses of action, and the programs are implemented through the strategic projects. The Institutional Strategic Planning Committee, or COPEI-UNICAMP, reviews these projects annually, from which the first author of this text, as a formal member, had the opportunity to participate on several occasions in recent years. To support the processes of institutional assessment and strategic planning, UNICAMP makes use of SIPLANES, an information system based on the open source MediaWiki software, available free of charge (http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki). The software was written in PHP (http://www.php.net/), a general purpose language widely used, and especially suited for Web development and capable of embedding HTML (http://www.w3 .org/MarkUp/). The MediaWiki software was originally designed with a focus on the free encyclopedia WikiPedia (http://www. wikipedia.org/). Wiki, in general, indicates a collaborative web environment that can be edited by authorized users. In the UNICAMP's case, the information system SIPLANES (http://siplanes.unicamp.br/) has restricted access with password authentication. The navigation pages follow the grouping highlighted by the following indexation: home page, PLANES 2011-2015 review, environment of internal and external assessment, glossary, database, bulletin board, recent changes, current events, and help. This information system was implemented for the 2004-2008 institutional assessment, and is employed by members of the internal and external evaluation committee. Thus, it was possible to prepare documents through the analysis of the answers to questionnaires. The password authentication guaranteed security even with the access via the Internet, since the current access is restricted to members of the evaluation commission and to the committees of the Units, Schools, and Interdisciplinary Centers and Nucleus responsible for the review of local strategic plans. As discussed in detail in the section that follows, it is evident that in cases such as the UNICAMP, the information systems have already advanced a lot,

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but still exclude tools and techniques that characterize an analytics oriented culture, with the best use of data from different sources.

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4. THE NEED FOR A MODEL The previous section showed, in general, the UNICAMP's strategic planning, one of the few Brazilian universities with such a structure, a fact that turned the University into a reference point on the subject, inside Brazil and abroad. In cases such as the UNICAMP, we have information systems without features that characterize the analytics oriented culture An approach to ICT that prioritizes analytics can allow its use and the associate insights with the support of disciplines such as statistics, cognitive science, applied mathematics and others. With the computation used as backdrop for the partial or full automatization of many routine and repetitive processes. As previously discussed, these tools and techniques could eventually allow the universities to rely broadly and effectively in facts for activities ranging from planning to final decisions, passing through the execution, the management and the measurement; thus, including the organizational learning. In an analytics oriented culture, tools and techniques for the so-called "big data" may well be of interest, which in this case includes new ways to aggregate, manipulate, analyze and visualize large volumes of data, in a flexible and multidisciplinary approach. This would better integrate the scattered and not always applied data, in particular, those relating to internal and external communities that in some way interact with the University: students, faculty, staff, public and private companies, governments, etc. Examples of information of interest that might appear in dashboards and/or compose indicators include statistics on the number of University students with internships in Brazil and abroad, as well as, on the number of foreigner’s students participating in the University various activities. The importance of associated indicators is evident in this particular case, if only because internationalization is one of this institution's priorities. It is evident in the previous sections, that strategic planning is still a recent phenomenon in universities. Especially if we consider universities as UNICAMP, which benefit from solutions like BSC, but has to make use of the new opportunities presented by innovations such as OSM and analytics. In this sense, it is of interest to identify the characteristics of a new information system that goes beyond SIPLANES. Such information system

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should be based on some reference model that is appropriate to the universities' contexts. The next section presents an overview of a model with such characteristics.

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5. THE WCU-OSACI MODEL Reference models for management can benefit from the use of ICTs, the technology being one of the five most common approaches to promote fundamental changes. Langley, Moen, Nolan, Norman, Provost and Nolan (2009, p. 133) explain the possible approaches: (1) logical thinking about the current system; (2) benchmarking and knowledge acquired with other people; (3) use of technology; (4) creative thinking, and (5) use of concepts of change. The approach to the logical thinking about the current system (Langley et al., 2009, p. 133) initially refers to documenting how the processes are executed, or how a product works. The collection and analysis identify the causes for problems in the current system, and suggest the appropriate changes. This can be done by sampling and/or from case studies, and in some cases, with the use of statistical analysis simulations, data mining, regression analysis, and so on. The approach to benchmarking and learning gained from other people (Langley et al., 2009, p. 136) refer to adapting perceived improvements in other organizations, particularly with a focus on best practices that result in high levels of performance. In this sense, observations are made for later use in the search for improvements. Therefore, it is essential not only to seek to document and copy, but also to rather understand the causal mechanisms, which indicate the reasons for success. The approach to the use of technology (Langley et al., 2009, p. 139) refers not only to the use of information systems, but also of science through equipment, materials, and methods. In the specific case of the information systems, the advantages include from cost savings to quality improvement, and the possible creation of new products and services. To reduce the risks of implementation, the technologies of interest should be tested on a small scale, with the support of a transition management plan; to assist in the adaption to the new context. The approach to creative thinking (Langley et al., 2009, p. 142) refers to the invention of new ideas for promoting fundamental changes, in this case, seeking to select and refine proposals that might result in improvements.

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Creative thinking can benefit from new ways of thinking, with many provocative methods. The approach to the use of concepts of change (Langley et al., 2009, p. 146) refers to the use of specific concepts or approaches such as: appropriate measures to promote training; sampling; change the order of steps; standardize by creating formal processes; provide access to information, using automation, etc. Such use of specific concepts or approaches tends to provoke new ways of thinking. A reference model that is appropriate to the universities context was developed based on logical thinking regarding the current system and the prospect of using technology; particularly to provide more access to information and the use of full or partial automation. Of course, care in the technology use (Langley et al., 2009, p. 140) involves the automatization of a good system. In this sense, one should seek to redesign and improve the system before trying to automate it. In this perspective, the WCU Office of Strategy, Analytics and Continuous Improvement (WCU-OSACI) framework, discussed below, would have: (1) a cycle based on the OSM and the BSC concepts, forecasting the integration of subsystems related to macro processes of the implementation strategy; (2) a model of maturity directed to the continuous upgrading of the management process, focused on the intensive use of information systems via the automation and, finally, (3) an implementation based on the use of one or more support software. This proposed framework is presented in detail below. The WCU-OSACI framework would have a cycle based on the OSM/BSC concepts, forecasting the integration of subsystems related to macro processes for implementing the strategy. The cycle would have the usual steps: (1) strategic development; (2) strategic planning; (3) organizational alignment; (4) planning of operations; (5) monitoring and learning, and (6) testing and adaptation. In this sense, the OSM would be the architect of the strategic management; it would possess several processes and would be the integrator. As the architect, the OSM would define the structure and rules for the strategic management besides projecting it. As the owner of the pertinent processes, it would develop and plan the strategy, align the organization and evaluate the strategy, making adjustments when necessary. As the integrator, it would: integrate operational planning and budgeting, integrate key operational processes, integrate human resources with information technology and support functions, communicate the strategy, would manage the strategic initiatives and share best practices.

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The WCU-OSACI framework would have eight levels of maturity in the continuous improvement of the processes: (1) unusual case, which almost never happens and seldom standardized; (2) spontaneous process, frequent and able to be standardized; (3) standard process; (4) measurable process; (5) controllable process; (6) improvable process; (7) partially automated process, and (8) fully automated process. Note, however, we would have to double the traditional levels of maturity, with four levels: standardize, measure, control, and improve. Having more levels allows for a more careful evaluation. In particular, we highlight the focus on partial or full automation in the last two levels proposed, after a preliminary improvement search. As highlighted throughout the text, the BSC suggests the prioritization of internal processes. From there, the maturity of the processes selected shall be accompanied with the maturity analysis in eight levels. Over time, employee productivity would increase, even by the smallest human intervention in a perspective of automation after the improvement of the processes. After improving the quality and productivity, additional considerations should be for costs reduction, where possible, by reducing the traditional length of the processes' execution. At the improvement time, we must define what and/or which characteristic of the process we intend to enhance, such as user friendly, reliability, robustness, etc. Finally, the improvement should be similar to the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI - http://www.sei.cmu.edu/ cmmi/), considering the maturity in each of the priority processes, to facilitate the comparison between each organizational unit, in relation to a process common to several units. This comparison would thus indicate the maturity per unit of organization. The WCU-OSACI framework would have an implementation based on the use of one or more support software, and making it possible to both orchestrate the use of different software and develop a new system that would include the inherent complexity in an integrated manner. In the latter case, identification of minimum requirements would suggest prototyping with the traditional phases (O'Brien, 2010, p. 327): (1) identification of end users' requirements for information, with research and analysis; (2) development of prototype information system, with analysis and design; (3) prototype revision to better meet end user's requirements, with design and deployment, and (4) use and maintenance of the accepted system, with deployment and maintenance throughout the life cycle. The prototyping will require: (a) team definition, (b) generation of a diagram to be converted to prototype; (c) presentation of such a diagram and/or prototype to users; (d) feedback from users after such presentation; (e) carry out new rounds of presentations seeking

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additional feedback; (f) conduction of meetings with other stakeholders in the pursuit of both incremental improvements and compliance with standards used in the organization; (g) search for the final approval for the new system and (h) installation of the new system. It is worth to notice that in an analytics oriented culture, tools and techniques for "big data" may well be of interest, as discussed in the previous section. This would allow new ways to aggregate, manipulate, analyze and visualize large volumes of data with tools and techniques that would include crowd-sourcing, predictive modeling, simulation and visualization. This investigation will continue in the future with a more detailed analysis of the WCU-OSACI framework, as well as a detailed specification of the new system to be developed.

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6. FUTURE TRENDS Future trends include considerations about the increasing use of multimodal interfaces for different kinds of equipment, the ubiquity that is related to the cheapening of devices and, specially, the improvement of mobile devices that can be easily transported. This suggests the generation of a massive amount of data that can be integrated with the use of tools, and information fusion techniques for further handling and treatment with analytics strategies, many of which are based on mathematical sciences. In this paper, the multimodality (W3C, 2003, p. 1) refers to the various modes of interaction, with combinations of speech, gestures, words, images, etc. to interact with computers. There are many interface types already available, and their numbers are growing every day. They may include features such as emotion detection, recognition of mood, affective computing, human augmentation, wearable computers, eye tracking, user behavior data analysis, gestures recognition, sensations through the skin and/or touch, natural language processing, voice recognition and speed control of equipment, biometrics, bioacoustics, among other possibilities. The mobility (SAP, 2011, p. 4) refers to moving with the machines, which in this case suggests the use of mobile devices with internet access, with ubiquity, and can offer augmented reality experiences, with overlapping information on an image captured by the device's camera. With ubiquity (W3C, 2012a, p. 1), it is both possible and relevant to people accessing the information systems, whenever they need information, which in turn makes it essential to update such systems in real time.

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Mobility (Gartner, 2011, p. 6) is in the context of increasing access to mobile devices, which includes everything from tablets to smart phones, alongside the use of laptops and other types of devices. By using different types of devices to access information, and to capture data. It becomes not only essential to consider how best to select the captured information, aggregating and manipulating them in a standardized manner, but also important to consider how best to present the information in different types of devices and for different interested parties (W3C, 2012b, p. 1). For the subsequent manipulation and treatment of data with analytics, it is necessary to merge data and information. In this sense, features of information fusion should be present in information systems such as those discussed in this text, including real-time processing in distributed databases (US, 2012, p. 1). By information fusion, it is understood, as the integration of information and data from different sources on the behavior of a particular system. Such data and information, when properly used by different tools and techniques, support the actions and decisions related to the system of interest. The data sources and information are multiple, including sensors that observe the system's behavior, databases with relevant knowledge about previous behavior, information collected by humans and simulations predicting the system's future behavior. The combination of raw data from different sources with available information, tends to provide a better understanding of various phenomena of interest to the decision-making from the perspective of strategic management; thereby assisting the stakeholders who will make use of the information management support system. In this sense, it is essential to use methods to transform and identify potential sources of data and information, to automate their merging, to understand the effects of certain data and information in different situations related to decision-making, and to better develop information systems that make use of data fusion.

CONCLUSION The objective of this paper was to discuss the importance of using ICT in WCUs, especially considering the strategic planning. We discussed issues of interest for universities in Brazil and abroad, motivated to enter the selected group of elite universities, which compete to provide society with knowledge, research and initiatives promoting various qualitative gains in social welfare. The text presented the procedures used by a Brazilian university to accomplish its strategic plan, including the discussion of aspects related to the use of

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information systems. It also discussed the best way to use solutions based on analytics to deal with data and information available, as well as how to automate processes after improving them. The WCU Office of Strategy, Analytics and Continuous Improvement (WCU-OSACI) framework was also presented and discussed. Such framework would consist of three essential parts. The first would refer to a cycle based on the concepts of OSM and BSC, forecasting the integration of subsystems related to macro processes for implementing the strategy. The second part would refer to a maturity model, aimed at the continuous improvement of management processes with a focus on intensive use of information systems through automation. Finally, the third part would be related to an implementation based on the use of one or more support software. Future work will present a more detailed analysis of the WCU-OSACI framework, as well as a detailed specification of the new system to be developed. For this purpose, future trends will be further investigated, which suggests including considerations about multimodality, ubiquity, and mobility.

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REFERENCES Barbieri, J. (2008). Idealizador do Planes defende tese de doutorado na FEEC. Portal UNICAMP. Universidade Estadual de Campinas. 29/04/2008. Retrieved June 12, 2012, from < http://www.unicamp.br/unicamp/ divulgacao/2008/04/30/idealizador-do-planes-defende-tese-de-doutoradona-feec >. Certo, S. C., Peter, J. P. (2005). Administração Estratégica - Planejamento e Implantação da Estratégia. Prentice Hall Brasil. ISBN 8576050250. 320p. CGU (2012). Gestão Estratégica: Planejamento Estratégico e Avaliação Institucional. Coordenadoria Geral da Universidade (CGU). UNICAMP. Abril/2012. Retrieved June 12, 2012, from < http://siplanes.unicamp.br/ planes/PlanejamentoEstrategico/MapaEstrategico.pdf >. CGU (2008). Planejamento Estratégico da Universidade Estadual de Campinas, PLANES/UNICAMP. Planejamento Estratégico (2007-2010): Estrutura do Plano Estratégico. Retrieved June 12, 2012, from < http://siplanes.unicamp.br/planes/PlanejamentoEstrategico/AprovadoCON SU2008.pdf >. Gardenal, I. (2008). Planes da UNICAMP caminha rumo à sua consolidação. Portal UNICAMP. 21/8/2008. Retrieved June 12, 2012, from
. Gartner (2011). iPad and Beyond: What the Future of Computing Holds. Gartner, Inc. 30 September 2011. Retrieved June 12, 2012, from < http://www.gartner.com/id=1812319 >. Gordon, R. A., Howell, J. E. (1959). Higher Education for Business. Columbia University Press, New York. 494p. Retrieved June 12, 2012, from < http://www.questia.com/library/book/higher-education-for-business-byrobert-aaron-gordon-james-edwin-howell.jsp >. Harrington, H. J., Conner, D., Horney, N. L. (1999). Project Change Management. McGraw-Hill Companies. December 16, 1999. ISBN 0070271046. 332 p. Kaplan, R. S., Norton, D. P. (1997). A Estratégia em Ação: Balanced Scorecard. Rio de Janeiro: Campus Elsevier. ISBN 8535201491. Kaplan, R. S., Norton, D. P. (2008). The Execution Premium: Linking Strategy to Operations for Competitive Advantage. Harvard Press. ISBN 142212116x. Kiechel, W. (2011). Os Mestres da Estratégia. Campus. ISBN 8535243933. 320p. Kiron, D., et al. (2011). Analytics: The widening divide - How companies are achieving competitive advantage through analytic. IBM and MIT Sloan Management Review. October 2011. Retrieved June 12, 2012, from < http://www-142.ibm.com/ >. Kotter, J. P. (1996). Leading Change. Harvard Business School Press. ISBN 0875847471. 208 p. Langley, G. J., Moen, R., Nolan, K. M., Norman, C. L., Provost, L. P., Nolan, T. W. (2009). The Improvement Guide: A Practical Approach to Enhancing Organizational Performance. Jossey-Bass Business and Management. ISBN 0470192410. MGI (2011). Big data: The next frontier for innovation, competition, and productivity. McKinsey Global Institute (MGI). McKinsey and Company. June 2011. Retrieved June 12, 2012, from < http://www.mckinsey.com/ Insights/MGI/Research/Technology_and_Innovation/Big_data_The_next_ frontier_for_innovation >. Mintzberg, H., Ahlstrand, B., Lampel, J. (2010). Safari de Estratégia. Bookman. ISBN 8577807215. 392p. O’Brien, J. A. (2010). Sistemas de Informação e as Decisões Gerenciais na Era da Internet. Saraiva Editora. ISBN 8502098349.

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Poole, M. S., Van de Ven, A. H. (2004). Theories of Organizational Change and Innovation Processes. In: Handbook of Organizational Change and Innovation. Poole, M. S., Van de Ven, A. H. (Org.). Oxford University Press: New York. 2004. ISBN 0195135008. 456 p. SAP (2011). Mobility, its impact, opportunities, and challenges: Gaining a business perspective on mobility. SAP Executive Insight. Mobility Series. SAP AG. Retrieved June 12, 2012, from < http://www.sap.com/ campaigns/2011_04_mobility/assets/Mobility Its_Impact_Opportunities_ and_Challenges.pdf >. Sebrae (2004). Fatores Condicionantes e Taxa de Mortalidade de Empresas no Brasil. Relatório de pesquisa. Serviço de Apoio às Micro e Pequenas Empresas de Minas Gerais – SEBRAE/MG. Novembro, 2004. Retrieved June 12, 2012, from < http://www.sebraemg.com.br/arquivos/ informativos/relatorio_pesquisa_mortalidade_minas.pdf >. Shoemaker, P. J. H. (1995). Scenario Planning: a tool for strategic thinking. Sloan Management Review. Winter, 1995. The Economist (2009). The Gordon-Howell report of 1959 - A seminal critique of American business education, five decades on. The Economist Newspaper Limited, London. Jun 4, 2009. Retrieved June 12, 2012, from < http://www.economist.com/node/12762453 >. US (2012). Infrastructure for Information Fusion (StrucFus). Information Fusion Research Program. University of Skövde (US). Retrieved June 12, 2012, from < http://www.his.se/english/research/infofusion/research/ associated-projects/infrastructure-for-information-fusion-strucfus/ >. W3C (2003). Multimodal Interaction Framework. W3C NOTE 06 May 2003. World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Retrieved June 12, 2012, from < http://www.w3.org/TR/mmi-framework/ >. W3C (2012a). Ubiquitous Web. World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Retrieved June 12, 2012, from < http://www.w3.org/UbiWeb/ >. W3C (2012b). Web Accessibility Initiative. World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Retrieved June 12, 2012, from < http://www.w3.org/WAI/ >.

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Copyright © 2013. Nova Science Publishers, Incorporated. All rights reserved. Communication Technologies : Societal Perspectives, Strategic Management and Impact on Business, Nova Science

In: Communication Technologies Editors: A. J. Salazar and C. Jimenez

ISBN 978-1-62257-768-2 © 2013 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

Chapter 2

INFLUENCE OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES TOOLS ON PURCHASING ORIENTATION Carmen Camarero, Mª. José Garrido and Rebeca San José Copyright © 2013. Nova Science Publishers, Incorporated. All rights reserved.

Department of Business Administration and Marketing, University of Valladolid, Valladolid, Spain

ABSTRACT This work seeks to explore the relation between each of the information and communication technologies tools (ICT) used by businesses when purchasing and the various features of purchase orientation (strategic role of purchasing, role of suppliers, relationship with suppliers as well as efficacy and efficiency). The empirical work is based on an analysis of the information provided by postal survey conducted among 149 Spanish firms. The findings highlight that the use of ICT leads to greater purchase orientation. Moreover, the use of ICT seems to prove more efficient in the first three areas of purchase orientation (strategic role of purchasing, role 

Corresponding author. Department of Business Administration and Marketing, University of Valladolid, Avda. Valle de Esgueva, 6, 47011 Valladolid, Spain. Tel: +34-983-42-33-31, Fax: +34-983-42-38-99, e-mail: [email protected].

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Carmen Camarero, Mª. José Garrido and Rebeca San José of suppliers, relationship with suppliers) than in purchase outcomes (efficacy and efficiency). This research provides empirical evidence to support the added value of ICT vis-à-vis their capacity to transform the flow of information inside the firm and the consequences this has for the processes that take place in industrial purchases. All of this leads to better purchase decision-making.

Keywords: Purchasing orientation, ICT tools

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1. INTRODUCTION The important role which the purchasing function has taken on is mainly due to changes in the academic and business world in recent decades. Several authors consider that said changes have heralded a veritable “purchasing revolution” see for example, [1] and have posited the need to explore how organizations perceive purchasing; in other words their purchasing orientation [2, 3, 4, 5], among others. In the academic domain, numerous journals and textbooks have emerged addressing this issue (e.g. Journal of Purchasing and Materials Management, European Journal of Supply Chain Management, Journal of Supply Chain Management, Purchasing Principles and Techniques and in 2009, the special issue devoted to purchasing in the Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing). On a business level, the major role played by the purchasing function is due, among other reasons, to the globalization of competition, the search for total quality, a reduction in costs and, particularly, information and communication technologies - henceforth ICT - [5], and fundamentally the development of the Internet. ICT forms a key part of the new direction taken by e-business tools, and embraces a wide range of mechanisms that enable the planning, organization, communication and integration of a firm’s enterprise resource planning, supply chain management, and customer relationship management, to name just a few uses. ICT is also used in e-procurement, in many instances drawing on Internet technology based tools. The added value of the internet lies in ICT’s ability to contribute to cost reduction associated to communication and transaction [6, 7]. In this sense, Internet has favoured the development of electronic markets [8]. In short, by adopting Business to Business (B2B) ICT tools, firms try to obtain a sustainable competitive advantage by increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of their communications and transactions [9, 10].

Communication Technologies : Societal Perspectives, Strategic Management and Impact on Business, Nova Science

Influence of Information and Communication Technologies Tools … 27 In sum, purchasing and ICT today play a major role in firms’ strategies as well as in their everyday business. Moreover, the strategic nature of purchasing is reflected not only in the role which said function acquires but also in the part played by suppliers, in relations with the latter, and in business performance. If the scope of purchases is wide-ranging, even more so is the variety of ICT tools available for general business organization and particularly for purchasing. If we accept that the two variables, purchasing and ICT are linked, then the question arises as to which ICT tools are most frequently used in purchasing, and which have the greatest impact or are most closely related to purchasing. After identifying the facets of purchasing and specific ICT linked to said function, we explore the relationship between them in order to pinpoint which have the biggest impact on relations with suppliers or purchasing efficiency, among other variables.

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2. STRATEGIC PURCHASING ORIENTATION The concept of purchase orientation emerged as a result of the way purchasing practices in firms have evolved through a series of stages led by purchasing managers. Anderson and Narus [2] define purchase orientation as a “philosophy that guides managers who make purchasing-related decisions and delineates their domain and span of influence”. Purchase orientation involves the following questions [3]: (1) the role of purchasing; (2) purchasing efficiency and efficacy; (3) the role of suppliers, and (4) relations with suppliers. These are the issues we will be concerned with:

2.1. The Role of Purchasing We feel that it is by no means an overstatement to say that purchasing has traditionally played somewhat of a passive function in business. One of the early works to specifically explore the topic of purchasing was by Ammer [11] who analysed the role of purchasing both inside and outside firms, concluding that purchasing has played more of a reactive than a proactive role. In a similar vein, Ansoff [12] described purchasing as an administrative more than a strategic function. What does emerge as striking is the apparent disagreement vis-à-vis the strategic nature or otherwise of purchasing. Whereas one group of authors [13,

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Carmen Camarero, Mª. José Garrido and Rebeca San José

14, 15]; among others contend that over the years the purchase function has not played a strategic role in firms, since it has in many cases been outsourced, the vast majority of authors [16, 17, 18, 19], among others concur that purchasing in firms has progressed from being seen as an administrative function to one perceived as strategic, thereby giving rise to a shift in attitude, function and organization. In business practice, the strategic nature of purchasing entails bringing into line the goals inherent in this function with business goals and allocating it a proactive role in the assessment and ongoing evaluation of suppliers, in the firm’s strategic planning process (at a functional level) and in participation in the development of new products [16]. From such a strategic perspective, purchasing in firms becomes a formalised and planned function which is dependent upon company needs. In the above authors’ view, strategic purchasing may be defined as the planning, implementation, evaluation, and control of purchase decisions, aimed at focusing the tasks involved in the purchase function towards benefiting from the opportunities which, together with the firm’s skills, help to achieve long-term business objectives. Empirical literature has highlighted the positive and significant effect of strategic purchasing orientation on business performance [18, 20]. In their research, Paulraj et al., [18] underscore that strategic purchasing has a positive impact on performance (quality, costs, flexibility, delivery, consumer satisfaction, and financial performance) for both buyer and seller. The authors claim that when purchasing is strategically oriented, it generates competitive edge for both parties, by maximising the value of the transaction. In this sense, Sánchez-Rodríguez [20] find that the strategic nature of the purchasing function (long-term planning of the purchasing function, its involvement in the firm’s strategic planning, its proximity to top level management, and its alignment with the firm’s goals) has a positive effect on purchasing performance (cost and quality of materials, delivery time, satisfaction, etc.) and, consequently, firms’ performance.

2.2. Role of Suppliers In 1980, Plank and Dempsy [21] claimed that understanding the buyer and knowing their needs is a basic principle for suppliers. The basis for maintaining buyer-seller relations requires an organizational learning which focuses on buyers needs and the value the latter wish to acquire [22, 23]. To

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Influence of Information and Communication Technologies Tools … 29 achieve this, suppliers require certain skills (abilities, knowledge, and resources) which competitors will find hard to match [23]. Numerous studies have explored the skills which suppliers need to possess if they are to contribute towards buyers gaining a competitive advantage [24, 25, 26, 27, 19], among others. Arbuthnot et al., [24] found for small stores that the logistics services provided by suppliers proved to be the main variable used when gauging their performance. Pearson and Ellram [25] point to quality and costs as the main criteria for evaluating performance. In a similar vein to the previous study, the findings of Quayle [26] conducted among small and medium enterprises reveal that quality, price, paying personal attention to buyers’ needs, supplier experience, product or service reliability, and delivery time are the factors which are most valued in suppliers, in the extent to which they help to create a competitive advantage for such firms.

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2.3. Relationship with the Suppliers The importance of the buyer-seller relation has been widely explored in research [28, 29, 30, 31], among others. There is no need here to stress that relational proximity entails a number of advantages to emerge from cooperation, joint RandD, shared resources, etc., which contribute towards enhanced production efficiency and value creation for both buyer and seller alike [5]. The strength of such relations depends on the contextual variables, the competitive environment in the market, and the willingness of those involved to bolster the relation. Among the variables which may be studied when analysing relations with suppliers, Gadde and Persson [3] point to interaction intensity and loyalty. By interaction intensity, Gadde and Snehota [30] refer to frequency, kind of contact (telephone, e-mail, face to face, etc.) and level of trust. Dampérat and Jolibert [31] recently posited a model for buyer-seller relations from a dialectic perspective (individual, interpersonal, and business level), and underpinned frequency, solidarity, and cordiality as proximity variables to measure interaction. As regards supplier loyalty orientation, the thus far limited number of studies conducted amongst SMEs [32, 33] allude to a tendency among these firms to remain loyal to their suppliers, in the sense that loyalty reduces purchasing risk, simplifies information seeking and allows for at least some buying leverage.

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Carmen Camarero, Mª. José Garrido and Rebeca San José

2.4. Efficacy and Efficiency in Purchasing

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Efficacy refers to the extent to which goals are achieved. Businesses achieve efficacy in purchasing by maintaining cooperation relations with suppliers [34]. Purchases generate value through such relations which favour innovation. Svahn and Westerlund [35] claim that the growing need to enhance efficacy in the purchasing function leads businesses to outsource many of their activities and therefore to increased dependency on the resources and skills of their suppliers. In this sense, suppliers’ resources and the quality of the relationship are two key factors in success. Efficiency refers to achieving goals at a minimum cost (programmes for reducing inventories, cost cutting, low prices, etc.) which may prove crucial for gaining sustainable competitive edge. From such a standpoint, the purchasing function adds value in the sense that it favours a rationalisation of administrative, production and material flow costs [36]. This normally implies dyadic relations (buyer-supplier) so as to achieve scale economies which translate to lower costs and more competitive pricing.

3. RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ICT TOOLS AND STRATEGIC PURCHASING ORIENTATION Having accepted the strategic nature of purchasing in business, certain authors refer to it as procurement [37] pointing to internal and external management processes related to requirement, purchase, supply, payment, product control and relations with suppliers. In other words, it entails dealing with the strategic and operational stages involved in the supply process. Consequently, the greater importance and complexity involved in the purchasing function in firms requires their traditional administrative competences to be enhanced through technical knowledge [3]. For de Boer, et al. [38], the use of ICT in purchasing, or e-procurement, implies three specific aspects: e-sourcing, e-coordination and e-communities. When the products being bought are strategic, the purchasing system employed through the Internet is called e-sourcing. In such cases, the support which can be provided by technologies is not so much related to total management of the purchase but to providing support in negotiation. This application simplifies and standardises requests for information, proposals and quotations, which in purchasing departments is known under the general name

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Influence of Information and Communication Technologies Tools … 31

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of RFx -RFI, Request for Information, RFP, Request for Proposal, and RFQ, Request for Quotation (see [39]). E-coordination within the business organization and between buyer and supplier is reflected in enhanced productivity, faster responses and purchaserelated risk reduction. Therefore, Internet allows access to a great amount of information with lower costs in time and money than those derived from the use of other tools [40, 41, 42, 8] both inside and outside the organization. Within the firm, the development of an intranet can make transmission of information among its members much easier [43, 44]. Outside the organization, an extranet not only represents a source of information, but also contributes to improving relationships between firms [6]. Finally, ICT helps electronic markets to develop and grow, and is where buyers and sellers of different products converge [8], which Boer calls e-communities. Ecommunities are hard to define, although they may be grouped depending on the kind of participants and the latter’s interest. Three different models are apparent: public electronic markets or e-marketplaces, e-marketplaces where there is cooperation between firms, and private exchange.

Figure 1.

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Carmen Camarero, Mª. José Garrido and Rebeca San José

E-communities lead to: greater market transparency, a reduction in (supplier, product or client) search costs, a reduction in administrative costs, approval times as well as internal purchasing or selling processes in the firm, buying and selling of surplus products, secondary markets, etc., benefit pricing competition, adding purchasing power in certain products, dynamic pricing (auctions), improved communication between firms. The scope of the purchasing function and the variety of existing ICT depending on the nature thereof (see for instance the classification made by Garrido et al. [45] of Internet tools in terms of the characteristics of the information flow associated to each tool) and their specific functions, make the range of ICT tools used in purchasing enormous. Figure 1 lists some of the ICT tools related to the most common purchases. One question which now arises is whether ICT and purchase orientation are related. As regards the issue of causality, one point to be stressed is that in their research several authors [46, 47, 48, 49], among others consider ICT to be the determinant variable in the successful implementation of purchase orientation. Most of these works concur in exploring the effect which investment in ICT has on the putting into practice of certain purchase practices, on the strategic nature of the purchasing function, and on purchase performance. Yet, despite this, the causal relationship may also be approached from the opposite angle. In other words, the greater impact which the purchasing function has on business strategy might entail the need for more investment in ICT [50]. The two variables are clearly related. In contrast to previous works, we are particularly interested in exploring the link between each one of the information and communication technologies listed and purchase orientation, adopting a multidimensional approach to this variable, as shown in Figure 1.

4. METHOD 4.1. Sample The empirical work is based on an analysis of information provided by a sample of Spanish firms. Information was gathered through a postal survey aimed at purchasing managers. The questionnaire entailed holding interviews with some of the managers. This initial contact enabled us to draw up a pretest which, after a series of filters, provided the final questionnaire.

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Influence of Information and Communication Technologies Tools … 33 Table 1. Description of the sample

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Description of firms Sector Food Industrial manufacturing Manufacturing for consumption Automotive and ancillary sector Energy, water and environment Construction Trade Information and communications

% 8.5% 30.0% 10.0% 11.5% 10.0% 18.5% 3.1% 4.6%

No. of workers Less than 100 Between 100 and 250 Between 251 and 500 Between 501 and 1000 Over 1000

% 11.9% 24.6% 31.0% 15.0% 17.5%

The population sample consisted of 1500 firms listed in the “Revista Actualidad Económica” [Journal of Current Economics], which comprises the 5000 largest firms in Spain. After incomplete questionnaires had been removed, a total of 149 answers remained, representing a response rate of almost 10%, a percentage in line with the average response rate obtained in other research focusing on similar goals. The only incentive for the purchasing manager involved was the promise of being provided with a copy of the final results. Table 1 describes the features of the sample. Distribution by activities in the final sample is balanced: food, industrial manufacturing, manufacturing for consumption, automotive and ancillary, energy, water and the environment, construction, trade, and information and communications.

4.2. Measurement Variables To measure the variables proposed, in most cases we drew on scales put forward in previous research. The role of the purchasing function in the organization was measured based on an eight-item reflective scale created using the indicators suggested in the works of Narasimhan and Das [51] and Paulraj et al. [18]. To measure the role of the suppliers, a five-indicator scale was constructed based on the proposals of Pearson and Ellram [25], Quayle [26], and Pressey et al. [19]. The relationship with suppliers was measured using 11 items reflecting the long-term orientation of relations and cooperation with suppliers [52]. Efficiency was measured through two variables, cost efficiency and coordination efficiency.

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Carmen Camarero, Mª. José Garrido and Rebeca San José

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Table 2. Descriptive statistics Items Role of purchasing Purchasing is considered to be a strategic function The business devotes many resources to the purchasing function Purchasing objectives are long-term in matters which imply risk and uncertainty There are formal procedures to assess and select suppliers The purchasing function is geared towards meeting the firm’s strategic goals Purchasing performance is measured in terms of its contribution to the firm’s success The purchasing manager forms part of the top level management within the firm The purchasing manager maintains a close relationship with the top management Role of suppliers They are committed to maintaining good quality products They are able to ensure uninterrupted and smooth running of production They evidence a capacity to respond when faced with any eventualities concerning quality They are reliable regarding delivery They are cost efficient Relationship with suppliers Our firms strives to maintain long-term relations with suppliers The firm does everything it can to maintain and look after its relations with suppliers We have great trust in our suppliers We involve our suppliers in the innovations we undertake Our suppliers provide personal attention to our needs We maintain frequent contact with our suppliers We cooperate with our suppliers in certain aspects Any possible problems which arise are dealt with in a cooperative manner Our activities are well coordinated with those of our suppliers We share information with our suppliers We frequently exchange information with our suppliers

Mean

S.D.

4.18

.969

3.38

.939

3.44

.996

4.23

.938

4.32

.848

3.94

.967

3.89

1.181

4.28

1.021

4.25

.677

3.92

.810

3.93

.750

3.91 3.68

.796 .791

4.36

.737

4.05

.804

3.92 3.64 3.90 4.19 3.87

.767 .901 .778 .682 .857

3.85

.792

3.70 3.64 3.68

.818 .879 .932

Communication Technologies : Societal Perspectives, Strategic Management and Impact on Business, Nova Science

Influence of Information and Communication Technologies Tools … 35 Items Efficacy and efficiency It is more efficient in costs thanks to our suppliers It is more efficient in coordination of activities with suppliers It is more efficient in transaction tracking with suppliers It coordinates the purchasing activities at a lower cost It is more efficient in supply costs

Mean

S.D.

3.50 3.49 3.38 3.58 3.70

.890 .750 .776 .847 .839

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Table 3. Correlations and reliability

Role of purchasing Role of the supplier Relation with suppliers Efficiency Cronbach’s alpha Composite reliability Average variance extracted

Role of purchasing 1.000 0.432

Role of the supplier

Relation with suppliers

1.000

0.520

0.641

1.000

0.310 0.882 0.907

0.416 0.813 0.870

0.577 0.904 0.920

1.000 0.782 0.849

0.553

0.576

0.514

0.534

Efficiency

Finally, efficiency reflects a group of items based on the proposal of Kent and Mentzer [53], expressing the extent to which the relationship with suppliers proves efficient in terms of coordination or supply costs as well as coordination and tracking of activities. Secondly, to pinpoint the ICT tools most commonly used in current industrial purchasing (see Figure 1 again), we drew on the previously cited academic studies, a review of professional reports and studies, and particularly the results of the pre-test taken from the in-depth interviews with several purchasing directors. Table 2 shows the descriptive outcomes of the four dimensions of purchase orientation, and Table 3 the correlation between the dimensions and the reliability indicators. As can be seen, above mean evaluations were obtained for all the items.

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Carmen Camarero, Mª. José Garrido and Rebeca San José Table 4. ANOVAS Results

ICT Transactions and online purchasing Telephone order tracking Online order tracking Intranet Extranet Videoconferences

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Professional specialised virtual communities Internal logistics information system Logistics information system expanded to suppliers and clients Material requirements planning (MRP) Enterprise resource planning (ERP) Bar codes for internal management Electronic data interchange (EDI) Information technology for transport optimisation Information technology for product tracking/traceability (GPS) ICT for management and optimisation of inventories/warehousing Computer systems for pinpointing optimal warehousing locations

Role of Purchasing

Role of the Supplier

Relation with the Supplier

Efficacy and Efficiency

…

+ (F=8.252; sig.= 0.005)

+ (F=3.986; sig=.0.048)

+(F=3.830; sig.= 0.052)

…

…

… + (F=5.248; sig.= 0.023) … + (F=10.332; sig.= 0.002) + (F=5.098; sig.= 0.025)

- (F=3.954; sig.= 0.049) + (F= 6.458; sig.= 0.012) … + (F=5.361; sig.=0.022) …

+ (F=11.407; sig.= 0.001) … + (F=7.795; sig.= 0.006) + (F=4.341; sig.= 0.039)

… … …

…

…

…

…

…

…

+ (F=6.993; sig.= 0.009)

+ (F=5.224; sig.= 0.024)

+ (F=8.145; sig.= 0.005)

+ (F=7.124; sig.=0.008)

+ (F= 8.490; sig. 0.004)

+ (F=4.810; sig.=0.030)

+ (F=12.557; sig.=0.001)

+ (F=7.645; sig. =0.006)

…

…

+ (F=16.384; sig.= 0.000)

+ (F=6.728; sig.= 0.010) + (F=10.269; sig.= 0.002) + (F=8.067; sig.= 0.005)

+ (F=13.465; sig.= 0.000) + (F=4.331; sig.=0.039) + (F=6.543; sig= 0.012)

+ (F=13.163; sig.= 0.000) + (F=6.312; sig. = 0.013)

… … …

+ (F=9.172; sig.=0.003)

…

+ (F=10.132; sig.= 0.002)

+ (F=8.234; sig.= 0.005)

+ (F=5.793; sig.=0.017)

…

…

…

+ (F=7.781; sig.=0.006)

…

…

…

+ (F=11.140; sig.=0.001)

…

+ (F=5.121; sig.=0.025)

…

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Graph 1. Percentage of firms that use (and do not use) each ICT No

Yes

100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0

T ransaction T elephone s and

order

Online order tracking

Intranet

Extranet

Videoconfer ences

Professiona

Internal

l

logistics

Logistics

Material

information requirement

Information Information

Enterprise

Bar codes

Electronic

resource

for internal

data

manageme interchange for transport for product

ICT for

Computer

technology technology manageme systems for

online

tracking

system

s planning

planning

nt and

pinpointing

No

49,3

32,2

54,7

42,3

59,5

62,8

94,6

46,6

72,3

38,5

35,1

52

60,1

79,7

75,7

45,9

73,6

Yes

50,7

67,8

45,3

57,7

40,5

37,2

5,4

53,4

27,7

61,5

64,9

48

39,9

20,3

24,3

54,1

26,4

specialised information

38

Carmen Camarero, Mª. José Garrido and Rebeca San José

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5. RESULTS As regards the use of ICT, Graph 1 shows the percentage of firms that use each tool (in the white column). In order, the most commonly used are telephone order tracking, followed by enterprise resource planning (ERP), material requirements planning (MRP), intranets, ICT for management and optimisation of inventories/warehousing, and internal logistics information systems. For these ICT, the percentage of firms who do use them is greater than the number who do not. ICT related to online purchasing and transactions is used by half of the firms surveyed, whereas the remaining tools are not used by the majority of firms. In order to ascertain the relations between each ICT tool and the features of strategic purchasing orientation, for each tool we then conducted an ANOVA analysis, taking the use/non-use of each tool as the factor. The measuring scales of the purchase orientation features were previously reduced to a single factor. Table 4 provides a summary of the outcomes. Only significant relations (at 95%) between the use of each tool and each of the features of purchase orientation are shown, together with the sign of the relation (positive or negative). In general, ICT tools evidence a significant and positive relation on at least one of the purchasing features, except telephone order tracking, which is linked significantly but negatively to the role of provider, and the intranet and virtual professional communities (this latter tool is also the least used by the firms surveyed, as emerged from Graph 1), which evidence no relations with any of the purchase orientation features. Both the logistics information system expanded to suppliers and clients as well as information technologies for transport optimisation impact the four facets. Moreover, it seems that the effects of ICT are particularly apparent in the three first features of purchase orientation, more than on performance (purchasing efficacy and efficiency). In this sense, only online transactions and purchasing, the internal logistics information system, logistics information system expanded to suppliers and clients, and information technology for optimising transport are positively related to purchasing efficacy and efficiency.

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CONCLUSION Over the last few decades, the business world has been characterised by a growing need to manage firms in a constantly shifting and globally competitive environment, shaped by a dynamic context which is at the same time uncertain and complex. The most notable changes include the significant increase in competition, a reduction in product lifecycle, and the rapid spread of new technologies that benefit innovation processes. As a result, today more than ever, the very circumstances of change and the needs it entails have meant that businesses are strongly influenced by their strategic orientation. Strategic orientation refers to the activities and behaviour aimed at ensuring a sustainable competitive edge [54]. The present research focuses on purchasing, a variable on which there is no agreement concerning its scope in business –whether as an administrative or a strategic function-, although more recent studies would seem to point in this latter direction, a view we share. As a strategic function, our interest lies in exploring the effect of purchasing on other business decisions, such as the use of information technologies in said function, in addition to its impact on business performance. At the current point in time in particular, allocating business resources must strive to become increasingly efficient. As a result, and accepting the advantages inherent in the use of ICT in purchasing, we must choose those whose use has the greatest impact on improving relations with suppliers and on enhancing efficacy and efficiency. Although our findings are not generalisable to all business sectors, it appears clear that certain tools are key to achieving strategic purchasing orientation, the most prominent being: online transactions and purchasing, online order tracking, intranet, extranet, internal information logistics system, a logistics information system expanded to suppliers and clients, material requirements planning (MRP), bar codes for internal management, electronic data interchange (EDI), information technology for transport optimisation, or computer systems for pinpointing optimal warehousing locations. There are also other tools which, although they are used by firms who allocate a strategic role to purchasing, do not contribute towards enhancing relations with suppliers or improving efficacy and efficiency in purchasing. These are information technology for product tracking/traceability (GPS) or ICT for management and optimisation of inventories/warehousing. Also striking is the lack of any link between membership of professional or specialised virtual communities in strategic purchasing orientation and cost efficiency or coordination with suppliers.

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We should also point out the present work’s limitations. Since our sample covers different business sectors, we are unable to highlight which information and communication technology tools most impact each sector. A further point is that firms were asked about the use or otherwise of said technologies but not about the intensity or degree of use compared to other technologies. We feel that one future line of research should analyse purchase orientation as a process emerging from the strategic importance which management attaches to purchasing, is reflected in action geared towards accurately selecting suppliers, coordinating and cooperating with said suppliers, and concluding with an evaluation of the efficacy and efficiency achieved. Moreover, management and purchasing manager involvement in the investment in and use of ICT in said process is a further issue that needs to be borne in mind.

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[23] Ulaga, W. and Chacour, S. (2001). “Measuring customer perceived value in business markets: a prerequisite for marketing strategy development and implementation”. Industrial Marketing Management, Vol. 30, Nº 6, pp. 525-540. [24] Arbuthnot, J.; Slama, M. and Sisler, G. (1993). “Selection criteria and information sources in the purchase decisions of apparel buyers of small retailing firms”, Journal of Small Business Management, Vol. 31, Nº 2, pp. 12-23. [25] Pearson, J. and Ellram, L. (1995). “Supplier selection and evaluation in small versus large electronics firms”. Journal of Small Business Management, Vol. 33, Nº 4, pp. 53-65. [26] Quayle, M. (2002b). “Purchasing in small firms”. European Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management, Vol. 8, Nº 3, pp. 151-159. [27] Möller, K. and Törrönen, P. (2003). “Business suppliers´value creation potential: A capability-based analysis”. Industrial Marketing Management, Vol. 32, Nº 2, pp. 109-118. [28] Carlisle, J. and Parker, R. (1989). Beyond Negotiation: Redeeming Customer-Supplier Relationships. Chichester, UK: John Wiley and Sons. [29] Lamming, R. (1993). Beyond Partnership: Strategies for innovation and lean supply. Hemel Hempstead, UK: Prentice-Hall. [30] Gadde, L. and Snehota, I. (2000). “Making the most of supplier relationships”. Industrial Marketing Management, Vol. 29, pp. 305-316. [31] Dampérar, M. and Jolibert, A. (2009). “A dialectical model of buyerseller relationships”. Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing. Vol. 24, Nº 3/4, pp. 207-217. [32] Möller, B. and Pesonen, P. (1981). “Small business purchasing of capital equipment”, Industrial Marketing Management, Vol. 10, pp, 265-271. [33] Ellegaard, Ch. (2009). "The purchasing orientation of small company owners", Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing, Vol. 24, Nº 3/4, pp.291-300. [34] Gadde, L. and Häkansson, H. (1994). “The changing role of purchasing: reconsidering three strategic issues”, European Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management, Vol. 1, Nº 1, pp. 27-35. [35] Svahn, S. and Westerlund, M. (2009). “Purchasing strategies in supply relationships”, Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing, Vol. 24, Nº 3/4, pp. 173-181. [36] Gadde, L. and Häkansson, H. (2001). Supply Network Strategies, John Wiley and Sons, Chichester.

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Influence of Information and Communication Technologies Tools … 43 [37] McBeth, D. and Ferguson, N. (1994). Partnership sourcing- an integrated supply chain management approach, Longman Group, UK. [38] Boer De, L.; Harink, J. and Heijboer, G. (2002). A Conceptual Model for Assesing the Impact of Electronic Procurement, European Journal of Purchasing and Supply Managemet, Vol.8, Nº 1, pp. 25-33. [39] Johnson, P. and Klassen, R. (2005). “E-Procurement”. MIT Sloan Management Review Vol. 46, Nº. 2, pp. 7-10. [40] Boyle, B. and Alwitt, L. (1999). “Internet use within the US plastics Industry. Industrial Marketing Management, Vol. 28, pp. 327-341. [41] Min, H. and W. Galle (1999) “Electronic Commerce Usage in Businessto-business Purchasing”, International Journal of Operations and Production Management, Vol. 19, Nº 9, pp. 909-921. [42] Avlonitis, G. and D. Karayanni (2000) “The Impact of Internet Use on Business-to-Business Marketing: Examples from American and European Companies”, Industrial Marketing Management, Vol. 29, Nº 5, pp. 441-459. [43] Goles, T. and R. Hirschheim (1997), “Intranets: The Next IS Solution?” White Paper, Information Systems Research Center, Universidad de Houston. [44] Osmonbekov, T; D. Bello and D. Gilliland (2002) “Adoption of Electronic Commerce Tools in Business Procurement: Enhanced Buying Center Structure and Processes”, Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing, Vol. 17, Nº 2-3, pp. 151-166. [45] Garrido, M.J.; Gutierrez, A. and San José, R. (2006). “Determinants of the internet use in the purchasing process”, Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing. Vol. 21, Nº 3, pp. 164-174. [46] Stump, R. and V. Sriram (1997). “Employing information technology in purchasing: buyer-supplier relationships and size of the supplier base”, Industrial Marketing Management, Vol, 26, Nº 2, pp. 127-136. [47] Sriram, V, and R. Stump (2004). “Information technology investments in purchasing: An empirical investigation of communications, relationship and performance outcomes”, Omega, Vol. 32, Nº 21, pp. 41-55. [48] Premus, R. and N. Sanders (2005). “Differentiating purchasing practices of firms based on information technology use”, Academy of Strategic Management Journal, Vol. 4, pp. 9-21. [49] González-Benito, J. (2007). “Information technology investment and operational performance in purchasing: The mediating role of supply

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[54]

Carmen Camarero, Mª. José Garrido and Rebeca San José

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In: Communication Technologies Editors: A. J. Salazar and C. Jimenez

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Chapter 3

TECHNOLOGIES THAT COMPEL CONSUMERS TO PATRONIZE YOUR STORE Irene Gil-Saura1, María-Eugenia Ruiz-Molina1 and David Servera-Francés2 1

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2

Universitat de València, Valencia, Spain Universidad Católica de Valencia San Vicente Mártir, Spain

ABSTRACT Rivalry in retailing drives to increasing difficulties at retaining customers. In this context, retailers are investing in information and communication technologies (ICT) in order to improve their operational efficiency and provide added-value services to establish closer bonds with their customers. Notwithstanding, academics warn of the risk of overengineering and highlight the need of investing in those technologies that are suitable for the business. Loyalty towards the store depends to a great extent on service customization, personal communication management and feelings of enjoyment with regards to shopping at the store. Since customer loyalty has been pointed out as one of the most important goals of retailers, the present chapter aims to assess the existence of relationship between the retailers’ use of several ICT solutions and customer loyalty, conceptualized both as an attitudinal and a behavioral construct. In this way, we expect to help retailers identify the most suitable technologies to be implemented in their stores in terms of their impact on customer patronizing behavior.

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Keywords: Loyalty; Information and Communication Technologies; Retailing

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1. INTRODUCTION Loyalty towards the store depends to a great extent on service customization, personal communication management and feelings of enjoyment with regards to shopping at the store (Ball et al., 2006; Jones and Farquhar, 2003; Wong, 2004). Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have been implemented by retailers in order to upgrade existing services and enhancing the customer experience in the store. From the consumer’s point of view, ICT allow improvements in retailer service (Ellram et al., 1999; Lowson, 2001; Servera et al., 2006), saving shopping time through a wider assortment and one-stop shopping (Messinger and Narasimhan, 1997). In this sense, ICT solutions are expected to have a positive influence on the value of the retailer’s relationships with its customers (Lewis, 2001; Lewis and Talalayevsky, 2000; Mentzer and Williams, 2001; Gil et al., 2007). However, some authors warn about the risk of "overengineering" or investing excessively in technology (Sethuraman and Parasuraman, 2005), pointing out that good technology is “appropriate” technology. In contrast, practitioners tend to consider that more technology is always preferable to less technology (Palmer and Markus, 2000). Since customer loyalty is a key factor to generate current and future revenue (Petersen et al., 2009), it is essential to measure the effects of ICT solutions on loyalty towards the store. Notwithstanding, little attention has been paid to customer satisfaction with technology-based improvements (Timmor and Rymon, 2007) or the influence of technology on customer loyalty, even though both factors should be considered in investment decisions. In addition to this, several types of retailers analyzed in the literature present peculiarities (Berry and Barnes, 1987) that may make difficult the extrapolation some investment patterns to other retail activities (Drennan and McColl-Kennedy, 2003). Focusing on retailing, the present paper aims at analyzing the relationship between the evaluation of the retailer’s ICT solutions and customer loyalty towards the store. In particular, we try to identify the most relevant technologies for four types of retailer: grocery, apparel, electronics and furniture and decoration stores.

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2. LITERATURE REVIEW Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have been defined as “all forms of technology utilized to create, capture, manipulate, communicate, exchange, present, and use information in its various forms, e.g. business data, voice conversations, still images, motion pictures, multimedia presentations, etc.“ (Ryssel et al., 2004: 198). In order to assess customer’s perception of retail technology, two main dimensions have been identified: ICT advancement and ICT alignment (Hausman and Stock, 2003; Wu et al., 2006). ICT advancement has been defined as the extent to which a firm adopts the most sophisticated technology as a measure of company proactivity in adopting and implementing ICT to offer solutions to customers ahead of competitors (Wu et al., 2006). ICT alignment is defined as the extent to which a firm’s technology is compatible with that of its channel partners, including their customers (Powell, 1992). Practitioners maintain that more and higher levels of technology are always better than lower levels of technological development. Nevertheless, academicians support the notion that companies should only adopt the technologies that suit their specific strategic aims. In this vein, some authors alert to the risk of overengineering or investing excessively in technology (Sethuraman and Parasuraman, 2005). In retailing, although technology might improve customer relationship management and service customization, ICT can be source of satisfaction or dissatisfaction depending on customer attitude towards technology (Joseph et al., 1999; Parasuraman and Colby, 2001; Walker et al., 2002) and/or employee responsiveness (Meuter et al., 2000; Bitner 2001). In view of this controversy, it may be useful for retailers to analyze the contribution of technology to patronizing consumers. Loyalty has been defined as the conjunction of a positive attitude and repeat patronage (Dick and Basu, 1994), jointly considering in this way the two traditional attitudinal and behavioural perspectives discussed in the literature. According to the attitudinal perspective, loyalty is defined as an attitude that sometimes involves a relationship with the company. From the second perspective, loyalty is considered in terms of behaviour revealed through repeat purchase (Uncles et al., 2003). In the case of store loyalty, it has been defined as the biased behavioural response, expressed over time, by a consumer with respect to one store out of a set of stores, which is a function of both decision making and evaluative processes resulting in brand commitment (Bloemer and de Ruyter, 1998). The

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critical part of this definition is store commitment, since in case of absence of store commitment a patron to a store is merely spuriously loyal, i.e. repeat visiting behaviour is directed by inertia (Dick and Basu, 1994). In this sense, loyalty has been considered as a consequence of psychological decision making and evaluative processes that result in the commitment with a store (Knox and Walker, 2001). Similarly, Srinivasan et al. (2002) define loyalty as a customer’s favorable attitude toward the retailer that results in repeat buying behaviour. Since attitudes may be affected by previous experiences with the store and the ICT solutions of the retailer facilitate customer purchases, we expect to find a positive relationship between customer assessment of the retailer’s ICT and customer attitude towards the store and, in turn, customer loyalty towards the store.

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H1: The higher the level of advancement and alignment of the retailer’s ICT solutions, the higher the customer loyalty towards the store. H2: The higher the intensity of use of ICT solutions by the retailer, the higher the customer loyalty towards the store. Notwithstanding, there is a different degree of contact between customers and vendors depending on the retailer product assortment. In this sense, following Berry and Barnes’ (1987), there is a distinction between high-touch retailers, i.e. characterized by a high level of personal contact with customers through personal selling and advice and customized services, and low-touch retailers which emphasize the use of self-service technologies. Similarly, Meuter et al. (2000) have distinguished between interpersonal and self-service encounters. Since the relative importance of the benefits sought by consumers differ between high- and low-touch retailers (Patterson and Smith, 2001; Kinard and Capella, 2006), we expect that the same technology solutions may be differently appreciated depending on the type of retail activity in which they are implemented. For instance, self-service technologies may be more appreciated by customers of grocery retailers, commonly involved in routine purchase processes with an utilitarian motivation, in comparison to customers of other retail stores linked to more hedonic purchase motivations. On the other hand, for durable goods retailers, i.e. electronics/electrical appliances and furniture/decoration, where higher customer involvement is expected and information plays a key role in the purchase process, a significant relationship between communication technologies and customer loyalty is expected. In

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support of this notion, differences in perceived ICT performance have been detected across service industries (Drennan and McColl-Kennedy, 2003) and thus, we posit the last hypothesis: H3: The strength of the relationship between intensity of use of ICT solutions by the retailer and customer loyalty towards the store differs across types of retailer.

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3. METHODOLOGY In order to achieve the aim of this paper, we perform a personal survey to patrons of retail stores. Table 1 exhibits the main characteristics of the research. The stores for conducting surveys were selected among the main companies in each activity sector (following their NACE -National Classification of Economic Activities- and TEA -Tax on Economic Activitiescodes obtained from SABI (Iberian Accounting Analysis System), an Informa database that contains the annual reports of the most important Spanish and Portuguese companies) in terms of total sum of the assets in the company’s balance sheet. Regarding the consumers sample, respondents were randomly selected and interviewed at the store exit. A probability-sampling process has been followed in order to guarantee that the sample is representative of the population in terms of gender and age. Table 2 shows its distribution in terms of its classification variables. Table 1. Technical details of the research

Universe

Geographical scope Sample size Sample design Statistical techniques Statistical software

Customers of retail stores selling: - grocery, - clothing / footwear, - electronics / electrical appliances - furniture / wood / decoration. Spain 400 consumers (100 for each activity) of 51 stores Personal survey at the exit of the store Correlation analysis IBM SPSS version 19.0

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Table 2. General sample information Variables Stores Number of stores: - grocery - clothing / footwear - electronics / electrical appliances - furniture / decorations Length of patronage: - 0-5 years - 6-10 years - 11-15 years - More than 15 years Consumers Gender: - male - female Age: - 18-25 years old - 26-35 years old - 36-45 years old - 46-55 years old - 56-65 years old - More than 65 years old Educational level: - without studies - primary studies - secondary studies - university studies

Number

%

8 16 16 11

15.68 31.37 31.37 21.57

242 119 19 19

60.50 29.75 4.75 4.75

184 216

46.00 54.00

25 113 156 78 22 6

6.30 28.30 39.00 19.50 5.50 1.50

1 115 207 76

0.30 28.80 51.75 19.00

The items included in the questionnaire regarding customer assessment of ICT solutions have been adapted from the scale proposed by Wu et al. (2006). In addition to this, the catalogue of the main ICT solutions implemented by retailers has been obtained from Observatorio (2006, 2011), Servera and Gil (2008) and Gil and Ruiz (2012). Finally, items for measuring loyalty towards the retailer have been adapted from Srinivasan et al. (2002) and Anderson and Srinivasan (2003). In all cases items were ranked through a 5 point-scale. Once data collected, correlations between technology-related items and loyalty measures are calculated in order to assess the sense and the strength of

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the relationships between these variables. The correlation analysis is performed for the total sample of stores as well as each type of store, so that the peculiarities of the different industries may be inferred.

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4. RESULTS The main of this chapter is to analyse if technology influences customer loyalty towards the store and, if so, to identify those ICT solutions that compel customers to patronize the store. In order to achieve this double aim, we first calculate correlations between five items for measuring customer loyalty towards the store, according to the proposals of Srinivasan et al. (2002) and Anderson and Srinivasan (2003), and four items for scoring the customer global assessment of the retail store technology in terms of advancement and alignment, as specified by Wu et al. (2006). The results are shown in Table 3. As it can be observed from Table 3, there are positive and significant correlations between customer assessment of the level of ICT advancement of the retailer (i.e. items 1, 2 and 3) and customer loyalty towards the store. Therefore, the more modern and advanced the retailer’s ICT solutions, the higher the customer loyalty towards the store. In contrast, the alignment of the retailer’s ICT with customers’ needs do not seem to exert a strong influence on customer loyalty towards the store. In view of the positive relationship between ICT level of advancement and customer loyalty towards the store, in order to gain insight, we explore the relationship between customer loyalty and a series of ICT solutions that may be implemented by retailers. In particular, respondents are asked about their perceptions about the intensity of use of each technology by the retailer, ranking from 1 (not at all) to 5 (a lot), and their agreement with the statements to measure their loyalty towards the store, also considering a 5-point scale (Table 4). Most of ICT solutions show a strong relationship with customer loyalty towards the store. These include self-service technologies, bank transfer payment, mobile payment, cash on delivery, phone, fax, e-mail, web site, office software, design software, Internet security software, and invoicing software. Thus, customers appreciate the retailers’ efforts to use technology for making quicker the purchasing process, payment facilities, different alternative for communications between retailer and customer, and software for retailer’s internal uses.

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Table 3. Correlations between customer loyalty towards the store and customer assessment of retail ICT solutions: All stores As long as the present service continues, I doubt that I would switch STORE 1.-This STORE invests in technology 0.147a 2.-This STORE has the most advanced technology 0.136a 3.-In comparison to its competitors, this STORE’S technology is more advanced 0.201a 4.-This STORE considers my opinion as a customer on decisions involving ICT coordination and development in order to improve services and to better satisfy my needs as a client 0.046 a, b, c

Statistically significant at 1%, 5% and 10%, respectively.

I try to use the STORE whenever I need to make a purchase. 0.186a 0.204a

When I need to make a purchase, this STORE is my first choice 0.189a 0.220a

0.234a

0.084c

I like using this STORE

To me this STORE is the best STORE to do business with

0.259a 0.264a

0.225a 0.314a

0.230a

0.283a

0.298a

-0.021

0.097b

0.084c

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Table 4. Correlations between customer loyalty towards the store and perceived intensity of use of retail ICT solutions: All stores

1. Bar codes / scanner 2. Self-service technologies 3. Loyalty program 4. Credit/debit card payment 5. Retailer card payment 6. Bank transfer payment 7. Mobile payment 8. Cash on delivery 9. Phone 10. Fax 11. E-mail 12. Web site 13. Office software 14. Design software 15. Internet security software 16. Invoicing software a, b, c

As long as the present service continues, I doubt that I would switch STORE 0.127b 0.092c -0.020 0.132a 0.046 0.154a 0.098c 0.108b 0.165a 0.128b 0.134a 0.120b 0.093c 0.093c 0.099c 0.117b

Statistically significant at 1%, 5% and 10%, respectively.

I try to use the STORE whenever I need to make a purchase. 0.108b 0.141a -0.038 -0.011 0.017 0.258a 0.245a 0.267a 0.245a 0.256a 0.233b 0.198a 0.256a 0.218a 0.247a 0.229a

When I need to make a purchase, this STORE is my first choice 0.104b 0.297a 0.102b 0.081 -0.011 0.313a 0.278a 0.262a 0.362a 0.336a 0.302a 0.257a 0.313a 0.304a 0.316a 0.339a

I like using this STORE 0.076 0.222a -0.045 0.083c -0.018 0.278a 0.238a 0.222a 0.312a 0.294a 0.310a 0.207a 0.269a 0.285a 0.289a 0.256a

To me this STORE is the best STORE to do business with 0.143a 0.331a 0.000 0.045 0.032 0.343a 0.324a 0.326a 0.396a 0.420a 0.384a 0.307a 0.363a 0.382a 0.359a 0.362a

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Table 5. Correlations between customer loyalty towards the store and perceived intensity of use of retail ICT solutions: Grocery stores

1. Bar codes / scanner 2. Self-service technologies 3. Loyalty program 4. Credit/debit card payment 5. Retailer card payment 6. Bank transfer payment 7. Mobile payment 8. Cash on delivery 9. Phone 10. Fax 11. E-mail 12. Web site 13. Office software 14. Design software 15. Internet security software 16. Invoicing software a, b, c

I try to use the As long as the present STORE whenever service continues, I doubt I need to make a that I would switch STORE purchase. 0.067 0.187c 0.171c 0.300a -0.067 0.000 0.344a 0.014 0.255a 0.192c 0.184c 0.288a 0.246b 0.292a 0.204c 0.231b 0.341a 0.366a 0.315a 0.364a 0.337a 0.343a 0.310a 0.387a 0.260b 0.360a 0.297a 0.343a 0.267a 0.353a 0.280a 0.328a

Statistically significant at 1%, 5% and 10%, respectively.

When I need to make a purchase, this STORE is my first choice 0.117 0.329a 0.141 0.198b 0.075b 0.185c 0.184c 0.109 0.252b 0.233b 0.229b 0.264b 0.203c 0.224b 0.231b 0.218b

To me this I like using STORE is the this STORE best STORE to do business with 0.022 0.107 0.218b 0.298a 0.037 0.033 0.204b 0.172c 0.209b 0.167c 0.331a 0.315a 0.313a 0.314a 0.196c 0.214b 0.386a 0.388a 0.414a 0.400a 0.423a 0.395a 0.426a 0.415a 0.414a 0.339a 0.452a 0.405a 0.419a 0.345a 0.329a 0.337a

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Table 6. Correlations between customer loyalty towards the store and perceived intensity of use of retail ICT solutions: Apparel stores

1. Bar codes / scanner 2. Self-service technologies 3. Loyalty program 4. Credit/debit card payment 5. Retailer card payment 6. Bank transfer payment 7. Mobile payment 8. Cash on delivery 9. Phone 10. Fax 11. E-mail 12. Web site 13. Office software 14. Design software 15. Internet security software 16. Invoicing software a, b, c

As long as the present service continues, I doubt that I would switch STORE 0.153 -0.081 -0.107 0.012 -0.116 0.038 -0.137 -0.108 0.007 -0.156 -0.120 -0.072 -0.204c -0.231b -0.210c -0.118

Statistically significant at 1%, 5% and 10%, respectively.

I try to use the STORE whenever I need to make a purchase. 0.188c 0.047 -0.099 0.060 -0.122 -0.012 -0.018 0.000 -0.004 -0.005 -0.067 0.016 -0.041 -0.124 -0.084 -0.073

When I need to make a purchase, this STORE is my first choice 0.141 0.285a 0.104 0.123 -0.132 0.215c 0.078 0.098 0.220b 0.135 0.034 0.055 0.131 0.054 0.102 0.209b

I like using this STORE 0.005 0.202c -0.215 -0.078 -0.180 0.186c 0.115 0.141 0.184c 0.085 0.125 -0.094 0.090 0.091 0.085 0.111

To me this STORE is the best STORE to do business with 0.243b 0.419a -0.073 0.030 -0.075 0.263b 0.288a 0.340a 0.325a 0.377a 0.326a 0.202c 0.341a 0.317a 0.342a 0.359a

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Table 7. Correlations between customer loyalty towards the store and perceived intensity of use of retail ICT solutions: Electronics stores

1. Bar codes / scanner 2. Self-service technologies 3. Loyalty program 4. Credit/debit card payment 5. Retailer card payment 6. Bank transfer payment 7. Mobile payment 8. Cash on delivery 9. Phone 10. Fax 11. E-mail 12. Web site 13. Office software 14. Design software 15. Internet security software 16. Invoicing software a, b, c

As long as the present service continues, I doubt that I would switch STORE 0.253b 0.142 -0.038 0.052 -0.028 0.263b 0.159 0.187c 0.138 0.177c 0.123 0.146 0.100 0.075 0.136 0.129

I try to use the STORE whenever I need to make a purchase. 0.119 0.128 0.092 -0.095 0.140 0.347a 0.320a 0.350a 0.276a 0.288a 0.304a 0.250b 0.257b 0.218b 0.301a 0.265a

Statistically significant at 1%, 5% and 10%, respectively.

When I need to make a purchase, this STORE is my first choice 0.249b 0.213b 0.122 -0.143 0.033 0.332a 0.358a 0.338a 0.431a 0.410a 0.339a 0.364a 0.339a 0.363a 0.384a 0.389a

To me this I like using STORE is the this STORE best STORE to do business with 0.130 0.184c 0.177 0.202c 0.014 -0.046 -0.026 -0.096 -0.027 -0.109 0.143 0.344a 0.177c 0.291a 0.202b 0.328a 0.235b 0.312a 0.197c 0.378a 0.211b 0.284a 0.195c 0.270a 0.153 0.251b 0.145 0.247b 0.209b 0.261b 0.163 0.248b

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Table 8. Correlations between customer loyalty towards the store and perceived intensity of use of retail ICT solutions: Furniture and decoration stores

1. Bar codes / scanner 2. Self-service technologies 3. Loyalty program 4. Credit/debit card payment 5. Retailer card payment 6. Bank transfer payment 7. Mobile payment 8. Cash on delivery 9. Phone 10. Fax 11. E-mail 12. Web site 13. Office software 14. Design software 15. Internet security software 16. Invoicing software a, b, c

As long as the present service continues, I doubt that I would switch STORE 0.253b 0.142 -0.038 0.052 -0.028 0.263b 0.159 0.187c 0.138 0.177c 0.123 0.146 0.100 0.075 0.136 0.129

When I need to I try to use the STORE make a purchase, whenever I need to this STORE is my make a purchase. first choice 0.119 0.249b 0.128 0.213b 0.092 0.122 -0.095 -0.143 0.140 0.033 0.347a 0.332a 0.320a 0.358a 0.350a 0.338a 0.276a 0.431a 0.288a 0.410a 0.304a 0.339a 0.250b 0.364a 0.257b 0.339a 0.218b 0.363a 0.301a 0.384a 0.265a 0.389a

Statistically significant at 1%, 5% and 10%, respectively.

I like using this STORE 0.130 0.177 0.014 -0.026 -0.027 0.143 0.177c 0.202c 0.235b 0.197c 0.211b 0.195c 0.153 0.145 0.209b 0.163

To me this STORE is the best STORE to do business with 0.184c 0.202c -0.046 -0.096 -0.109 0.344a 0.291a 0.328a 0.312a 0.378a 0.284a 0.270a 0.251b 0.247b 0.261b 0.248b

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In contrast, loyalty programs and retailers’ card do not hold a strong relationship with customer loyalty towards the store. Surprisingly, these retailer’s instruments to patronize consumers do not exert a significant influence on customer loyalty towards the store. We guess that these instruments are not effective per se to patronize consumers, unless they are supported by special treatment benefits, such as discounts or special deals, for loyal customers. Last, some ICT solutions such as bar codes and credit/debit card show mixed results depending on the item used to measure customer loyalty towards the store. Since the relative importance of ICT solutions may differ across retail industry, we replicate the correlation analysis for the four different types of retailers included in our sample. First, we analyze correlations between intensity of use of ICT solutions by the retailer and customer loyalty to the grocery store (Table 5). Excepting bar codes and loyalty program, the rest of ICT solutions show a strong positive relationship with customer loyalty towards the store. Thus, in such a routine purchasing process, such as groceries purchase, customers really appreciate all technology solutions that facilitate completing this task as quick as possible. On the other hand, since bar codes are commonly used by all groceries retailers, customers do not pay special attention to this type of technology, not affecting strongly customer loyalty towards the store. Regarding loyalty programs, as above mentioned, their attractiveness and, consequently, their impact on customer loyalty, may depend on the benefits offered by retailers as incentives to their patrons. Next, we analyze the relationships between ICT solutions and customer loyalty in the scope of apparel retailing (Table 6). For apparel retailers, the relationships between ICT solutions and customer loyalty towards the store depend on the item measuring the latter. The item showing the strongest relationships with ICT solutions is “To me this STORE is the best STORE to do business with”. In this sense, the use of technology by retailers seems to exert a positive influence on customer attitude towards the store, that is a component, together with repeat purchase, of customer loyalty, according to Dick and Basu (1994). On the other hand, considering the items “As long as the present service continues, I doubt that I would switch STORE”, “I try to use the STORE whenever I need to make a purchase”, and “I like using this STORE”, correlations are not significant at p < 0.05. This may involve that retailer’s

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technology does not exert a significant role on repeat purchase in this type of product, since apparel is typically associated to hedonic motivations and variety seeking may be more common than for other type of retailers. Furthermore, some ICT solutions such as loyalty program, credit/debit card payment and retailer card payment, show weak correlations with customer loyalty towards the store, regardless the item used to measure this construct. Regarding the relationship between the retailer’s use of ICT solutions and customer loyalty towards the store, correlations are displayed in Table 7. For electronics retailers, the use of bar codes, self-service technologies, loyalty programs, credit cards and retailer’s cards are not strongly correlated to customer loyalty. Since personal advice of the retailer’s staff is important for this type of product, self-service technologies are weakly correlated with customer loyalty for these high-touch retailers. In addition to this, since electronics are durables and, thus, not frequently purchased items, loyalty programs and retailer card payment do not seem to be specially appreciated by consumers. In contrast, payment facilities (bank transfer payment, mobile payment, cash on delivery) and availability of ways to communicate with the retailer (e.g. phone, fax, e-mail, web site) are strongly correlated with positive attitude and repeat purchase. Last, the relationship between ICT use and customer loyalty towards furniture and decoration stores is analyzed (Table 8). Results are similar to those obtained for electronics stores. In this regard, as high-touch retailers, self-service technologies are weakly related to customer loyalty. In turn, payment facilities and communication channels show significant positive correlations with customer attitude and repeat purchase.

CONCLUSION The literature recognizes the need to explore the determinants of store loyalty (Lewis and Soureli, 2006) and, in this sense, the present chapter provides evidence about the positive relationship between the retailer investment in technology and store loyalty. In other words, our results support the importance for the retailer of investing in ICT solutions. In this sense, our findings support the notion that higher levels of and more advanced

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technologies are better than lower levels of technological development, in the line of Palmer and Markus (2000). Notwithstanding, the strength of the relationships between the intensity of ICT use by retailers and customer loyalty towards the store differs across retailer type. These differences can be explained by the peculiarities of the buying process of non-durable goods in comparison to durable goods, as well as to the information necessary to satisfactorily complete such a process and the importance of communications with the retailer for post-sales service delivery. In particular, while for grocery retailers almost all ICT solutions are strongly related to customer loyalty, for retail chains selling durable goods (i.e. electronics and furniture and decoration), those technology solutions related to payment facilities and retailer-customer communications seem to be more strongly related to customer loyalty than the rest of ICTs. Thus, we understand that retailers should concentrate their efforts on investing in those technologies that contribute at a greater extent at satisfying the specific needs of their customers, thus contributing to loyalty towards the store. All in all, the present chapter supports the need for retailers to prioritize those ICT solutions that are more valued by the retailer’s customers, since for some retailers only specific technologies (e.g. payment facilities, communication channels) show a significant relationship with customer loyalty towards the store. Notwithstanding, cost and impact on business performance are both relevant issues to be considered by retail managers, since the benefits of some ICT solutions may not be directly observed by customers and, therefore, considering only the customer’s point of view can lead to underestimating the potential of these technologies. Although this research allows identifying the ICT solutions most influencing customer loyalty towards the store, it is not free of limitations. First, concerning customer assessment of retailer’s ICT, the question arises on how customers that never or rarely use store ICT systems evaluate the retailer’s technology. A deeper analysis should be conducted in order to assess the customer level of expertise and use of technology. Second, further research should be conducted on the role of sociodemographics on customer acceptance of retailer technology, in the line of Weijters et al. (2007). Last, the following step in this research line should consider a comprehensive model connecting retailer’s ICT solutions with variables such as consumer value and its antecedents, as well as trust and customer satisfaction, since they have been appointed in the literature as main determinants of customer loyalty.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENT This research has been financed by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science (Project ref.: ECO2010-17475).

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REFERENCES Anderson, R.E. and Srinivasan, S.S. (2003). E-satisfaction and e-loyalty: A contingency framework. Psychology and Marketing, 20 (2), 123-138. Ball, D.; Coelho, P.S. and Vilares, M.J. (2006). Service personalization and loyalty. Journal of Services Marketing, 20 (6), 391-403. Berry, L.L. Barnes, J.A. (1987). Retail Positioning Strategies in the USA. In Business Strategy and Retailing, Johnson G (ed.). John Wiley and Son Ltd: Chichester; 107-115. Bitner, M.J. (2001). Service and technology: opportunities and paradoxes. Managing Service Quality, 11 (6), 375-9. Bloemer, J. and de Ruyter, K. (1998). On the relationship between store image, store satisfaction and store loyalty. European Journal of Marketing, 32 (5/6), 499-513. Dick, A.S. and Basu, K. (1994). Customer loyalty: toward an integrated conceptual framework. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 22 (2), 99-113. Drennan, J., and McColl-Kennedy, J.R. (2003). The relationship between Internet use and perceived performance in retail and professional service firms. Journal of Services Marketing, 17 (3), 295-311. Ellram, L.M.; La Londe, B.J. and Weber, M.M. (1999). Retail logistics. International Journal of Physical Distribution and Logistics Management 29 (7/8), 477-494. Gil, I.; Cervera, A. and Frasquet, M. (2007). Empleo de TIC y efectos relacionales en la cadena logística. Boletín Económico de ICE, 2914, 3148. Gil, I., and Ruiz, M.E. (2012). “Las tecnologías que implementan los minoristas y las tecnologías que gustan a los clientes”. Distribución y Consumo, 22 (121), 72-78. Hausman, A., and Stock, J.R. (2003). Adoption and implementation of technological innovations within long-term relationships. Journal of Business Research, 56(8), 681– 686.

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In: Communication Technologies Editors: A. J. Salazar and C. Jimenez

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Chapter 4

THE USING OF AND ATTITUDES TOWARD INTERNET AND INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES IN DIFFERENT AGE GROUPS Milan Kubiatko1, Zuzana Halakova2, Tibor Nagy2 and Sona Nagyova2 1

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Institute for Research in School Education, Faculty of Education, Masaryk University, Czech Republic 2 Department of Didactics in Sciences, Psychology and Pedagogy, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Comenius University, Mlynska Dolina, Bratislava, Slovakia

ABSTRACT Nowadays the using of Internet and ICT in the society is very intensive. Many people are using Internet and ICT also at home and in work environment. The using of these tools is in narrow/tight contact with opinion and attitudes toward them. In the academic field and also laic society there is common to observe the dividing/distribution of people into some/several groups according to their using/ relationship to Internet and ICT. Millenium Generation is one of these groups – very specific, because the using of the Internet and ICT there is much different 

E-mail: [email protected].

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Milan Kubiatko, Zuzana Halakova, Tibor Nagy et al. from the others. To the Millenium Generation belong people who were born after the year of 1981. In our research the most important aim is to compare using of Internet and ICT with the respect to two groups – Millenium Generation (Generation Y) and older people (Generation X). The sample size was created by 266 respondents, with the age between 18 and 57 years. The questionnaire was in e-form and it contained 73 items regarding to using Internet and ICT and attitudes toward them. The items regarding to attitudes were 5-point Likert type items and items regarding to using of Internet and ICT was multiple-choice from 2 to 5 possibilities of an answer. The first part of questionnaire included demographic variables like gender, age, the ownership of PC, etc. The analysis of the data was focused on the finding differences in the using of Internet and ICT and on the basis of this, the methods of inductive statistic like Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) were used. For the determination of reliability was used Cronbach’s alpha coefficient and for the determination of the construct validity was used the exploratory factor analysis.

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INTRODUCTION In the past there were generations signed as baby boomers (born 19461964), lived to work; then Generation X (born 1965-1980), who work to live. Millenium generation, Net Generation (firstly used by Tapscott 1997), Net Gen, Digital Natives (firstly used by Prensky 2001) or Generation Y are people born in 1981 and later. They “live while working”, are oriented to competence and less with hierarchies and computers are part of their daily routine (Schmidt et al 2011). Akande (2008) is writing about I.P.O.D. generation and people are internet savvy, phone-addicted, opportunistic and digitally conscious. Net Generation is defined as the population of young people, “Millenials”, (Howe and Strauss, 2000, 2003), who have grown up or are growing up in constant contact with digital media (Tapscott, 1988). They are smart but impatient, they expect results immediately. Goldenberg (2005) consider “www generation” as people born after the year 1956, who prefer using Internet before going for shopping, etc. They are comfortable; they connect to their PC and TV every day, access movies and turn on/off their house alarm systems. This generation created digital lifestyle (Goldenberg, 2005). Djamasbi et al. (2010) consider Generation Y as very large and economically powerful generation and Malykhina (2008) consider that this generation looks to Web for answers. According to Arhin and JohnsonMallard (2003) these young people lived in households where both parents

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work, and single parent is employed. They have grown up with computers; they are digitally or technologically literate. They tend to be inventive and are self-sufficient problem solvers. They often desire support and feedback, but detest authoritative control, expect immediate answers and feedback. According to Bennett et al (2008) young people have been immersed in technology all their lives, imbuing them with sophisticated technical skills and learning preferences for which traditional education is unprepared.

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LITERATURE REVIEW Hills et al. (2012) analyzed anonymous responses of educators about Generation Y. They used descriptive statistics, attribute coding and content analysis. Most educators described Generation Y as students confident with technology, confident in their skill level and easily bored. They have problems with casual communication; have poor professional behaviour and can´t accept when receiving negative feedback. Liu (2010) did the study based on in-depth interviews to compare the attitudes to Internet between Chinese and Norwegian high-school students. Valtonen et al. (2010) made questionnaire survey with 1070 Finnish students of Net Generation which was focused on social networking. Another survey (Selwyn 2009) considered the accuracy of digital native description in reflecting young people´s actual uses of digital technology and digital information. Djamasbi et al. (2010) focused on what attracts the attention of Generation Y. They prefer pages that include a main large image, image of celebrities, little text and a search feature. Beyers (2009) proposes a five dimensional model for educating the Net Generation which consists of survival strategies, knowledge and comprehension, spatial orientation, time and global vision. There are many research focused on different strategies for effective learning of Generation Y (Arhin, JohnsonMallard 2003, Bennett et al. 2008, Beyers 2009). Their learning styles are more active and visual rather than verbal (Arhin, Johnson-Mallard 2003). They learn differently compared with past generations of students. They are held to be active experimental learners, proficient in multitasking, and dependent on communication technologies for accessing information and for interacting with others (Oblinger and Oblinger, 2005; Prensky, 2001) Jones and Hosein (2010) used factor analysis, their research found that students can be categorized into clusters based on whether they were web interactive, technical-oriented, social interactive, game-oriented, work-oriented. Young students of Net Generation were highly social interactive whilst distance-learning students were less social interactive. The age seems to be the most significant variable with

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gender, mode of study and the national origin of students all playing a role in patterning students´ engagement with new technologies. Kennedy et al (2010) identified in sample of 2096 Australian university students four types of technology users: power users, ordinary users, irregular users, basic users. Chisquare analyses revealed significant associations between the different types of technology users and the university that students attended, their gender and age and whether the student was local or international. No associations were found for analyses related discipline area, socio-economic status or rurality of residence. Research findings have identified the developing capacity of shortterm memory (Cowan et al. 1999). As this capacity increases with age, so too do children’s abilities to scan information more quickly, apply strategies to transform it more rapidly, hold more information within memory and move between tasks more easily.

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METHODOLOGY The main aim of the investigation was to compare Generation Y respondents and Generation X respondents in the using of Internet and ICT and their attitudes toward them. From this aim the research question was following: Is there any difference in the using Internet and ICT and attitudes toward them between Generation Y and X?

Respondents The sample size (n = 266) was created by the respondents from Slovakia and Czech Republic. The respondents were from different environment. The part of them were university students, other were elementary, high schools and university teachers. There were not found out the highest adjusted education. There was an interest to find out the difference between Millenium Generation (Generation Y) and Generation X, so we primarily divided our sample into these two groups. The number of respondents grouped in Generation Y was n = 200 and in the Generation X was 66 members. Respondents included in the generation Y were born in 1982 and later and respondents included into generation X were born before 1982. The average age of respondents was 26.36 years (SD = 10.39). The youngest respondent was 17 years old and the oldest respondent was 57 years old. There were other demographic variables like gender, residence, ownership of PC, but these were not used in the evaluation of data,

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we were interested in on the comparison of Generation Y and X and their attitudes toward Internet and ICT.

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The Instrument The self-constructed questionnaire was used as a research tool. It consisted of three main parts. The first part was created by demographic variables (gender, age, residence). The second part was focused on the using of ICT and Internet by respondents. This part contained 9 items with different possibilities of answer. The majority of items (6) were dichotomous (yes – no/true – false). In two items it was possible to choose several answers and one item was 4-point scaled. This last one consisted of eight subitems. The last part of the questionnaire consisted of 64 5-point Likert type items (totally disagree – slightly disagree – nor agree/ nor disagree – slightly agree – totally agree). There were focused on the different kinds of ICT, for example on using of ICQ in the work, opinion on social networks, opinion on downloading of music, movies etc. Items in this part were negatively and also positively couched in. The positive items were coded following: totally disagree – 1.........totally agree – 5. The negative items were coded in reverse order. The number of positive items was 46 and number of negative items was 18. The overall score showed attitudes toward ICT and Internet. If score was in interval the attitude was neutral, if score was lower than 2.75 the attitude was negative and if the score was higher than 3.25 the attitude was positive. The validity of the questionnaire was secured by the two experts in the field of ICT and the developing of questionnaires. According to their comments the items were modified into final version, which was used in the main investigation/ survey. The validity of the last part of questionnaire was secured by exploratory factor analysis (see subchapter Data analysis).

Administration of the Instrument The questionnaire was distributed in two ways. First was on the lectures by the one of authors and second way was through electronic form. The link was sent to e-mail addresses of respondents. All respondents were assured about the anonymity of the questionnaire and that the data will be used only on research purposes. The respondents filled the questionnaire no more than 20

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minutes. All returned questionnaires were filled right and included in the next analysis.

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Data Analysis The data from the last part of questionnaire were recoded in the number form and also the data from the scaled item from second part (never – 1; one per month – 2; one per week – 3; almost every day – 4). The reliability of the third part of questionnaire was calculated. The value of Cronbach’s alpha (α = 0.83) indicated high reliability of the attitude part of questionnaire. The values of alpha for factors were from 0.51 to 0.66, what is satisfactory for the reliability of the factors (Kerlinger, Lee 2000). The exploratory factor analysis with Varimax rotation was used for the determination of validity. The suitability of the using of factor analysis was assured by the using of KMO test with the value 0.68 and Bartlett test of sphericity (χ2 = 4774.81; p < 0.001). Their values indicated the suitability of the using of factor analysis. The factor analysis divided attitude items into seven factors: 1. Work and ICT (15 items); 2. Internet as a source of information (6 items); 3. Social networks (14 items); 4. The security of Internet (13 items); 5. The difficulty of the internet using (5 items); 6. The importance of the Internet (5 items); 7. Other media and Internet (6 items). The marginal value of factor score was 0.30. The results of factor analysis are presented in table 1. For the data evaluation was used t-test for the independent samples, where the groups of respondents according of age (Generation Y and X) were independent variable and score for attitude part was as dependent sample. The using of ICT was evaluated only by percentage and the two groups (Y and X Generation were compared). For the finding relations between factors was used Pearson product moment. As it is seen there were used methods of parametric statistics, the using of these methods was confirmed by Kolmogorov-Smirnov test with value d = 0.05; p > 0.20.

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Table 1. The result of exploratory factor analysis I. Work and ICT 12. I have no problems using internet in my phone. 33. It’s normal, during working hours, to be logged into the Facebook account. 34. Skype or ICQ is normal for me to be turned on, during working hours / education at school. 35. I consider admittedly to„ Speak or chat“ on ICQ during my working time or lecture for solving privat or working problems. 36. I consider the meetings by videoconferences more effective (time saving) than face-to-face meeting. 37. It is not advisable to use working e-mail for privat intention. 38. A short break during working time, which I spend playing computer games, I find suitable for relax. 39. I consider normal to work out of workplace (I take my work home). 42. I consider normal to locate personal photos on websites. 48. I express my mood through emoticons (smiles). 49. It is normal not to use diacritical signs in SMS or e-mail. 52. I express sympathy to addressee through emoticons. 53. Emoticons should not be used in mail messages. 55. I consider normal when the computer is on constantly. 62. Some Web sites should be censored. II. Internet as a source of information 13. I prefer to use e-mails than classic post mails. 14. I send letters or postcards only in extraordinary cases. 15. Sending letters by post gradually (over the next five years) completely extinguishes.

α 0.66

I

II

III

IV

V

VI

VII

0.37 0.72

0.01 -0.01

-0.07 0.17

-0.08 -0.01

0.19 0.09

0.06 0.06

-0.04 0.02

0.82

-0.05

0.01

0.08

0.00

-0.01

0.11

0.71

0.12

0.06

0.09

0.06

0.00

0.02

0.73

0.05

0.07

0.09

-0.03

-0.11

0.16

0.75 0.34

-0.04 0.00

0.05 -0.03

0.02 -0.01

0.01 0.01

0.02 0.10

0.02 -0.06

0.78

0.04

-0.01

-0.02

0.04

0.08

0.05

0.36 0.34 0.53 0.38 0.38 0.62 0.37

0.09 0.05 0.06 0.14 0.05 0.01 -0.02

0.12 0.03 -0.04 0.15 0.11 -0.07 0.10

-0.05 0.14 0.05 0.06 -0.06 0.01 0.22

0.09 0.02 -0.06 0.01 -0.40 0.19 0.06

0.04 0.11 0.09 -0.01 0.03 -0.09 0.13

0.06 0.04 -0.04 -0.01 -0.08 0.03 -0.26

0.04 -0.01 0.12

0.74 0.82 0.37

0.10 -0.05 0.17

0.11 0.14 0.09

-0.08 0.09 -0.07

0.13 0.02 -0.05

-0.01 -0.01 0.06

0.54

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Table 1. (Continued) α 31. I consider encyclopedias on internet (for example Wikipedia) as trustworthy. 56. There is some information on internet that can’t be found. 60. All information I need I can find on internet. III. Social networks 16. I like to chat. 17. I prefer talking face to face to chat. 18. I don´t know about advantages of chat than the interview face to face has. 19. I consider Facebook as portal, I can get to know information important for my life. 20. Through Facebook I learn a lot about my friends. 21. Facebook helps me to get to know a lot about unknown people. 22. Through Facebook I arrange acquaintances with people, with whom, in a real world, I would have never try to. 23. Social networks (e.g. Facebook) limit privacy. 24. Social networks such as Facebook are for entertainment purposes only. 25. I consider the spending time on social networks such as loss of time. 46. I prefer to use electronic communications (mail, chat, ...). 47. I have to have personal contact with someone to add him on Facebook. 50. I carefully choose who I add as a friend on Facebook. 61. Internet allows people in distant collaboration. IV. The security of Internet 26. It is reliable to purchase goods through internet.

I -0.05

II 0.35

III 0.20

IV 0.12

V -0.01

VI -0.08

VII 0.09

0.04 0.15

0.75 0.75

-0.08 0.03

0.09 0.07

0.04 0.00

0.01 0.17

0.12 0.10

0.23 0.05 0.04

0.15 -0.02 0.04

0.34 0.73 0.89

0.13 -0.03 -0.05

-0.08 0.09 -0.22

0.14 -0.12 -0.01

0.25 -0.04 0.26

0.04

-0.09

0.60

0.15

0.14

-0.05

0.05

0.08 0.00 0.11

0.18 0.01 0.03

0.63 0.69 0.71

0.05 0.10 0.07

0.05 0.04 -0.10

0.16 0.12 0.10

0.05 -0.04 0.05

0.05 -0.06

0.03 0.02

0.77 0.47

0.00 -0.03

0.04 0.00

0.02 -0.09

-0.05 0.02

0.14

0.00

0.66

0.13

-0.08

-0.07

0.19

0.20 0.25

-0.03 0.00

0.35 0.31

-0.06 -0.03

-0.08 -0.09

-0.08 -0.11

-0.17 0.09

0.10 0.02

-0.10 0.19

0.34 0.38

-0.06 0.16

-0.13 0.04

0.01 0.32

0.09 0.09

0.27

0.09

0.01

0.33

0.01

0.11

-0.08

0.56

0.65

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α 27. Electronic banking is danger because of inadequate securing of account. 28. I consider downloading the movies films from internet as crime 29. I can not imagine my life without internet. 30. PC is necessary in today’s life for people. 41. I could not imagine life without Internet. 43. The use of a computer is very limited, if it’s not connected to internet. 44. I find it normal to use internet every day. 51. I consider normal to use software that is illegal (i.e. cracked...) 63. Internet saves time. 65. Internet helps in plagiarism/ to violate the authors´ rights in large amount. 66. Internet access has to be free of charge everywhere. 67. It is good when I can accommodate some things over Internet and don’t need to go to the bank, the post office or shop in person. V. The difficulty of the Internet using 40. I'd rather use my own software as a pre-determined one (suggested by an employer). 57. Internet is easy to use for a 6 year old child. 58. No computer is safe from hackers. 68. Only programmers or computer experts can work with Internet on a very good level. 69. My grandparents would work with internet without problems. VI. The importance of the Internet 45. It is normal to own and use more than two e-mail addresses. 59. It is not necessary to print the books and textbooks, it is sufficient to do it in e-form/online.

I 0.08

II -0.03

III -0.06

IV 0.80

V -0.05

VI -0.02

VII 0.03

0.19 0.07 -0.03 0.15 -0.05

0.03 0.01 0.11 0.10 0.01

0.02 0.16 0.05 0.09 0.08

0.45 0.82 0.67 0.75 0.74

0.37 0.01 -0.08 -0.02 0.06

-0.03 0.11 0.11 0.02 0.00

0.25 0.03 -0.07 0.22 0.01

0.08 0.24 0.12 -0.03

0.14 0.04 0.03 -0.13

-0.03 0.10 0.12 -0.17

0.61 0.35 0.40 0.39

0.08 0.21 -0.05 -0.08

0.07 0.05 0.12 -0.12

0.13 0.08 0.13 -0.02

0.07 0.02

0.03 0.08

-0.02 -0.09

0.35 0.43

0.05 0.09

0.07 0.25

0.05 -0.03

0.24

-0.01

0.00

-0.06

0.66

0.05

0.14

0.08 -0.11 0.11

0.02 0.17 -0.04

-0.01 0.11 0.02

0.05 0.06 -0.01

0.50 0.31 0.47

0.06 0.02 -0.16

0.02 0.03 0.22

0.03

0.09

-0.18

-0.01

0.44

0.06

0.11

0.25 0.26

-0.06 -0.08

-0.14 -0.12

0.04 0.03

-0.01 0.02

0.43 0.41

0.10 0.03

0.52

0.51

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Table 1. (Continued) α 64. All websites should use only one universal language (preferably English). 70. Own website on internet can bring benefits in terms of establishing important contacts. 71. Thanks to own website on Internet one can find a good job. VII. Other media and Internet 10. I watch choosen TV programs only on internet (for example news...). 11. I prefer to read newspapers in print more than online. 32. I am able to work on PC, or notebook and watch TV at the same time. 54. I prefer watching TV to using internet. 72. I prefer watching several TV programs on internet than on TV. 73. If I don´t catch broadcasting life, I watch it on internet. Eigenvalues % of variance

I -0.04

II 0.05

III 0.10

IV 0.01

V -0.03

VI 0.73

VII 0.00

0.05

0.07

0.15

0.14

-0.05

0.73

0.00

0.04

0.07

0.16

0.10

0.06

0.77

0.14

0.68

-0.03

-0.01

0.08

0.10

0.10

0.68

0.58 0.19

-0.03 -0.03

0.05 0.15

0.14 0.12

0.24 0.06

-0.03 0.04

0.58 0.42

0.15 0.21 0.19

0.15 0.01 -0.08

0.01 0.08 -0.06

0.27 0.06 0.18

-0.04 0.08 -0.09

0.07 0.04 0.03

0.43 0.74 0.47

6.95 10.86

3.52 5.50

2.51 3.93

2.47 3.86

2.18 3.40

2.06 3.22

1.85 2.88

0.54

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RESULTS

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The overall score of attitude part was 3.02 (SD = 0.32), what indicated neutral attitude. In the figure 1 is showed distribution of score among factors. The lowest score was found out in the dimension: “Social network” and the highest score was found out in the dimension: “The security of Internet”.

Figure 1. The mean score for factors.

The Y Generation respondents achieved higher score (x=3.04; SD=0.33) in comparison with X Generation respondents (x=2.93; SD=0.28), this difference was significant (t = 2.51; p < 0.05). There was also found out the significance of differences between generations in the factors. The distribution of score for factors between Y and X Generation is showed in the figure 2. As it is shown, the statistically significant difference was found out only in the first, third and seventh factor. In all factors higher score achieved Y Generation, but in some factor achieved higher score X Generation, for example in the second factor. Only in two factors (The security of Internet and The difficulty of the Internet using) it is possible to observe positive attitudes in both groups of respondents. It means, respondents see the security of Internet as sufficient and the respondents have not got problems with the using of Internet, the majority of things connected with using of Internet consider for common and they have not got problems with their using. The negative attitudes is possible to observe in the dimension “Social network”

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NS – non-significant difference. * p < 0.05. ** p < 0.01. *** p < 0.001.

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Figure 2. The difference in score in factors with respect to generation.

NS – non-significant difference. *** - p < 0.001. Figure 3. The mean score of respondents for the item “I use Internet for these activities”.

The using of ICT and internet was measured by the series of nine questions. The first question was focused on the using of Internet. The possibilities are shown in the figure 3. It was expecting that Y Generation used Internet more for chat, downloading music and games and also for playing

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games. The X Generation used in very low level Internet for the downloading music and movies and for playing games. The Y Generation used more programs like ICQ, Skype etc. for the communication with friends more than X Generation (χ2 = 26.01; p < 0.001). The similar situation is in the using of these programs for the business or work, the difference is not so noticeable, but still significant (χ2 = 6.89; p < 0.05). The significant difference was found out in the next item, the Y Generation had got a profile at least on one social network in comparison with X Generation (χ2 = 34.23; p < 0.001). In the next question we were interested how much time respondents spend on Internet. The respondents had got five possibilities (figure 4) and there was found out statistically significant difference (χ2 = 21.45; p < 0.001). The detailed analysis showed the highest difference in the first possibility. Internet banking is using more by X Generation (χ2 = 8.41; p < 0.05) and in concordance with this question was other question, where the respondents should write, if their parents are using the Internet banking. The Y Generation achieved more often positively in comparison with X Generation (χ2 = 43.62; p < 0.001). In the last three questions was not found statistically significant difference: “I have already had infected files in my PC” (χ2 = 0.46; p = 0.49), “I have already lost all my data in PC” (χ2 = 0.13; p = 0.72) and “I have used internet abroad too” (χ2 = 0.03; p = 0.96).

Figure 4. The percentage expression of respondents on the question “I spend on Internet actively (for one session)”.

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DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION In our research we were interested in the comparison of using Internet and ICT and attitudes toward them among members of Y and X Generation. It is possible to divide our results into three conclusions. The first is the developing of instrument regarding to measure using of ICT and Internet and attitudes toward them. Mainly, the attitude part was subjected by detail analysis; the exploratory factor analysis was used to determine validity of the instrument and to distribute items into factors. There were found out seven factors, which were presented in the Methodology part of the text. This instrument is free to use and it could be used in other countries and compare results with us. The second conclusion is in the finding out the attitudes of respondents. The overall attitudes toward ICT and Internet were neutral. By the detailed analysis of data it is possible to observe positive evaluation of two categories “The security of Internet” and “The difficulty of using Internet”. It means, for the respondents there is not problem to use Internet and they believe, that Internet is easy to use for everyone, for children and also for old people. And other point is that the respondents believe in the security of Internet, they have not got problems to buy/do shopping through Internet and also they used other service of Internet like Internet banking and others. Next, we can see, that Y Generation had got more positive attitudes toward social networks, they preferred contact through these possibilities. Our finding is in concordance with other investigators, for example Schmidt et al (2011) showed, the computers are the inseparable part of the lifes of young people, they spent time on the social network, they used chat programs. They prefer the communication through this social network before the face-to-face communication. And there is other interesting thing. The Y Generation had got more positive attitudes toward dimension “Work and ICT” in comparison with X Generation. On the basis of this fact is possible to say, that the people belonging to Y Generation have not got problems to change television programs or newspaper by the Internet. The similar results are possible to find in the work of Selwyn (2009). And Y generation achieved more positive attitudes in the dimension “Work and ICT”, it means these people have not got problems to work in home environment, where they have got own computer or they also have not got problems to watch TV, be online on some social network, chat with friends and to work at the same time. The last conclusion of our investigation is to use by different ways ICT and Internet in the lifes of Y and X Generation. The X Generation used

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Internet more for mailing, but Y Generation more for chat. It is obvious from previous finding regarding to attitudes. For the younger people belonging to Y Generation is mail relatively not so interactive, that´s why they rather used chat and also they have got more positive attitudes toward downloading music and movies from the Internet. As a result we can say, that Y Generation use Internet and ICT more non-conform in comparison with X Generation. This finding is in concordance with the affirmations of Bennett, Maton and Kervin (2008), who wrote about characteristics of Y Generation and some of them are in concordance with our findings. As authors quoted this generation of young people used ICT and Internet differently compared to older respondents. Y Generation is held to be active experiential learners, proficient in multitasking, and dependent on communications technologies for accessing information and for interacting with others. To sum up our investigation confirmed, in the conditions of Czech and Slovak republic is able to distinguish between Y and X Generation in the using of and attitudes toward ICT and Internet. We should awake the Y Generation is the consumers of the future, they are the ones with whom you will build and manage your customer relationships. They hold the keys to your organization’s future access in all areas of life.

REFERENCES Akande, B.O. (2008). The I.P.O.D. Generation. Diverse. Issues in Higher Education, 25(15), 20. Arhin, A.O.; Johnson-Mallard, V. (2003) Encouraging Alternative Forms of Self Expression in the Generation Y Student: A Strategy for Effective Learning in the Classroom. Association of Black Nursing Faculty Journal, 14(6), 121 – 122. Bennett, S.; Maton, K.; Kervin, L. (2008). The 'digital natives' debate: A critical review of the evidence. British Journal of Educational Technology, 39(5), 775-786. Beyers, R. N. (2009). A Five Dimensional Model for Educating the Net Generation. Educational Technology and Society, 12(4), 218–227. Cowan, N.; Nugent, L. D.; Elliott, E. M.; Ponomarev, I.; Saults, J. S. (1999). The role of attention in the development of short-term memory: age differences in the verbal span of apprehension. Child Development, 70(5), 1082–1097.

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Djamasbi, S.; Siegel, M.; Tullis, T. (2010). Generation Y, web design, and eye tracking. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 68(5), 307323. Goldenberg, B. (2005). The Consumer of the Future. Customer relationship manager, 25(4), 22. Hills, C. R.; Smith, D.R.; Warren-Forward, H. (2012). The impact of 'Generation Y' occupational therapy students on practice education. Australian Occupational Therapy Journal, 59(2), 156-163. Howe, N., and Strauss,W. (2003). Millennials go to college. Washington, DC: American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers. Howe, N.; Straus, W. (2000). Millenials rising: The next great generation. New York: Random House. Jones, C.; Hosein, A.; (2010). Profiling University Students’ Use of Technology: Where is the Net Generation Divide? The International Journal of Technology, Knowledge and Society, 6(3), 43-58. Kennedy, G.; Judd, T.; Dalgarno, B.; Waycott, J. (2010) Beyond natives and immigrants: exploring types of net generation students. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 26(5), 332–343. Kerlinger, F. N.; Lee, H. B. (2000). Foundations of behavioral research (4th ed.). Forth Worth, TX: Hartcourt College Publishers. Liu, F. (2010). The Internet in the everyday life-world: a comparison between high-school students in China and Norway. Comparative Education, 46(4), 527-550. Malykhina, E. (2008). Generation Y looks to Web for answers. Electronic Engineering Times, 1508, 6. Oblinger, D. and Oblinger, J. (2005). Is it age or IT: first steps towards understanding the net generation. In D. Oblinger and J. Oblinger (Eds), Educating the Net generation (pp. 2.1–2.20). Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants, part II. Do they really think differently? On the Horizon, 9(6), 1–6. Schmidt, C.E.; Möller, J.; Schmidt, K.; Gerbershagen, M.U.; Wappler, F.; Limmroth, V.; Padosch, S.A.; Bauer, M. (2011). Generation Y. Anaesthesist, 60(6), 517-524. Selwyn, N. (2009). The digital native - myth and reality. Aslib Proceedings, 61(4), 364-379. Tapscott D. (1997) Growing Up Digital: The Rise of the Net Generation. McGraw-Hill, Toronto. Tapscott, D. (1988). Growing up Digital: The rise of the Net Generation, New York: McGraw-Hill.

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Valtonen, T.; Dillon, P.; Hacklin, S.; Väisänen, P. (2010). Net generation at social software: Challenging assumptions, clarifying relationships and raising implications for learning. International Journal of Educational Research, 49(6), 210-219.

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In: Communication Technologies Editors: A. J. Salazar and C. Jimenez

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Chapter5

A NOVEL OPTOELECTRONIC SWITCH ARRAY FOR COMMUNICATION NETWORK Jian-Chiun Liou

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Advance Project Leader, Industrial Technology Research Institute, Electronics and Optoelectronics, Research Laboratory; Nano Engineering and Micro Systems Institute, National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan, Republic of China

ABSTRACT The advancement of communication technology and growth of internet traffic have continuously driven the fast evolution of networks. Compared to the traditional optoelectronic switch, all-optical switch provides high throughput, rich routing functionalities, and excellent flexibility for rapid signal exchange in fiber optical network. Among various all-optical switches, thermal actuated ring switch provides the advantages of high accuracy, easy actuation, and reasonable switching speed. However, when scale up, thermal ring switch may encounter issues related to fabrication error, non-accurate wavelength response, and large terminal numbers in the control circuit. Planar-lightwave-circuit switch (PLC-SW), employing thermo-optic (TO) effect of silica glass for light switch, is a very promising technique for communication applications because of low insertion loss, high extinction ratio, long-term stability, and high reliability. There have been many matrix switches designed based on the TO effect with low-loss, polarization insensitive operation, and good fabrication repeatability. For

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Jian-Chiun Liou example, 8×8 matrix switches were fabricated by using a single MachZehnder (MZ) switching unit and demonstrated well performance in transmission systems, so as an 8×8 matrix switch and a 16×16 matrix switch by the similar MZ switching unit. 32×four-channel client reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexer on planar lightwave circuit. However, when scaled up, thermal ring switch may encounter issues related to large terminal numbers in the control circuit, fabrication error and non-accurate wavelength response. For example, if conventional driving circuits are employed for a 16×28 or even larger switch array, 448 or more terminals will be required for control. Such a large number of terminals would complicate the module structure and occupy a large area. On the other hand, when a DC-current is applied for balancing wavelength offset from fabrication error, the input power will result in a temperature elevation of the neighboring switches, thus changes the related refractive indexes and therefore deviate wavelengths. To solve the aforementioned issues, this chapter proposes a ring resonator with silicon nitride as the core layer and silicon dioxide as the cladding layer was designed and fabricated on silicon substrate, a novel architecture of high selection speed three dimensional (3D) data registration for driving large-array optoelectronic packet switches. The 3D driving architecture can successfully reduce the total numbers of control pads into 31 for 448 switches as well as the scanning time up to 67 % reduction with a higher signal rising speed and smaller circuit area. All the sub-circuits, including power control, digital I/O, analog-to-digital converter, power drivers were integrated into a single IC. On the other hand, instead of DC current control, wavelength lock is realized by amplitude and frequency modulated heating pulses for stabilization of temperature and fine-tune of wavelength from fabrication imperfection and environment fluctuation. This planar-lightwave-circuit has been designed, fabricated, and characterized. It is demonstrated not only the functionality in optical packet switches but also the consistency between simulation and experiment results. In this research, we design the tuneable micro ring resonators and propose the employment of an integrated ASIC system CMOS technology control circuit to compensate the fabrication error and tune as well as lock the wavelength in a thermalactuated ring-type optical switch through a frequency modulation scheme. The use of a standard and commercial CMOS technology for designing micro resonators entails a set of limitations, such as layer thicknesses, and available materials in an inalterable process sequence. From the MEMS design point of view, those restrictions will limit the electrical properties of fabricated micro-resonators. On the other hand, MEMS integration into a CMOS technology presents unique advantages, like reduction of the parasitic capacitance due to the possibility to monolithically integrate the circuitry, in addition to an expected reduction of the overall production costs.

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Additional functionalities can also be added in this circuit by tailoring externally the roundtrip loss or coupling constants of the ring. The design concept can be easily scaled up for large array optical switch system without much change in the terminal numbers thanks to the three dimensional hierarchy of control circuit design, which effectively reduces the terminal numbers into the cubic root of the total control unit numbers. The integrated circuit has been designed, simulated, as well as fabricated, and demonstrated a decent performance with Free Spectral Range (FSR) equal to 1.5nm at 1534 nm and very accurate wavelength modulation to 0.3 nm within 0.01 nm fluctuation for thermal actuated ring type optoelectronic switch.

Keywords: Optoelectronic Switch, CMOS-MEMS, ASIC, communication, resonator

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INTRODUCTION Thermal actuated optoelectronic ring switch provides the advantages of high accuracy, easy actuation, and reasonable switching speed. However, when scale up, thermal ring switch may encounter issues related to fabrication error, non-accurate wavelength response, and large terminal numbers in the control circuit. Planar-lightwave-circuit switch (PLC-SW), employing thermooptic (TO) effect of silica glass for light switch, is a very promising technique for communication applications because of low insertion loss, high extinction ratio, long-term stability, and high reliability[1-4]. There have been many matrix switches designed based on the TO effect with low-loss, polarization insensitive operation, and good fabrication repeatability. For example, 8×8 matrix switches were fabricated by using a single Mach-Zehnder (MZ) switching unit and demonstrated well performance in transmission systems [5, 6], so as an 8×8 matrix switch [7] and a 16×16 matrix switch [8] by the similar MZ switching unit. 32×four-channel client reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexer on planar lightwave circuit [9]. However, when scaled up, thermal ring switch may encounter issues related to large terminal numbers in the control circuit, fabrication error and non-accurate wavelength response. For example, if conventional driving circuits are employed for a 16×28 or even larger switch array, 448 or more terminals will be required for control. Such a large number of terminals would complicate the module structure and occupy a large area. On the other hand, when a DC-current is applied for balancing wavelength offset from fabrication error, the input power will result in a

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temperature elevation of the neighbouring switches, thus changes the related refractive indexes and therefore deviate wavelengths. To solve the aforementioned issues, this paper proposes a ring resonator with silicon nitride as the core layer and silicon dioxide as the cladding layer was designed and fabricated on silicon substrate, a novel architecture of high selection speed three dimensional data registration for driving large-array optical packet switches. The 3D driving architecture can successfully reduce the total numbers of control pads into 31 for 448 switches as well as the scanning time up to 67 % reduction with a higher signal rising speed and smaller circuit area. All the sub-circuits, including power control, digital I/O, analog-to-digital converter, power drivers were integrated into a single IC. On the other hand, instead of DC current control, wavelength lock is realized by amplitude and frequency modulated heating pulses for stabilization of temperature and fine-tune of wavelength from fabrication imperfection and environment fluctuation. This planar-lightwave-circuit has been designed, fabricated, and characterized. It is demonstrated not only the functionality in optical packet switches but also the consistency between simulation and experiment results.

PLANAR-LIGHTWAVE-CIRCUIT DESIGN AND PRINCIPLE A. Design of Wavelength Modulation and Lock In this paper, PLC filter will usher as a model system for demonstration. A PLC filter is consisted of arrays of micro-rings (MRs) with the ring radii in the order of tens of micrometers, possessing extremely small-area and providing the characteristic of high selectivity. Based on the design of this device, a four-channel PLC filter is depicted with four MRs, as schematically shown in Figure 1. The operation principle of this device is as the first column of the optical circuit is on each MR drops an incoming signal λx into one of the output channels Ioutx when the MR resonance frequencies matching that of the incoming signal [10-11]. In this paper, the design, fabrication, and measurements of a four-channel thermally tuneable MR-based filter PLC controller is presented. Silicon dioxide and silicon nitride were selected as an optical thin film system to compose the micro-rings on top of a silicon substrate. As shown in Figure 2, the width of straight and ring waveguide was chosen as 2.0 μm. To ensure single mode operation at TE polarization, the height of waveguides was determined to be 0.45 μm by a 3D finite-difference

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time-domain simulation using RSoft-FullWave (a finite-difference timedomain solver of Poisson’s equations) [12-13]. The simulation flow is electrothermal transport and optics, then according to follow electrostatic potential equation (1) and carrier continuity equations (2), electrons, holes relative derived among temperature, core index, and radius. The effective index method was employed to determine the radius of the ring as 9.965 μm. (1) Poisson’s Equation (Electrostatic Potential) ▽·ε▽φ+ q(ND+-NA-+ p - n)=0

(1)

(2) Carrier Continuity Equations (Electrons, Holes)

n p    j n  U  0 and    j p U  0 t t

(2)

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(3) Lattice Heat Equation (Temperature)

 3 (c L  (n  p )k )T  ( K L T  S n  S p )  j n E  j p E  Rdark E g t 2 (3) (4) Photon Rate Equation (Modal Photons)

S m , w t

 (G m , w 

1

 m,w

) S m , w  Rmspon ,w

(4)

(5) Derived Helmholtz Equation ( Mode Profile)

 2  k o2  0 where, n, p: Electron/Hole Density V: Electrostatic Potential T: Lattice Temperature G, R: Optical Gain/Recombination f: Lasing Frequency

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(5)

88

Jian-Chiun Liou A: Optical Wave Amplitude S: PhotonNumber K: Quantum Mechanical Wavefunction

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In the wavelength modulation, thermal optic effect was employed to shift the resonance wavelength at an amount of ᇞλ by the tuning of effective index at different temperatures. This wavelength shift can be used to tune the passband to the desired wavelength. The principle of wavelength modulation is shown in Figure 1, illustrating that the elevation of temperature on one MR switch shifts the center wavelength by ᇞλ but remain the same Free Spectral Range (FSR).

Figure 1. Schematic of a four-channel PLC.

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Figure 2. Transmittance for the radius of micro ring.

The term FSR is borrowed from Fabry Perot interferometry, and describes the maximum spectral range one can arbitrarily resolve without the interference from the neighbouring signals. On the other hand, a high extinction ratio can be obtained through the filtering effect from the MRs with a steep wavelength response. A relationship between the radius of the ring R, the effective group index ng, and the FSR is given by equation (6):

FSR 

2 2Rn g

(6)

where λ is the wavelength [14-15].

B. Design of Wavelength Modulation and Lock In order to compensate the fabrication error of the thermal ring switch, a simple and practical phase-trimming technology was employed to avoid the need of electrical biasing. The phase-trimming technique employs a local heating technology by the employment of a thin-film heater embedded under

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the optical ring in a feedback loop for the fine tune of the optical phase [10]. However, if DC bias is employed in the phase control, the temperature of the neighbouring switch may encounter drift (cross talk) as well as slow response for temperature compensation. To lower down the cross talk effect, provide more accurate temperature control, and speed up thermal response of the optical ring, a frequency modulated heating scheme is employed by dynamic feedback of the frequency of heating pulses. Figure 3 also shows a narrow-band optical signal channel comprised of a ring resonator evanescently side-coupled to a pair of waveguide. One waveguide serves as the input bus carrying a WDM signal stream. The other guide is the output or drop port. Power is transferred between waveguides via the resonances of the ring. It is desirable to have ring resonances separated by a bandwidth larger than the optical communications window. One then achieves the goal of processing one signal by one device, without affecting any other channels. Numerical simulation of the instantaneous electric field intensity pattern is in an ideal side-coupled micro-ring resonator, at resonance. In these simulations, the waveguide core index is 2.06, while the cladding index is 1.452. In temperature control, frequency modulation was employed instead of voltage level modulation due to the simplicity of implementation by digital signals. Through frequency modulation, the temperature in the thermally tuneable PLC modules can be maintained almost constant and this will result in a more accurate center wavelength for the optical communication channel. It also ensures rapid response of the PLC module as the heater has been modulated on and off in a high frequency (~MHz). As a result, the PLC module at room temperature was able to achieve a very small temperature fluctuation within 0.1C which can not be achieved by using traditional DC controls. To achieve the above goal by frequency modulation for accurate temperature control, this study employs a selection algorithm to select a proper waveform pre-stored in the lookup table in an ASIC chip, in which all waveforms have been simulated and optimized for different temperature situations. Each drop and filter channel is assigned a temperature for the desired wavelength shift. The temperature is maintained by a corresponding waveform from the result of the sum of three signals, including data (address), select, and power, as shown in Figure 4.

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Figure 3. Schematic of dropout wavelength modulation and numerical simulation of the instantaneous electric field intensity pattern.

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Figure 4. Signal flow of frequency modulation for micro-ring temperature control.

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2. IC DESIGN AND PRINCIPLE a. Design of Three Dimensional Controller In traditional control circuit design for thermal optical type switch array, each optical ring requires one heater for wavelength adjustment. As a result, when the optical switches scale up into a large array, the numbers of input/output ports will increase enormously. To handle large array of driving circuits for such a heater array, two dimensional (2D) circuit architecture was employed by traditional driving circuits to reduce the IO number from n*n into 2n+1. However, this reduction still can not meet the requirement for high speed signal scanning with low data accessing points when switch numbers greater than 1000. To achieve this, in this study, a three dimensional data registration scheme to reduce the number of data accessing points as well as scanning lines for large array optical packet switching chip with switch number more than 1000 3 is proposed. The total numbers of data accessing points will be N=3 Y +1, which is 31 for 1000 switches by the 3D novel design, the scanning time is reduced down to 33% (The scanning speed is also increased by 3 times) thanks to the great reduction of lines for 3D scanning, instead of 2D scanning. The

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property comparison among 1D, 2D, and 3D architectures is listed in Table 1 [16]. As the optical switch number increases, a higher order control circuit can effectively reduce the pad number. In addition, the shape and amplitude of the driving signal can be optimized to increase the speed of the response with low driving powers. Table 1. Performance comparison among 1D, 2D, and 3D driving schemes [16] X :Pads

X~Y+1

X=2

Y :Switches

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Switches Ring resistors Interconnect Pad

1000 1000 1001

1024 1024 65

2

Y +1 X=3 3 Y +1 (X : Connection lines, Y:Switches) 1000 1000 31

In the proposed novel 3D design, different from the 2D one, as shown in Figure 5, the digital driver includes a clock-control circuit, a serial/parallelconversion circuit, a latch circuit, a level shifter, a D/A converter comprised of a decoder, and an output buffer comprised of an operation amplifier. The D/A converter receive a gray-scale reference voltage from an external source. The clock-control circuit receives control signals from an external control circuit. Based on the received control signals, the clock-control circuit attends to control of the latch circuit, the D/A converter, and the output buffer by using a latch-control signal. The general strategy that we employ is to integrate all relatively smallsignal electronic functions into one ASIC to minimize the total number of the components. This strategy demonstrates that both the cost is lowered and the amount of the printed circuit board area is reduced. Based on this concept, a smart 3D multiplexed driver for optical packet switching chip with more than 1000 rings are proposed and the circuit architecture is shown in Figure 5. Three lines are employed to control the heating of one micro-ring, including voltage, shift register, and data line. The relationship among the waveforms is shown in Figure 6. Each heater resistor requires a voltage line for the driving current flow and shares the same ground with the other resistors. The resistors are individually addressable to provide unconstraint signal permutations by a serial data stream fed from the controller.

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Figure 5. Block diagram of control algorithm for micro-ring switches.

The shift register is employed to shift a token bit from one group to another through AND gates to power the switch of a micro-ring group. The selection of a ring is thus a combined selection of the shift register for the group and the data for the specific ring. Such an arrangement allows encoding one data line from the controller to provide data to all of the rings, permitting high-speed printing by shortening the ring selection path and low IC fabrication cost from the greater reduction of circuit component numbers.

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The received optical data information has to be converted into data at an optimal transfer rate (frequency) in order to conform to the ring characteristics. To the end, the clock-control circuit divides the 8-bit optical packet switching signals supplied to the data driver, as shown in Figure 6, with an aim at lowering the operation frequency. The serial/parallel-conversion circuit converts serial signals of a plurality of channels into parallel signals, and supplies the parallel signals to the latch circuit. The latch circuit temporarily stores the received parallel signals, and supplies them to the level shifter and the D/A converter at predetermined time. In the signal flow design, optical switches are usually scanned over one by one without jumping on un-activity switches. As a result, for the optical packet switching chip with 448 optical switches, a 1, 2 or 3 dimensional circuit architect will needs 448, 36, and 5 unit times for scanning over all of the switches. Therefore, the scanning time of the 3D multiplexing circuit from the first address line to the 16th, as an example, takes only 5 units of clock time from the simulation result, much faster than that of the 2D configuration with 16 units of clock time.

Figure 6. Example of input waveform for controller from FPGA.

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Thus the maximum scanning time for the 3D circuit will be reduced to 30% of that in the 2D case. To simultaneously write signals into the driving circuit, multiplexing data latches and shift registers are employed by the application of commercial available CMOS ICs. Small numbers of shift registers, control logics, and driving circuits can be electrically connected and integrated with optical packet switching using standard CMOS processes. Figure 7 shows the driving circuit of the three-dimensional architect. The desired signal for “S” selections and “A” selections can be pre-registered and latched in the circuit for one time writing.

Figure 7. Architect of three-dimensional driving circuit for micro-ring switches.

In temperature control, frequency modulation was employed instead of voltage level modulation due to the simplicity of implementation by digital signals. Through frequency modulation, the temperature in the thermally tuneable PLC modules can be maintained almost constant and this will result

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in a more accurate center wavelength for the optical communication channel. It also ensures rapid response of the PLC module as the heater has been modulated on and off in a high frequency (~MHz). As a result, the PLC module at room temperature was able to achieve a very small temperature fluctuation within 0.1C which can not be achieved by using traditional DC controls. In order to compensate the fabrication error of the thermal ring switch, a simple and practical phase-trimming technology was employed to avoid the need of electrical biasing. The phase-trimming technique employs a local heating technology by the employment of a thin-film heater embedded under the optical ring in a feedback loop for the fine tune of the optical phase. However, if DC bias is employed in the phase control, the temperature of the neighbouring switch may encounter drift (cross-talk) as well as slow response for temperature compensation. To lower down the cross talk effect, provide more accurate temperature control, and speed up thermal response of the optical ring, a frequency modulated heating scheme is employed by dynamic feedback of the frequency of heating pulses. To achieve the above goal by frequency modulation for accurate temperature control, this study employs a selection algorithm to select a proper waveform pre-stored in the lookup table in an ASIC(Application specific integrated circuits ) chip, in which all waveforms have been simulated and optimized for different temperature situations. Each drop and filter channel is assigned a temperature for the desired wavelength shift. The temperature is maintained by a corresponding waveform from the result of the sum of three signals, including data (address), select, and power.

3. EXPERIMENTAL AND RESULTS a. Three Dimensional Controller To demonstrate basic functions of the 3D controller, we designed and fabricated a controller module with 16×28 switches. The Y×Y matrix switch module requires Y2 electrical terminals to feed switching power to each crosspoint individually. As a result, 448 terminals will be needed in the 16×28 matrix switch controller module. Since such a large number of terminals complicated the module structure, we developed a 16×28 matrix switch controller with a 3D driving circuit that has a serial/parallel control signal of conversion function, as shown in Figure 5. As a result, we were able to reduce

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the number of electrical terminals to 5 control terminals and 1 power supply terminal. The controller was designed for a 0.35 μm CMOS process with a total circuit area of 1250×1250 μm2, which is 80% of the circuit area by 2D configuration for 448 switches. In the Logic Analysis, the relationship between the ASIC input and output is shown in Figure 8. The input signals include DATA (signal for selected switch action), CLK1 (signal to scan DATA signal), CLK2 (signal to latch DATA signal or select), CTRL(signal to select enable type), as well as SETB(the time sequence to set up CTRL or power), and the output signals match the designed ASIC signals very well. Figure 9. shows the image of a fabricated 16×28 matrix switch controller module. In this module, the chip area of 1.25 ×1.25 mm and was fabricated by a two-poly four-metal (2P4M) 0.35m twin-well CMOS technology (TSMC, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd). Each transistor is surrounded by full guard ring for preventing electrostatic shock. The testing result of the IC demonstrated the scanning of 448 ring switches takes 60.5 s for 2D circuit architect while 20.5 s for the 3D one, representing a time saving of 40 μs or a 67% time reduction. The measurement results of serial output signals for four channels, as shown in Figure 10, demonstrated a simultaneous operation of four different temperature/wavelength modulations in each channel.

Figure 8. FPGA verification result.

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Figure 9. Photograph of fabricated control IC chip.

By using the optimized driving signals, modulation frequencies up to 10 kHz were measured, resulting in thermal switching speeds in the order of 0.1 ms. It should also be pointed out that an attenuation function for power supply into each MR is also realized in the design. As a result, the designated switching power can be provided independently into each MR switching unit, thus flattening the output optical power levels even the input power levels are not uniform.

b. Wavelength Modulation and Lock By using a Commercial Finite Difference Solver (CFD RC, USA) for thermo-optical problems, the temperature profile of the MR and the relative changes of refractive indexes can be simulated, as shown in Figure 11. Although the temperature distribution on the ring is about 1°C, the average temperature of the ring is employed as a reference for the temperature control and the tolerance is within 0.1°C.

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Voltage(V)

Channel 52

Channel 53

Channel 54

Channel 55

0.00

0.05

0.10

0.15

0.20

0.25

Time(msec)

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Figure 10. Measurement result of serial outputs.

Figure 11. CFD Simulated temperature profile of an optical ring.

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To reduce overshooting and obtain rapid set up of ring temperature, heating pulses with frequency modulation were employed. Through simulation, optimized driving signal can be obtained to maintain stable wavelength in 0.1 ms by accurate temperature modulation, as shown in Figure 12. The temperature fluctuation can be controlled within 0.1C, with a wavelength variation locked in 0.01 nm, as the measured result shown in Figure 13.

Figure 12. CFD Simulated frequency modulation of driving signal for temperature control.

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32.2 29.3 32

-0.14

Transmittance(dB)

-0.16

-0.18

-0.20

-0.22

Δλ=0.01nm

-0.24

-0.26 1533.0

1533.2

1533.4

1533.6

1533.8

1534.0

1534.2

1534.4

Wavelength(nm)

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Figure 13. Wavelength lock.

The micro-rings are made with the use of standard cleanroom fabrication technology. The fabrication of silicon nitride waveguides starts with a six inch diameter polished silicon wafer. First a planar waveguide structure with a SiN(n=2.06@λ=1550nm) core and SiO2(n=1.452@λ=1550nm) cladding is formed. Finally the heater layer is deposited by sputtering a Platinum (Pt) thin film and patterned by photolithography and Pt wet-etch. Some results of temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) measurements on platinum thin films are shown in Figure 14. The shift in center wavelength of the ring λc is a function of the difference in effective index induced by heating the device, that is given by equation 2:

c 

Neff Neff

(2)

In the wavelength modulation, temperature variation induced spectrum shift was measured, and the result is shown in Figure 14, for the temperature changed from 29C to 32C, for which the thermal resonance shift is determined to be 0.1nm/C. The temperature fluctuation can be controlled within 0.1C, with a wavelength variation locked in 0.01 nm. The measured

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values are FSR=1.5nm and center wavelength shift λc=0.3nm at a center wavelength of λ=1534nm. With applied voltage Without applied voltage

Transmittance(dB)

0

-1

-2

-3

-4 1534

1535

1536

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Wavelength(nm)

Figure 14. Wavelength shift of transmission spectrum in ring resonator. Communication Technologies : Societal Perspectives, Strategic Management and Impact on Business, Nova Science

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CONCLUSION The next generation of optical networking requires optical switches with complex functionality, small size and low cost. In this paper, we have successfully designed and fabricated a silica-based 16×28 PLC-SW controller module in which we incorporated a switch chip based on PLC technology and new driving circuits with a serial-to-parallel signal conversion function. The new driving circuits significantly reduced the number of control terminals, and enabled us to realize a simple module structure suitable for use in a large-scale switch. It has been demonstrated that the scanning of 448 ring switches takes 20.5 s by the novel 3D architect, representing a 67% time reduction. On the other hand, thermal-optical effect was employed for wavelength modulation in this optical switch. To reduce overshooting and obtain rapid set up of ring temperature, heating pulses with frequency modulation were employed. A temperature variation within 0.1C can be maintained by this design, which can provide a very accurate wavelength modulation to 0.3 nm within 0.01 nm variation.

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REFERENCES [1]

[2]

[3]

[4] [5]

C. A. Brackett, et. al., “A Scalable Multi-wavelength Multihop Optical Network: A Proposal for Research on All-Optical Networks”, J.Lightwave Technol., vol. 11, 736-753, 1993. K. Okamoto, K. Takiguchi and Y. Ohmori, “16-channel optical add/drop multiplexer using silica-based arrayed-waveguide gratings”, Electron. Lett., vol. 31, pp. 723-724, 1995. H. Li, C. Lee, W. Lin, L.S. Didde, Y. J. Chen and D. Stone, “8wavelength photonics integrated 2x2 WDM cross-connect switch using 2xN phased-array waveguide grating (PAWG) multi/demultiplexers”, Electron. Lett., vol. 33, pp. 592-594, 1997. C. R. Doerr, et. al., “40-wavelength add-drop filter”, IEEE photon. Technol. Lett., vol. 11, pp. 1437-1439, 1999. M. Okuno, A. Sugita, T. Matsunaga, M. Kawachi, Y. Ohmori, and K. Katoh, “8×8 optical matrix switch using silica-based planar lightwave circuits,” IEICE Trans. Electron., vol. E76-C, no. 7, pp. 1215– 1223,1993.

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A Novel Optoelectronic Switch Array [6]

[7]

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[9]

[10]

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[11]

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M. Okuno, K. Kato, Y. Ohmori, M. Kawachi, and T. Matsunaga, “Improved 8×8 integrated optical matrix switch using silica-based planar lightwave circuits,” J. Lightwave Technol., vol. 12, pp. 1597–1606, Sept.1994. T. Goh, A. Himeno, M. Okuno, H. Takahashi, and K. Hattori, “Highextinction ratio and low-loss silica-based 8×8 thermooptic matrix switch,” IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett., vol. 10, pp. 358–360, Mar. 1998. T. Goh, M. Yasu, K. Hattori, A. Himeno, M. Okuno, and Y. Ohmori, “Low-loss and high-extinction-ratio silica-based strictly nonblocking 16×16 thermo-optic matrix switch,” IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett., vol. 10, pp. 810–812, June 1998. Wenlu Chen, Zhonghua Zhu, Yung Jui(Ray) Chen, Jacob Sun, Boris Grek, and Kevin Schmidt, ”Monolithically integrated 32×four-channel client reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexer on planar lightwave circuit”, IEEE photonics technology letters,vol.15,no10,pp.14131415,Oct.2003. J.E. Ford, V. Aksyun, D. Bishop and J. Walker, “Wavelength add-drop switching using tilting mirrors”, J. Lightwave Technol., vol. 17, pp. 904911, May 1999. C. Pu, L. Lin, E. Goldstein and R. Tkach, “Client-configurable eight channel optical add/drop multiplexer using micromachining technology”, IEEE photon. Technol. Lett., vol. 12, pp. 1665-1667, Dec.2000. William M. J. Green, Hendrik F. Hamann, Lidija Sekaric, Michael J. Rooks, and Yurii A. Vlasov,” Ultra-compact reconfigurable silicon optical devices using micron-scale localized thermal heating”, Optical Society of America, pp.1-3(2006). Andreas Witzig, Matthias Streiff, Wolfgang Fichtner ,“Eigen-mode Analysis of Vertical-Cavity Lasers”,pp.1-34. N. A. Riza and S. Yuan, “Reconfigurable wavelength add-drop filtering based on a Banyan network topology and ferroelectric liquid crystal fiber-optic switches”, J. Lightwave Technol., vol. 17, pp. 1575-1584, Sept. 1999. Wenhua Lin, Haifeng Li, Y. J. Chen, M Dagenais and D. Stone, “Novel Dual-Channel-Spacing WDM Multi/Demultiplexers Based on PhasedArray Waveguide Grating”, Photonics Tech. Lett. 8, 1501 (1996). Jian-Chiun Liou and Fan-Gang Tseng “An Intelligent Multiplexing Control Thermal Actuated Optical Packet Switch”, Photonics in

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Jian-Chiun Liou Switching (PS), Optical Switches and Routing Devices, D-06-2, pp.1-2, Aug. 2008.

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AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY Dr. Jian-Chiun Liou received the Ph.D. degree from the Institute of Nanoengineering and Microsystems, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan, in 2009. He joined the Printing Technology Development and Manufacturing Section, Optoelectronics and Systems Laboratories, Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), Hsinchu, in 1999, where he focused on ink-jet printing system. Since 2005, he has been a Project Leader working on a new MEMS architecture design and display application in the Electronics and Optoelectronics Research Laboratories, ITRI. His research interests are in the fields of ASIC design, optical MEMS technology, integration of ink-jet printhead processes, and display technology. He is the holder of 31 patents on ink-jet printheads and has written more than 16 SCI Journal papers and 30 conference technical papers on MEMS, optical-N/MEMS, and display-related fields, micro-/nanofluidics related fields, and co-chaired many conference technical sessions and invited speaker. Advance project leader (ITRI), SCI Journal paper reviewer (PIER, JEMWA, MEE), Research fellow(NTHU). Dr. Liou was the recipient of honors:ITRI/OES Research Achievement Award (2004), ITRI Research Paper Publicated Award (2004), ITRI/EOL Research Achievement Award (Individual person Award, 2005 ),ITRI/EOL Outstanding Advanced Research Silver Award (2005),ITRI/EOL Research Achievement Award (2006),ITRI/EOL Patents Reviewer(2007), Outstanding Research Award (2007), ITRI/EOL Patents Reviewer(2008), Outstanding Research Award (2010), ITRI/EOL Patents Reviewer(2009), SCI Journal paper reviewer, ITRI/EOL Outstanding Research Award (2010), International R&D 100 Awards (2010), 1st International Contest of Applications in Nano-Micro Technology Award (2010)—OPTO- MEMS Device Application. He is a member of the (SID)Journal, and a reviewer for more than 20 international journals including Applied Physics Letters, Microfluidics and Nanofluidics, and Microdevices. He has also been a consultant to three Taiwan companies.

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Chapter 6

A STUDY ON FACTORS AFFECTING THE EFFECTIVE ECO-DRIVING THROUGH A WEB-BASED INFORMATION PROVISION SYSTEM Ryosuke Ando1*, Yasuhide Nishihori2 and Daisuke Ochi3 1

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Director of Research Department & Chief Research Engineer, TTRI (Toyota Transportation Research Institute), Toyota City, Aichi, Japan 2 Division Chief of Chuo Fukken Consultants Co. Ltd, Nishiki, Nagoya, Japan 3 Engineer of Trans Field, Inc., Kyoto, Japan

ABSTRACT In order to reduce CO2 emission of automobiles, promotion of ecodriving is considered being effective. As a tool of promoting the ecodriving, some driver assistance systems have been developed for improving the drivers’ techniques by providing information after having evaluated the drivers’ behavior when driving. What can make the drivers improve their driving to be more economically and ecologically attracts us to conduct this study. In this paper, factors affecting drivers’ improvement of eco-driving are reported on the basis of our analysis of

*

+81-565-31-7543, [email protected].

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Ryosuke Ando, Yasuhide Nishihori and Daisuke Ochi the data collected from a social experiment undertaken during October 2009 and January 2010 in Toyota City.

Keywords: Eco-Driving, Driver Assistance System, Provision of Information, Travel Behavior, Probe Car / Floating Car, Social Experiment

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1. INTRODUCTION In Japan, the CO2 emissions from automobiles shared 87.3% (1) of that in the transportation section in 2007 fiscal year (from April 2007 to March 2008). On the other hand, the period from 2008 through 2012 is the first promise period of the Kyoto Protocol. We cannot wait for a long time to promote the countermeasures for the global warming issue, so it is very important task to reduce the CO2 emissions from automobiles. As expected to be an effective approach, eco-driving has been listed in the measure menu by the central government and many local governments in Japan. And as a result, the active promotion activities have been undertaken up to now. To promote the eco-driving is a very hard work. Up to now, the most widely used approaches may be just calling the people’s attention for the climate change problem/the global environment issue or providing the information on the reduced amount of the fuel consumed when making ecodriving. For example, Ichihara et al. (2) developed a driver assistance system with which the practice of eco-driving had been evaluated and then the evaluation result was provided to the drivers in order to improve the ecodriving techniques of the drivers. As an OBU (on board unit) system, Techtom (3) developed a so-called Nennpi-Manager to evaluate the practice of ecodriving real time. In addition, NEC (4) developed a system, named DriveManager, collecting the data from more than one vehicle and providing the information such as ranking results by the fuel consumption after having aggregated by the computer. The authors have also developed a data collection and information provision system (5). In this paper, we will report mainly about the analysis output on the relations among the information we provided, the drivers’ characteristics, the change of the drivers’ behavior and the effects on the reduction of the CO2 emissions when driving a car.

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2. OUTLINE OF ECO-DRIVING PROMOTION SYSTEM Communication network of the system is depicted in Figure 1. The driving data were collected by the BCALs (Behavioral Context Addressable Loggers in the Shell) put on the dashboard of the cars. Reasons for that we adopted the BCALs are its relatively low cost and its relatively high performance. The data include the longitude, the latitude, the time, the acceleration in the three directions etc. of the car. The sizes of the BCALs are 98 mm long, 61 mm wide and 18 mm high. Its weight is only 100 g. The operation needed is just only to switch power on or off. Therefore, the people can easily put it into their pockets like a mobile phone or put it on the dashboard of their cars. The power may be from the cigar-socket in the car or just from the rechargeable battery with the capacity of 750 mAh inside. As it can catch the GPS (Global Positioning System) signal, we can obtain the position and time information so that we can compute the travel speed, too. The sensor of the accelerations in three directions equipped in the BCALs let us be able of knowing the accelerations of the car in three directions. The accelerations in three directions may be used to understand the driving is smooth and safe or not. Furthermore, the communication module of a Japanese mobile phone carrier has been installed inside, too. This communication module makes us be able to get the real time data about the driving when the BCALs unit is equipped. In addition, the function of A-GPS (assisted GPS) can be applied for positioning even under the ground such as the subway station et al. The measuring time intervals can be set between 1 to 1800 seconds (2 seconds was used in this study). The communication time intervals can be set between 60 to 1800 seconds or before sleeping. The sleeping mode may be set to automatically occur after the certain time period since the engine-off of the car (1800 seconds after the engine-off was adopted in this study). Moreover, all parameters given here may be changed on-line and remotely. The collected data are sent to server PC by the packet transmission through the mobile phone communication module. The received data in the server PC are processed automatically by program which has been prepared by managers in advance and then some of them are sent to the mobile phones of users and upload to website. Therefore, the users may access the website and check all respective with the defined indicators, too. The information provided through website is depicted in Figure 2. Part 1 shows a calendar by month. The user may click on the day to see the driving records of that day. Part 2 gives the list of the trips on the day specified by a

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click in Part 1. Part 3 is the grade by the eco-driving evaluation indicator. Part 4 is the radar-chart of the four eco-driving indicators with a comparison with the average evaluation. Part 5 is the advice for the user in terms of the evaluation by the four eco-driving indicators.The contents including other items, such as the trends of the evaluations by the indicator and by day for a specified month, are summarized and described in Table 1. Figure 3 is to show trends of the evaluations by the indicator and by day for a specified month. Part A allows the user to specify the month and indicator. Part B shows the result respective with the specified indicator only. And Part C gives the results in detail for all indicators. Figure 4 shows the user’s position when ranking up over all users, and the standard scores and their trends for all indicators of the eco-driving. Figure 5 gives the comparison of all eco-driving indicators between the normal driving and the eco-driving by the evaluations and the standard scores together with comments. System manager

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Collection of data on driving

In driving At home or office

④

Server PC ①

BCALs

Internet ③

②

After driving By e-mail:visualization of driving -record of driving -evaluation of eco-driving & safty-driving etc.

Mobile phone

Through website: visualization of driving -record of driving in detail -evaluation of eco-driving & sefty-driving -result of rankin etc.

Figure 1. Depiction of the communication network of the system.

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Calendar by month: The user may click on the day to see the driving records. List of trips on the day Grade by the eco-driving evaluation indicator Radar chart of the four other eco-driving indicators with a comparison with the average evaluation Advice for the user in terms of the evaluation by four eco-driving indicators

Figure 2. Main page of eco-driving evaluation.

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Table 1. Summary of Contents of Information Provision through Website Type

Contents of Information

Evaluation indicator of eco-driving (3) in Figure 2) Radar chart of evaluation results (4) in Figure 2)

The indicator defined as the summation of points respective with four indicators in 4)

Advice for eco-driving (5) in Figure 2) Change of evaluation during the specified month Change of ranking results Comparison results and comments Travel route of a specified trip Evaluation results of three safe-driving indicators

The radar chart of the four eco-driving indicators, those are Starting indicator, Travel indicator, Idling indicator, Emission indicator, with a comparison with the average evaluation The advice for the user in terms of the evaluation by four eco-driving indicators Trends of the evaluations by the indicator and by day for a specified month The user’s position when ranking up over all users The comparison of all eco-driving indicators between the normal driving and the eco-driving by the evaluations The driving route drawn on the basis of GPS data The numbers of the steep acceleration, the steep deceleration and the steep handling

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Part A  Choosing month and contents to be shown Part B  Change of evaluation during the specified month Part C 

Figure 3. Historical data and trends of eco-driving evaluation.

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Change of ranking results

Figure 4. Ranking results and standard scores by eco-driving indicators.

Figure 6 is about each trip. Part D shows the driving route drawn on the basis of GPS data. The places of the steep acceleration, the steep deceleration and the steep handling are depicted in the map by different colors. Furthermore, Part E lists the detail information of the specified trip including the origin, the destination, the starting time, the ending time, the travel distance, the average travel speed, the percentage of the driving time, the percentage of the stopping time. There are also numbers of the steep acceleration, the steep deceleration and the steep handling, and their numbers per kilometer as well as the average numbers over all users.

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Comparison results and comments 

Figure 5. Comparison results of all eco-driving indicators.   Part D 

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Travel route of a specified trip

Part E  Description of the specified trip

Evaluation results of three safe‐ driving indicators 

Figure 6. Travel route and results of steep acceleration, deceleration and handling.

Table 2. Summary of Contents of Information Provision by e-mail -Starting time of the trip -Ending time of the trip -Grade evaluated by the emission indicator -Travel distance(km) -Average travel speed(km/h) -Number of steep acceleration, deceleration, and handling

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Furthermore, considering the communication speed etc. of mobile phone and the data transmission cost, contents of the e-mail are limited. The contents are summarized in Table 2. Here, all are about the trip.

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3. ECO-DRIVING PROMOTION SOCIAL EXPERIMENT That the information provision can change the people’s behavior has been proved in many studies in the field of the Mobility Management (6). Regarding the promotion of eco-driving, Nishikawa et al. (7) showed that only the training of eco-driving techniques cannot approach the effects for a long term. However, the fuel consumption information may make the drivers keep to do eco-driving. In order to make the analysis on these factors, we conducted a social experiment. The social experiment was conducted in Toyota City during October 1, 2009 to January 31, 2010. Regarding the total number of the monitors, 146 vehicles have been finally participated our project. Here that we don’t use the word “person” but the word “vehicle” is because some vehicles are the companies owned ones so that many different persons may drive the same cars. As a result, we collected the data of 7,900 vehicle-days totally over 519,000 kilometers and 21,000 hours. The monitors can be divided into two different groups: one is the normal monitors with the 50 persons and the other one is the unspecified monitors who made use of the companies owned cars, 96 vehicles in total. For the former group, all information provision has been carried out. However, regarding the latter group, the information provision was sent to a specified person or the clerk being charge in the management of the companies owned cars as the drivers would be different everyday. Considering the behavior of the monitors made use of the companies owned cars is quite different with that of the normal monitors, we report the results of the social experiment in terms of the analysis for the normal monitors in this paper. Regarding the indicators having been used as the information to be provided, we defined them by considering the general recognition in Japan recommended by the Association for Promotion of Eco-Drive (8) as the followings. 

Starting indicator = (number of starts have been accelerated faster than 20 km/h in five seconds) / (total number of starts)

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Travel indicator = (accumulated time to change speed faster than 20 km/h in five seconds) / (total travel time) Idling indicator = (accumulated time of engine on when stopping) / (total stopping time)

Furthermore, to evaluate the CO2 emission for each trip, the following indicator is proposed. Here, the estimated CO2 emission amount is calculated by the Equation (a) proposed by Oguchi et al. (9). And the standard CO2 emission amount is obtained as the computed amount when the car runs by following JC08 mode. The JC08 mode is a test run mode of fuel consuming defined by Japanese Government in 2006. 

Emission indicator = (estimated CO2 emission amount per kilometer) / (standard CO2 emission amount per kilometer) E=KC(0.3T+0.028D+0.056Σδk(Vk2-Vk-12))

(a)

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Where E = CO2 emission amount (kg- CO2) T = Travel time (sec) D = Travel distance (m) k = Number of points where the speeds are observed δk= 1 (when speed is greater than that at the previous point) or 0 (others) Vk = Travel speed at point k (m/sec) KC = Coefficient of CO2 emission (0.002322kg- CO2/gasoline (cc)) Finally, evaluation indicator of eco-driving is defined as the summation of points respective with each indicator given above. The points of 5 to 1 are given in terms of the grades evaluated by each indicator. Then the eco-driving evaluation indicator can be ranked by five grades in terms of the total points. Here, in order to evaluate safe-driving, three indicators have been proposed on the basis of the data collected by the BCALs. 

Steep acceleration = when an acceleration being bigger than 0.2G (G=0.98m/s2) is detected in the direction of moving forward, the place and the action is recorded.

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

Steep deceleration = when a deceleration being smaller than -0.2G is detected in the direction of moving forward, the place and the action is recorded. Steep handling = when the absolute value of an acceleration or deceleration being bigger than 0.2G is detected in the left or right direction when moving forward, the place and the action is recorded.

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3.1. Results on Eco-Driving The changes of the eco-driving evaluation indicator, the emission indicator, the travel indicator and the idling indicator are shown in Figure 7 to 10 respectively. The values of the vertical axis (y) mean the average grades during one week when we express the grades as 1 to 5 respectively. Then we can understand that all four indicators have shown the better values as the progressing of the project. This means the provision of the information on the monitors’ driving has made the monitors improve their driving behaviors. However, regarding the starting indicator, the score was changing to be a little worse although we have not shown the graph here. The reasons can be searched from the answers for the questionnaire we implemented at the end of the social experiment. The people thought that they had influenced the cars following them in the traffic flow. The tenderly starting was felt as the slow starting and the slow starting may make the following drivers to claim to the monitors. This is why the monitors changed not doing the tenderly starting.

Figure 7. Change of values of eco-driving evaluation indicator.

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Figure 8. Change of values of emission indicator.

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Figure 9. Change of values of travel indicator.

Figure 10. Change of values of idling indicator.

Of the monitors, about 62% answered they checked the email having been sent to their mobile phone and 78% said they checked the website about their driving. As a result, 82% have become practicing with the eco-driving and 54% have improved their driving techniques to be effective with the ecodriving. All of these results told us the system had been functional by the information provision. Furthermore, as the purposes to do the eco-driving, the top answer by 65% of the monitors is “to cut the fuel cost”.

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3.2. Results on Safe-Driving The safe-driving is evaluated by three indicators, the steep acceleration, the steep deceleration and the steep handling. The changes of the three indicators are expressed in Figure 11 to Figure 13 respectively. Here, the values of the vertical axis (y) are as described by the definitions in the above, too.

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Figure 11. Change of steep acceleration indicator.

Figure 12. Change of steep deceleration indicator.

Figure 13. Change of steep handling indicator.

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Each indicator has shown a satisfactory result that tells us the users tend to be safer than before although there are some unexpected variations. In fact, the second top answer for the question why to practice the eco-driving is to realize the safe-driving which shared 52%. About the change of their driving behaviors, 42% told us they had behaved much safer.

3.3. Assumptions for the Analysis On the basis of the experiences of the authors in the traffic safety education and the travel demand management, we thought that there are the appropriate approaches with the information provision. The best approach is not equal to the approach having the highest frequency. Thus the following assumptions are made.

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

Assumption 1: Providing the information with high frequency (e.g., everyday)

Very frequently! It is very friendly. However, the effects of behavior change may not be felt because of a too short term. As a result, the information users may get into a groove and not be affected by the information provision further.



Assumption 2: Providing the information with middle frequency (e.g., several time a week)

When the information users read the information, they may have the memory of the passed accesses so that they may compare them with the latest ones. These kinds of comparison can make the users keep in the eco-driving status for a long term.



Assumption 3: Providing the information with low frequency (e.g., once or less a month)

The effect of information provision cannot be expected. However, the drivers, who want to improve their driving techniques despite of the information provision, should be considered separately.

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Surely, other than the information provision, the characteristics of the drivers such as the ages, the driving characteristics such as the travel distance and the driving styles have the influence on the changes of the driving techniques. According to the terms when the monitors had taken part in the social experiments, they may be divided into three groups. The terms for each group were 7 weeks, 2 months and 4 months respectively. All monitors had been requested to behave as usual during the first week. Since the second week, they had been requested to behave by referring the information provided if they like.

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4. ANALYSIS ON RELATIONS BEWTEEN CHANGE OF ECO-DRIVING EFFECTS AND INFLUENCE FACTORS By using the emission indicator given in the above, we made an analysis on the relations between it and the factors that had been listed in Table 3. Then the results are shown in Table 4. Judged by the statistical significance, the explanatory variables No. 10 and 12 are significant at the 1% level, and the variable No. 4 is significant at the 5% level. Especially, the correlation coefficient of No. 12: Rank of average travel speed is -0.826. This shows us a very direct result that the faster average speed evaluation, the better the emission indicator is. As for the variable No. 10, the longer average running distance per day can make the emission indicator better. Regarding the last significant variable No. 4, the emission indicator may be increased by the motivation of the monitor if he/she is only interested in the social experiment. Table 3. Summary of Variables No.1 Age: Age of driver No.2 Motivation of participate in Social Experiment (1): Dammy variable. Being 1 when the monitor’s motivation of participate in social experiment is “improve ecodriving techniques” No.3 Motivation of participate in Social Experiment (2): Dammy variable. Being 1 when the monitor’s motivation of participate in social experiment is “interested in eco-driving” No.4 Motivation of participate in Social Experiment (3): Dammy variable. Being 1 when the monitor’s motivation of participate in social experiment is “interested in social experiment“ No.5 Motivation of participate in Social Experiment (4): Dammy variable.

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Being 1 when the monitor’s motivation of participate in social experiment is “act against global warming” No.6 Motivation of participate in Social Experiment (5): Dammy variable. Being 1 when the monitor’s motivation of participate in social experiment is “get TOYOTA ECO POINT” No.7 Motivation of participate in Social Experiment (6): Dammy variable. Being 1 when the monitor’s motivation of participate in social experiment is “save gasoline” No.8 Recognition of Eco-driving, Practice of Eco-driving: Dammy variable. Being 1 when the monitor had known the way of eco-driving and had done eco-driving; Being 2 when the monitor had known the way of eco-driving but had not done eco-driving; Being 3 when the monitor had not known the way of eco-driving and had not done ecodriving No.9 Idling Stop Function: Dammy variable. Being 1 when the monitor’s car have the function of idling-stop No.10 Rank of average of running distance: Rank of average running distance by day in a term of social experiment: under 30km/day: 1, under 50km/day: 2, over 50km/day: 3 No.11 Rank of frequency of driving: Rank of ratio of driving day to the all day of social experiment: under 70%: 1, under 90%: 2, over 90%: 3 No.12 Rank of average travel speed: Rank of average speed in a term of social experiment: under 25km/h: 1, under 30km/h: 2, over 30km/h: 3

Table 4. Analysis Results of Correlation Analysis of CO2-variables No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 No of Samples

Correlation coefficient 0.0377 0.1481 0.1655 0.3251 -0.1210 0.0509 0.2100 0.0070 -0.0872 -0.5800 0.1452 -0.8260

Judgment

*

** ** 48

**:1% significant, *:5% significant.

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5. INFLUENCE OF INFORMATION FREQUENCIES In order to make the analysis on the influence of information frequencies, we make use of the Quantification Method I (10). Considering the significant factors have been made clearly in the above Chapter, the two variables of No. 4: Motivation of participate in Social Experiment 3 (interested in social experiment) and No. 10: Rank of average of running distance is included in the analysis, too. That the variable No. 12 is not included here is because the speed factor has been included by Equation (a) and its effect has been reflected in the emission indicator, too. To discuss the effects by the durations, we defined the social experiment by three durations as the followings. Then, the analysis for three groups classified by the information frequencies can be carried out with respective to the three assumptions we made in Section 3.3. As the results, the all category scores obtained in terms of the Quantification Method I are given by Figures 14 to 16 respectively.

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  

Wave 0= the first week (driving as usual); Wave 1= the second week (doing eco-drive); Wave 2=the third week and after (doing eco-drive continually).

When we observe the results, we can know that the ranges (the differences of the largest score and the smallest score) of “average running distance” are the largest among the three variables despite of the frequencies of checking information. The scores respective with the category “under 30 km/day” of the variable “average running distance” are positive for all three cases divided by the frequency checking the information. On the other hand, the scores respective with the other two categories are negative. It implies that it is relatively more difficult for the drivers with the short trips to improve the value of CO2 emission indicator. Let us see about the item “wave”. Focusing to the “checking the information almost everyday” group, the score respective to the wave 2 is worse than that of the wave 1. This is just what we can get from the assumption 1. Regarding the “checking information several times in a week or a month” group, the score respective to the wave 2 is better than that of the wave 1. This can be explained easily by the assumption 2. On the other hand, as for the “Checking information only a few times” group, the score respective to the wave 2 is also better than that of the wave 1 although the difference is smaller than that of the “checking information several times in a week or a

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month” group. This result cannot be easily explained by the assumption 3. The other factors should be analyzed further. -0.20 -0.15

-0.10 -0.05

0.00

0.05

Wave

0.15

0.20

0.064

Wave0 -0.047

Wave1

-0.017

Wave2 Interested in the social Average running experiment distance

0.10

Under 30km/day

0.101

-0.043

Under 60km/day -0.089

Over 60km/day

-0.066

No

0.019

Yes

Good　 ← 　 　 　 　 　　 　 　 　 　 　 　→ 　 Bad

No. of samples: 9, Multiple correlation coefficient: 0.647, Constant: 0.968

Regarding the item “interested in the social experiment”, all three figures show that the category “yes” makes the CO2 emission indicator be larger. -0.20 -0.15

-0.10 -0.05

Wave

0.00

0.05

0.15

0.20

0.010

Wave1 -0.029

Wave2 Under 30km/day Under 60km/day

0.10

0.019

Wave0

Interested in the social Average running experiment distance

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Figure 14. Analysis Results Using Quantification Method I , (Checking information almost everyday).

0.102 -0.164

-0.077

Over 60km/day No Yes

-0.032 0.016 Good　← 　　 　　 　　 　　 　　 　 　→ 　Bad

No. of samples: 21, Multiple correlation coefficient: 0.711, Constant: 1.007. Figure 15. Analysis Results Using Quantification Method I, (Checking information several times in a week or a month).

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124

Ryosuke Ando, Yasuhide Nishihori and Daisuke Ochi -0.20 -0.15 -0.10 -0.05

0.00

Wave

0.10

0.15

0.20

0.047

Wave0 -0.016

Wave1

-0.031

Wave2 Interested in the social Average running experiment distance

0.05

Under 30km/day

0.074

-0.046

Under 60km/day Over 60km/day No

-0.140 -0.021

Yes

0.018 Good　←　　　　　　　　　　　　→　Bad

No. of samples: 11, Multiple correlation coefficient: 0.753, Constant: 0.966

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Figure 16. Analysis Results Using Quantification Method I, (Checking information only a few times).

That is a same tendency what we have known from the analysis results of correlation analysis in Table 4. It can be explained by that the monitors who were “interested in the social experiment” were not interested in improving their eco-driving techniques. These results tell us that the information provision should be made according to the individual’s characteristics. For example, for the drivers who were only interested in the social experiments, the information calling them to promote the eco-driving should be closed up. For the drivers who do not check the information provided, the motivation to check the information should be studied and reflected in the system. For the drivers who have the same or similar characteristics such as in the average driving distance et al, the ranking in a small group may be provided to call their competitive spirit of improving the eco-driving.

CONCLUSION In this paper, the authors report on the study having been implemented during March 2009 to March 2010. This study is to develop a system and then apply it as a trial for promoting the eco-driving and the safe-driving. The

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A Study on Factors Affecting the Effective Eco-Driving ...

125

system makes use of BCALs that is a unit to collect data and to make the data transmission through the module of a mobile phone carrier. In the study, eight (five for the eco-driving and three for the safe-driving) evaluation indicators have been proposed on the basis of the data collected. As the results of the social experiment, it can be conclude that this system is effectively accepted by the users and is functional to change the people’s behaviors to be much greener and safer. In terms of the analysis on the factors affecting the effective eco-driving, the following conclusions can be achieved. 

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



Judging by the CO2 emission, the information provision frequency in the viewpoint of providers or the information checking frequency in the viewpoint of the users, the average speed, the average driving distance and the individual’s characteristics are the significant factors. Regarding the information provision / checking frequency, the two assumptions have been proved. When providing the information with high frequency, the information users may get into a groove and not be affected by the information provision after a certain time term as that at the beginning. Furthermore, when providing the information with middle frequency, the information users may keep in the ecodriving status for a long term. Because of the effects are related with the individual’s characteristics, the on-demand system providing the information according to the personal characteristics is expected to realize the best improvement for the effective eco-driving.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This study is a part of the Green Mobility Model Project for Constructing a Low-Carbon Transport System financially supported by Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and implemented by Council for Green Mobility during 2009-10. When this study was undertaken, we were supported by Prof. Dr. Takayuki Morikawa of Nagoya Univ., all members of the council and many other people. We wish to express our gratitude here.

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Ryosuke Ando, Yasuhide Nishihori and Daisuke Ochi

REFERENCESS

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[1]

Foundation for Promoting Personal Mobility and Ecological Transportation, “Transportation, Traffic and Environment: 2009 Edition (in Japanese)”, March 2009. [2] Takashi Ichihara, Shiro Kumano, Daisuke Yamaguchi, Yoichi Sato and Yoshihiro Suda, “Estimating Driver’s Skill Level and Awareness of Ecodriving for Various Driving Conditions”, Proceedings of the 8th Symposium on ITS, pp.295-298, Dec. 2009. [3] http://www.techtom.co.jp/FCM2000.html, accessed on November 17, 2011. [4] http://www.necsoft.com/soft/its, accessed on November 18, 2011. [5] Ryosuke Ando, Yasuhide Nishihori and Daisuke Ochi, “A Development of a System to Promote Eco-Driving and Safe-Driving”, in Smart Spaces and Next Generation Wired/Wireless Networking (S. Balandin et al. Eds.), Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, pp.207-218, August 2010. [6] Japan Society of Civil Engineers, “Guideline for Mobility Management”, February 2005. [7] Seimei Nishikawa, Toshihiro Hirooka, Shigeyuki Yamabe, Shuichi Matsumoto, “Long-term Evaluation of Eco-driving Behavior based on Driving Simulator Experiments”, Peer-Review Proceedings of the 8th Symposium on ITS, pp.85-90, Dec. 2009. [8] http://www.ecodrive.jp/eco_10.html (in Japanese), accessed on November 22, 2011. [9] Takashi Oguchi, M. Katakura and M. Taniguchi, “Carbon-dioxide Emission Model in Actual Urban Road Vehicular Traffic Conditions” (in Japanese), Journal of Infrastructure Planning and Management (JSCE), No. 695/IV-54, pp.125-136, November 2002. [10] Chikio Hayashi, “On the prediction of phenomena from qualitative data and the quantification of qualitative data from the mathematicostatistical point of view”, Annals of the Institute of Statistical Mathematics, Vol. 3, 69-98, March 1952.

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INDEX B

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A access, vii, 10, 14, 17, 19, 20, 31, 68, 75, 81, 111 accounting, 5 actuation, ix, 85, 87 adaptation, 5, 17 adjustment, 94 advancement, ix, 49, 50, 53, 85 age, vii, ix, 6, 51, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 81, 82 algorithm, 92, 96, 99 amplitude, x, 86, 88, 95 Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), ix, 68 anger, 11 animations, 8 ANOVA, ix, 39, 68 applied mathematics, 8, 15 architect, 17, 97, 98, 100, 106 architecture design, 108 assessment, 11, 14, 28, 50, 52, 53, 54, 62 assets, 5, 23, 51 attitudes, vii, viii, 50, 67, 69, 70, 71, 77, 80, 81 authentication, 14 automate, 17, 20, 21 automation, vii, 1, 2, 8, 17, 18, 21 automatization, 15, 17 automobiles, xi, 109, 110

baby boomers, 68 background information, 3 balance sheet, 51 bandwidth, 92 banking, 64, 75, 79, 80 banking sector, 64 base, vii, 44, 64, 65, 106, 107 behaviors, 118, 121, 127 benchmarking, 11, 16 benefits, 50, 60, 62, 64, 65, 76 BI, 2, 7, 8 bias, 92, 99 bonds, viii, 47 brand loyalty, 64 Brazil, 1, 10, 15, 20 business education, 23 business environment, 10 business strategy, 32 businesses, vii, 4, 25, 30, 40 buyer, 28, 29, 30, 31, 42, 43, 44 buyers, 28, 29, 31, 43 C campaigns, 23 case studies, 16 cash, 53, 61

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128

Index

causal relationship, 32 causality, 32 challenges, 23 children, 70, 80 China, 82, 85 City, xi, 109, 110, 116 cladding, x, 86, 88, 92, 104 cladding layer, x, 86, 88 clarity, 6 classification, 32, 51 clients, 36, 39, 40 climate, 110 climate change, 110 clothing, 51, 52 clusters, 69 CO2, xi, 109, 110, 117, 123, 124, 125, 127 coding, 69 cognitive science, 8, 15 collaboration, 74 commerce, 3, 65 commercial, x, 86, 98 communication, vii, viii, ix, 6, 25, 26, 32, 41, 47, 48, 50, 61, 62, 69, 79, 80, 85, 87, 92, 99, 111, 112, 116 communication technologies, vii, viii, 25, 26, 32, 47, 50, 69 communities, 13, 15, 30, 31, 32, 36, 39, 40 community, 8, 10 compensation, 92, 99 competition, 6, 13, 22, 26, 32, 40 competitive advantage, 22, 26, 29, 65 competitiveness, 13 competitors, 29, 49, 54 complement, 6 complexity, 8, 13, 18, 30 compliance, 19 comprehension, 69 computation, 15 computer, 40, 73, 75, 80, 110 computer systems, 40 computing, 19

concordance, 79, 80, 81 conduction, 19 conference, 108 configuration, 97, 100 conflict, 13 consensus, 6 construct validity, ix, 68 construction, 5, 11, 12, 33 consulting, 3, 4 consumer loyalty, 64 consumers, 10, 49, 50, 51, 60, 61, 64, 81 consumption, 33, 110, 116 content analysis, 69 contingency, 63 convergence, 12 conversations, 49 cooperation, 29, 30, 31, 34 coordination, 30, 31, 34, 35, 40, 54 correlation, 36, 53, 60, 122, 125, 126 correlation analysis, 53, 60, 126 correlation coefficient, 122, 125, 126 correlations, 52, 53, 60, 61 cost, 7, 16, 26, 28, 30, 34, 35, 40, 62, 95, 96, 106, 111, 116, 119 cost saving, 16 coupling constants, x, 87 creative thinking, 16 CT, vii, viii, 47, 48, 49, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59 culture, 8, 9, 10, 11, 15, 19 customer loyalty, viii, 47, 48, 50, 51, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 64, 65 customer patronizing behavior, vii, viii, 47 customer relations, 26, 49, 81 customers, viii, 2, 6, 7, 47, 48, 49, 50, 53, 60, 62 cycles, 12, 13 Czech Republic, 67, 70

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Index D danger, 75 data analysis, 19 data collection, 110 data mining, 16 data registration, x, 86, 88, 94 database, 8, 14, 51 decoration, 48, 50, 51, 59, 61, 62 denial, 11 depression, 11 depth, 13, 36, 69 detection, 19 directors, 36 dissatisfaction, 49 distribution, viii, 51, 67, 77, 101 divergence, 12 Dominican Republic, 10 drawing, 26

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E e-commerce, 3, 65 economic status, 70 Ecuador, 10 education, 2, 10, 22, 23, 69, 70, 73, 82, 121 educators, 69 electric field, 92, 93 electrical properties, x, 86 electronic communications, 74 electrons, 89 e-mail, 25, 29, 53, 61, 71, 73, 75, 115, 116 emission, xi, 109, 115, 117, 118, 119, 122, 124, 125, 127 emotion, 19 employees, 2, 5, 6, 10 employment, x, 86, 91, 99 encoding, 96 energy, 33 engineering, 4, 11

129

environment, viii, x, 5, 10, 14, 29, 33, 40, 67, 70, 80, 86, 88, 110 environmental resources, 13 environmental sustainability, 10 equilibrium, 6 equipment, 16, 19, 43 everyday life, 82 evidence, viii, 8, 26, 34, 39, 61, 81 evolution, ix, 12, 13, 85 execution, 8, 9, 15, 18 expertise, 62 external environment, 5 extinction, ix, 85, 87, 91, 107 F fabrication, ix, x, 85, 86, 87, 88, 91, 96, 99, 104 Facebook, 73, 74 factor analysis, ix, 68, 69, 71, 72, 73, 80 feelings, viii, 47, 48 FEM, 1 fiber, ix, 85, 107 films, 75, 104 filters, 32 financial, 2, 5, 6, 7, 9, 28 financial performance, 28 financial resources, 9 flexibility, ix, 28, 85 food, 33 footwear, 51, 52 Ford, 3, 107 forecasting, 8, 17, 21 fuel consumption, 110, 116 fusion, 19, 20, 23 G gestures, 19 global warming, 110, 122 globalization, 26 governments, 15, 110

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130

Index

GPS, 36, 40, 111, 113, 114 grades, 117, 118 graph, 118 gratings, 106 grouping, 14 growth, ix, 2, 7, 8, 85 H height, 88 high school, 70 high selection speed three dimensional (3D), x, 86 higher education, 10 House, 82 human, 3, 9, 17, 18, 19 human resources, 9, 17 hypothesis, 51

information technology, 9, 17, 39, 40, 44, 45, 64, 65, 66 infrastructure, 23 input power, x, 86, 87, 101 insertion, ix, 85, 87 institutions, 10, 14 integrated circuits, 99 integration, vii, x, 17, 20, 21, 26, 42, 45, 86, 108 intelligence, vii, 2 interface, 19 interference, 91 internal processes, 2, 6, 7, 18 internationalization, 15 intervention, 18 investment, 7, 32, 41, 44, 45, 48, 61 investments, 6, 44 issues, ix, x, 7, 20, 27, 43, 62, 85, 86, 87, 88

I

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J ICE, 63 ICTs, 2, 16, 62 ideal, 92 identification, 3, 7, 8, 18 identity, 7, 10 image, 19, 63, 69, 100 images, 8, 19, 49 immigrants, 82 immobilization, 11 improvements, 16, 19, 48 independent variable, 72 individuals, 12, 13 industries, 51, 53, 65 industry, 13, 60 inertia, 50 Information and Communication Technologies, v, vii, 1, 2, 25, 48, 49 Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), 2 information seeking, 29

Japan, 109, 110, 116, 128 jumping, 97 K Kyoto Protocol, 110 L language processing, 19 large-array optoelectronic packet switches, x, 86 lead, 11, 32, 62 leadership, 9 learners, 69, 81 learning, 2, 6, 7, 8, 10, 15, 16, 17, 28, 69, 83 learning styles, 69 life cycle, 12, 13, 18 light, ix, 85, 87

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Index

131

local government, 110 logistics, 29, 36, 39, 40, 63, 64 loyalty, viii, 29, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65

multidimensional, 32 multimedia, 49 music, 71, 78, 81

M

national origin, 70 negative attitudes, 77 negotiation, 11, 30 Netherlands, 41 networking, 69, 106 neutral, 71, 77, 80 next generation, 106 Norway, 82

Mach-Zehnder (MZ), ix, 86, 87 majority, 4, 28, 39, 71, 77 man, 4 management, vii, viii, 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 15, 16, 17, 20, 21, 26, 28, 30, 34, 36, 37, 39, 40, 41, 42, 44, 45, 47, 48, 49, 64, 116, 121 manipulation, 20 manufacturing, 33, 45 mapping, 11 market share, 7 marketing, 3, 41, 43, 64 marketing strategy, 43, 64 marketplace, 2 materials, x, 16, 28, 86 mathematics, 8, 15 matrix, ix, 85, 87, 99, 100, 106, 107 measurement, 8, 12, 15, 100 measurements, 88, 104 media, 64, 68, 72, 76 membership, 40 memory, 70, 81, 121 MEMS, x, 86, 87, 108 messages, 73 methodology, vii, 1, 2, 10 Ministry of Education, 63 mission, 3, 6, 10 missions, 110 mobile device, 19, 20 mobile phone, 111, 116, 119, 127 model system, 88 models, 4, 12, 13, 16, 31 modules, 92, 98 motivation, 50, 122, 123, 126 MR, 88, 90, 101

N

O occupational therapy, 82 oil, 5 operations, 3, 5, 9, 17 operations research, 5 opportunities, 3, 15, 23, 28, 63 optical communications, 92 optimism, 11 organizational culture, 9, 10, 11 organizational learning, 8, 15, 28 ownership, ix, 68, 70 P paradigm shift, 41 parallel, 95, 97, 99, 106 parents, 68, 79 participants, 31 password, 14 patents, 108 pathways, 13 performance indicator, 8 personal communication, viii, 47, 48 personal contact, 50, 74 pessimism, 11 photolithography, 104

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132

Index

photonics, 106, 107 plastics, 44 platinum, 104 Platinum, 104 playing, 70, 73, 78 polarization, ix, 85, 87, 88 policy, 3 population, 13, 33, 51, 68 positive attitudes, 77, 80, 81 positive correlation, 61 positive relationship, 50, 53, 60, 61 principles, 10 probability, 8, 51 procurement, 26, 30 production costs, x, 86 profit, 42 profitability, 7 project, 9, 11, 108, 116, 118 prototype, 18 purchasing power, 32

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Q quality improvement, 16 quantification, 128 questionnaire, ix, 32, 52, 68, 69, 71, 72, 118 R radar, 112, 113 radius, 89, 91 rationalisation, 30 real time, 19, 110, 111 realism, 11 reality, 19, 82 recognition, vii, 1, 2, 10, 19, 116 refractive index, x, 86, 88, 101 regression, 16 regression analysis, 16 regulations, 10, 12, 13 rejection, 65

relationship management, 26, 49 relevance, 6 reliability, ix, 18, 29, 35, 36, 68, 72, 85, 87 replication, 65 requirements, 18, 36, 39, 40 resilience, 11 resistance, 10, 11, 104 resonator, x, 86, 87, 88, 92, 105 resources, 9, 13, 17, 29, 30, 34, 40 response, ix, 12, 13, 33, 49, 64, 85, 86, 87, 91, 92, 95, 99 responsiveness, 49 restrictions, x, 86 restructuring, 11 retail, 48, 49, 50, 51, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 62, 63, 64 revenue, 48 rights, 75 rings, 88, 95, 96, 104 risk, viii, 29, 31, 34, 47, 48, 49 risks, 16 room temperature, 92, 99 root, x, 87 rules, 12, 13, 17 S safety, 121 SAP, 19, 23 savings, 16 scale economies, 30 school, 3, 4, 5, 69, 70, 73, 82 science, 15, 16 scope, 11, 27, 32, 40, 51, 60 security, 14, 53, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 72, 74, 77, 80 selectivity, 88 seller, 28, 29, 43, 45 sellers, 31 sensations, 19 sensitization, 10 sensors, 20

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Index service firms, 63 service industries, 51, 65 services, viii, 5, 16, 29, 47, 48, 50, 54 shape, 12, 95 shock, 3, 100 short-term memory, 70, 81 showing, 60 SIC, 87 signals, vii, 91, 92, 95, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101 signs, 73 silica, ix, 85, 87, 106, 107 silicon, x, 86, 88, 104, 107 simulation, x, 8, 19, 86, 88, 89, 92, 93, 97, 103 simulations, 16, 20, 92 SiO2, 104 skin, 19 Slovakia, 67, 70 small businesses, 4 small firms, 43 SMS, 73 social change, 11 social construct, 12 social network, 69, 71, 74, 79, 80 social welfare, 20 society, viii, 10, 20, 67 software, vii, 2, 7, 8, 11, 14, 17, 18, 21, 51, 53, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 75, 83 solidarity, 29 solution, 11, 13 Southeast Asia, 65 SP, 1 Spain, 25, 33, 47, 51 speech, 19 spending, 74 stability, ix, 85, 87 stabilization, x, 86, 88 stakeholders, 19, 20 state, 12 statistics, 8, 15, 34, 69, 72 storage, vii strategic management, vii, 1, 2, 7, 17, 20

133

strategic planning, vii, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 14, 15, 17, 20, 28 stress, 29 structure, ix, 6, 15, 17, 86, 87, 99, 104, 106 substrate, x, 86, 88 Sun, 107 supplier, 29, 30, 31, 32, 35, 42, 43, 44 suppliers, viii, 6, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 34, 35, 36, 39, 40, 41, 43 supply chain, 26, 44, 45, 64, 66 surplus, 32 survival, 69 sustainability, 10 sympathy, 73 synchronize, 9 T Taiwan, 85, 100, 108 TCR, 104 teachers, 3, 70 techniques, xi, 7, 8, 15, 19, 20, 51, 109, 110, 116, 119, 121, 122, 126 technologies, vii, viii, 16, 25, 26, 30, 32, 39, 40, 41, 47, 48, 49, 50, 61, 62, 69, 81 technology, vii, ix, x, 6, 9, 16, 17, 26, 36, 39, 40, 41, 44, 45, 48, 49, 50, 52, 53, 54, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 69, 85, 86, 91, 99, 100, 104, 106, 107, 108 telecommunications, vii teleology, 12, 13 telephone, vii, 29, 39 temperature, x, 86, 88, 89, 90, 92, 94, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 106 tensions, 13 terminals, ix, 86, 87, 99, 106 tertiary education, 2 testing, 17, 100 textbooks, 26, 75 therapy, 82 thin films, 104

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134

Index

threats, 3 topology, 107 Toyota, xi, 109, 110, 116 trade, 33 training, 5, 17, 116 trajectory, 12 transactions, 26, 39, 40 transformation, 9, 10 transistor, 100 transmission, ix, 31, 86, 87, 105, 111, 116, 127 transparency, 32 transport, 36, 39, 40, 89 transportation, 110 treatment, 19, 20, 60 trial, 126 Turkey, 10

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U UK, 43, 44 uniform, 6, 101 universities, vii, 2, 5, 10, 15, 16, 17, 20 USA, 63, 101 V Valencia, 47, 65 variables, ix, 27, 29, 32, 33, 51, 53, 62, 68, 70, 71, 122, 123, 124 variations, 121

vehicles, 116 vein, 27, 29, 49 virtual communities, 36, 40 vision, 2, 6, 10, 11, 69 visual system, vii visualization, 8, 19 W Washington, 82 water, 33 wavelengths, x, 86, 88 WDM, 92, 106, 107 wealth, 5 web, vii, 14, 53, 61, 69, 82 websites, 73, 76 welfare, 20 White Paper, 44 wood, 51 work environment, viii, 67 workers, 33 working hours, 73 workplace, 73 World Class Universities, vii, 1, 2 World Wide Web, 23 worldwide, vii, 1, 4 Y young people, 68, 69, 80, 81

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