MANAGEMENT OF TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION IN DEVELOPING AND DEVELOPED COUNTRIES Edited by Hongyi Sun Management of Technological Innovation in Developing and Developed Countries Edited by Hongyi Sun Published by InTech Janeza Trdine 9, 51000 Rijeka, Croatia Copyright © 2012 InTech All chapters are Open Access distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license, which allows users to download, copy and build upon published articles even for commercial purposes, as long as the author and publisher are properly credited, which ensures maximum dissemination and a wider impact of our publications. After this work has been published by InTech, authors have the right to republish it, in whole or part, in any publication of which they are the author, and to make other personal use of the work. Any republication, referencing or personal use of the work must explicitly identify the original source. As for readers, this license allows users to download, copy and build upon published chapters even for commercial purposes, as long as the author and publisher are properly credited, which ensures maximum dissemination and a wider impact of our publications. Notice Statements and opinions expressed in the chapters are these of the individual contributors and not necessarily those of the editors or publisher. No responsibility is accepted for the accuracy of information contained in the published chapters. The publisher assumes no responsibility for any damage or injury to persons or property arising out of the use of any materials, instructions, methods or ideas contained in the book. Publishing Process Manager Marina Jozipovic Technical Editor Teodora Smiljanic Cover Designer InTech Design Team First published March, 2012 Printed in Croatia A free online edition of this book is available at www.intechopen.com Additional hard copies can be obtained from orders@intechopen.com Management of Technological Innovation in Developing and Developed Countries, Edited by Hongyi Sun p. cm. ISBN 978-953-51-0365-3 Contents Preface IX Part 1 Adoption of Technological Innovation 1 Chapter 1 Trends and Directions for Energy Saving in Electric Networks 3 Gheorghe Grigoraş, Gheorghe Cârţină and Elena-Crenguţa Bobric Chapter 2 Services Oriented Technologies: A Focus on the Financial Services Sector in South Africa 27 Mazanai Musara Chapter 3 RF Sounding: Generating Sounds from Radio Frequencies 45 Claudia Rinaldi, Fabio Graziosi, Luigi Pomante and Francesco Tarquini Chapter 4 Sanitation in Developing Countries: Innovative Solutions in a Value Chain Framework 65 Meine Pieter van Dijk Part 2 Assessment of Technological Innovation 83 Chapter 5 Risk Assessment of Innovations in the Biopharmaceutical Industry 85 David Domonkos 1 and Imre Hronszky Chapter 6 iTech: An Interactive Virtual Assistant for Technical Communication 105 Dale-Marie Wilson, Aqueasha M. Martin and Juan E. Gilbert Chapter 7 Performance Evaluation for Knowledge Transfer Organizations: Best European Practices and a Conceptual Framework 127 Anna Comacchio and Sara Bonesso VI Contents Chapter 8 Understanding Innovation Deployment and Evaluation in Healthcare: The Triality Framework 153 Urvashi Sharma, Julie Barnett and Malcolm Clarke Chapter 9 Technological Spillovers from Multinational Companies to Small and Medium Food Companies in Nigeria 183 Isaac O. Abereijo and Matthew O. Ilori Part 3 Enablers of Technological Innovation 215 Chapter 10 Open Innovation in the Automotive Industry: A Multiple Case-Study 217 Alfredo De Massis, Valentina Lazzarotti, Emanuele Pizzurno and Enrico Salzillo Chapter 11 The Impact of Company Relationship and Institution Technology on R&D Activity and Innovation 237 Fredy Becerra-Rodríguez Chapter 12 The Impact of ICT on Productivity: The Moderating Role of Worker Quality and Quality Strategy 259 Ana Gargallo-Castel and Carmen Galve-Górriz Chapter 13 Incorporating Technological Innovation and Environmental Strategy: An Integrated View of Cognition and Action 275 Xuanwei Cao Chapter 14 Linking Process Technology and Manufacturing Performance Under the Framework of Manufacturing Strategy 289 Hongyi Sun Preface It is widely accepted that technology is one of the forces driving economic growth. Although more and more new technologies have emerged, various evidence shows that their performances were not as high as expected. In both academia and practice there are still many questions about what technologies to adopt and how to manage these technologies. This book aims to look into these questions by collecting 15 articles from both developing and developed countries including Brazil, China, Colombia, France, Italy, Luxembourg, México, The Netherlands, Nigeria, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, UK, and the USA. These articles are grouped into three sections: the adoption of new technologies, the assessment of technological innovation, and the implementation of technological innovation. The first section contains five articles reporting the adoption of various new technologies. The article Trends and Directions for Energy Saving in Electric Networks reviews future directions for energy saving in electric networks and provides an estimation of the financial requirements. The article Services Oriented Technologies: A Focus on the Financial Services Sector in South Africa first presents a theoretical review, and then an empirical survey of technological innovations in the financial services sector in South Africa. The article RF Sounding: Generating Sounds from Radio Frequencies reports the challenges and design of an innovative artistic multimedia installation which is based on Sounds from Radio Frequency and Wireless Sensors Networks. The article Sanitation in Developing Countries: Innovative Solutions in a Value Chain Framework analyzes the organizations and economics of adopting alternative technologies for sanitation in developing countries from a value chain perspective. The second section contains five articles about the assessment of technological innovation from risk and uncertainty, economic, technical, and strategic perspectives. X Preface The article Risk Assessment of Innovations in the Biopharmaceutical Industry summarizes the specialties of risk and uncertainties in biotechnology and analyses the uncertainty dilemma in the research of medical biotechnology. The article iTech: An Interactive Virtual Assistant for Technical Communication evaluates an interactive virtual assistant that was designed to allow users to search a user manual using keyboard and mouse, or through voice. The article Performance Evaluation for Knowledge Transfer Centers: Best European practices and a Conceptual Framework proposes an analytical and integrated model that allows managers to monitor and compare the performance of a single technology transfer center over time and against other centers. The article Understanding Innovation Deployment and Evaluation in Healthcare: The Triality Framework proposes a framework that can be employed to explain technological innovation deployment and evaluation processes in the field of healthcare industry. The article Technological Spillovers from Multinational Companies to Small and Medium Food Companies in Nigeria presents the empirical result of the assessment of the various forms of technological spillovers from MNCs to small and medium food companies (SMFCs) in Nigeria. The third section contains five articles about the implementation of technological innovations. This includes strategy, human resources, company network, and organizations. The article Open Innovation in the Automotive Industry: a Multiple Case-Study aims to explore the concept of Open Innovation (OI) and to evaluate whether, why, and how it is adopted in the automotive field. The article The Impact of Company Relationship and Institution Technology on R&D Activity and Innovation reports empirical research on the impact of company relationships and institutional networks on R&D intensity and innovation capabilities of Colombian companies. The article The Impact of ITC on Productivity: The Moderating Role of Worker Quality and Quality Strategy studies the interrelationship among information and communication technologies (ICT), human capital, and efficiency and productivity of Spanish companies. The article Incorporating Technological Innovation and Environmental Strategy: An Integrated View of Cognition and Action, tries to introduce the temporal lens through which time urgency and time perspective could be observed and integrated into a more holistic understanding of strategic actions in adopting environmental technology innovation. . MANAGEMENT OF TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION IN DEVELOPING AND DEVELOPED COUNTRIES Edited by Hongyi Sun Management of Technological Innovation in Developing and Developed. Sanitation in Developing Countries: Innovative Solutions in a Value Chain Framework analyzes the organizations and economics of adopting alternative technologies for sanitation in developing countries. continued this task in 2004 and arrived at similar conclusions; furthermore, it showed a rising trend in the installation of amorphous transformers in Japan and China, and India and USA install