The worldwide COVID-19 pandemic has shed more light on the difficulty of making health care decisions integrating scientific knowledge and values associated to life and death issues, human suffering, quality of life, economic losses, liberty of movement, etc. But the difficulties related to health care decisions and the use of innovative drugs or technologies are not new, and many countries have created agencies that have the mandate to evaluate new technologies in health care. Health Technological Assessment (HTA) reports’ (...) aim is to guide the decision makers in these difficult matters. There are two ethical components in HTA. The first is the report’s presentation of an ethical evaluation of the technology. The second is the value-ladenness of the HTA decision-making process itself. When implicit value judgments are not elicited, the justification of the final decision cannot be transparent. The present paper aims to identify and elicit the implicit value-judgments related to each step of the HTA process. This research is grounded on an applied ethics decision-making paradigm based on the role of value judgments in the decision-making process. The first part discusses two different approaches to values and value judgments in HTA. In the second part, citations mentioning value judgments extracted from a systematic review on the integration of ethics into HTA were categorized to elicit the value judgments and their criteria for each different HTA decision-making steps. The results show that there are 18 decision-making steps in the HTA process where 23 implicit value-judgments can be recognized. The range of these value judgments encompasses the whole HTA process: from the initial request, the presenting of the principal issues, to the final report’s dissemination. Since stakeholders need to understand which value judgments the conclusion of a report relies on, eliciting the implicit value judgments in the HTA decision-making process should yield more transparency. (shrink)

Technological innovation has an important impact on environmental pollution. In this paper, first, we analyze the influence mechanism of technological innovation on environmental pollution and then design the index system of technological innovation. Then, we use the entropy method to calculate the technological innovation level of different regions in China based on provincial panel data from 2004 to 2016. Finally, the panel vector autoregression model is adopted, and taking the discharge of sewage, solid waste, and exhaust (...) gas as the research objects, the impact of technological innovation on them is empirically analyzed. The results show that China’s technological innovation level is steadily improving, but there are significant differences in the impact of technological innovation on wastewater, waste gas, and solid waste. Specifically, technological innovation can contribute to an increase in wastewater and solid waste emissions. However, the impact of this technological innovation on them is not equal. Secondly, the impact of technological innovation on exhaust emissions is to inhibit exhaust emissions in the short term and promote exhaust emissions in the long term. Finally, there are clear differences between them in terms of the specific impact of changes in wastewater, solid waste, and exhaust emissions. Changes in wastewater discharges and solid waste generation are largely derived from their own effects, while the role of technological innovation is supportive and insignificant. The change in exhaust emissions is initially influenced by itself, but in the long run, the influence of technological innovation gradually increases and eventually exceeds its own influence. Based on these research results, this paper puts forward corresponding policy suggestions to speed up environmental pollution control. (shrink)

Technological innovation is almost always investigated from an economic perspective; with few exceptions, the specific technological and social nature of innovation is often ignored. We argue that a novel way to characterise and make sense of different types of technological innovation is to start considering uncertainty. This seems plausible since technological development and innovation almost always occur under conditions of uncertainty. We rely on the distinction between, on the one hand, uncertainty that can be quantified (e.g. (...) probabilistic risk) and, on the other, deep forms of uncertainty that may resist the possibility of being quantified (e.g. severe or fundamental uncertainties). On the basis of these different ingredients of uncertainty in technological innovation, we propose a new taxonomy that reveals the technological nature of innovation. Unlike previous taxonomies employed to handle different types of technological innovations, our taxonomy does not consider the economic value of innovation alone; it is much more oriented towards societal preferences and forms of technological uncertainty. Finally, we investigate the coherence of our proposal with the dual nature of technological artefacts, showing that innovation can be grounded on structural and functional factors and not just on economic ones. (shrink)

Compared with traditional technological innovation modes, green technology innovation is more targeted for low carbon development and critical support for countries worldwide to combat climate change. The impact of green technology innovation on carbon emissions is considered in terms of fixed effect and mediating effect models through industrial structure upgrading. For this purpose, the sample dataset of 30 provincial administrative areas in China from 2008 to 2020 is employed. The results demonstrate that green technology innovation exerts significantly inhibitory effects (...) on carbon emissions, whose conclusion still holds after removing municipalities and replacing the dependent variable. Industrial structure upgrading is vital for green technology innovation to diminish carbon emissions. There is significant regional heterogeneity in the effects of green technology innovation on carbon emissions, i.e., the direct and indirect impact of green technology innovation on carbon emission reduction is significant in the eastern-central area, but its effect is insignificant in the western region. Therefore, it is essential to realize carbon emission reduction by further bolstering green technology innovation and accelerating industrial structure upgrading to fulfill the synergy of technology and structure. (shrink)

I discuss three tiers of technological innovation: mild innovation, or the acceleration by technology of a human activity aimed at a good; moderate innovation, or the obviation by technology of an activity aimed at a good; and radical innovation, or the altering by technology of the human condition so as to change what counts as a good. I argue that it is impossible to morally assess proposed innovations within any of these three tiers unless we rehabilitate a natural-law ethical (...) framework. And I offer some moral starting points within such a framework, in connection with innovations of each of the three types. (shrink)

This article describes and analyzes the process of institutionalizing studies on science, technology, and society in Cuba, and the social and academic circumstances in which these studies are implemented there. The authors give a brief account of how science and technology have evolved in Cuba over the last four decades. The authors argue that the promotion of science and technological innovation in Cuba has purposely taken the form of social innovation. The authors offer our view of how the changes (...) and demands on science, technology, and education can take advantage of the approaches and proposals of STS studies. The authors consider the traditions of thought that have influenced Cuban culture and construct a specific conceptual framework through which contemporary developments in STS are assimilated. Finally, on the basis of the above analysis, the authors describe experiences of the institutionalization of STS and their underlying objectives. (shrink)

Este trabajo está dirigido a fundamentar cómo a través de un proceso de innovación tecnológica se establecieron relaciones entre la universidad, la sociedad y el sector empresarial. La introducción de los productos biológicos en los laboratorios de diagnóstico médico y su impacto en los servicios fue el elemento fundamental que identificó la relación universidad-sociedad, mientras que la transferencia tecnológica de la obtención de biológicos a la unidad productora y comercializadora articuló a la academia con el mundo empresarial. Los modelos seguidos (...) para la gestión de la actividad de innovación le otorgaron al proceso un carácter específico y aseguraron su pertinencia, por lo que constituyó un logro científico-tecnológico. Se demostró un caso peculiar y concreto de fortalecimiento de las capacidades de interacción de las universidades con entidades productivas y de servicios, de modo que se enriqueció la función extensionista del centro de altos estudios. This article is based on a process of technical innovation that allowed establishing a relationship in which the university, society and the managerial sector were involved. The introduction of the biological products in medical diagnosis labs and its impact on services were the main elements that distinguished the university-society relationship, while the technological transfer to the unit of the biologicals obtained, articulated the university and the managerial field. Models put into practice for innovation management granted the process a specific character and ensured its relevance, that´s why it is considered a scientific-technological achievement. The process demonstrated a peculiar case of interaction between the university and production entities. (shrink)

Emerging reprogenetic technologies may radically change how humans reproduce in the not-so-distant future. One foreseeable consequence of disruptive innovations in the procreative domain is an increase in the reproductive autonomy of intended parents. Regarding the prospective parental liberty of enhancing non-health–related traits of the offspring, one controversy has particularly dominated the literature. Does parents' choice of genetically enhancing the traits of their descendants compromise children's future personal autonomy? In this article, I will analyse the main arguments which posit that (...) reprogenetic enhancement could be at odds with the child's future autonomy. I will argue that these objections are ill-founded. Moreover, I will present other arguments that show that reprogenetic technologies can enhance the autonomy of future children. Autonomy enhancement is a plausible and pro tanto desirable application of emerging reprogenetic technologies. (shrink)

This article argues that businesses are morally responsible for compensating the people harmed by their activities even if they were not negligent, i.e., the businesses took reasonable precautions. Critics of this position maintain that responsibility requires choice, and by taking precautions, businesses choose not to harm others. This article accepts their argument’s first premise but rejects the second premise. It contends that businesses often seek risky or innovative activities to increase profits, and the essence of innovative activities is that precautions (...) cannot sufficiently reduce their foreseeable harmful consequences. The correct understanding of businesses’ decision-making enables us to appreciate that businesses choose to undertake risky activities while knowing that they can harm others despite preventive measures. It follows that preventive measures should not serve as an excuse against liability for harm. (shrink)

Modern science, whose methodologies give special privilege to using decontextualizing strategies and downplay the role of context-sensitive strategies, have been extraordinarily successful in producing knowledge whose applications have transformed the shape of the lifeworld. Nevertheless, I argue that how the mainstream of the modern scientific tradition interprets the nature and objectives of science is incoherent; and that today there are two competing interpretations of scientific activities that are coherent and that maintain continuity with the success of the tradition: "commercially-oriented technoscience" (...) and "multi-strategy research" . The greater part of this article is devoted to discussing what is involved in MS, by pointing to its positive research program in three areas , and its critical stance towards the innovations of CT, especially insofar as it makes use of the Precautionary Principle. In this way important dimensions of the agenda of science and technology for social justice, democratic participation and sustainability become clear. (shrink)

Ethics and Technology is a step-by-step, hands-on process that companies, civic organizations, and watchdog groups can use to assess the benefits - and costs - of technology. Featuring vignettes drawn from actual business cases, as well as sharply focused study questions, this resource offers tools for asking effective questions and making ethical decisions. John Hart's book will enable corporations, governments, communities, and individuals to get beyond competing ideologies to work cooperatively on a progressive reshaping of society.

This paper focuses on how “Japanese technology” was formed in the Japanese machine tool industry, and presents how Japanese machine tool builders competed in R&D and the innovation process in the domestic and international markets. During the competition for the innovation of computerised numerically-controlled (CNC) tools, drastic changes occurred in the ranking of individual firms. Prior to the transformation, the traditional “Big 5” companies occupied the largest market share. After the innovation, however, the “Big 3” firms which had not been (...) big in size at their origins increased their market share. This paper explains how this change stemmed from different attitudes towards R&D and innovation. (shrink)

“We raised the power of reason, the power of manipulating words, above all other faculties. The written word became our god. We forgot that before words there were actions … that there have always been things beyond words. We forgot that spoken words preceded the written one. We forgot that written form of our letters came from ideographic pictures … that standing behind every letter is an image like an ancient ghost. The image stands for natural movements of the body (...) and other living things.” Frank Herbert. (shrink)

Multimodal communication research focuses on how different means of signalling coordinate to communicate effectively. This line of research is traditionally influenced by fields such as cognitive and neuroscience, human-computer interaction, and linguistics. With new technologies becoming available in fields such as natural language processing and computer vision, the field can increasingly avail itself of new ways of analyzing and understanding multimodal communication. As a result, there is a general hope that multimodal research may be at the “precipice of greatness” due (...) to technological advances in computer science and resulting extended empirical coverage. However, for this to come about there must be sufficient guidance on key (theoretical) needs of innovation in the field of multimodal communication. Absent such guidance, the research focus of computer scientists might increasingly diverge from crucial issues in multimodal communication. With this paper, we want to further promote interaction between these fields, which may enormously benefit both communities. The multimodal research community (represented here by a consortium of researchers from the Visual Communication [ViCom] Priority Programme) can engage in the innovation by clearly stating which technological tools are needed to make progress in the field of multimodal communication. In this article, we try to facilitate the establishment of a much needed common ground on feasible expectations (e.g., in terms of terminology and measures to be able to train machine learning algorithms) and to critically reflect possibly idle hopes for technical advances, informed by recent successes and challenges in computer science, social signal processing, and related domains. (shrink)

This study explores the impact of government informatization construction on corporate digital technology innovation. It uses the integration of informatization and industrialization pilot zones in China as a quasi-natural experiment of government informatization construction, and construct a difference-in-differences model. Based on a sample of Chinese A-share corporations from 2007 to 2021, the empirical findings reveal that government informatization construction significantly promotes corporate digital technology innovation by enhancing corporate attention to digital technologies and reducing transaction costs. Furthermore, the positive impact is (...) more pronounced in the southern regions and regions with stronger intellectual property protection and high-tech and digital economy industries, as well as mature-stage corporations and corporations with higher levels of digital technology innovation. These findings provide valuable insights for implementing informatization policies and facilitating corporate digital technology innovation. (shrink)

Technology innovation has changed the patterns with its advanced features for travel and tourism industry during the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, which massively hit tourism and travel worldwide. The profound adverse effects of the coronavirus disease resulted in a steep decline in the demand for travel and tourism activities worldwide. This study focused on the literature based on travel and tourism in the wake global crisis due to infectious virus. The study aims to review the emerging literature critically to help (...) researchers better understand the situation. It valorizes transformational affordance, tourism, and travel industries impacts posed by the virus COVID-19. The study proposed a research model on reviving the international tourism activities post COVID-19 pandemic to gain sustainable development and recovery. The scholars have debated seeking the best possible ways to predict a sustainable recovery of travel, tourism, and leisure sectors from the devastating consequences of coronavirus COVID-19. In the first phase, the study describes how the current pandemic can become transformational opportunities. It debates the situation and questions related to the emergence of the COVID-19 outbreak. The present research focuses on identifying fundamental values, organizations, and pre-assumptions related to travel and tourism revival and help academia and researchers to a breakthrough in initiating the frontiers based on research and practice. This study aims at exploring the role of technological innovation in the crisis management of COVID-19 tourism impacts, tourists’ behavior, and experiences. The travel and tourism industry’s main stakeholders include tourism demand and organizations that manage tourists’ destinations and policymakers. They have already experienced the stages of responses, recovery, and resetting tourism recovery strategies. The study provides valuable insight into the coronavirus consequences on travel and tourism and practical implications for global tourism and academic research revitalization. (shrink)

Les modèles de l’imaginaire issus de l’école française bachelardienne et durandienne ont permis de mieux appréhender l’étude des mythes, des religions et des arts. Non seulement les imaginaires obéissent à une logique symbolique, mais celle-ci s’enracine dans des soubassements corporels, comportementaux et même neurobiologiques, qui sont au cœur des neurosciences. Dans quelle mesure peut‑on transférer ces résultats de manière plus systématique aux milieux des artefacts techniques, et même aux nouvelles innovations technologiques aujourd’hui? L’article tente de dégager quelques orientations programmatiques qui (...) devraient permettre de comprendre combien la liberté d’innovation se conjugue avec des contraintes neuromotrices et symboliques. Models of Bachelard’s and Durand’s persuasion for the imagination faculty offered a more comprehensive approach for the study of myths, religions and arts. Imaginaries do not only obey a symbolic logic, since such a logic is deeply grounded in physical, behavioral and even neural roots, which are now key issues at stake in neuroscience. To what extent can we transfer these results in a more systematic way to technical environments for artifacts and to the more advanced technological innovations of today? This contribution attempts to devise a set of programmatic guidelines which could bring about a better understanding of how the synergy strengthens between freedom in technological innovation and constraints imposed by neuromotor control and symbolic logic. (shrink)

Green technology innovation (GTI) has been increasingly adopted by firms worldwide to promote sustainable development, whereas its potential downsides have been largely overlooked. Drawing on moral licensing theory, we devise a framework to reveal the potential dark side of firms’ GTI on corporate social responsibility (CSR). We argue that with the global eco-awakening, GTI has been an efficient means for firms to meet their stakeholders’ expectations and environmental legitimacy. This may cause a moral licensing effect for senior executives’ ethical strategic (...) decision-making, due to their belief that existing GTI could balance the firm’s subsequent moral neglect, thereby minimizing firms’ CSR. Using the Chinese listed manufacturing firms as a sample, we find empirical support for our prediction. In addition, we investigate how firms’ environmental awards and honors may exacerbate the negative impact of GTI on CSR, whereas the presence of women executives may mitigate the relation. Our findings can trigger firms’ reflections on GTI’s downsides, and contribute to research and practice in comprehensively understanding firms’ GTI consequences, CSR decisions, and moral balance. (shrink)

Theories on categorization have led to numerous technical innovations. Starting with artificial intelligence and neural models, scientists have leveraged psychological theories to drive forward innovative technology. More recently, software companies and Internet firms have implemented high technology software developed from cognitive theory. One class of systems rooted in the philosophical tradition stresses the importance of explanation and function. Another focuses on feature similarity and rule-based reasoning. Both approaches have had modest success and solve fundamental problems, but neither has achieved the (...) higher-levels of categorization found in humans. The current paper critically analyzes the various theories of categorization and their collective impact on recent technology innovations. (shrink)

Transhumanism introduces from its very beginning a paradigm shift about concepts like human nature, progress and human future. An overview of its ideology reveals a strong belief in the idea of human enhancement through technologically means. The theory of technological singularity, which is more or less a radicalisation of the transhumanist discourse, foresees a radical evolutionary change through artificial intelligence. The boundaries between intelligent machines and human beings will be blurred. The consequence is the upcoming of a post-biological and (...) posthuman future when intelligent technology becomes autonomous and constantly self-improving. Considering these predictions, I will investigate here the way in which the idea of human enhancement modifies our understanding of technological innovation. I will argue that such change goes in at least two directions. On the one hand, innovation is seen as something that will inevitably lead towards intelligent machines and human enhancement. On the other hand, there is a direction such as “Singularity University,” where innovation is called to pragmatically solving human challenges. Yet there is a unifying spirit which holds together the two directions and I think it is the same transhumanist idea. (shrink)

Usually technological innovation and artistic work are seen as very distinctive practices, and innovation of technologies is understood in terms of design and human intention. Moreover, thinking about technological innovation is usually categorized as “technical” and disconnected from thinking about culture and the social. Drawing on work by Dewey, Heidegger, Latour, and Wittgenstein and responding to academic discourses about craft and design, ethics and responsible innovation, transdisciplinarity, and participation, this essay questions these assumptions and examines what kind of (...) knowledge and practices are involved in art and technological innovation. It argues that technological innovation is indeed “technical”, but, if conceptualized as techne, can be understood as art and performance. It is argued that in practice, innovative techne is not only connected to episteme as theoretical knowledge but also has the mode of poiesis: it is not just the outcome of human design and intention but rather involves a performative process in which there is a “dialogue” between form and matter and between creator and environment in which humans and non-humans participate. Moreover, this art is embedded in broader cultural patterns and grammars—ultimately a ‘form of life’—that shape and make possible the innovation. In that sense, there is no gap between science and society—a gap that is often assumed in STS and in, for instance, discourse on responsible innovation. It is concluded that technology and art were only relatively recently and unfortunately divorced, conceptually, but that in practices and performances they were always linked. If we understand technological innovation as a poetic, participative, and performative process, then bringing together technological innovation and artistic practices should not be seen as a marginal or luxury project but instead as one that is central, necessary, and vital for cultural-technological change. This conceptualization supports not only a different approach to innovation but has also social-transformative potential and has implications for ethics of technology and responsible innovation. (shrink)

A growing body of research has focused on the relationship between board diversity and firm performance. A series of empirical literatures have also examined a significant positive correlation between the two. But these results only demonstrate the relationship between the input of ‘diversity’ and the output of ‘firm performance’. Such research is more of a black box because board diversity must act on certain strategies or decisions to affect firm performance. Some scholars try theoretical analysis with the purpose of opening (...) the black box. In order to verify the relevant theoretical analysis results, this study uses the mediating effect analysis model in the field of psychology, through multiple regression, impulse analysis, variance decomposition and other methods, to thus empirically test the mediating effect of technological innovation in the process of board diversification promoting corporate performance. We found that board diversity can improve firm performance by enhancing the level of technological innovation. Among them, technological innovation has played a complete mediating role in the diversity of board members’ functional and occupational background, and played a partial mediating role in the diversification of directors’ part-time jobs. Technological innovation is a key indicator bridging board diversity and firm performance. This study can explore and explain the inner workings of the significant relationship between board diversity and firm performance, and link research findings on similar phenomena. The research results may make the existing board governance theories more systematic, expand the extension of theoretical research, and provide some empirical research references for academics and practitioners. (shrink)

While both men and women work out in contemporary gyms, popular conceptions of the gym as a masculine institution continue. The authors examine organizational processes within a chain of women-only gyms to explore whether and how these processes have feminized the historically masculine gym. They examine the physical setting and equipment, the established procedures for customers' use of machines, and the interactional styles of employees as components of the organization's structure. They argue that the organization's use of technology and labor (...) mobilizes customers' participation in a feminized organizational culture of nonjudgmental and noncompetitive sociability. Organizational processes create a context that fosters gendered interactions and identities among customers. The organizational context calls gendered behavior into play such that the performance is naturalized. The processes outlined may occur in other cases of organizational recoding and suggest ways that transposable gender practices may change the gender coding of an institution yet leave gender hierarchies intact. (shrink)

The transhumanist project of reshaping human beings by promoting their improvement through technological innovations has a broad agenda. This study focuses on the enhancement of the human organism through genetic modification techniques. Transhumanism values and a discussion of their philosophical background provide a framework to understand its ideals. Genetics and ethics are employed to assess the claims of the transhumanist program of human enhancement. A succinct description of central concepts in genetics and an explanation of current techniques to edit (...) the human genome serve to assess the capabilities and limitations of editing techniques. Potential benefits and liabilities of human enhancement through genome editing are discussed to appraise its feasibility. Ethical considerations of genome editing inform a reflection on the implications of introducing heritable changes in the genome of individuals. It is concluded that the transhumanist program is underpinned by a large number of hypotheses rather than by sufficient evidence. (shrink)

This research discusses the social and humanitarian grounds of measurement and assesment of innovations in the field of digital technologies based on the analysis of the international experience of the standards, in particular on the basis of the Oslo Manual issued by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which is the foundation for ISO standards. From the point of view of digitalization, an important stage in understanding innovation is the recognition of innovation not only as a product, but also (...) a process that leads to increased efficiency. Most of the tasks in the field of digital technologies are precisely related to increasing the efficiency of processes, and, consequently, digitalization is becoming an important criterion for the innovativeness of organizations. One of the purposes of digital technologies is the integration of various types of activities, therefore integrative development (including using digital platforms) is also a criterion of innovation. The digital format is unique since it allows to gain new knowledge from data analysis and processes, and therefore the analytical component, including artificial intelligence technologies, is also an indicator of innovation. The article concludes that the criteria for the innovativeness of digital technologies should include their use to improve the efficiency of organizations, to adopt communicative digital platforms, and to create a variety of data analysis tools, including artificial intelligence. (shrink)

A recent controversy concerning the pricing of drugs and other technological innovations funded by public dollars raised profound moral and social questions, questions the bioethics community has long overlooked.

Abstract:I argue for taking John Dewey's pluralistic ethics as a starting point, or embedded practice, from and in which technological innovations are conceptualized, critiqued, designed, tested, and eventually implemented. Dewey reconstructs human reason into operational intelligence where all behavior becomes gradually imaginative. I take Dewey's view of moral deliberation as a basis for a responsible process-based methodology combining creative technological design with the training of imaginative prospection. I further use Dewey's conception of technology that holds that implements, but (...) also ideas and concepts are tools, forms of technology. I end by looking at the educational impact for the creative industries. (shrink)

Under the innovation-driven development strategy, the improvement of the core competitiveness of enterprises demonstrates increasing dependence on the ability of technological innovation. In this article, data of A-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets from 2008 to 2018 were selected as research samples for the analysis of the influencing factors and mechanism of enterprise technological innovation from the dual perspectives of the external economic environment and internal management system based on the use of the fixed-effect model. (...) The results show that government intervention significantly hinders enterprises' investment in resources for technological innovation, and less government intervention can improve the innovation investment of enterprises. The intervention of internal control fails to bring institutional advantages; rather, it aggravates the negative effect of government intervention on enterprise technological innovation. The research enriches the existing academic research results on government intervention, internal control quality, and enterprise technological innovation. The findings provide experience for accelerating the marketization process in China, enterprise governance, and improving the level of enterprise technological innovation. (shrink)