Traditional Technology and Cost-reduction As a Major Driver in Business: Can Outsourcing Relations be Redirected by Smart Manufacturing?

Traditional technologies can have an extended lifetime if companies use various cost-reducing strategies. One of these strategies employed in Western European countries in the past decades has been low-cost outsourcing in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), mainly derived from low wages. Specifically, Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary are prime...

Critical Factors in ‘Livings Labs’ for New Health Concepts and Medical Technology

Living labs are a relatively new instrument in enhancing open innovation. They are practical environments for innovation aiming at a better mix and match between stakeholders for co-development and reduction of time-to-market of innovations through early involvement of user groups. Living lab settings range from delimited environments for co...

‘Livings Labs’ for New Health Concepts and Medical Technology in Cluster Development

The development of medical clusters is high on the agenda of many policymakers in the European Union. Constructing medical clusters may draw on the presence of living labs of different kinds in the regions involved. Living labs are practical environments for innovation aiming at a better mix and match between stakeholders for co-development and...

Knowledge virtualization and local connectedness among smart high-tech companies

Smart high-tech companies are characterized by knowledge intensity and open innovation. Even when these companies emerge in spatial clusters or dense urban places, they may utilize knowledge networks on a global scale. However, there is not much insight into the factors that shape knowledge networks, the role of virtualization herein and the...

ICT applications on the road to sustainable urban transport

This paper addresses the impact of information and communication technology (ICT) on sustainable transport by examining the direct application of ICT in urban transport. Following a discussion of various negative externalities of transport, the paper examines the extent to which existing and potential ICT applications in the transport sector can...