2.2. The Emergence of Technology
2.2.2. The Influence of Technology
Technological advancement is considered, for some time, as a key element alongside capital and labor factors as essential to economic growth. "With this widely accepted belief in mind, governments in both developed and developing countries have allocated resources to research and development with resultant innovations, which have brought both benefits, in the short term and sometimes the long term, and unforeseen disadvantages, usually in the longer term."39 It is remarkable to mention that up until the end of the Second World War the human society was intimidated by the overlook toward the future of the technological progress and it had been often expressed during those periods. "Ford Motor Company executive is said to have coined the word 'automation' (by automatic out of mechanization) in the early 1950s, and there was a lengthy debate in the United States Congress in 1955 in which anxiety was expressed at the possibility of mass unemployment arising from the advent of the so-called 'automatic factory'."40 It was told seven years later that two million out of six and a half million unemployment in the United States were the victims of 'automation'. Andrew Robertson (1981)
38 Id.
39 Andrew Robertson, "Technology and Cultural Values: Technological Innovations and Their Social Impacts".
(1981)
40 Id.
also declares that "[The] achievement of technological progress without sacrifice of human values requires a combination of private and government action, consonant with the principles of a free society." The more technology progresses, the more it seems to take control over human life. Today, the use of technology is widely available and is constantly being promoted throughout the human community. While technology makes life easier for people, it also creates problems for our society, such as reducing social behavior. "Yet, modern societies realized the significance of intellectual technology which is a form of new knowledge that achieves goals or solves many problems."41
Obviously, in the twenty first century, Europe is a 'technological community'. Its citizens have witnessed rapid technological progress over decades, an improvement that has occurred at almost every level of society and across the economy. Whether individually or in groups, a large number of devices are used every day. This enables people to explore locations that were not previously exposed, harmonize our plans and activities in most social settings, including home and workplace, and communicate immediately with each other. But there is a question that, why should there be such technologies in society and in human life? "The answer is straightforward: technological advancement carries with it the promise of saving time, or doing more in the same amount of time. In short, innovation offers us the opportunity to 'do things more efficiently'."42
Numerous technologies in human society have had a significant impact on every single member of the community and a variety of activities of life and interpersonal relationships. From access to cool water at home to the discovery of other planets outside the atmosphere of the globe, all have been deeply influential on human life to various titles. "Today even a “Fordist” assembly plant is run to provide substantial varieties of car models, colors, additional equipment, engines,
41 Mohammad Bani Younes and Samer Al-Zoubi, "The Impact of Technologies on Society: A Review". IOSR Journal Of Humanities And Social Science (IOSR-JHSS), Volume 20, Issue 2, Ver. V (Feb. 2015), PP 82-86
42 Lieve Van Woensel and Geoff Archer, "Ten Technologies Which Could Change Our Lives: Potential Impacts and Policy Implications ". (January 2015)
and the like. New forms of production organization have also increased output, variety, and quality further. Volvo in Sweden, for example, pioneered a system combining assembly line operation with small assembly work teams. The result combines high output and productivity with more diverse and varied job responsibilities, thereby raising work satisfaction, lowering absenteeism, and raising productivity."43 Referring to all aspects of technology influenced by its advantages and disadvantages in the life cycle as well as the emergence of modern society, the great impact that this phenomenon has on the advancement of human life is absolutely indisputable. "The word technology consists of two parts (Techno) means application, art or skill, and (Logy) means science and learning. Thus, the linguistic meaning of the word technology is the methods and tools that a society has developed in order to facilitate the solution of its practical problems and to provide the necessary needs for the community."44
2.2.2.1. Technology and Marketing
Technology can have both negative and positive impacts on societies. Regardless of any type of adverse influence that this phenomenon has had on the life of people, it is one of the best categories to improve the economy of any country and it has been an influential importance of the life cycle. Of course, technology has been quite helpful in productivity and it has been best useful in all the economic aspects of life. "The classical theory of production is formulated under essentially static assumptions which freeze -or permit only once over change-in the variables most relevant to the process of economic growth. As modern economists have sought to merge classical production theory with Keynesian income analysis, they have introduced the dynamic variables: population, technology, entrepreneurship, etc."45
43 Id. 22.
44 Id. 27.
45 W. W. Rostow, "The Economic History Review". Blackwell Publishing on behalf of the Economic History Society. Vol. 12, No. 1 (1959), pp. 1-16
Scientific advances and technological changes are one of the most important factors in recent economic success. The ability to create, distribute and exploit knowledge has become the main source of competitive advantage, wealth creation and quality of life. "Some of the main features of this transformation are the growing impact of information and communications technologies (ICT) on the economy and society; the rapid application of recent scientific advances in new products and processes; a high rate of innovation across OECD countries (the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development); a shift to more knowledge intensive industries and services; and rising skill requirements."46
"Some special banking data sets also allow for observation of specific technological changes and measurement of some of their effects. In addition, detailed information on the scale, geographic spread, and merger and acquisition (M&A) activity of individual banks aid in evaluating the effects of technological progress on the structure of the industry, i.e., the extent to which technological progress facilitates industry consolidation."47
Technology has always been accompanied by innovation and creation. Some scholars believe that they vary in meaning and application. However, it is generally known that technology is the vintage of the consumed innovative movement that through concentration, motivation and basic up to the advanced level knowledge and science, has been yield with its most proper statue. Sometimes, a technology is not perfect, and there are so many deficiencies and miscalculations that after some periods the whole advantages of that technology get more evolved until they become fully complete.
Marketing is also one of the most influential criterions of societies. "According to Brady, technology has encouraged the development of relationship marketing, which improves the relationship between the consumer and company compared to the traditional transactional
46 "Science, Technology and Innovation in the New Economy". (September 2000)
47 Allen N. Berger, "The Economic Effects of Technological Progress: Evidence from the Banking Industry".
Forthcoming, Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking, Volume 35, 2003
marketing mix entailing the 4P’s which are product, price, place, and promotion."48,49 The world of industry has been through so many changes from work and capitalism to knowledge and information that has been based on economy.50,51 "Because the most recent wave of technological change is as dramatic as any in history (including fundamental transitions in worldwide communications and information processing), the implications for firm decision making are perhaps more pervasive now than at any other time and involve numerous key areas of corporate strategy and structure: changing product life cycles, changing definition of market segments, changing definitions of industries, new sources of competition, changing employee relations, and increased globalization of markets."52 The general effect that single outcomes have on technology change which is coupled with the technology interaction with political and socio-economic strains is that corporate growth is now much more dependent on new opportunities and closed to the traditional ones.53
It should be noted that for the technology and its strategy, a framework can be defined.
According to Larreche and Srinivasan, for a dataset of financial and managerial resources, the company -with planning- applies a number of technology variables, (e.g., internal development projects, external acquisition options, independent manufacture, and marketing joint venture), to the set of available technologies, the technology that is currently under use plus external options, so that it can magnify some objective function like profits which are discounted.54 As
48 Sultan Alghamdi and Christian Bach, "Technological Factors to Improve Performance of Marketing Strategy". University of Bridgeport, Bridgpeort, CT, USA. (April 3-5, 2014)
49 Brady, M., M.R. Fellenz, and R. Brookes, Researching the role of information and communications technology (ICT) in contemporary marketing practices. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, 2008.
23(2): p. 108-114.
50 Machlup, F. (1962), "The Production and Distribution of Knowledge in the United States", Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press.
51 Porat, Marc, U. (1974) "Defining an Information Sector in the U.S. Economy," Institute for Communication Research, Stanford University.
52 Noel Capon and Rashi Glazer, "Marketing and Technology: A Strategic Coalignment." Journal of Marketing.
Vol. 51. (July 1987).
53 Edward B. Roberts, "New Ventures for Corporate Growth," Harvard Business Review, 80 (July/August 1980).
54 Jean-Claude Larréché and V. 'Seenu' Srinivasan, "Start-Port: A Decision Support System for Strategic Planning", Journal of Marketing. (1981)
a result, conceiving and devising the strategy of marketing is considered as an interactive and repetitive process that execute series which include the taste of customers, market segmentation, pick out the target sectors, and in order to provide suitable target market needs they design the offer, and they also put varieties over the offer.55 Technology offers a variety of ways to cope with the core competencies and business functions. This is considered as the characteristic and the nature of the technology that gives it the permission to take the advantage of these functions, also causes to find a serious application in marketing. For instance, we can refer to search engines that "are important ways to get people to your (Web) site initially once they want to ensure they return. An excellent way to do this is via a newsletter."56 Another example of new technology that has affected the market, as it was paid at the former statement, is the web and web-based tool. "The e-newsletters and e-bulletins add to the pull strategy of technology for they offer the consumer useful information as well as promotional materials. A consumer convinced of the information, then contacts the company through their e-mail list, makes a purchase online, and requests for delivery online. These web-based tools are the main technologies that improve the pull strategy of marketing."57
Crucially, technology affects the market and marketing strategy owing to the fact that marketing is not a well-self-dependent venture, and in today's modern world, marketing overshadows everything that is beneficial and applicable in human life.58