Technology in Society最新文献

{"title":"The dual dynamics of AI adoption: Drivers and ethical awareness in European enterprises","authors":"Viviana Fernandez,&nbsp;Sebastián Uriarte","doi":"10.1016/j.techsoc.2026.103243","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.techsoc.2026.103243","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study examines the interactions between artificial intelligence (AI) adoption and the articulation of ethical concerns across 34 European countries. We combine the technology-organization–environment (TOE) framework with institutional theory to analyze how firm-level factors (such as enterprise size) and country-level variables (including innovation capacity, human capital specialization, and financial sector development) influence both AI uptake and awareness of issues such as bias, privacy, and transparency. Using Eurostat DES data (2021, 2023, 2024) and complementary national indicators, we apply fixed-effects regression models. By considering adoption patterns and ethical awareness from a single analytical perspective, the study provides a more integrated understanding of how organizations engage with AI and interpret the associated risks, which remains underexplored in previous empirical work. The results reveal a complex landscape: overall AI adoption remains low although fewer companies report never considering its use. Significant national variations exist, but key barriers include high costs, data quality issues, and a lack of expertise. Intriguingly, awareness of these ethical and technical challenges is stronger in countries with greater AI penetration, suggesting that increased adoption enhances awareness of the associated risks. Enterprise size also dictates the type of AI used: larger firms employ more advanced technologies, whereas smaller businesses focus on foundational applications. Statistical analysis confirms that large enterprises in innovative countries, which are supported by specialized human capital and robust financial markets, are most likely to adopt AI. Importantly, the findings reveal that the same structural conditions that encourage adoption also shape how firms perceive ethical considerations, reinforcing the claim that responsibility and uptake evolve jointly rather than in isolation. Policymakers must cultivate innovation, specialized human capital, and strong finance to ensure rapid uptake and responsible, sustainable AI use.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47979,"journal":{"name":"Technology in Society","volume":"86 ","pages":"Article 103243"},"PeriodicalIF":12.5,"publicationDate":"2026-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146190399","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Psychological resistance to AI: How regulatory focus fuels AI anxiety and negative attitudes toward AI","authors":"Aakash Sapru","doi":"10.1016/j.techsoc.2026.103251","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.techsoc.2026.103251","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes increasingly embedded in the socio-economic and technological structure of society, it presents both significant opportunities and notable threats for entrepreneurs. Because business ideas emerge through ongoing interaction between entrepreneurs and their communities, it is crucial to understand the psychological mechanisms that shape not only entrepreneurs' AI-related attitudes but also those of key stakeholders such as customers and investors. While emerging research tends to adopt a generally optimistic stance, with attention to AI's risks largely confined to post-adoption concerns, our study shifts the lens upstream by investigating the antecedents of psychological resistance to AI adoption. Specifically, we explore the psychological mechanisms underlying AI anxiety and negative attitudes toward AI. Drawing on regulatory focus theory, status quo bias, and the emotion-as-information framework, we theorize that prevention focus is positively associated with negative attitudes toward AI, and that this relationship is partially mediated by four dimensions of AI anxiety: learning anxiety, job replacement anxiety, sociotechnical blindness, and configuration anxiety. We test our model using data from 259 undergraduate entrepreneurship students at a U.S. university and find empirical support for our hypotheses. We encourage entrepreneurship research to examine how cognitions, motivations, and affect shape resistance to AI, as this shift can clarify why some entrepreneurs fail to engage with transformative technologies. Our study contributes by foregrounding motivational and affective barriers to AI engagement, offering guidance for reframing AI to resonate with individuals with high prevention focus, and urging educators to consider students' underlying anxieties and aversions to AI.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47979,"journal":{"name":"Technology in Society","volume":"86 ","pages":"Article 103251"},"PeriodicalIF":12.5,"publicationDate":"2026-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146190405","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Can digital literacy shaped by SES-driven social capital predict secondary school graduates' access to higher education?: Exploring the impact of gender","authors":"Gazi Mahabubul Alam ,&nbsp;Shiwei Wang ,&nbsp;Karima Bashir ,&nbsp;Miao Lei","doi":"10.1016/j.techsoc.2026.103242","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.techsoc.2026.103242","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In the discussion of social capital and social equality, gender is still one of the most important variables that may navigate once's opportunity to pursue higher education. Despite numerous studies having examined the influence of digital literacy, socioeconomic status (SES), social capital, and their subsequent impact on access to higher education (HE), investigating the inputs and output paths of graduates using gender as a theme is yet to be done. Viewing the input path as secondary education certification and admission into university as the output path, 623 secondary school graduates for Study-1 and 635 secondary school graduates for Study-2 were examined using the quantitative method. Primary data was collected through a questionnaire to assess one independent variable (social capital), while secondary data stored in the institutions serve to measure the independent (SES), mediator, moderator and dependent variables. Multiple regression, interaction terms and KHB (Karlson-Holm-Breen method) analysis were utilized to analyse the data. Results indicated that SES-driven social capital predicts the digital literacy, and digital literacy mediates the relationship between graduates' social capital and access to HE. Furthermore, gender does not moderate the correlations between digital literacy and access to higher education. This paper contributes to the discourse on technology in societies and inequalities in higher education. The study concludes that digital discrimination increases inequality in terms of people's access to higher education. However, gender does not pose any technological discrimination for graduates in China.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47979,"journal":{"name":"Technology in Society","volume":"86 ","pages":"Article 103242"},"PeriodicalIF":12.5,"publicationDate":"2026-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146045284","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Unpacking the relationship between digitalization and formalization among micro-entrepreneurs in an emerging market","authors":"Claudia Yáñez-Valdés ,&nbsp;Sebastian Barros-Celume ,&nbsp;Julián Andrés Diaz Tautiva","doi":"10.1016/j.techsoc.2026.103250","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.techsoc.2026.103250","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study examines the interplay between digitalization and formalization among microentrepreneurs. While digital tools have traditionally been viewed as enablers of formalization, their effects may also contribute to the opposite effect. For instance, digitalization can sometimes reduce the perceived need for formalization by lowering regulatory barriers, thus allowing informal entrepreneurs to access critical resources and services without the need for formal registration. Drawing on an empirical examination of 861 microentrepreneurs from Chile, we aim to uncover how digitalization shapes microentrepreneurial dynamics and how contextual and individual elements, such as age, economic sector, entrepreneurial motivation, and regional traits, influence the adoption of digital platforms and the overall decision to formalize. With this project, we aim to contribute to entrepreneurship scholarship by challenging some commonly held assumptions about formalization and instead proposing a more nuanced understanding of how digital tools influence business ventures and the decision among microentrepreneurs to register their ventures (or not). Based on our findings, we discuss theoretical and practical implications concerning the complementary and synergistic benefits of digitalization and formalization, while also addressing potential unintended consequences and negative outcomes from digital platforms, such as increased informality.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47979,"journal":{"name":"Technology in Society","volume":"86 ","pages":"Article 103250"},"PeriodicalIF":12.5,"publicationDate":"2026-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146190395","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Can government digital incentives enhance enterprise artificial intelligence capability? - Evidence from China","authors":"Jingmei Ma,&nbsp;Jie Wu,&nbsp;Zhiqing Li,&nbsp;Kaixin Deng","doi":"10.1016/j.techsoc.2026.103258","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.techsoc.2026.103258","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Government digital incentives contribute to improving the enterprise financial environment, enhancing enterprise receptivity to new technologies, and influencing enterprise artificial intelligence (AI) capability. This paper investigates whether and how government digital incentives enhance enterprise AI capability using empirical evidence from Chinese A-share listed enterprises during 2012-2023. By constructing comprehensive indicators to measure enterprise AI capability, we explore the impact of subsidy-based (SDI) and policy-based digital incentive (PDI) on enterprise AI capability and their underlying mechanisms. The findings reveal that: (1) Both SDI and PDI enhance enterprise AI capability, with results remaining robust after robustness tests. (2) SDI positively influence enterprise AI capability by alleviating financing constraints, while PDI exert positive effects through optimizing resource allocation efficiency. (3) Executive IT background positively moderates the relationship between both types of digital incentives and enterprise AI capability. (4) Heterogeneity analysis demonstrates that SDI have significantly stronger effects on enterprise AI capability in eastern regions compared to western and central regions, whereas PDI show more pronounced positive effects in central regions compared to eastern and western regions. Compared to non_SOEs, SDI have more significant positive effects on AI capability in SOEs, while PDI demonstrate stronger positive effects on AI capabilities in non_SOEs.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47979,"journal":{"name":"Technology in Society","volume":"86 ","pages":"Article 103258"},"PeriodicalIF":12.5,"publicationDate":"2026-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146190406","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"How do governments frame responsible innovation: A topic modelling analysis of national policy portfolios","authors":"Qijun Zhou,&nbsp;Kai Xu,&nbsp;Nuran Acur","doi":"10.1016/j.techsoc.2026.103257","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.techsoc.2026.103257","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper examines how national innovation policies operationalise Responsible Innovation (RI) and identifies gaps across its core dimensions. Using BERTopic, the study analyses the semantic structure and temporal evolution of RI within China's national innovation policy portfolio from 2012 to 2024. A quantitative analysis of 116 policy documents identifies 14 core topics, revealing a multidimensional and evolving policy architecture.</div><div>The findings show substantial alignment between China's innovation policies and the classical RI dimensions of anticipation, inclusion, reflexivity, and responsiveness, while also highlighting distinctive patterns in their practical policy manifestation. Anticipation and inclusion are strongly embedded within the policy landscape, whereas reflexivity and responsiveness remain comparatively underdeveloped. Methodologically, the study demonstrates the value of data-driven topic modelling for large-scale policy analysis. Substantively, it provides insights into how responsible innovation principles are translated into policy practice and offers guidance for strengthening innovation governance systems.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47979,"journal":{"name":"Technology in Society","volume":"86 ","pages":"Article 103257"},"PeriodicalIF":12.5,"publicationDate":"2026-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146190402","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Red Queen of cyberspace: The persistence of advanced persistent threats (APTs) explained through co-evolution","authors":"Al Lewis","doi":"10.1016/j.techsoc.2026.103238","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.techsoc.2026.103238","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Cyber-based Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs) are regarded as cyberspace's most capable threat actor groups. Renowned for overcoming obstacles, they are responsible for the most successful cyberattacks. Despite the billions of dollars spent annually defending against them, APTs' success is assured. Rooted in <em>Cyber Realism</em>, this study applies the <em>Red Queen Hypothesis</em> and the <em>General Barrier Theory</em> to APTs within cyberspace. This investigation leverages open-source data from 2012 to 2024, applying examples to the co-evolutionary process, pitting APTs against their intended targets, and constructing a new model, the <em>APT Persistence Model.</em> It explains APTs' persistence from an evolutionary lens, traversing the three planes of cyberspace to achieve state-level goals through cumulative effects. Cyberspace is a highly malleable and chaotic domain that APTs can manipulate. Persistence in the form of iterative processes and aggression is applied against the social, physical, and virtual restraints and barriers, placing defenders in the untenable position of defending everything all the time. With APT's success assured, the increasing threat to existing power differentials in cyberspace requires a new, multi-disciplinary approach. Otherwise, APTs will continue to win the co-evolutionary battle while defenders continue the futile search for a technological answer.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47979,"journal":{"name":"Technology in Society","volume":"86 ","pages":"Article 103238"},"PeriodicalIF":12.5,"publicationDate":"2026-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146190658","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Prudent promises: The impact of online public opinion attention on managerial commitment to integrity in China","authors":"Jian Hu ,&nbsp;Dan Wang ,&nbsp;Hongjun Zeng ,&nbsp;Shenglin Ma","doi":"10.1016/j.techsoc.2026.103255","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.techsoc.2026.103255","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Online public opinion has emerged as an increasingly influential driver of capital market oversight in the digital economy. It not only influences the boundaries of managerial behavior but also constrains the credibility of corporate commitments, highlighting the importance of exploring its mechanisms from both theoretical and applied angles. Employing a 2008–2023 sample of Chinese A-share firms, online opinion is proxied by an index constructed through text extraction and analysis of stock-forum content. It empirically investigates how online public opinion affects managerial integrity commitments and systematically explores the mechanisms through which these effects unfold. The findings demonstrate that online public opinion exerts a significant constraining effect on managerial integrity commitments. The empirical analysis reveals that online opinion significantly restricts integrity commitments, and this finding remains robust after addressing potential endogeneity and performing a wide range of robustness checks. Mechanism tests show that online public opinion weakens integrity commitments by intensifying earnings management incentives, fostering managerial short-termism, and amplifying market pressures. Heterogeneity tests show that the inhibitory impact is more pronounced in firms located in regions with lower social trust, in companies subject to stronger negative media exposure, and where executives face greater career-related risks. Additional evidence reveals that a well-functioning information environment can mitigate the adverse role of online opinion by reducing distortions in managerial commitments. Overall, this research contributes new empirical evidence on the formation of corporate integrity within the digital public sphere and provides policy insights for strengthening opinion governance, enhancing external monitoring, and improving transparency in corporate governance in emerging markets.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47979,"journal":{"name":"Technology in Society","volume":"86 ","pages":"Article 103255"},"PeriodicalIF":12.5,"publicationDate":"2026-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146190659","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Have industrial robots reduced carbon emissions? Empirical evidence from China","authors":"Mengyu Wang,&nbsp;Bingnan Guo","doi":"10.1016/j.techsoc.2026.103244","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.techsoc.2026.103244","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Intelligent manufacturing is a key focus in the construction of a strong manufacturing nation, and its level of development directly impacts the quality of China's manufacturing industry. This paper analyzes the impact of industrial robots on carbon emissions from both theoretical and empirical perspectives. An empirical study based on panel data from Chinese cities reveals that industrial robots can effectively reduce manufacturing carbon emissions in urban areas and promote a shift towards a low-carbon economy. The conclusion remains valid even after a series of robustness and endogeneity tests. Further examination of the mechanisms indicates that green technology innovation and the degree of human-robot matching are significant factors in industrial robots' ability to mitigate manufacturing carbon emissions. By incorporating robot factors into the log-mean divisia index decomposition mode(LMDI), our findings show that the technological effect of emission reduction from robots surpasses the scale effect of increased emissions. This finding supports the green and intelligent development of the manufacturing sector and helps forge new competitive advantages in achieving carbon peak and carbon neutrality goals.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47979,"journal":{"name":"Technology in Society","volume":"86 ","pages":"Article 103244"},"PeriodicalIF":12.5,"publicationDate":"2026-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146081664","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The moderating effect of absorptive capacity on the relationship between knowledge transfer and innovative capacity","authors":"Natália Figueiredo ,&nbsp;Cristina I. Fernandes ,&nbsp;José Luis Abrantes","doi":"10.1016/j.techsoc.2026.103248","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.techsoc.2026.103248","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Purpose</h3><div>Global market pressure drives companies to innovate, leading them to partner with universities for knowledge transfer. This study investigates the effects of knowledge transfer (KT) on companies' innovative activities and the moderating effect of absorptive capacity (AC) on the relationship between KT and innovative capacity. The analysis was done to distinguish the knowledge acquired nationally and internationally.</div></div><div><h3>Design/methodology/approach</h3><div>The methods employed are logistic regression, using a sample of 100058 observations from 14 countries in the Eurostat Community Innovation Survey dataset.</div></div><div><h3>Findings</h3><div>Both national and international knowledge transfer (KT) have a positive influence on product and process innovation. AC is an essential source of competitive advantage, although it negatively moderates the relationship between national KT and innovation (of products and processes). On the other hand, research also shows that AC does not significantly affect the relationship between international KT and innovations, whether in products or processes.</div></div><div><h3>Originality/value</h3><div>This study contributes to the knowledge-based view by clarifying the nuanced roles of KT and AC in innovation. It offers comparative insights into national and international KT and highlights the conditional role of AC, providing implications for companies, universities, and policymakers.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47979,"journal":{"name":"Technology in Society","volume":"86 ","pages":"Article 103248"},"PeriodicalIF":12.5,"publicationDate":"2026-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146190398","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}