Improving quality of life perception with ICT use and technological capacity in Europe

New article of ICRG in a Top Journal

Technological Forecasting and Social Change (IF:3.815; JCR19; Q1)

Happiness and Quality of Life

Highlights

• We review the concept and measurements of quality of life.
• We analyse the relationships between quality of life and ICTs.
• Use of new technologies and technological capacity are key in the citizens' development.
• There is a clear relationship between technology and quality of life in European regions.
• The digital citizen is happier and values living in regions with high technological capacity.

Abstract

Quality of life is a key element in the sustainable development of countries, regions and cities. However, due to the difficulties involved in measuring it, there are no clear criteria as to which aspects of the economy should be enhanced in order to improve life conditions. In this respect, just as in the past literacy enabled human development and integration, these days, the use of new technologies and technological capacity are key elements that facilitate citizens' development. In this study, we use the information available in the Flash Eurobarometer 419 and Eurostat data on Information and Communications Technology to analyse the factors that Europeans consider key to achieving a better quality of life. We can thus see how the use of new technologies and technological capacity influence these factors. This analysis has been carried out at the highest level of disaggregation possible given the available information, and includes a total of 79 European NUTS 2 regions. The results reveal a clear relationship between technology and quality of life; the digital citizen is happier and values living in regions/cities with technological capacity, which invest in R&D, and which are committed to achieving sustainable growth.

New article in Tourism sector

The role of destination image in tourist satisfaction: the case of a heritage site

Dra. Huete, N. and Dr. López, V.R.

https://tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1331677X.2019.1654399

Cultural tourism is a fundamental element for the economic development of some local communities. There are many factors that can influence the success of this type of tourism, but any action or strategy implemented should be closely tied to ensuring tourist satisfaction. This research focuses on a heritage destination of an archaeological nature, and aims to analyse the destination image formation as well as the influence of this image on tourist satisfaction. The results show that the affective component is more relevant than the cognitive in the image of this destination formed by the tourist. The data were collected by means of a closed-ended questionnaire administered to tourists aged 18 and over, and were analysed using P.L.S.-S.E.M. methodology. These analyses provide useful information for the planning of future tourism marketing strategies; to that end, recommendations have been made regarding how to improve the provision of services and the management of these types of heritage sites.

XLIV RER: ICRG, working in Smart Regions.

Valencia, November 23, 2018.

XLIV RER: AECR, ERSA, RSAI

New advances by ICRG

In this work, it is considered as a relationship between the capacities of the citizens of a region and their effective technological development, essential in the consolidation of smart cities or regions. In this way, these two elements are the most important in regional planning, so we analyze the existing convergence between the capacities of citizens and technological development for a region. Specifically, the NUTS 2 regions in Spain are analyzed with official information available in Eurostat.

Human capital is fundamental for the development of a country or a region. However, this human capital is a very broad variable that exists in the literature in different studies on what factors are the determinants of it. Particularly noteworthy is the consideration of educational achievements but also the importance of education depends on the period and geographical area under analysis, that is, the variables are not directly related to this factor: human capital.

Also Dra. Nuria Huete presented a work in advances in tourism sector, applied to Segobriga Case.

The profile of the cultural tourist and his needs were addressed in this article.

Why Smart Regions? New research.

Advancing the relationship between human capital and technological efficiency to smart regions.

First results presented at the 58th ERSA Congress by the ICRG group, at the University of Cork (Ireland) in August.

Title: An analysis of the relationships between human and technological development to smart European regions

Authors: ICRG (Dr. López, Dr. Nevado and Dr.Alfaro).

Goals: 

• Analysis of the relationship between the capacities of the citizens of a region and their effective technological development, essential in the advancement of Smart Regions.

• The study covers the NUTS2 regions of Europe with official information available in Eurostat and as a complement to data on cities. data for 18 countries 2014 (BE-8, BG-6, CZ-8, DK-4, DE-22, EE-1, IE-1, ES-19, FR-21, HR-2, LV-1, LT-1, PL-16, SI-2, FI-4, SE-6, UK-2, No-5) and 129 regions. 

• Indicators of human capital and technology are generated, building synthetic indicators.

Castilla-La Mancha Cities' Competitiveness

NEW ARTICLE PUBLISHED:

Castilla-La Mancha Cities' Competitiveness in Intellectual Capital as Compared to Other Spanish Cities

Domingo Nevado Peña, José Luis Alfaro Navarro, Víctor Raúl López Ruiz

Abstract

Intellectual capital plays a central role in smart cities. The aim of this paper is to apply the recently developed model based on intellectual capital to measure and manage cities' competitiveness.
This model is applied to cities in Castilla-La Mancha and another 19 Spanish cities, enabling a

comparative analysis between these cities. To this end, the study presents a synthetic indicator that allows us to rank Spanish cities based on available information and propose a comprehensive management strategy that addresses both tangible and intangible competitiveness. From the results, it can be concluded that the cities of Castilla-La Mancha feature excellent human capacities and a good quality of life but that there is room for improvement in terms of city infrastructure and planning.

Articulo completo disponible /Open Access

https://doi.org/10.5559/di.26.4.04

ICRG New index applied to cities

Sustainability Capital Index applied to cities is a new publication of ICRG-UCLM in the prestigious Journal Sustainability, in Open Access. You can read it now.

Abstract

Urban sustainability is a key factor that must be considered at the local level, however, there are few studies that consider sustainability using the triple bottom line approach and apply it to a large number of cities. In this paper, we develop a sustainability city index based on the triple bottom line using an intellectual capital approach that attempts to solve the negative aspects identified in the main indices proposed in the existing literature, such as the use of: subjective weightings, an arithmetic average or index that is not comparable. Here, we have used information available in the Urban Audit database for 2009. The results for 158 cities in 24 European countries show that the cities with the best positions are in the northern European countries. German cities occupied the best positions in the three dimensions of sustainability, albeit with a slightly worse performance in the social dimension. Moreover, the proposal index is consistent, without redundancy among the variables considered in the three dimensions.

Full text

Premio ARQUICMA 2017 a Domingo Nevado

El martes día 16 era reconocido por ARQUICMA en Puertollano nuestro investigador y Co-Director Dr. Domingo Nevado, por toda su trayectoria científica y nde gestión, destacando por su participación en el Máster de Técnico Superior de Prevención de Riesgos Laborales de la UCLM en Puertollano en sus ediciones V, VI y VII en temas de economía de seguridad y normalización.

Enhorabuena.

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