Journal of Global Economics / Revista de Economie Mondială. 2021, Vol. 13 Issue 2, p23-47. 25p.
Subjects
Rapid prototyping, Consumer goods, Market share, Aircraft industry, Ceramic industries, Three-dimensional printing, and Medical equipment
Abstract
Additive manufacturing - or three-dimensional (3D) printing - refers to a group of technologies characterised by an accelerating maturation trend, which allow the creation of three-dimensional objects based on digital models, by sequentially applying and integrating layers of various traditional and innovative materials, from metals, polymers and ceramics, to graphene and other nanomaterials and composites. The technologies have applications in a variety of industries, from consumer goods production, automotive and aircraft parts, architecture and construction, to medical services and devices, or research and defence. Globally, the additive manufacturing market, which includes equipment, materials and 3D printing as a service, as well as their applications for prototyping and rapid manufacturing, has been valued at USD 15.4 billion in 2020, with existing projections reflecting a four-fold increase to USD 61.1 billion in 2027. By the same date, China – the current 'factory of the world' – is projected to have a significant but less than one quarter share of the global market – USD14.5 billion – against the backdrop of existing gaps difficult to narrow down. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Social Work Review / Revista de Asistenta Sociala; 2019, Issue 2, p7-17, 11p
Subjects
SOCIAL integration, SOCIAL services, SOCIAL order, WELFARE state, ECONOMIC policy, and SOCIAL innovation
Abstract
It is widely acknowledged that social services can't fulfill their mission to empower people and to promote both social inclusion and development without innovation. Thus, innovation is the key to effective and efficient social services. Social innovation is dominated by three dimensions (the social, the economic and the political ones) and ruled by its relational characteristic. Social innovation is a process with six stages: diagnoses and prompts, proposals and ideas, prototyping and pilots, sustaining, scaling and diffusion, systemic change. The evaluation of social innovation must be grounded on effectiveness and should start within the process, not only at the end of the process, minding the relational characteristic of social innovation. The final gain is to solve societal problems, beyond individual needs, changing cultural and institutional behavior and contexts. The innovation in social services may even save the welfare state and the social order from the neoliberalism that threatens to create dangerous marginal groups. Romania is a very generous playground for innovation in social services, having in mind the world innovation index country score, the world happiness index country score and the social eagerness for socio-liberal economic policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]