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The purpose of this study is to frame digital transformation (DT) within municipalities to improve the life cycles of urban infrastructure.

The study provides the results from a systematic review of the literature on concepts of DT and its implications for municipalities, barriers and challenges to DT, as well existing DT frameworks for municipalities and their built assets. This literature review leads to the development of a DT framework to help cities conduct a planned and federated DT beforehand. Then, workshops are conducted with two major Canadian municipalities.

The results of these studies point to the need for a dedicated DT framework for municipalities because of their particular context and their role and proximity to citizens. The theoretical framework develops 22 elements, which are divided among 6 categories. Through its application, the framework helps to identify and target the predominant issues hindering the DT of municipalities, specifically “legacy practices” and “data management.”

Limitations include limited experimental conditions and small sample size. Further work is needed to validate the framework. Other approaches are advocated to complement the data collection and analysis to generate more convincing results.

The theoretical framework was validated through two case studies on two large Canadian municipalities.

Municipalities maximize the value they provide to citizens and to be at the forefront of resilience and sustainability concerns. The use of technology, digital processes and initiatives helps cities to improve planning, optimize works and provide better services to citizens.

The framework is original in that it specifically aligns assets management with DT in a municipal context.

Digital transformation (DT) harnessing the potential of emerging technology creates opportunities and challenges for organizations worldwide. Senior executives view DT as a key initiative for future competitiveness, a view shared by academic researchers. What may challenge the organization is that the vision may be present while preparedness may be lacking. Organizational preparedness depends on managers and employees charged with implementing DT and their perceptions on preparedness are often not aligned with senior executives.

In this research, the authors explore the perceptions of managers and employees on DT preparedness in an organization by gathering data from 579 participants. This study uses an innovative approach to qualitative data analysis using interactive topic modeling.

Findings in this qualitative study provide valuable insights on the perceptions of these individuals and helps understand (a) how they view DT preparedness and (b) may behave in this context. In general DT is well understood, however managers are not keen to change work processes to take advantage of the new digital tools and there appears that generational gap is a barrier to successful DT.

Senior executives play a central role communicating the DT vision necessary to inspire managers and employees. As organizations continue to invest large sums of money to explore value creation for customers and stakeholders by leveraging digital technologies, the information systems (IS) discipline can take the lead by asking the question, what can be done to improve the understanding of DT implementation in an organization?

This study compares the fatigue performance and biocompatibility of as-built and chemically etched Ti-6Al-4V alloys in TPMS-gyroid and stochastic structures fabricated via Powder Bed Fusion Laser Beam (PBF-LB). This study aims to understand how complex lattice structures and post-manufacturing treatment, particularly chemical etching, affect the mechanical properties, surface morphology, fatigue resistance and biocompatibility of these metamaterials for biomedical applications.

Selective Laser Melting (SLM) technology was used to fabricate TPMS-gyroid and Voronoi stochastic designs with three different relative densities (0.2, 0.3 and 0.4) in Ti-6Al-4V ELI alloy. The as-built samples underwent a chemical etching process to enhance surface quality. Mechanical characterization included static compression and dynamic fatigue testing, complemented by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) for surface and failure analysis. The biocompatibility of the samples was assessed through in-vitro cell viability assays using the Alamar Blue assay and cell proliferation studies.

Chemical etching significantly improves the surface morphology, mechanical properties and fatigue resistance of both TPMS-gyroid and stochastic structures. Gyroid structures demonstrated superior mechanical performance and fatigue resistance compared to stochastic structures, with etching providing more pronounced benefits in these aspects. In-vitro biocompatibility tests showed high cytocompatibility for both as-built and etched samples, with etched samples exhibiting notably improved cell viability. The study also highlights the importance of design and post-processing in optimizing the performance of Ti64 components for biomedical applications.

The comparative analysis between as-built and etched conditions, alongside considering different lattice designs, provides valuable information for developing advanced biomedical implants. The demonstration of enhanced fatigue resistance and biocompatibility through etching adds significant value to the field of additive manufacturing, suggesting new avenues for designing and post-processing implantable devices.

The study aims to understand digital transformation as a socially constructed process with multiple stakeholders, influenced by internal and external forces. This perspective stresses the importance of context, human interaction and narratives in the digital transformation within public sector.

The author uses a case study at a Swedish university undergoing digital transformation. Through first and secondary data, the author thematically analyzes the interaction between change agents, organizational realities and the digital transformation process.

The study finds that conflicts in pace and scope in the digital transformation drive self-defense mechanisms and the formation of a feedback loop of pending action. Contrary to previous studies, technological and external forces do not make digital transformation inevitable.

Limitations stem from the empirical selection of a Swedish university, affecting the international and intersectoral transferability of the study. The impact of digital transformation differs from previous IT changes, which has implications for the design of the digital transformation process.

Stakeholders should, instead of considering structural and cultural barriers as facts, pay attention to the narratives within the organization as potential excuses to avoid action.

This research contributes to original insights into digital transformation. It uncovers how change agents, despite longing for change, can inadvertently foster inaction in digital transformation. This finding enriches the literature by highlighting the complex dynamics between the desire for change and the social constructs that contribute to stagnation, offering an understanding of barriers to digital transformation.

This study investigates the determinants of digital census for population and housing census (PHC) program through the lens of performance expectancy, technology readiness, self-efficacy and hedonic motivation for the upliftment of a national data collection exercise and development of human resource management.

A quantitative and qualitative research method was used to survey enumerators' responses from the PHC exercise during the COVID-19 period in Ghana. Based on the four determinants, a conceptual framework was developed consisting of eight proposed hypotheses tested through a structural equation model.

The findings of the study indicate that technological readiness, self-efficacy and hedonic motivation significantly influence behavioural intention to adopt digital technologies for PHC training and data collection. Importantly, the authors identified four key themes relating to digital technologies in PHC – personal enablers, general enablers, inherent affordances (inherent possibilities by the user in relation to what the technology offers in context) and personal inhibitors.

For research, this work systematizes antecedents from diverse research streams and validates their relative impact on government digital transformation for accurate data, thus providing a cohesive theoretical explanation of digital technologies in PHC. Due to the study's infancy in a developing country context, the findings provide a preliminary foundation and constructive insight for a digitalization plan conducive to people’s personality and technological readiness.

This study aims to computational numerical simulations to clarify and explore the influences of periodic cellular lattice (PCL) morphological parameters – such as lattice structure topology (simple cubic, body-centered cubic, z-reinforced body-centered cubic [BCCZ], face-centered cubic and z-reinforced face-centered cubic [FCCZ] lattice structures) and porosity value ( ) – on the thermal-hydraulic characteristics of the novel trussed fin-and-elliptical tube heat exchanger (FETHX), which has led to a deeper understanding of the superior heat transfer enhancement ability of the PCL structure.

A three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model is proposed in this paper to provide better understanding of the fluid flow and heat transfer behavior of the PCL structures in the trussed FETHXs associated with different structure topologies and high-porosities. The flow governing equations of the trussed FETHX are solved by the CFD software ANSYS CFX® and use the Menter SST turbulence model to accurately predict flow characteristics in the fluid flow region.

The thermal-hydraulic performance benchmarks analysis – such as field synergy performance and performance evaluation criteria – conducted during this research successfully identified demonstrates that if the high porosity of all PCL structures decrease to 92%, the best thermal-hydraulic performance is provided. Overall, according to the obtained outcomes, the trussed FETHX with the advantages of using BCCZ lattice structure at 92% porosity presents good thermal-hydraulic performance enhancement among all the investigated PCL structures.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is one of the first in the literature that provides thorough thermal-hydraulic characteristics of a novel trussed FETHX with high-porosity PCL structures.

Background: Fear has been a common response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic throughout the world. In Mauritius, the outbreak of COVID-19 has been an exceptional occurrence requiring stringent confinement of the population. In this study, we have explored people’s reactions to COVID-19 during confinement, with emphasis on fear and the impact of news on the level of fear.

Methods: An anonymized online survey was carried out during confinement. Participation was voluntary. Participants reported fear level on a scale from 1-10, where no fear scored 1 and maximum fear scored 10. Participants reported the impact of news on their fear level on a scale of 1-10, where 1 represented no impact and 10 represented maximum impact. Participants reported the status of information received about COVID-19 on a scale of 1-10 where 1 represented no information on COVID-19 and 10 represented maximum information on COVID-19.

Results: The self-rated level of fear during confinement had a mean of 5.09 with 95%CI [4.70, 5.47]. This increased to a mean of 6.39 with 95%CI [6.00-6.78] at the prospect of confinement being lifted. The difference was statistically significant (paired-sample T-test, p<0.001). With regard to the impact of news on fear of COVID-19, the mean for local news was 5.97 with 95%CI [5.59, 6.34] whereas that of worldwide news was 6.86 with 95%CI [6.50, 7.23]. Worldwide news had a more significant impact (paired-sample T-test, p<0.001). The information score about COVID-19 had a mean of 5.12 with 95%CI [4.71, 5.53].

Conclusions: Participants experienced a moderate level of fear of COVID-19 during confinement which increased at the prospect of confinement being lifted, implying that people felt safer during confinement. Their fear was influenced more by international news than by local news. Overall participants reported that they were moderately well informed about the COVID-19 pandemic.

The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of deviant workplace behavior on digital transformation in the public sector. This contributes to the current literature on public sector digital transformation as well as to that of deviant workplace behavior in public sector contexts.

The authors conduct a qualitative case study of a digital transformation initiative in a Swedish municipality.

The authors identify three types of institutional drift related to digital transformation, i.e. decelerating digital transformation, maintaining infrastructural stability and accelerating digital transformation. The authors categorize mediators for said drift and theorize on the role of deviant workplace behavior as a strategic driver for digital transformation in public sector organizations.

With the study being a qualitative case study, it is limited in terms of generalizability and transferability. Through this study, the authors sensitize the notion of digital transformation and show how deviant behavior results in strategic polyphony. Future studies are informed through offering a new perspective to public sector digital transformation strategy.

Practice should view deviant workplace behavior as simultaneously constructive and destructive in lieu of planned digital transformation, as well as see its presence as a potential sign of subpar prerequisites for digital transformation in the public sector.

Through this study, deviant workplace behavior is highlighted as a source of strategic polyphony and hence an important aspect of public sector digital transformation strategy.

Through being the first paper, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, to apply the theory of institutional drift to digital transformation settings as well as identifying the impact of deviant workplace behavior on digital transformation, the study offers novel insights.

Stakeholder satisfaction relates closely to service quality and performance of educational organizations. Often, this relationship is addressed in literature through the lens of excellence models, such as the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) model. Nevertheless, limited studies focus on the effect of the EFQM model enablers on stakeholder satisfaction and hardly any in vocational education. To fill this void, the aim of this paper is to investigate the relationship between EFQM enablers (leadership, human resources, processes) and stakeholder satisfaction under the different perspectives of teachers and students in Greek public vocational education.

To address the research purpose, the authors used the case study methodology. The authors used mixed research methods, the focus group method and survey. Specifically, the focus group method used to distill the EFQM enablers related to the Greek context and to develop a questionnaire administered to teachers and students of a vocational education school. From September 2021 to June 2022, 90 teachers and 216 students participated in the survey.

The partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) method was used for data analysis, indicating that leadership and human resources have a positive and significant relationship with the satisfaction of both students and teachers. However, results did not corroborate the relationship between processes and stakeholder satisfaction either from the student’s or the teacher’s perspective.

This paper fills a gap in existing literature by exploring the impact of EFQM enablers on stakeholder satisfaction in vocational education and training (VET), from the perspectives of both teachers and students. The findings assist VET institutions in prioritizing areas for improvement and help companies to develop strategies that consider key stakeholders' needs.

This study aims to investigate the impact of bureaucratic culture on the formulation and content of digital transformation strategies in Swedish local governments.

This research uses a qualitative content analysis method to examine strategy documents from local governments in Sweden. The analysis is focused on identifying concepts related to the definition of digital transformation strategy, organizational culture and agility. Relevant themes and insights were extracted using concept-driven coding.

The research uncovered a significant influence of bureaucratic culture on the content of strategy documents, which manifests through a strong status quo bias. This bias leads to a cautious approach toward digital innovation, limiting strategies to incremental improvements and maintenance of existing processes.

The findings highlight the need for a nuanced understanding of how organizational culture affects digital transformation. The study suggests avenues for further research, particularly in exploring mechanisms to balance bureaucratic stability with digital agility.

The research proposes recommendations for policymakers and public sector managers, advocating for an approach incorporating cultural awareness to foster a more conducive environment for digital transformation within bureaucratic settings.

This study contributes to the field by revealing the nuanced role of bureaucratic culture in shaping digital transformation strategies within the public sector. It offers a unique insight into the Swedish context.