Andreas Gschwentner, Manfred Kaltenbacher, Barbara Kaltenbacher and Klaus Roppert
Performing accurate numerical simulations of electrical drives, the precise knowledge of the local magnetic material properties is of utmost importance. Due to the various…
Abstract
Purpose
Performing accurate numerical simulations of electrical drives, the precise knowledge of the local magnetic material properties is of utmost importance. Due to the various manufacturing steps, e.g. heat treatment or cutting techniques, the magnetic material properties can strongly vary locally, and the assumption of homogenized global material parameters is no longer feasible. This paper aims to present the general methodology and two different solution strategies for determining the local magnetic material properties using reference and simulation data.
Design/methodology/approach
The general methodology combines methods based on measurement, numerical simulation and solving an inverse problem. Therefore, a sensor-actuator system is used to characterize electrical steel sheets locally. Based on the measurement data and results from the finite element simulation, the inverse problem is solved with two different solution strategies. The first one is a quasi Newton method (QNM) using Broyden's update formula to approximate the Jacobian and the second is an adjoint method. For comparison of both methods regarding convergence and efficiency, an artificial example with a linear material model is considered.
Findings
The QNM and the adjoint method show similar convergence behavior for two different cutting-edge effects. Furthermore, considering a priori information improved the convergence rate. However, no impact on the stability and the remaining error is observed.
Originality/value
The presented methodology enables a fast and simple determination of the local magnetic material properties of electrical steel sheets without the need for a large number of samples or special preparation procedures.
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Mira Holopainen, Minna Saunila and Juhani Ukko
Digital transformation shapes industries and influences the forms of collaboration between companies. This study aims to investigate digital business strategy as a key to…
Abstract
Purpose
Digital transformation shapes industries and influences the forms of collaboration between companies. This study aims to investigate digital business strategy as a key to facilitating collaboration beyond organizational boundaries.
Design/methodology/approach
The study focuses on the connection between digital business strategy and collaboration performance. The authors identify five types of digital business strategy elements based on the literature: development, objectives, resources, management capabilities, and digital leadership. The authors then studied the implications of these elements for collaboration performance using a survey. The study’s empirical data were collected from manufacturing and service companies, and 202 valid responses were received. The implications of the research elements were tested through regression analysis, which included the moderating effects of digitally enabled performance measurement.
Findings
The theoretical research framework identifies digital business strategy as a key determinant of collaboration performance, thus advancing the understanding of how companies can utilize digital business strategies and achieve enhanced collaboration performance. The results also show that the effect of digital business strategy on collaboration performance may be moderated by digitally enabled performance management.
Practical implications
The results suggest that management capabilities associated with digital strategy are a crucial element in positively influencing collaboration performance. Further, digital strategy-related resources can be better managed with digitally enabled performance measurement system, which is reflected in improved collaborative performance. Thus, companies should invest in management capabilities and connect their digital business strategies and performance measurement systems to develop collaboration in digital transformation.
Originality/value
The study is among the first to translate an empirical understanding of the digital transformation of small and medium-sized companies into a conceptual framework of a digital business strategy.
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Mira Holopainen, Minna Saunila and Juhani Ukko
This study aims to focus on the connection between digital business strategy and performance measurement and management (PMM).
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to focus on the connection between digital business strategy and performance measurement and management (PMM).
Design/methodology/approach
The implications of digital business strategy and its dimensions with regard to PMM were investigated through a survey. The survey questionnaire provided 202 valid cases with a focus on senior management of small- and medium-sized enterprises. Strategic dimensions were identified from the literature on management in the context of digitalization to build a theoretical framework that highlights the mechanisms that companies should focus on when managing and implementing digital technologies successfully.
Findings
The aspects that comprise digital business strategy are grouped into five major dimensions: technological understanding, goals, resources, management and responsibilities. The study reveals a direct and positive relationship between goals and management related to digital business strategy and PMM.
Research limitations/implications
The study contributes to the existing PMM literature in the context of digitalization.
Practical implications
The results indicate that if a company has excellent goals and management with regard to its digital business strategy, it uses PMM in a more successful and effective way.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is among the first to examine PMM in terms of managing digital business strategy by trying to determine the extent to which the elements of digital business strategy can be integrated effectively into PMM.
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Juhani Ukko, Minna Saunila, Mina Nasiri, Tero Rantala and Mira Holopainen
This study examines the connection between different digital-twin characteristics and organizational control. Specifically, the study aims to examine whether the digital-twin…
Abstract
Purpose
This study examines the connection between different digital-twin characteristics and organizational control. Specifically, the study aims to examine whether the digital-twin characteristics exploration, guidance and gamification will affect formal and social control.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is based on an analysis of survey results from 139 respondents comprising applied university students who use digital twins.
Findings
The results offer an interesting contribution to the literature. The authors consider the digital-twin characteristics exploration, guidance and gamification and investigate their contribution to two types of organizational controls: formal and social. The results show that two characteristics, exploration and gamification, affect the extent to which digital twins can be utilized for social control. Exploration and guidance’s role is significant concerning the extent to which digital twins can be utilized for formal control.
Originality/value
This study contributes to literature by considering multiple digital-twin characteristics and their contribution to two different control outcomes. First, it diverges from previous technical-oriented research by investigating digital twins in a human context. Second, the study is the first to examine digital twins’ effects from an organizational control perspective systematically.
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Jeremy Bernier, Elisabeth R. Gee, Yuchan (Blanche) Gao, Luis E. Pérez Cortés and Taylor M. Kessner
The purpose of this paper reporting an exploratory pilot study is to examine how participant engagement in design thinking varies when playing and fixing (playfixing) three…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper reporting an exploratory pilot study is to examine how participant engagement in design thinking varies when playing and fixing (playfixing) three partially complete games (broken games).
Design/methodology/approach
The data for this study consist of transcripts of five playfixing sessions with a total of 16 participants. Each session focused on one of three games. The authors used Winn’s (2009) design-play-experience framework to analyze features of each game that might relate to differences in design thinking. Next, the authors coded each playfixing session’s transcript to identify patterns of design thinking. Finally, these findings were used to make conjectures about how design features and flaws might encourage particular forms of design thinking.
Findings
The findings indicate how playfixing tabletop games with varied levels of complexity, playability and rule definition lead to different patterns of design thinking.
Originality/value
This is a first step toward understanding how the constraints associated with various elements of broken games might direct participants toward desired modes of design thinking and more broadly, contributes to the literature on the educational uses of game making.
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Francesca De Canio, Maria Fuentes-Blasco and Elisa Martinelli
The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of several intrinsic motivations driving consumers' intention to buy using a mobile app, namely: shopping gamification…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of several intrinsic motivations driving consumers' intention to buy using a mobile app, namely: shopping gamification, focussed attention, shopping enjoyment and socialness, through the mediating role of shopping engagement. The online shopping experience is investigated in its dual role as direct driver of the intention to buy using a mobile app and as moderator of the shopping engagement – intention to buy using a mobile app path.
Design/methodology/approach
The empirical analysis was performed in China due to the extensive usage of mobile shopping apps amongst the Chinese population. A structural equation model was estimated on 893 valid and complete structured questionnaires collected amongst a sample of Chinese consumers.
Findings
Findings confirm that intrinsic motivations (i.e. shopping gamification, focussed attention, shopping enjoyment and socialness) indirectly influence the intention to buy using a mobile app channelled by shopping engagement. Most remarkably, results show that the online shopping experience positively moderates the shopping engagement – intention to buy using a mobile app path.
Originality/value
The novelty of the paper lies in the conceptual and empirical evidence provided on shopping gamification, within the retailing marketing domain. The study investigates other related intrinsic motivations that jointly with shopping gamification directly influence shopping engagement and indirectly impact mobile shopping intention. The paper provides insights into the moderating role of online shopping experience, a key aspect when the challenge concerning gamification is considered.
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Abdelrachid El Amrouss and Omar Hammouti
The purpose of this paper is the study of existence and multiplicity of solutions for a nonlinear discrete boundary value problems involving the p-laplacian.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is the study of existence and multiplicity of solutions for a nonlinear discrete boundary value problems involving the p-laplacian.
Design/methodology/approach
The approach is based on variational methods and critical point theory.
Findings
Theorem 1.1. Theorem 1.2. Theorem 1.3. Theorem 1.4.
Originality/value
The paper is original and the authors think the results are new.
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The study aims to understand digital transformation as a socially constructed process with multiple stakeholders, influenced by internal and external forces. This perspective…
Abstract
Purpose
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.
Design/methodology/approach
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.
Findings
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.
Research limitations/implications
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.
Practical implications
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.
Originality/value
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.
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Sarah Samuelson, Ann Svensson, Irene Svenningsson and Sandra Pennbrant
To meet future healthcare needs, primary care is undergoing a transformation in which innovations and new ways of working play an important role. However, successful innovations…
Abstract
Purpose
To meet future healthcare needs, primary care is undergoing a transformation in which innovations and new ways of working play an important role. However, successful innovations depend on joint learning and rewarding collaborations between healthcare and other stakeholders. This study aims to explore how learning develops when entrepreneurs, healthcare professionals and older people collaborate in a primary care living lab.
Design/methodology/approach
The study had an action research design and was conducted at a clinically embedded living lab at a primary care centre on the west coast of Sweden. Data consisted of e-mail conversations, recordings from design meetings and three group interviews with each party (entrepreneurs, healthcare professionals and older people). Data were analysed with inductive qualitative content analysis.
Findings
An overarching theme, “To share each other’s worlds in an arranged space for learning”, was found, followed by three categories, “Prerequisites for learning”, “Strategies to achieve learning” and “To learn from and with each other”. These three categories comprise eight subcategories.
Originality/value
This research contributes to knowledge regarding the need for arranged spaces for learning and innovation in primary care and how collaborative learning can contribute to the development of practice.
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Mira Timperi, Kirsi Kokkonen, Lea Hannola and Kalle Elfvengren
Digital twins (DTs) and other data-based solutions are gaining an increasing foothold in manufacturing business, whereas a mere physical product is often insufficient to satisfy…
Abstract
Purpose
Digital twins (DTs) and other data-based solutions are gaining an increasing foothold in manufacturing business, whereas a mere physical product is often insufficient to satisfy all customers’ expectations. As a result, companies are seeking novel ways of value creation, and one exciting opportunity is the use of DTs in new business creation, where they can offer diverse possibilities for innovative businesses. This paper aims to examine the impacts and challenges of DTs on new business creation in the manufacturing industry.
Design/methodology/approach
This study used a qualitative research approach, which combined semistructured interviews and an iterative Delphi study as research methods. The participants for the interviews and Delphi study were from different sectors and roles in the manufacturing industry. Altogether, 10 interviewees from eight companies took part in the interviews, and the expert panel of the Delphi method contained 12 professionals.
Findings
The results of the study indicated that DT can significantly impact the business models of manufacturing companies. DT can enhance operations, offer cost savings and business growth and allow stakeholders to focus on core competencies while developing their businesses. Several challenges for leveraging DT were identified, such as data ownership, resource allocation, internal bureaucracy and the difficulty of demonstrating the actual value of data-based services to potential customers.
Originality/value
This paper provides a structured expert-led assessment of the potential impacts of DT utilization in the creation of new business opportunities.