Quincy Merx, Mark Steins and Gaby Odekerken
This study aims to propose a service robot option to address shortages of human frontline employees (FLEs) in long-term care (LTC) service settings. With a field study, the…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to propose a service robot option to address shortages of human frontline employees (FLEs) in long-term care (LTC) service settings. With a field study, the authors investigate the effect of psychological comfort with robot reminders of LTC residents and human FLEs on acceptance and attentive engagement, ultimately resulting in effort and willingness to interact with the service robot. The outcomes provide valuable insights into human-robot interaction in the LTC sector.
Design/methodology/approach
The 45 residents and 49 human FLEs who participated in the field study completed a survey measuring various perceptual variables after deploying a service robot.
Findings
Both the residents’ sample and the FLE sample demonstrate that psychological comfort with robot reminders increases robot acceptance. This increased acceptance evokes greater attentive engagement, ultimately leading to a higher willingness to exert effort to interact with the service robots.
Research limitations/implications
This study highlights service robots with well-received reminder functions and the ability to prompt efforts by both residents and employees during their implementation at LTC services. The findings suggest further research avenues for designing service robots that can be effectively integrated.
Originality/value
This study leverages a service robot in a field study involving LTC residents and human FLEs rather than hypothetical scenarios, which is rather limited in current studies. The findings are both timely and relevant, considering the gradual implementation of service robots into LTC services.
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Climate change is occurring around us and impacting on our daily lives, meaning that we have to deal with our cities in a different way. There is also increasing awareness of the…
Abstract
Climate change is occurring around us and impacting on our daily lives, meaning that we have to deal with our cities in a different way. There is also increasing awareness of the need for daily contact with green spaces and the natural environment in order to live a happy, productive and meaningful life.
This reflective essay tells the narrative of how urbanisation has been disconnecting humans from nature. Non-sustainable, non-resilient patterns of urbanisation, along with the neglect of inner-city areas, have resulted in fragmentation and urban decline, led to a loss of biodiversity, and caused the deterioration of ecosystems and their services. Urban regeneration projects allow us to “repair” and restore some of this damage whilst enhancing urban resilience. Connecting existing and enhanced ecosystems, and re-establishing ecosystems both within cities and at the peri-urban fringe is vital for strengthening ecosystem resilience and building adaptive capacity for coping with the effects of climate change.
Cities worldwide need to look for suitable solutions to increase the resilience of their urban spaces in the face of climate change. This essay explores how this can be achieved through the integration of nature-based solutions, the re-greening of neighbourhoods and by correctly attributing value to natural capital. Transforming existing cities and neighbourhoods in this way will enable ecosystems to contribute their services towards healthier and more liveable cities.
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The purpose of this paper is to explore the fluidity of the fieldwork roles “insider” and “outsider.” The paper aims to move the discussion of insiders from an a priori…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the fluidity of the fieldwork roles “insider” and “outsider.” The paper aims to move the discussion of insiders from an a priori categorized status and contribute to the literary insider–outsider debate by unfolding the micro process of how the role of an insider is shaped in situ. Grounded in empirical examples, the paper illustrates how the researcher’s role is shaped through interactions with organizational members and by context.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is based on an ethnographic study in an IT department of a Nordic bank and draws on empirical material generated through a combination of data: shadowing, interviews, observations and documents. Excerpts from fieldnotes are included to invite the reader into “the scenes” played out in the field and are analyzed in order to illustrate the shaping of roles in situ.
Findings
The study finds that, independent of the researcher’s role as sponsored by the organization, the interactions with organizational members and context determine whether the researcher is assigned a role as insider or outsider, or even both within the same context.
Originality/value
The paper contributes with a new discussion of how the roles of insiders and outsiders are fluid by discussing the shaping of the roles in situ. By drawing on relational identity theories, the paper illustrates how interactions and context influence the researcher’s role, grounded in empirical examples. In addition, the paper discusses what the assigned roles enable and constrain for the ethnographer in that particular situation.
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Shashi, Piera Centobelli, Roberto Cerchione and Myriam Ertz
The purpose of this paper is to present a quantitatively supported explanation of the intellectual development, the schools of thought and the sub-areas of the food cold chain…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present a quantitatively supported explanation of the intellectual development, the schools of thought and the sub-areas of the food cold chain (FCC) research to derive meaningful avenues for future research.
Design/methodology/approach
This study builds on bibliometric analysis and network analysis to systematically evaluate a sample of 1,189 FCC articles published over the past 25 years. The descriptive statistics and science mapping approaches using co-citation analysis were performed with VOSviewer software.
Findings
The findings reveal a state-of-the-art overview of the top contributing and influential countries, authors, institutions and articles in the area of FCC research. A co-citation analysis, coupled with content analysis of most co-cited articles, uncovered four underlying research streams including: application of RFID technologies; production and operation planning models; postharvest waste, causes of postharvest wastage and perishable inventory ordering polices and models; and critical issues in FCC. Current research streams, clusters and their sub-themes provided meaningful discussions and insights into key areas for future research in FCC.
Originality/value
This study might reshape practitioners’, researchers’ and policy-makers’ views on the multifaceted areas and themes in the FCC research field, to harness FCC’s benefits at both strategic and tactical level. Finally, the research findings offer a roadmap for additional research to yield more practical and modeling insights that are much needed to enrich the field.