Sigvard Rubenowitz, Anders Olsson and Bertil Steen
The project Users Demands on CNC‐Lathes, commenced in 1988, isexamined. The project′s main object was to contribute to an increase inthe empirically‐based knowledge of the new…
Abstract
The project Users Demands on CNC‐Lathes, commenced in 1988, is examined. The project′s main object was to contribute to an increase in the empirically‐based knowledge of the new demands involved in management, organisation and the operators′ job content along with the design of hard‐and software that new technology brings about. The study was carried out at 29 plants whose production is based mainly on CNC lathes. Findings as to the role and impact of management in connection with the new technology are the main focus.
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Rolf Johansson, Anders Robertsson, Klas Nilsson, Torgny Brogårdh, Per Cederberg, Magnus Olsson, Tomas Olsson and Gunnar Bolmsjö
Presents an approach to improved performance and flexibility in industrial robotics by means of sensor integration and feedback control in task‐level programming and task…
Abstract
Presents an approach to improved performance and flexibility in industrial robotics by means of sensor integration and feedback control in task‐level programming and task execution. Also presents feasibility studies in support of the ideas. Discusses some solutions to the problem using six degrees of freedom force control together with the ABB S4CPlus system as an illustrative example. Consider various problems in the design of an open sensor interface for industrial robotics and discusses possible solutions. Finally, presents experimental results from industrial force controlled grinding.
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The purpose is to describe new business opportunities within the Swedish railway industry and to support the development of business models that corresponds with the needs and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose is to describe new business opportunities within the Swedish railway industry and to support the development of business models that corresponds with the needs and requirements of Industry 4.0, here denoted as Service Management 4.0.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is an in-depth and descriptive case study of the Swedish railway system with specific focus on a railway vehicle maintainer. Public reports, statistics, internal documents, interviews and dialogues forms the basis for the empirical findings.
Findings
The article describes the complex business environment of the deregulated Swedish railway industry. Main findings are in the form of identified business opportunities and new business model propositions for one of the key actors, a vehicle maintainer.
Originality/value
The article provides valuable understanding of business strategy development within complex business environments and how maintenance related business models could be developed for reaching Service Management 4.0.
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Anna Reetta Suorsa, Rauli Svento, Anders V. Lindfors and Maija-Leena Huotari
The purpose of this paper is to examine knowledge-creating interaction in developing an innovation in a multidisciplinary research community with hermeneutic phenomenology, to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine knowledge-creating interaction in developing an innovation in a multidisciplinary research community with hermeneutic phenomenology, to understand how previous experiences and future prospects shape the process and to examine the circumstances, which support or limit knowledge creation.
Design/methodology/approach
The approach of this study is phenomenological and the empirical case study has been conducted using ethnography. The data consist of field notes, videos, interviews and documents of a BCDC energy consortium, developing energy weather forecast (EWF) in a new type of research environment.
Findings
The results indicate that the role of actual interactive events was crucial in the development of EWF. Hermeneutic approach illustrated that the roots of that event were in the past experiences of the participants and the circumstances, which promoted the development of the innovation, but the acknowledgment of the future prospects was crucial in finalizing the process. The role of a leader organizing the interaction and collaborative work was also substantial.
Practical implications
The results of this study could be used to plan and organize knowledge creation processes in organizations, especially in universities and research communities, striving to create multidisciplinary research environments and practices.
Originality/value
This study proposes a new approach based on hermeneutic phenomenology to examine it in a unified way, by focusing on the key aspects of elements affecting knowledge-creating interaction.
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22 July 2011, saw the biggest domestic terror event in Norway since World War II. On this day, a right-wing terrorist placed a bomb in front of the Norwegian government building…
Abstract
22 July 2011, saw the biggest domestic terror event in Norway since World War II. On this day, a right-wing terrorist placed a bomb in front of the Norwegian government building, where the prime minister had his office at the time. Later, the same perpetrator dressed up as a policeman and tricked his way into a political youth camp, where 69 mostly young people were killed. The present case study involves the leading national online news provider, VG, whose website, VG Nett, was Norway’s most-read online news site at the time of the attack. The study addresses the research gap of how news workers and managers see the potential of the affordances of digital media during crisis events. Furthermore, the study looks at how two different discourses of professionalism, the occupational and the organisational, informed journalists’ use of technological and social media affordances during this terror event, and at how online journalists and management reflect upon and continue to refine these approaches five years later. This study stresses the importance of a clear understanding of the decision-making processes that actually guide the handling of those affordances during a crisis event. Ultimately, this study questions not the perceived tension between the two discourses of professionalism, but their relative impact upon domestic crisis journalism in the technological realm.
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Linda Berggren, Sanna Talvia, Eldbjørg Fossgard, Unnur Björk Arnfjörð, Agneta Hörnell, Anna Sigríður Ólafsdóttir, Ingibjörg Gunnarsdóttir, Hege Wergedahl, Hanna Lagström, Maria Waling and Cecilia Olsson
Pupils’ perspective should be better taken into account when developing nutrition education at school. The purpose of this paper is to explore Nordic children’s perspectives on…
Abstract
Purpose
Pupils’ perspective should be better taken into account when developing nutrition education at school. The purpose of this paper is to explore Nordic children’s perspectives on the healthiness of meals in the context of school lunches.
Design/methodology/approach
In total, 78 focus group discussions were conducted with 10-11-year-old girls and boys (n=457) from schools in Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, which were participating in the Nordic school meal project ProMeal during the school year 2013-2014. A flexible discussion guide and stimulus material in the form of 14 photographs displaying different school lunch contexts were used. The discussions were analyzed using thematic analysis.
Findings
These Nordic children seem to share the adult-set aim of healthy eating in the school context as a socio-cultural norm. Although healthy eating was constructed as a rational, normative and acceptable way to eat at school, unhealthy eating was emphasized as negotiably acceptable when eaten occasionally and under certain circumstances (e.g. at special occasions). Unhealthy eating also comprised emotionally laden descriptions such as enjoyment and disgust.
Practical implications
Children’s conceptualizations of healthy eating are connected to nutritional, socio-cultural, emotional and normative dimensions, which should be reflected also when developing nutrition education in school.
Originality/value
The need for research exploring children’s experiences of, and understandings about, school lunch motivated this unique multicenter study with a large number of participating children. In the focus groups a child-oriented, photo-elicitation method was used.
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Najm Abood Najm and Wejdan Waleed Ali
The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of organizational readiness (OR) dimensions (organizational culture, climate and capability) on three types of innovations (INs…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of organizational readiness (OR) dimensions (organizational culture, climate and capability) on three types of innovations (INs) (service, process IN and entering new markets) in telecommunication companies. The study also tests the mediating role of employee engagement (EE) in the causal relationship between OR and IN.
Design/methodology/approach
In the theoretical framework, a deep and broad review of the literature was presented to determine the study variables and hypotheses that were tested in the field study. The study sample consisted of 306 respondents distributed to the headquarters of the three companies (Zain, Orange and Umniah) working in the Jordanian telecommunications sector. The number of questionnaires retrieved and valid for analysis was 255 (83%).
Findings
Results indicate a positive effect of organizational climate and organizational capacity on process IN and entering new markets. While organizational culture had no significant effect on the three types of IN EE did not have a mediating role in the relationship between OR and IN.
Research limitations/implications
The results of this study are related to the telecommunications sector as a highly competitive service sector and more able to work remotely with regard to customers, so its results cannot be generalized to other sectors such as the industry sector, which has suffered in recent years from the epidemic more than other sectors.
Practical implications
The study of OR as a concept, dimensions and effects provides great experience for leaders and managers facing the challenges of competition and threats posed by the Covid-19 pandemic. This study also helps researchers to study OR in new areas and in relation to other concepts.
Social implications
The OR covers a wide field that includes the individual, the group and the company. Therefore, readiness includes a social experience that can extend from the company to the community.
Originality/value
The study gains an important value by revealing that organizational culture as a dimension of readiness does not have a significant impact on IN. With the readiness to respond quickly to challenges, culture can be more inclined to the status quo and the prevailing routine than to IN and change.
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Janet R. McColl-Kennedy, Anders Gustafsson, Elina Jaakkola, Phil Klaus, Zoe Jane Radnor, Helen Perks and Margareta Friman
The purpose of this paper is to provide directions for future research on: broadening the role of customers in customer experience; taking a practice-based approach to customer…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide directions for future research on: broadening the role of customers in customer experience; taking a practice-based approach to customer experience; and recognizing the holistic, dynamic nature of customer experience across all touch points and over time.
Design/methodology/approach
The approach is conceptual identifying current gaps in research on customer experience.
Findings
The findings include a set of research questions and research agenda for future research on customer experience.
Originality/value
This research suggests fresh perspectives for understanding the customer experience which can inspire future research and advance theory and managerial practice.
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This study demonstrates how individual paradigms implicate the questions asked, methods used and results drawn in association with a common object of study in human information…
Abstract
Purpose
This study demonstrates how individual paradigms implicate the questions asked, methods used and results drawn in association with a common object of study in human information behavior (HIB) research – the relationship between uncertainty and decision-making.
Design/methodology/approach
The author uses textual case studies to examine uncertainty and decision-making through the framework of four paradigms used in HIB research: positivism, cognitivism, collectivism and constructionism and suggests deconstructionism as a paradigm which raises new questions around this topic.
Findings
Positivistic approaches to uncertainty are often systems oriented; cognitive approaches are often user-oriented; collectivist approaches are intersubjective; and constructionist approaches blend a subjective and intersubjective research orientation. Deconstructionism raises new questions around ethics and responsibility in relation to decision-making, and the author therefore situates it as a new paradigmatic approach for this topic in HIB research.
Originality/value
Despite the presence of research aimed at recognizing and defining paradigms in HIB research, a comparative micro-examination of how individual paradigms implicate a specific research topic has yet to be conducted. Each paradigm uniquely shapes the ways in which uncertainty and decision-making are characterized, but the four central ones examined here have thus far left out questions of ethics and responsibility as being core elements of decision-making as tied to uncertainty. Therefore, this paper introduces deconstructionism as a paradigm new to HIB uncertainty research, arguing that it provides an important and novel complication of existent research questions and approaches.
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Henrik Anders Ringsberg and Vahid Mirzabeiki
The paper aims to explore the potential effects on logistic operations of implementing the Electronic Product Code Information Service (EPCIS) standard and radio frequency…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to explore the potential effects on logistic operations of implementing the Electronic Product Code Information Service (EPCIS) standard and radio frequency identification (RFID) technology to enable food traceability. A conceptual model for analysing supply chains according to EPCIS standard is also presented.
Design/methodology/approach
A literature review was conducted to establish a theoretical framework. A case study of a Swedish fresh fish supply chain was then carried out.
Findings
Implementation of the EPCIS standard and RFID technology to enable food traceability potentially affects the following logistic operations activities: identification, monitoring, labelling, goods handling, reporting of production, identification costs and revenue changes due to sales of goods. The conceptual model was used to analyse the effects.
Research limitations/implications
The paper contributes to logistic research by studying the implementation of RFID technology and information standards to comply with food traceability requirements. The research is limited to fish supply chains; other sectors and supply chains need to be investigated for further generalisation of the results.
Practical implications
Regulatory requirements on food traceability stipulate the implementation of food traceability systems, placing the responsibility on companies by authorities. The research presented can support managers in understanding the potential effects of implementing such systems.
Originality/value
The discussion about logistics and food traceability has in part revolved around implementation of RFID technology and standardised approaches for handling information to preserve food quality and safety. This paper presents potential effects on logistic operations when implementing the EPCIS standard and RFID technology as a way of enabling traceability throughout food supply chains.