Hanna Kirjavainen and Harri Jalonen
Digitalization is transforming public service delivery, potentially increasing efficiency and availability but risking excluding vulnerable people with weak digital skills…
Abstract
Purpose
Digitalization is transforming public service delivery, potentially increasing efficiency and availability but risking excluding vulnerable people with weak digital skills. Despite technological advances, frontline professionals remain a crucial element of service value creation, as many services require human interaction, even if it is digitally mediated. This study surveys frontline professionals to capture their experiences and assess whether digital encounters meet their clients’ needs.
Design/methodology/approach
The dataset comprises 15 interviews with professionals assisting migrant clients. The data were analysed using abductive thematic analysis, utilizing viewpoints about the digital divide and digital public services from previous literature.
Findings
The study emphasizes three pivotal elements inherent in digital public encounters with migrant clients: (1) a high administrative burden due to clients’ weak technological competency, Finnish skills and knowledge of the local public service system, (2) the importance of interpersonal trust and (3) the shifting and pressurized role of the professional.
Originality/value
The main novelty of this study lies in illustrating that administrative burden and trust are interconnected. This study contributes to public management research by enhancing the understanding of digital public service development. It provides crucial insights from frontline professionals, which could pave the way for applying technology to public services to benefit all citizens, including vulnerable populations.
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Harri Jalonen, Jussi Kokkola, Harri Laihonen, Hanna Kirjavainen, Valtteri Kaartemo and Miika Vähämaa
This paper considers the potential of social media for developing public services. The paper approaches social media as a context that can provide information that might otherwise…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper considers the potential of social media for developing public services. The paper approaches social media as a context that can provide information that might otherwise be unattainable. The focus of analysis is on a special hard-to-reach group of marginalized youths who appear to have isolated themselves from society.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors answer the question: How can the experiences of socially withdrawn youth as shared on social media be used to enrich the knowledge base relating to the initiation phase of co-creation of public services? The data retrieved from the Finnish discussion forum are analyzed using the combination of unsupervised machine learning and discourse analysis.
Findings
The paper contributes by outlining a method that can be applied to identify expertise-by-experience from digital stories shared by marginalized youths. To overcome the challenges of making socially withdrawn youths real contributors to the co-creation of public services, this paper suggests several theoretical and managerial implications.
Originality/value
Co-creation assumes an interactive and dynamic relationship where value is created at the nexus of interaction. However, the evidence base for successful co-creation, particularly with digital technology, is limited. This paper fills the gap by providing findings from a case study that investigated how social media discussions can be a stimulus to enrich the knowledge base of the co-creation of public services.
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This article seeks to review the incidence of food allergy or food sensitization in children which has increased during the past decade and can manifest urticaria or angioedema…
Abstract
Purpose
This article seeks to review the incidence of food allergy or food sensitization in children which has increased during the past decade and can manifest urticaria or angioedema, anaphylaxis, atopic dermatitis, respiratory symptoms or gastro‐intestinal disorders, and to looks closely at probiotic therapy, which appears to alleviate allergy inflammation.
Design/methodology/approach
Literature related to probiotics and their exploitation as probiotic therapy for gastro‐intestinal allergenic infants has been primarily composed from two databases, namely, Dairy Science Abstracts and Entez Pub Med.
Findings
Development of intestinal microbiota is considered to be a consequential factor affecting the health of newborns and could be achieved by nutritional change in diet or by consumption of probiotic through fermented milks. Animal and human trials revealed that probiotics can affect host‐resistance to intestinal infection as well as various immune functions and alleviate intestinal inflammation, normalize gut mucosal dysfunction and down‐regulate hypersensitivity reaction. Mode of action of probiotics is mediated by the microbial composition as well as metabolic activity of the intestinal flora. Beneficial properties of probiotics suggest their application for probiotic therapy of food‐allergenic infants.
Originality/value
Ingestion of fermented milk products containing probiotic cultures may provide health benefits in terms of colonization and normalization of intestinal flora, thereby alleviating food allergenicity in infants.
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Increased evidence for the health benefits of probiotics for health restoration coupled with the consumer's inclination towards a safe, natural and cost-effective substitute for…
Abstract
Purpose
Increased evidence for the health benefits of probiotics for health restoration coupled with the consumer's inclination towards a safe, natural and cost-effective substitute for drugs have led application of probiotics as a pharmaceutical agent and are rapidly moving in clinical usage. In this context, this article attempts to highlight the potential of probiotics as a pharmaceutical agent.
Design/methodology/approach
Endeavor has been made to explore the significance of probiotics for the modulation of gut ecology and their action. Potentiality of probiotics for their exploitation as a pharmaceutical agent has also been justified. Limitations of probiotic therapy and the various considerations for probiotic therapy have also been delineated.
Findings
Probiotic organisms influence the physiological and pathological process of the host by modifying the intestinal microbiota, thereby affecting human health. Beneficial effects of probiotics as a pharmaceutical agent seem to be strain and dose dependent and more efficacious with their early introduction. Combination of various probiotics proved to be more efficacious than single strain for exhibiting prophylactic activities.
Research limitations/implications
Reviewed literature indicated that it is difficult to generalize for the beneficial effect of all probiotics for all types of diseases as efficacy of probiotics is strain-dependent and dose-dependent and its clinical application needs long-term investigations.
Practical implications
Clinical trials have displayed that probiotics may alleviate certain disorders or diseases in humans especially those related to gastro-intestinal tract.
Originality/value
Ingestion of fermented dairy products containing probiotic cultures may provide health benefits in certain clinical conditions such as antibiotic-associated diarrhoea, rotavirus-associated diarrhoea, inflammatory bowel disease, inflammatory bowel syndrome, allergenic diseases, cancer, Helicobacter pylori infection and lactose-intolerance. Application of probiotics as a pharmaceutical agent is recommended.
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Liufang Zhang and Ing Grace Phang
This study aims to examine the impact of non-fungible tokens (NFTs’) characteristics on Chinese consumers’ purchase intention towards luxury fashion physical products. It also…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine the impact of non-fungible tokens (NFTs’) characteristics on Chinese consumers’ purchase intention towards luxury fashion physical products. It also investigates the mediating role of perceived hedonic value and moderating role of perceived NFT–physical product fit during the buying process.
Design/methodology/approach
A conceptual model combining Stimuli–Organism–Response Model and Theory of Consumption Value was established. A purposive sampling method was adopted to collect data from luxury fashion consumers aged 21–41 who lived in four Tier 1 cities in China. Structural equation modelling and SmartPLS 4.0 were utilized to analyse the 304 valid questionnaires collected.
Findings
The study’s findings indicate that luxury fashion NFTs with four characteristics (NFT scarcity, NFT exclusivity, NFT design aesthetic and NFT novelty) affect Chinese consumers’ purchase intention towards luxury fashion physical products positively, with perceived hedonic value mediating these relationships. Further, perceived NFT–physical product fit moderates the relationship between perceived hedonic value and purchase intention.
Originality/value
This study bridges a gap in investigating the interplay between NFTs as intangible collectibles and tangible products, by stressing the significant role played by NFTs in influencing the purchase intention of luxury fashion products. This paper contributes to an understanding of consumers’ psychological responses and behaviours towards NFTs, providing a new perspective in the study of luxury fashion NFTs in the context of marketing strategy and consumption.
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Mika Maliranta, Satu Nurmi and Hanna Virtanen
The purpose of this paper is to examine the determinants of labour market outcomes after the initial vocational basic education (ISCED 3).
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the determinants of labour market outcomes after the initial vocational basic education (ISCED 3).
Design/methodology/approach
A multinomial logit model is used for examining the effect of school resources and other factors on students' post‐schooling outcomes defined as employment, further studies, non‐employment and dropping out. Analysis has been done by using unique linked register data on students, their parents, teachers, educational organisations and business companies in Finland.
Findings
The results indicate that teaching expenditures do not matter but teachers' characteristics have a role to play. Teachers with a university degree increase the employment probability of the students, whereas the formal competence of the teachers does not have such positive effects. The students' characteristics and performance in comprehensive schools play an important role in determining the outcomes. Local business conditions affect the outcomes of boys but less those of girls. The official quality evaluations adopted in recent years seem to pay attention especially to such aspects of education production that are important for providing capabilities for further studies but less so for employability.
Originality/value
Employability seems to be a great challenge to the initial vocational basic education. The findings for local business conditions give support to the view that measures of education policy do not suffice but need to be complemented with those of regional or employment policy, for example, policies aiming to increase regional mobility of the labour force. Such complementary tools are particularly important for boys.
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Probiotics confer protection against pathogens owing to their capability to compete with pathogens or their displacement by adhering to intestinal epithelial cells. Diverse health…
Abstract
Purpose
Probiotics confer protection against pathogens owing to their capability to compete with pathogens or their displacement by adhering to intestinal epithelial cells. Diverse health benefits extended by probiotics led to their application as functional foods. The aim of this paper is to explore probiotics as functional foods.
Design/methodology/approach
Endeavour has been made to explore prerequisites for a cultured milk product to be called as a probiotics food. Potentiality of probiotics for their exploitation as functional foods has also been delineated.
Findings
Probiotics demonstrate various prophylactic properties and their efficacy are influenced by strain of cultures employed. Probiotics confer diverse human health benefits such as normalization of intestinal flora, anticarcinogenesis, hypocholesterolemic effect, alleviation of lactose malabsorption and allergy. Beneficial properties of probiotics suggest their application as functional foods.
Originality/value
Ingestion of cultured milk products containing probiotic cultures may provide health benefits and could be recommended for consumption as functional foods.