Katrina Nordström and Mikaela Biström
This study explores technological factors influencing the development of functional food products. The specific aim was to investigate if the concept of a dominant design holds…
Abstract
This study explores technological factors influencing the development of functional food products. The specific aim was to investigate if the concept of a dominant design holds true for functional foods. By using consumer acceptance as the measure of product dominance, it is postulated that market pressure inherent to functional foods becomes established by the perceived value to consumers. This value is due to the inherent and documented health advantages, taste, user convenience and competitive price. Switching costs, which create barriers to entry, for functional foods are due to the establishment of a technological solution, patenting, meeting regulatory approval and brand assets in connection to marketing. It is also postulated that in the development of functional foods, a product innovation phase leads into process innovation alternatives. These alternatives arise from different precursors of dominant designs.
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Katrina M. Nordström, Marko O. Närhi and Ari P.J. Vepsäläinen
Tissue engineering (TE) offers treatments for chronic, life threatening, degenerative illnesses and possibilities for restoring cellular or organ functions that have been lost due…
Abstract
Purpose
Tissue engineering (TE) offers treatments for chronic, life threatening, degenerative illnesses and possibilities for restoring cellular or organ functions that have been lost due to injuries or hereditary conditions. However, a prerequisite for the use of TE products as part of future therapies is the development of strategies for safe and efficient supply chain management and versatile services spanning from product development to a follow‐up period of possibly decades. The present study aims to explore the future needs for services and extended supply chains for safe delivery of health care, procurement, distribution and long‐term follow‐up of TE products and therapies.
Design/methodology/approach
Studies in operational disciplines and coordination systems for different types of supply chains and service networks are used to formulate a framework for developing services throughout product lifecycle. Case examples of TE products are presented to demonstrate complexity, microbial risks, services and long‐term follow‐up. The role of logistics and the necessary services are identified for products classified into experimental, therapy and standard products.
Findings
The paper finds that, through the stages, the importance of logistics increases from an enabler to becoming a strategic tool, emphasizing logistics requirements in establishing a viable TE supply chain. New dimensions to existing service operations frameworks are needed where proactive tissue sourcing, long follow‐up periods, short shelf life and biological risks call for enforcing flexible services with tissue banks, detailed tracing, authorization and regulation.
Originality/value
The paper presents the discovery of the logistics services and service institutions that will become imperatives for the future success of TE products and therapies.
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Care-fully attending to the ontologies embedded within educational research, this chapter provokes readers to consider the epistemic worlding of qualitative research. Drawing on…
Abstract
Care-fully attending to the ontologies embedded within educational research, this chapter provokes readers to consider the epistemic worlding of qualitative research. Drawing on the intersections of feminist poststructuralism, post-humanism, and new material feminisms, educational research can be seen as happening to worlds while also making worlds. As such, educational researchers are invited to care for the ethical entanglement among the research, researcher, researched, and reader. Bringing diverse mo(ve)ments into conversation, a minor sequence for decentering the educational researcher is presented. One example is the destabilization of conventional data triangulation through “Talking Triads.” Thinking with/in a multimodal triad gestures toward the possibility of engaging all scholarship as an intimate endeavor. More specifically, this chapter begins to illuminate how textual re/presentations of becoming-minor inherently raise tensions between nonhuman structures (e.g., time, tradition, concepts, mirrors, literature) and the human experience of being-educational researcher. From mirrors to monsters, the manifestation of “I” becomes-with/in that which is more than human.
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FR. Oswald A. J. Mascarenhas, S.J.
The stable and predictable agricultural, infrastructure, manufacturing, and energy economies of hard products have been followed by economies that offer softer products such as…
Abstract
Executive Summary
The stable and predictable agricultural, infrastructure, manufacturing, and energy economies of hard products have been followed by economies that offer softer products such as services, information, knowledge, health care, digitization, networking, globalization, entertainment, sustainability, and currently, well-being and happiness. Such soft market products are loaded with buyer–seller information asymmetries (BSIA) that create market risk, market uncertainty, market chaos, and ambiguity – all of which are specific types of market turbulence. In this context, this chapter investigates the phenomena of turbulence, specifically environmental turbulence whose major subsets are technological turbulence and market turbulence. We cite several recent geopolitical variables and events that have aggravated market turbulence such as Chinese economic invasion of global markets, global climate change, Brexit, international asylum-seeking migrations, artificial intelligence, and demonetization. We also define market turbulence as varied forms of BSIA for which both marketers and consumers must have appropriate joint responsibility. In addition, we focus on ethical and moral marketing responsibilities for reducing BSIA under each type of turbulence.
Elisa Martinelli, Giulia Tagliazucchi and Gianluca Marchi
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the formative dimensions of organizational resilience – namely dynamic capabilities (DCs) and social capital – displayed by retail…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the formative dimensions of organizational resilience – namely dynamic capabilities (DCs) and social capital – displayed by retail entrepreneurs in the face of natural disasters (i.e. the 2012 Emilia earthquake). The paper evaluates social capital and the various types of DCs that support small entrepreneurs’ resilience during three temporal units of analysis: before the earthquake, during the emergency period, and during the recovery process.
Design/methodology/approach
The study was performed by applying a qualitative approach based on two focus groups and a double set of semi-structured interviews administered to a sample of eight small retail entrepreneurs hit by the 2012 Emilia earthquake. Content analysis was then applied.
Findings
The findings show that DCs and social capital are instrumental to enhancing organizational resilience; moreover the contribution of each category of DCs (reconfiguration, leveraging, sensing and interpreting, learning and knowledge integration) and social capital to entrepreneurs’ resilience changes according to the temporal phase of the natural disaster under analysis.
Research limitations/implications
This study will provide small retailer entrepreneurs and public authorities with useful insights on how DCs and social capital can practically support recovery paths at different times in the occurrence of a natural disaster.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the scientific debate on organizational resilience in disaster management, studying it through the lens of DCs and social capital, and analyzing the role of different types of DCs in developing entrepreneurs’ resilience during the various periods of a natural disaster. Moreover, it contributes by applying the concepts of resilience and DCs to a poorly investigated entrepreneurial context such as the retail one.
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The purpose of this paper is to describe the impacts of earthquakes on schools and education services and demonstrate the critical role that information and communication…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to describe the impacts of earthquakes on schools and education services and demonstrate the critical role that information and communication technologies (ICTs) can play in supporting the continuity of education delivery during temporary school closures after seismic events.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper relies on a conceptual analysis that shows the potential role of the online educational environment during post-earthquake school closures by relying on the available ICT tools.
Findings
This paper proposes a pro-active strategy for schools that transforms traditional education into an online learning environment to restore education delivery during school closures after earthquake which disrupts face-to-face teaching and denies students and staffs access to schools.
Originality/value
The sustainability of education delivery in the aftermath of earthquakes presents a challenge to governments, schools, people and communities. This paper contributes to the literature by demonstrating the role of online learning in sustaining educational delivery services after moderate earthquakes.
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Amaia Maseda, Txomin Iturralde, Gloria Aparicio and Sarah Y. Cooper
This study aims to underline the importance of addressing gender issues in family firms. It reinvigorates research in this field by revealing its current state, identifying…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to underline the importance of addressing gender issues in family firms. It reinvigorates research in this field by revealing its current state, identifying research gaps and suggesting future agendas.
Design/methodology/approach
A bibliometric approach using a co-word analysis of 376 papers from the Web of Science database and their 885 keywords was performed to reveal the thematic structure of gender and family firm research, research topics, associations among them and their evolution over the last 30 years (1991–2021).
Findings
This review provides an extensive literature base and suggests research topics that facilitate the adoption of a gendered lens in family firm literature and business practice.
Research limitations/implications
This review demonstrates how gender issues are intertwined with management, leadership and family firm approaches. Our observations inform scholars, policymakers and practitioners on the need to integrate gender issues into organizational culture and to connect empowerment strategies with the sociocultural environment.
Originality/value
This study shows the need to address women’s empowerment in business, considering different sociocultural contexts in addition to a Western focus. It also calls for embracing gender and feminist perspectives in research.
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Groups of students were enrolled in a course that sought to produce a three-phase theoretical model over three semesters.
Abstract
Purpose
Groups of students were enrolled in a course that sought to produce a three-phase theoretical model over three semesters.
Design/methodology/approach
A design project to comprehensively address school violence was launched at a university in eastern Pennsylvania.
Findings
This article updates the recent and most critical finding of the project by illuminating specific implications of the importance of teacher training and the development toward competence in recognition of children who are emotionally and psychologically injured through proactive measures such as screening for emotional and psychological well-being.
Research limitations/implications
Although the model has not been tested, screening to identify those in need of emotional support and training to support teachers is clear. Screening and training offer important opportunities to help learners build skills toward resilience to soften the effects of trauma.
Practical implications
A view of the “whole child” with regard to academic success could further foster social and emotional development.
Social implications
Early intervention can prevent the onset of symptoms associated with posttraumatic stress and related disorders. This effort alone may significantly reduce the uncomfortable incidences and perhaps ultimate prevention of the violence that is perpetuated among children.
Originality/value
Preliminary research supports a continued conversation regarding effective tools to find children emotionally and psychologically at-risk, which allows teachers an opportunity for timely emotional and psychological interventions.