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Little attention has been paid to the employability of academic staff and the extent to which continuous learning contributes to academic career success. The purpose of this paper is to explore the contribution of formal and informal learning to employability.

Survey data were obtained from 139 academic staff members employed at the Open University in the Netherlands. The questionnaire included employee characteristics, job characteristics, organizational context factors, formal learning and informal learning and employability variables.

Informal learning, such as networking and learning value of the job, appeared to be solid contributors to employability, while the impact of formal learning activities was far less significant. Further, the study revealed the impact of employee and organizational context factors upon informal learning and employability. Age, salary and learning climate appeared to be strong predictors for informal learning, while promotions were shown to be highly positive contributors to employability.

The findings stress the value of informal learning, although human resource policies that encourage both formal and informal learning are recommended.

Academic careers comprise an under-researched area and the same applies to the relationship between learning and employability in the context of these types of careers.

This study aims to design and validate a conceptual and practical model of co-creation. Co-creation, to design collaborative new products, services and processes in contact with users, has become more and more important because organisations increasingly require multidisciplinary collaboration inside and outside the organisation to respond to challenges and create added value.

This is a design and validation study, which uses mixed-methods, a reconstructive design and a semi-structured interview with a questionnaire as validation. The designed model is validated by 14 scholars and practitioners across fields.

Designed is a conceptual and practical model, the four-dimensional Co-Creation-Wheel, which contains success factors for co-creation: 12 internal team factors plus 4 external conditions and a core. The validation study of this model, scientifically and as a practical instrument, supported the importance of the components of the model and suggested slight improvements. This resulted in a refinement of the first designed Co-Creation-Wheel.

Although restricted usefulness to large-scale structured innovation practices was expected, the instrument has a broader reach. First applications demonstrate that this Co-Creation-Wheel is multifunctional and international. It inspires, supports reflection of collaboration, stimulates interventions to enhance co-creation practices and human resource development (HRD) activities and is able to measure the quality of co-creation elements. Further research on its effects in co-creation practices is necessary, especially on the role of HRD in co-creation..

This study is the first to design and validate a multifaceted, holistic conceptual and practical model of co-creation that is easy to use for innovators in practice and is multifunctional.

The purpose of this paper is to test the feasibility of a conceptual model on relations between organisational innovation, knowledge productivity and social capital. It explores processes of knowledge productivity for sustainable innovation and associated HRD implications in knowledge intensive organisations, taking the perspective that social capital is a key influencing condition.

This qualitative case-study concerned a large-scale innovation project between knowledge-intensive organisations. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 participants from six innovation groups as well as with the project management.

Findings showed that four dimensions of social capital influence knowledge productivity, each requiring a minimum quality to create a rich innovation environment for sustainable results. The relational and cognitive dimensions seem most important, while the action dimension makes them productive. Knowledge productivity appears twofold, i.e. organisational innovation, and professional ability for future innovation. Found are 18 new indicators.

Only one large-scale inter-organisational case was conducted.

It is suggested that project management, group leaders and HRD officers target social capital as condition for knowledge productivity that should be stimulated, not just by planned interventions, but by “being” there as supporter, coach and mediator.

The article contributes to our knowledge about innovations in knowledge-rich organisations, broadens the concept of knowledge productivity, and provides a new framework of social capital as intervention model for HRD. In addition, not often dealt with in literature, the dynamic of innovation is shown.

Workplace learning and HRD are considered legitimate topics for study and investigation alongside organisational strategies and practices. Considers key themes in the workplace earning literature in addition to its relationship with HRD. Identifies a paradigm shift from formalised, intermittent and discontinuous learning to increasingly informal, experiential, asynchronous and real‐time situated learning. Highlights three contemporary themes in both the workplace learning and HRD literatures, namely: knowledge, expertise, competence and capability; organisational learning; and employability and career issues.

Investigates the effectiveness of on‐the‐job training (OJT). Presents a definition of OJT used for this research project which involved two studies: the first in the call centres of a large company, and the second in post offices. Gives the results of the study which indicate the OJT programs were only partially successful in realising training goals. Indicates that self‐efficacy, prior experience with tasks, managerial support and workload were the most powerful predictors for training effectiveness. Concludes that the evidence suggests that OJT is not entirely an effective training method although more research is needed in this area.

Although training is essential to continuous improvement, scant literature examines post-training facilitators for continuous improvement. The study aims to explore the relationship between training and continuous improvement, the mediating role of self-efficacy and the moderate role of training transfer climate.

This study utilizes the questionnaire survey of 455 Vietnamese employees to test the link between continuous improvement training and continuous improvement, the moderate role of the training transfer climate and the mediating role of self–efficacy.

Research results reveal that training positively influences continuous improvement. Furthermore, self-efficacy fully intervenes in the link between training and continuous improvement. Finally, the training transfer climate positively moderates this link.

Although the link between training and continuous improvement is suspicious, there is scant research on post-training facilitators of continuous improvement applications. To the best of the author's knowledge, this study is one of the first to explore the moderation role of transfer climate and the mediation role of self-efficacy in the relationship between training and continuous improvement.

Last-mile delivery is associated with a negative environmental impact and high costs. The purpose of this paper is to develop an approach to designing stationary parcel locker (SPL) networks while minimizing both CO₂ equivalent (CO₂e) emissions and costs during delivery and pick-up.

This study uses a multinomial logit model to evaluate recipients' willingness to use SPLs based on their availability at home and travel distance. To determine optimal SPL locations, this study formulates a mixed-integer linear programming model.

The empirical study of different regional clusters reveals that optimal SPL locations can generate cost savings of up to 11.0%. SPLs have a positive impact on total CO₂e emission savings in urban areas (i.e. up to 2.5%), but give rise to additional emissions (i.e. 4.6%) in less populated areas due to longer travel distances during the pick-up process.

This paper optimizes SPL locations and the ecological effect of SPLs by minimizing emissions and costs simultaneously. Furthermore, it extends existing discrete choice models by also including recipients' availability at home, increasing the accuracy of recipients' preferences. So far, the effect of SPLs has been studied for metropolitan areas only. A global logistics service provider shared a real dataset which allows us to study seven different regional clusters ranging from rural areas to large cities. Thus, this study contributes to the field of sustainable urban logistics.

The e-commerce boom presents new challenges for last-mile delivery (LMD), which may be mitigated by new delivery technologies. This paper evaluates the impact of mobile parcel lockers (MPL) on costs and CO₂ equivalent (CO₂e) emissions in existing LMD networks, which include home delivery and shipments to stationary parcel lockers.

To describe customers’ preferences, we design a multinomial logit model based on recipients’ travel distance to pick-up locations and availability at home. Based on route cost estimation, we define the operating costs for MPLs. We devise a mathematical model with binary decision variables to optimize the location of MPLs.

Our study demonstrates that integrating MPLs leads to additional cost savings of 8.7% and extra CO₂e emissions savings of up to 5.4%. Our analysis of several regional clusters suggests that MPLs yield benefits in highly populous cities but may result in additional emissions in more rural areas where recipients drive longer distances to pick-ups.

This paper designs a suitable operating model for MPLs and demonstrates environmental and economic savings. Moreover, it adds recipients’ availability at home to receive parcels improving the accuracy of stochastic demand. In addition, MPLs are evaluated in the context of several regional clusters ranging from large cities to rural areas. Thus, we provide managerial guidance to logistics service providers how and where to deploy MPLs.

With a host of changes being driven by automation, digitalization and robotization, every business today comprises some digital aspect. Possessing digital skills is key for staying employable. Because digital skill requirements of employers are constantly being redefined, an alignment between industry and academia is necessary to develop a workforce that can promote economic growth and societal welfare. This study aims to analyse the differences in employer expectations as compared to management graduates’ perceptions regarding the digital skills and abilities necessary for human resources to be employable.

Qualitative content analysis techniques have been used to demonstrate the thematic convergence of data collected using focus groups. A series of seven focus groups were conducted with two respondent groups – HR professionals (n = 26) and final-year postgraduate management students (n = 32). NVivo was used to analyze the transcripts.

The findings establish a qualitative hierarchy of 15 digital skills necessary for management graduates to be employable. These have been mapped onto the typology of managerial skills (technical, human and conceptual) given by Katz (1955). The salience of the themes identified varies significantly across the two respondent groups.

The novelty of this study lies in establishing a qualitative hierarchy of digital skills essential to be employable. By mapping the differences in management graduates’ understanding of employability and HR expectations regarding digital skills, the study generates new insights for examining the student-job fit.