Elisabeth Assing Hvidt, Thomas Ploug and Søren Holm
Telephone crisis services are increasingly subject to a requirement to “prove their worth” as a suicide prevention strategy. The purpose of this paper is to: first, provide a…
Abstract
Purpose
Telephone crisis services are increasingly subject to a requirement to “prove their worth” as a suicide prevention strategy. The purpose of this paper is to: first, provide a detailed overview of the evidence on the impact of telephone crisis services on suicidal users; second, determine the limitations of the outcome measures used in this evidence; and third, suggest directions for future research.
Design/methodology/approach
MEDLINE via Pubmed (from 1966), PsycINFO APA (from 1967) and ProQuest Dissertation and Theses (all to 4 June 2015) were searched. Papers were systematically extracted by title then abstract according to predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria.
Findings
In total, 18 articles met inclusion criteria representing a range of outcome measures: changes during calls, reutilization of service, compliance with advice, caller satisfaction and counsellor satisfaction. The majority of studies showed beneficial impact on an immediate and intermediate degree of suicidal urgency, depressive mental states as well as positive feedback from users and counsellors.
Research limitations/implications
A major limitation pertains to differences in the use of the term “suicidal”. Other limitations include the lack of long-term follow-up and of controlled research designs. Future research should include a focus on long-term follow-up designs, involving strict data protection. Furthermore, more qualitative research is needed in order to capture the essential nature of the intervention.
Originality/value
This paper attempts to broaden the study and the concept of “effectiveness” as hitherto used in the literature about telephone crisis services and offers suggestions for future research.
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Laura Tapp, Glyn Elwyn, Adrian Edwards, Søren Holm and Tina Eriksson
Quality improvement (QI) processes in family medicine are becoming increasingly complex. Their influence on the organisation of the sector and on the daily work processes is…
Abstract
Purpose
Quality improvement (QI) processes in family medicine are becoming increasingly complex. Their influence on the organisation of the sector and on the daily work processes is profound and increasing. The literature indicates that many ethical issues are arising from QI work. Therefore this paper aims to identify the experiences of professionals involved in planning and performing QI programmes in European family medicine on the ethical implications involved in those processes.
Design/methodology/approach
Four focus groups were carried out with 29 general practitioners (GPs) and administrators of general practice quality work in Europe. Two focus groups comprised EQuiP members and two focus groups comprised attendees to an invitational conference on QI in family medicine held by EQuiP in Barcelona in November 2006.
Findings
Four overarching themes were identified, including implications of using patient data, prioritising QI projects, issues surrounding the ethical approval dilemma and the impact of QI. Each theme was accompanied by an identified solution.
Practical implications
Prioritising is necessary and in doing that GPs should ensure that a variety of work is conducted so that some patient groups are not neglected. Transparency and flexibility on various levels is necessary to avoid harmful consequences of QI in terms of bureaucratisation, increased workload and burnout on part of the GP and harmful effects on the doctor‐patient relationship. There is a need to address the system of approval for national QI programmes and QI projects utilising more sophisticated methodologies.
Originality/value
This study provides data from GPs who are experienced quality improvers across 17 countries. Many ethical issues were identified and it was possible to clearly map the themes and their relationships and to summarise the identified solutions from an international perspective.
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Yigal Rosen, Garrett Jaeger, Michelle Newstadt, Sara Bakken, Ilia Rushkin, Maneeza Dawood and Chris Purifoy
Despite the fact that research on creativity and cognition have garnered the attention of researchers and practitioners for decades, there is a lack of valid, reliable, and…
Abstract
Purpose
Despite the fact that research on creativity and cognition have garnered the attention of researchers and practitioners for decades, there is a lack of valid, reliable, and accessible instruments for enhancing and measuring these critical skills. Leveraging research from The LEGO Foundation and in collaboration with BrainPOP and the Learning Economy Foundation, this paper introduces an assessment framework for holistic skills and reports evidence from the 2022 validation study.
Design/methodology/approach
The complexities associated with both competencies such as multidimensionality, authenticity, and domain specificity pose a major issue for its measurement and credentialing. This paper provides evidence-based insights on promising ways to measure and provide actionable insights on holistic skills.
Findings
Preliminary evidence supports the assessment framework for holistic skills.
Research limitations/implications
Future directions for further development of the assessment are discussed.
Practical implications
The framework should also be of help for practitioners looking for research-based guiding principles for the design of learning-through-play activities aimed to help develop holistic skills across a wide range of digital, physical, and hybrid modalities.
Social implications
The framework provides new instruments and insights for evaluating the social and educational impact of learning-through-play programs and initiatives.
Originality/value
The learning progressions and formative assessment for holistic skills development are novel and clearly needed in research and practice of learning-through-play.
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Søren Bøye Olsen, Jürgen Meyerhoff, Morten Raun Mørkbak and Ole Bonnichsen
Fatigue effects related to answering a sequence of choice tasks have received much scrutiny in the stated choice experiments (SCE) literature. However, decision fatigue related to…
Abstract
Purpose
Fatigue effects related to answering a sequence of choice tasks have received much scrutiny in the stated choice experiments (SCE) literature. However, decision fatigue related to the time of day when respondents answer questionnaires has been largely overlooked in this literature even though time of day related fatigue effects are well known in the psychology literature. The purpose of this paper is to hypothesize that variations in the time of day when respondents answer an online food choice experiment will translate into observable fatigue effects in the food choices.
Design/methodology/approach
An empirical SCE concerning food choices is conducted using a web-based questionnaire for interviews in a pre-recruited online panel of consumers. Timestamps collected during the online interviews provide knowledge about the time of day at which each respondent has answered the survey. This information is linked with knowledge from a food sociology survey on typical meal times as well as biophysical research linking food intake to blood sugar and mental energy in order to generate a proxy variable for each respondent’s level of mental energy when answering the food choice tasks in the questionnaire.
Findings
Results show evidence of a time of day effect on error variance in the stated food choices as well as the subsequently estimated market share predictions. Specifically, respondents provide less consistent answers during the afternoon than at other times of the day.
Originality/value
The results indicate that time of day can affect responses to an online survey through increased fatigue and correspondingly less choice consistency. Thus, especially online surveys might account for this in data analysis or even restrict accessibility to the online survey for certain times of day.
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Søren Graungaard Pedersen, Frederik Zachariassen and Jan Stentoft Arlbjørn
The purpose of this paper is to explore the major drivers behind the choice of centralising versus decentralising warehousing locations from a small‐ and medium‐sized enterprise…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the major drivers behind the choice of centralising versus decentralising warehousing locations from a small‐ and medium‐sized enterprise (SME) perspective. Previous literature has investigated this solely from a large company perspective.
Design/methodology/approach
An in‐depth literature review was carried out and, in addition, a single case study was conducted in order to investigate the issue at hand. A Danish medium‐sized do‐it‐yourself (DIY) retailer was chosen, as this company faced the challenge of deciding between centralisation vs decentralisation of its warehousing structure.
Findings
The paper has two findings: existing literature does not deal with the difference between SMEs and large companies when speaking of centralised vs decentralised warehousing; and the difference between SMEs and large companies with regard to centralised vs decentralised warehousing lies in the fact that SMEs generally have scarcity in competences and fewer resources, have fewer advantages of economies of scale in a centralised setting, and, finally, have fewer management resources to carry out a centralisation project.
Research limitations/implications
It is a limitation of this research that a statistical generalisation is not possible. Therefore, the findings in this paper might not be applicable for all SMEs.
Practical implications
When speaking of centralising vs decentralising warehousing, SMEs should be aware that different drivers are at play when compared with larger companies.
Originality/value
Research in supply chain management and logistics has not addressed the consequences of warehousing structure from an SME perspective.
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The idea of Evidence-Informed Practice (EIP) was introduced in Denmark at a national policy level with the 2013 national school reform. After 10 years of gradual development…
Abstract
The idea of Evidence-Informed Practice (EIP) was introduced in Denmark at a national policy level with the 2013 national school reform. After 10 years of gradual development towards an output-oriented, accountability-based school system, the school reform fully realized the idea of a school system, which was oriented towards learning objectives and based on capacity building and supporting professional capital. One element of professional capital was EIP, and this idea was supported financially both by the parliament and large private foundations (e.g. the Maersk Foundation). However, for different reasons, the national reform created a lot of resistance among teachers and the national teacher union, including a number of pedagogical researchers. Partly, the reform was underfunded, and partly it represented a qualitative change from understanding teaching as craft to observing it as a rational, research-informed professional practice. The result was that EIP was met with scepticism among many teachers. After 6–7 years of EIP development, the current status is that one can identify a small, yet statistical significant positive correlation between teachers' professional, evidence-informed collaboration, and their job satisfaction. However, there have been no significant changes to student achievement, well-being and teaching experiences. Part of the explanation seems to be that EIP has been introduced with a combination of high social regulation and low social cohesion, pointing towards a fatalist system approach. However, this is not an expression of an intentional approach, but rather the result of a lack of teacher acceptance. One important reason for this was that the reform was underfunded. Consequently, it was combined with a labour market conflict followed by an increase of teachers hours without an increase of salary. This resulted in a legitimation crisis, which negatively influenced the teachers' acceptance of the school reform, including the idea of EIP.
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Simon Wyke, Søren Munch Lindhard and Jesper Kranker Larsen
Cost and time are two of the primary benchmarks in which construction projects are measured. A variety of factors, however, affect cost and time on construction projects, as…
Abstract
Purpose
Cost and time are two of the primary benchmarks in which construction projects are measured. A variety of factors, however, affect cost and time on construction projects, as identified in previous research. This has led to a need for better understanding how factors affecting cost and time overruns on public construction projects can be managed more efficiently. The purpose of this paper is to address these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
In this study 26 factors affecting cost and time overruns on construction projects were identified, through qualitative interviews with project managers from Danish governmental agencies and through a literature review. Through principal component analyses the 26 factors were subsequently narrowed down to four primary latent factors.
Findings
The identified four latent factors affecting cost and time overruns on public construction projects were lack of quality management, lack of project pre-planning, lack of user management and lack of project management.
Originality/value
Previous research has focussed on increasing knowledge by identifying and ranking factors affecting time and cost performance. This has led to the identification of an overwhelming number of factors to use for managing construction projects. The present research reduced the number of factors by clustering them into key latent factors responsible for most of the deviation in performance, narrowing the scope of construction cost and time management into a few tangible key focus areas. This supports and improves fast decision-making that is necessary in a changeable environment such as construction.
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Muhammad Usman, Wim Vanhaverbeke and Nadine Roijakkers
This study explores how open innovation (OI) can be instrumental for entrepreneurs in sensing and seizing entrepreneurial opportunities in small and medium enterprises (SMEs)…
Abstract
Purpose
This study explores how open innovation (OI) can be instrumental for entrepreneurs in sensing and seizing entrepreneurial opportunities in small and medium enterprises (SMEs). This study also illustrates how OI can help SMEs overcome the liability of smallness.
Design/methodology/approach
This is exploratory research using an inductive, multiple-case study approach. This study capitalizes on five in-depth case studies of European SMEs to explore a phenomenon using replication logic and provide a robust basis for theory building.
Findings
This study presents a holistic view of the OI process in SMEs and illustrates the crucial role of entrepreneurs. The study provides a better understanding of how OI can help entrepreneurs sense and seize entrepreneurial opportunities by envisioning venture ideas and implementing business model innovation through the management of innovation partners.
Originality/value
The study emphasizes two critical roles of entrepreneurs in implementing OI in SMEs. First, the entrepreneur can be the instigator of strategic change, and second, he/she can orchestrate the innovation network. The findings emphasize that OI helps avoid knowledge corridors at the venture idea stage, leading to a (re)structuring of the business model and the emergence of a network of innovation partners, which should be managed hands-on. This study discusses in detail the two crucial roles of entrepreneurs.
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Jonatan Leer and Camilla Hoff-Jørgensen
This article explores consumers' attitudes to the trend of gourmet burgers, notably the gourmet burgers' combination of highbrow food (gourmet) and lowbrow food (fast food). The…
Abstract
Purpose
This article explores consumers' attitudes to the trend of gourmet burgers, notably the gourmet burgers' combination of highbrow food (gourmet) and lowbrow food (fast food). The authors use the case of the NOMA cheeseburger from the iconic New Nordic restaurant NOMA.
Design/methodology/approach
The data set consists of interviews (n = 20) with urban Danish consumers attending the NOMA burger pop-up.
Findings
The analysis highlights an acceptance among informants of “gourmetfied” burgers. This signals a change in the culinary status of burgers in Danish food culture. The authors also discovered some ambivalence in relation to the highbrow-lowbrow negotiations: while all informants celebrate the casualization of NOMA during the burger pop-up, half of the informants found the burger underwhelming: it did not live up to the edginess of the NOMA brand.
Practical implications
The authors believe this research can inform people working with culinary highbrow-lowbrow mix in their food designs, notably in relation to developing and matching the relation between symbolic and material aspects of the food design.
Originality/value
The authors argue that the concept of transgression can help us theorize how consumers accept, refuse, and negotiate boundaries in relation to gourmet burgers, and more generally between food consumption mixing highbrow and lowbrow elements. More particularly, the authors propose to distinguish between symbolic, social, and material transgressions. This perspective might also be interesting for practitioners in the field.