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This paper aims to introduce a new incremental sheet metal‐forming process. By moving a hammering tool over a sheet of metal fixed in a frame, a three‐dimensional workpiece can be produced without using any special die plate.

This paper describes the exact procedure of the new process and the advantages in comparison with other flexible conventional and incremental forming processes. The hammering process in particular, will be considered with respect to material behavior and effects on the industrial robot. In addition, a special path generation for the incremental forming process and multiple robot tools with different drives constructed for the incremental forming process is shown.

During the research it was discovered that complex geometries can be produced without any die plate and that a hammering tool with a mechanical eccentric should be used for the incremental forming process.

As the forces on the handling equipment are very low compared with other forming processes, a common industrial robot can be used to move the hammering tool. Thus sheet metal parts can be produced with cost‐effective equipment. Mainly, small and medium‐sized enterprises can benefit from this new technology.

The incremental forming process presented in this paper is patented by the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation. It is the first time that sheet metal parts with a size of 300×300 mm are formed by a hammering tool with 100 hits/s.

This paper contributes insights into how different firm types in the emerging market (EM) of Turkey respond to upgrading pressures in terms of internationalization and the usage of domestic political support. It seeks to highlight how the usage of and the responses to different strategies, connections and policy instruments vary with firm types.

Binary logistic regression analysis is used to differentiate and identify characteristics of firms regarding market-seeking strategies and their usage of institutional and financial support. The analysis is based on survey data from firms located in the metro-region of Istanbul: advanced market multinational enterprises (AMNEs), Turkish MNEs (TMNEs) and domestic Turkish firms (DTFs).

Different types of firms within the population of innovative firms in the EM setting of Turkey show significant variety regarding the usage of and the responses to key factors affecting internationalization. AMNEs particularly benefit from investment and export incentives as well as from establishing political connections in Turkey. DTFs significantly use tax incentives and primarily seek advanced markets. TMNEs particularly benefit from investment and export incentives and prefer to target advanced markets.

Using Turkey as a single-country setting is a limitation to the generalizability of the results. Future studies could use more cases of AMNEs to compare different countries of origin. In addition, the intended focus on R&D-related firms produces specific outcomes for such companies.

National and regional policies need to pursue different strategies for the surveyed groups of firms to attract and maintain foreign direct investments (FDIs) of AMNEs as well as to support outward FDIs of domestic firms and EM MNEs. In particular, policies for market entries and knowledge sourcing in advanced markets are becoming a crucial factor for EM firms in overcoming a shortage of resources at home.

This paper’s findings challenge existing theories such as the concept of psychic distance or liabilities of foreignness, which do not always provide an adequate explanation for internationalization activities of EM firms. In addition, it is highly relevant to apply an eclectic or multidimensional concept when conducting research in EMs in order to capture the interrelated constructs of upgrading, internationalization and political support.

This article gives an overview of the services provided for people with intellectual disabilities in Germany. On principle we assume that the field of services in this country, its problems, strengths and opportunities for development, can be understood only if one is familiar with the development pathways and specific historical experiences. Church welfare and powerful voluntary welfare organisations, traditional psychiatry and its ‘oligophrenic’ ideal, the division of state funding competencies into local and centralised levels and the commitments of a new generation of parents organised in the association Lebenshilfe were important factors for the development of the current structures. These can be characterised by the persistence of residential facilities, although it has been the legal mission of the social administration since 1984 to give priority to the expansion of non‐residential services. Specific financial mechanisms promote institutionalisation from the perspective of the local authorities and impede the implementation of integrative approaches in the community.

Our research seeks to understand how actors in the Australian cotton industry can address downstream labour and human rights risks in the textiles and apparel value chain.

Taking the Australian cotton industry as the site of our action research project, we conducted a qualitative thematic analysis of 19 interviews, supplemented by industry engagement and desktop research.

We identify seven opportunities for action by the Australian cotton industry to address downstream labour and human rights risks, which are articulated in the context of a strategic enforcement approach.

The research focuses on opportunities for action to address downstream labour and human rights risks, thereby going beyond the traditional interventions by fashion brands and retailers that target upstream actors.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how vulnerable consumers can be involved in transformative service design and how this approach may enhance the design of such services. The study also analyzes how co-design with vulnerable consumers differs from existing user involvement processes with the purpose of developing a co-design framework.

A case study approach was employed, with six high schools in Australia identified as sites to conduct co-design sessions for a school-based alcohol education program. Adolescents were invited to review and (re)design an existing alcohol education program.

The study indicates that co-design with vulnerable consumers cannot be approached in the same way as conventional user involvement processes. Based on the insights generated from six co-design sessions as well as the examination of user involvement and co-design literature, the authors propose a six-step co-design framework. The six steps comprise resourcing, planning, recruiting, sensitizing, facilitation and evaluation.

The co-design framework illustrates important differences to conventional user involvement processes. However, the generalizability of the research findings is limited to a specific study setting and a narrowly defined sample. Future research in a different setting is needed to further validate the presented findings.

For service design practice, this study provides guidelines on how co-design activities with vulnerable consumers can be effectively resourced, planned, recruited, sensitized, facilitated and evaluated. The framework outlines how co-design may be applied so that vulnerable consumers can become empowered participants during the design process.

This research contributes to the knowledge in transformative service research – a priority in service research – and service design by extending the boundaries of our understanding of processes and tools for the involvement of vulnerable consumers in transformative service design.

This paper aims to investigate in a transformative service research (TSR) context how users can be involved through co-design and what contributions they can make during this process.

A six-step co-design process was used to plan and facilitate two co-design sessions that involved a total of 24 participants. The collected data include field notes, transcripts from group discussions, recordings of idea presentations and the evaluation of ideas.

A recruitment strategy that uses strong networks and sensitizes users through generating awareness of the underlying issue can prevent the waste of valuable resources. During the facilitation stage, experts need to find the fine line between close guidance and giving voice to the users. User-generated ideas set the starting point for new value propositions that more effectively support users in their value creation processes.

The findings are limited to one specific sample and design task. Future research is required that investigates the application of co-design to other TSR contexts.

In TSR, organizations will need to follow a different co-design approach owing to the sensitive nature of the design task and/or users that are not driven by innovation-related motivations. Organizations should tap into their networks to raise awareness and recruit suitable participants. To capture users’ unique insights and foster the collective creativity, facilitation should focus on enabling participants through the use of design tools and team management.

The study contributes new insights into requirements, challenges and benefits of applying co-design to TSR contexts. The study shows that ordinary users, if empowered, can give important insights into the design of new value propositions.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a definition of talent and talent management in the luxury hotel sector with a focus on talent retention strategies.

A qualitative approach was used and 27 face-to-face semi-structured interviews were conducted with managers in luxury hotels in four countries (the USA, the UK, Australia and Greece).

Talent refers to those who “go above and beyond”. Talent retention strategies in luxury hotels include a friendly, family-oriented and open access culture, teamwork, compensation, succession planning and training and development. A hybrid exclusive and inclusive approach to talent management (TM) is proposed with the implicit engagement of the individuals.

Luxury hotels should choose TM practices that fit the organizational culture with a focus on retention strategies that are tailor-made to the individual or groups of individuals. Opportunities to progress, succession planning and employee participation to TM are valued in the industry.

This study provides findings from empirical comparative research conducted in four different countries, whereas most published work on TM focuses on bibliographic reviews. It provides a conceptualization of talent and TM. This study frames the nature of TM in hotels and advances the knowledge of talent retention strategies found to be effective in hospitality.

This paper aims to explore the role of university in promoting, generating and sustaining social innovation (SI). It aimed to understand how higher education institutions have extended their contribution beyond the traditional function of teaching and research to perform in socio-economic problem-solving. It looks at the kinds of contributions which universities potentially make to SI processes, and the effects that this has on the direction and magnitude of SI, and by implication social development. This was done by drawing lessons from a SI project that the University of the Western Cape has been involved in, i.e. Zenzeleni Networks Project.

To address the research question with this framework, the author adopted an exploratory research design using a case study. This research is qualitative, exploratory and descriptive, based on a case study built with secondary data.

This paper submits that universities can potentially function as key role players in promoting SI initiatives and fostering social transformations. Universities contribute with different kinds of resources and inputs to foster new SI ideas.

The paper suggests that socially innovative university projects may contribute to community social sustainability maintaining social cohesion by increasing social capital and providing resources for the empowerment of the marginalised communities. In so doing, they contribute to overcome social exclusion and promote more sustainable forms of development at community level. More research is needed on how universities can build community networks with local community partners, who can use the insights of academic research to replicate interventions and move to scale.

This paper examines the enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems of 27 European central governments and the governments' respective information technology (IT) reforms, facilitator role and association with accrual accounting reforms as premise of the International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS).

This paper presents a qualitative and content analysis of 27 European Union (EU) member states (MSs) regarding the states' IT and accounting maturity in association with accrual accounting as breeding ground for IPSAS convergence based on published surveys on behalf of Eurostat, web data and emails collected from authorized officials.

This paper has found that (1) increased accounting and IT maturity scores of central governments are associated with the establishment or upgrade of ERP systems; (2) ERP systems prove to facilitate and support accrual accounting adoption; (3) in majority, EU MSs adopt similar ERP vendors to implement accrual accounting reforms; (4) with prevalence among ERP vendors, the Systems Application Products (SAP) ERP software proves to be a success story toward public sector accounting (PSA) reforms.

Respective information on the ERP systems' facilitation to financial accounting reforms is collected only for 17 central governments.

This paper highlights the facilitation of ERP systems as reform drivers to accrual accounting change of EU MSs, through IT modernization. This paper links the ERP practices with specific ERP vendors pointing out the vendors' similarities. This paper presents examples of European ERP reforms and sets the reforms as reference for central governments that wish to embark on ERP and accrual accounting reforms.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the causal relationship between talent management dimensions such as perceived organisational support (POS), human capital index and its influence on the turnover intentions of Generation Y employees in Indian hotel industry. This research will also examine how the intension of hotel employees to quit relates to the talent management practices (TMP) in the Indian hotel establishments.

This research will suggest an integrated conceptual model based on earlier literature where the significant relationships between the relevant constructs will be confirmed. For data collection, a cross-sectional survey plan will be used to collect data from the Generation Y employees working in the 5-star hotels across India. This technique is appropriate for the descriptive and predictive functions associated with correlation research and for measuring the inter-relationship amongst several variables used in the study.

Pearson correlations was applied which exhibited a practically substantial positive relationship between the organisation’s TMP and POS. It was also found that the perceived supervisor support does not mediate the relationship between TMP and intention to quit. The results of this research also approve that employees’ perception regarding the organisation’s actions has direct consequence on their perception of support from their supervisors. The research also found essentially significant negative association between POS and the employee’s intention to quit, where high levels of POS is associated with a reduced employee’s intention to quit the hotel organisation.

This study confirmed a causal relationship amongst the relevant construct, i.e. perceived TMP, the POS, the supervisory support and the Generation Y’s intention to quit. It also provided an understanding for the management to comprehend upon the perceptions regarding TMP and support and how it influences an employee’s intent to leave the organisation in the Indian hotel industry.