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This study aims to assess the use of variational quantum imaginary time evolution for solving partial differential equations using real-amplitude ansätze with full circular entangling layers. A graphical mapping technique for encoding impulse functions is also proposed.

The Smoluchowski equation, including the Derjaguin–Landau–Verwey–Overbeek potential energy, is solved to simulate colloidal deposition on a planar wall. The performance of different types of entangling layers and over-parameterization is evaluated.

Colloidal transport can be modelled adequately with variational quantum simulations. Full circular entangling layers with real-amplitude ansätze lead to higher-fidelity solutions. In most cases, the proposed graphical mapping technique requires only a single bit-flip with a parametric gate. Over-parameterization is necessary to satisfy certain physical boundary conditions, and higher-order time-stepping reduces norm errors.

Variational quantum simulation can solve partial differential equations using near-term quantum devices. The proposed graphical mapping technique could potentially aid quantum simulations for certain applications.

This study shows a concrete application of variational quantum simulation methods in solving practically relevant partial differential equations. It also provides insight into the performance of different types of entangling layers and over-parameterization. The proposed graphical mapping technique could be valuable for quantum simulation implementations. The findings contribute to the growing body of research on using variational quantum simulations for solving partial differential equations.

The purpose of the research was to, first, investigate if the use of maps as instructional resources will boost scholarly performance and, second, examine if gender can moderate the effect of map usage on scholarly performance.

The study was a quasi-experimental pre-test and post-test. A sample of 260 JSS II Students from 8 schools were selected through the purposive sampling technique. A Social Studies Scholarly Performance Test (SSSPT) with a reliability index of 0.79 was the instrument for data collection. The students were assigned into two groups: control and experimental. Both groups were pre-tested taught for a timeline of six weeks and thereafter post-tested.

The study reported a significant increase in the scholarly performance of students taught with maps; a significant difference occurred in the scholarly performance of both groups and gender did not moderate the effect of maps.

The social studies teachers used for the study did not have previous knowledge or map skills; this could have affected the outcome. Secondly, the treatment took place for just six weeks, and the time allotted for social studies in the school timetable was used. This may not have given the students enough time to master map interpretation.

A major implication of the study is that results will show that maps can promote the scholarly performance of students in social studies. Secondly, the fact that gender did not moderate the effect of maps suggests that maps are gender-friendly.

The results of the study, if implemented, would make social studies teachers to become inventive and resourceful in the use of maps as instructional resources for junior secondary students' scholarly performance in social studies without taking gender into consideration.

This study is a product of the researcher’s doctoral thesis; therefore, it is original and has value. The results are the product of a painstaking study carried out by the author for a period of three years on the effect of instructional resources on social studies students’ scholarly performance. Maps were one of the instructional resources studied for the award of a Ph.D. degree.

This paper outlines how Design for Lean Six Sigma methods aided a medical device manufacturing company in developing a new strategic space management and approval process for its manufacturing site.

The project demonstrates the application of the Design for Lean Six Sigma and structured Define, Measure, Analyse, Design, and Verify methodology in designing and implementing a process that enables the case study manufacturing site to improve its space utilisation and free up space.

The project was validated in one manufacturing department, and the Design for Lean Six Sigma methodology resulted in creating 15% new space for that area, with opportunities identified to free up 44.7% of the total manufacturing floor space and realise over €2.2 million cost savings as well as start to manufacture new products launched.

The manuscript highlights for the first time how the Design for Lean Six Sigma methodology can be utilised for space utilisation and can be leveraged by other manufacturers. The current study's limitations are that it is a single-site case study application. Future longitudinal case studies on Design for Lean Six Sigma application in more manufacturing space utilisation projects would be useful. This study has implications for identifying best practices for Design for Lean Six Sigma methodology application in the device industry, thus improving the state of the art for introducing new manufacturing lines.

This is the first published work to utilise Design for Lean Six Sigma methodology for space utilisation in a medical device company. This review will provide medical devices and other manufacturing organisations with recommendations on utilising Design for Lean Six Sigma and design for improved space utilisation to reduce costs.

Numerous design methods are available to facilitate digital innovation processes in user interface design. Nonetheless, little guidance exists on their appropriate selection within the design process based on specific situations. Consequently, design novices with limited design knowledge face challenges when determining suitable methods. Thus, this paper aims to support design novices by guiding the situational selection of design methods.

Our research approach includes two phases: i) we adopted a taxonomy development method to identify dimensions of design methods by reviewing 292 potential design methods and interviewing 15 experts; ii) we conducted focus groups with 25 design novices and applied fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis to describe the relations between the taxonomy's dimensions.

We developed a novel taxonomy that presents a comprehensive overview of design conditions and their associated design methods in innovation processes. Thus, the taxonomy enables design novices to navigate the complexities of design methods needed to design digital innovation. We also identify configurations of these conditions that support the situational selections of design methods in digital innovation processes of user interface design.

The study’s contribution to the literature lies in the identification of both similarities and differences among design methods, as well as the investigation of sufficient condition configurations within the digital innovation processes of user interface design. The taxonomy helps design novices to navigate the design space by providing an overview of design conditions and the associations between methods and these conditions. By using the developed taxonomy, design novices can narrow down their options when selecting design methods for their specific situations.

In this study, the authors examine artificial knowledge as a fundamental stream of knowledge management for sustainable and resilient business models in supply chain management (SCM). The study aims to provide a comprehensive overview of artificial knowledge and digitalization as key enablers of the improvement of SCM accountability and sustainable performance towards the UN 2030 Agenda.

Using the SCOPUS database and Google Scholar, the authors analyzed 135 English-language publications from 1990 to 2022 to chart the pattern of knowledge production and dissemination in the literature. The data were collected, reviewed and peer-reviewed before conducting bibliometric analysis and a systematic literature review to support future research agenda.

The results highlight that artificial knowledge and digitalization are linked to the UN 2030 Agenda. The analysis further identifies the main issues in achieving sustainable and resilient SCM business models. Based on the results, the authors develop a conceptual framework for artificial knowledge and digitalization in SCM to increase accountability and sustainable performance, especially in times of sudden crises when business resilience is imperative.

The study results add to the extant literature by examining artificial knowledge and digitalization from the resilience theory perspective. The authors suggest that different strategic perspectives significantly promote resilience for SCM digitization and sustainable development. Notably, fostering diverse peer exchange relationships can help stimulate peer knowledge and act as a palliative mechanism that builds digital knowledge to strengthen and drive future possibilities.

This research offers valuable guidance to supply chain practitioners, managers and policymakers in re-thinking, re-formulating and re-shaping organizational processes to meet the UN 2030 Agenda, mainly by introducing artificial knowledge in digital transformation training and education programs. In doing so, firms should focus not simply on digital transformation but also on cultural transformation to enhance SCM accountability and sustainable performance in resilient business models.

This study is, to the authors' best knowledge, among the first to conceptualize artificial knowledge and digitalization issues in SCM. It further integrates resilience theory with institutional theory, legitimacy theory and stakeholder theory as the theoretical foundations of artificial knowledge in SCM, based on firms' responsibility to fulfill the sustainable development goals under the UN's 2030 Agenda.

This paper aims to identify and prioritize the needs of coworking members. The authors focus on maintaining the existing members rather than attracting new ones.

The authors use two phases and multiple methods. The first phase focuses on a qualitative approach using observations and interviews to uncover and formulate the members’ needs. The second phase focuses on prioritizing the needs using a quantitative approach.

The authors discovered 19 member needs from the coworking spaces. Based on an online survey, the authors classified those needs into three main Kano model’s categories.

The resulting member needs and their strategic priorities provide a useful basis for coworking providers to direct their improvement efforts towards achieving greater member satisfaction.

The purpose of this paper is to structure existing research on knowledge management (KM) in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to offer a comprehensive overview of research strands and topics in KM in SMEs to determine their evolution over time.

The paper, which is considered a follow-up literature review, is based on a systematic literature review that covers 180 scientific papers that were published since the review paper by Durst and Edvardsson in 2012 that covered 36 papers.

The findings of this review and those of the aforementioned review are brought together in the form of an overview that structures research on KM in SMEs based on themes that, in turn, allow the derivation of promising research directions and research questions aimed at structuring future research on KM in SMEs.

By combining the findings of this review with the findings from the review published in this journal in 2012, this paper offers, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, the most comprehensive literature review on KM in SMEs produced to date.

This study aims to investigate the feasibility of employing a multi-objectives integer-programming model for effective allocation of resources for cyberfraud mitigation. The formulated objectives are the minimisation of the total allocation cost of the anti-fraud capacities and the maximisation of the forensic accounting capacities in all cyberfraud incident prone spots.

From the literature survey conducted and primary qualitative data gathered from the 17 licenced banks in South Africa on fraud investigators, the suggested fraud investigators are the organisation’s finance department, the internal audit committee, the external risk manager, accountants and forensic accountants. These five human resource capacities were considered for the formulation of the multi-objectives integer programming (MOIP) model. The MOIP model is employed for the optimisation of the employed capacities for cyberfraud mitigation to ensure the effective allocation and utilisation of human resources. Thus, the MOIP model is validated by a genetic algorithm (GA) solver to obtain the Pareto-optimum solution without the violation of the identified constraints.

The formulated objective functions are optimised simultaneously. The Pareto front for the two objectives of the MOIP model comprises the set of optimal solutions, which are not dominated by any other feasible solution. These are the feasible choices, which indicate the suitability of the MOIP to achieve the set objectives.

The results obtained indicate the feasibility of simultaneously achieving the minimisation of the total allocation cost of the anti-fraud capacities, or the maximisation of the forensic accounting capacities in all cyberfraud incident prone spots – or the trade-off between them, if they cannot be reached simultaneously. This study recommends the use of an iterative MOIP framework for decision-makers which may aid decision-making with respect to the allocation and utilisation of human resources.

The originality of this work lies in the development of multi-objectives integer-programming model for effective allocation of resources for cyberfraud mitigation.

Competency frameworks can support public procurement capacity development and performance. However, literature on connecting professionalisation with national procurement contexts is limited. This paper aims to explain and conceptualise recent Romanian experience with developing bespoke competency frameworks at national level for public procurement that reflect the features of the Romanian public procurement system. The approach used could guide in broad-brush, mutatis mutandis, other (national) public procurement systems with comparable features, mainly those seeking a shift from a rather administrative function of public procurement towards a strategic function.

This case study reflects on the methodology used for analysing the Romanian public procurement environment in EU context to develop bespoke professionalisation instruments, and on ways to integrate competency management approaches in Romanian public procurement culture. That methodological mix has been mainly qualitative and constructionist, within an applied research approach. It combined desk research with empirical research and included legal research in this context.

A principled, methodological and pragmatic approach tailored to the procurement environment in question is essential for developing competency frameworks capable to resonate to and address the specific practical needs of that procurement system.

Competency frameworks can uphold societal objectives through public procurement.

Using valuable insights into the development of the Romanian public procurement competency frameworks, the paper provides a conceptual framework for instilling competency management approaches to public procurement professional development where the latter is governed by a rather distinct, public administration, paradigm. This conceptual framework can guide other public procurement systems and stimulate further research.

Collegiality is the modus operandi of universities. Collegiality is central to academic freedom and scientific quality. In this way, collegiality also contributes to the good functioning of universities’ contribution to society and democracy. In this concluding paper of the special issue on collegiality, we summarize the main findings and takeaways from our collective studies. We summarize the main challenges and contestations to collegiality and to universities, but also document lines of resistance, activation, and maintenance. We depict varieties of collegiality and conclude by emphasizing that future research needs to be based on an appreciation of this variation. We argue that it is essential to incorporate such a variation-sensitive perspective into discussions on academic freedom and scientific quality and highlight themes surfaced by the different studies that remain under-explored in extant literature: institutional trust, field-level studies of collegiality, and collegiality and communication. Finally, we offer some remarks on methodological and theoretical implications of this research and conclude by summarizing our research agenda in a list of themes.