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This paper analyzes micro-political strategies that police officers use during police stops, mostly based on their professional or personal life experience. Police stops take place in an asymmetric power relationship. Actions of police officers during a stop are backed by strong legal powers, and citizens typically do not negotiate how the stop should be carried out.

The paper is based on ethnographic observation, semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions with German patrol officers.

The authors demonstrate that micro-political strategies relying on the officers' personal experience, rather than on strategies developed by the police agency based on empirical evidence, are highly problematic. Depending upon the acting officer, micro-political strategies can vary considerably according to the individual officer’s experience and attitudes. This leads to a risk of discrimination in police stops and of potential infringements on the citizens’ fundamental rights.

See the paper’s methodology section on the limitations of the empirical approach.

The paper suggests improvements for the practice of police stops.

The article provides new empirical insights in the practice of police stops in Germany and situates the findings in a broader international debate on police stops and shortcomings of the legal rules that govern the police stops.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the signal dependency of the camera-based coaxial monitoring system QMMeltpool 3D (Concept Laser GmbH, Lichtenfels, Germany) for laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) under the variation of process parameters, position, direction and layer thickness to determine the capability of the system. Because such and similar monitoring systems are designed and presented for quality assurance in series production, it is important to present the dominant signal influences and limitations.

Hardware of the commercially available coaxial monitoring QMMeltpool 3D is used to investigate the thermal emission of the interaction zone during LPBF. The raw images of the camera are analysed by means of image processing to bypass the software of QMMeltpool 3D and to gain a high level of signal understanding. Laser power, scan speed, laser spot diameter and powder layer thickness were varied for single-melt tracks to determine the influence of a parameter variation on the measured sensory signals. The effects of the scan direction and position were also analysed in detail. The influence of surface roughness on the detected sensory signals was simulated by a machined substrate plate.

Parameter variations are confirmed to be detectable. Because of strong directional and positional dependencies of the melt-pool monitoring signal a calibration algorithm is necessary. A decreasing signal is detected for increasing layer thickness. Surface roughness is identified as a dominating factor with major influence on the melt-pool monitoring signal exceeding other process flaws.

This work was performed with the hardware of a commercially available QMMeltpool 3D system of an LPBF machine M2 of the company Concept Laser GmbH. The results are relevant for all melt-pool monitoring research activities connected to LPBF, as well as for end users and serial production.

Surface roughness has not yet been revealed as being one of the most important origins for signal deviations in coaxial melt-pool monitoring. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the direct comparison of influences because of parameters and environment has not been published to this extent. The detection, evaluation and remelting of surface roughness constitute a plausible workflow for closed-loop control in LPBF.

Technological capabilities of manufacturing microelectromechanical system (MEMS) gyroscopes are still insufficient if compared to manufacturing high-efficient gyroscopes and accelerometers. This creates weaknesses in their mechanical structure and restrictions in the measurement accuracy, stability and reliability of MEMS gyroscopes and accelerometers. This paper aims to develop a new architectural solutions for optimization of MEMS gyroscopes and accelerometers and propose a multi-axis MEMS inertial module combining the functions of gyroscope and accelerometer.

The finite element modeling (FEM) and the modal analysis in FEM are used for sensing, drive and control electrode capacitances of the multi-axis MEMS inertial module with the proposed new architecture. The description is given to its step-by-step process of manufacturing. Algorithms are developed to detect its angular rates and linear acceleration along three Cartesian axes.

Experimental results are obtained for eigenfrequencies and capacitances of sensing, drive and control electrodes for 50 manufactured prototypes of the silicon electromechanical sensor (SES). For 42 SES prototypes, a good match is observed between the calculated and simulated capacitance values of comb electrodes. Thus, the mean-square deviation is not over 20 per cent. The maximum difference between the calculated and simulated eigenfrequencies in the drive channel of 11 SES prototypes is not over 3 per cent. The same difference is detected for eigenfrequencies in the first sensing channel of 17 SES prototypes.

This study shows a way to design and optimize the structure and theoretical background for the development of the MEMS inertial module combining the functions of gyroscope and accelerometer. The obtained results will improve and expand the manufacturing technology of MEMS gyroscopes and accelerometers.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the most common themes within Lean Six Sigma (LSS) relating to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) within manufacturing organisations and to identify the research gaps in the existing literature.

Tranfield et al.’s (2003) systematic review methodology was utilised encompassing three stages: planning, conducting and reporting/dissemination.

The literature revealed that there are many areas in which LSS has been utilised with varying successes. In total, 52 journals have been reviewed and it has been concluded that although LSS is a powerful methodology, there are many gaps that exist in the literature and further research is needed to address these in the field of LSS.

The papers included in the systematic review were peer-reviewed papers available in English. Due to these limitations, relevant papers may have been excluded. Moreover, the authors have excluded all conference and white papers for their inclusion in this study.

It is vital that LSS practitioners are fully aware of the benefits, limitations and impeding factors when implementing a LSS initiative. Therefore, this paper could provide valuable insights to ensuring maximum value, is obtained from LSS implementation in SMEs.

This systematic review identifies research gaps in the current literature and highlighting areas of future research which will be beneficial to many SMEs in their pursuit of value optimisation.

Firms are affected by resources access, capability and unfavourable business environment, but there is little research on how institutions affect small and medium enterprises (SMEs) internationalisation process in developing countries. Drawing on institutional theory, this chapter reviews the variety of institutions (internal and external barriers) and how it affects SMEs’ internationalisation process in the developing world. First, it explores the stages of internationalisation, modes of entry and benefits of internationalisation. Second, it explains the Cultural, Administrative, Geographic and Economic (CAGE framework) distances and theories of internationalisation. Third, it examines the evidence on the role of government in promoting SMEs and drivers of internationalisation. These have significant practical and policy implications, especially for policymakers that are concerned with business reforms and ease of doing business.

This study aims to explore organizational factors that impact women’s career advancement. Knowledge of organizational practices that promote or obstruct women’s career progress is vital for women, firms and governments.

A total of 237 women participated in the study from the service sector in Johannesburg (South Africa). Participants were selected using a convenient sampling approach. Researchers used a questionnaire, consisting of demographic and open-ended questions, to gather data. Comments were analyzed using a thematic content analysis approach.

Findings reveal that prioritizing women, offering skills development opportunities, providing growth opportunities, assisting women in managing their careers, offering mentorship and having work-family support initiatives are practices that promote women’s career advancement. Conversely, practices that foster stagnation of women’s careers, distrust in women’s leadership abilities, preference for external candidates, people–related malpractices, male domination/preference, lack of role models and work-family balance support, hamper women’s career advancement.

The findings of this study will contribute to women’s empowerment. Organizations should provide a conducive atmosphere by instituting practices that promote their female employees' career advancement. Firms also should intentionally take practical steps to address practices that impede women’s career progression. The results of this study will also help the government to design appropriate policies that will promote the career progression of women employees.

This study presents findings from an analysis of qualitative data collected from 237 women to provide insight into the experiences of women working within the service industry in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Modelling has been a mainstay of conventional planning support tools (PSTs) since the 1960s and is instrumental in transport and land use planning decision-making. Numerous studies have been conducted to model the potential impacts of emerging vehicle automation and sharing technologies. A systematic review of recent modelling studies of autonomous and shared vehicles in the research literature examines the extent of their contribution to ‘smart’ mobility knowledge. The findings suggest a limited knowledge base from which to support future planning. PSTs that can offer more pluralistic, discursive, and transparent methods in order to understand and proactively shape a transition to a planned urban future are also needed.

Social institutions are experiencing change in their patterns of power as they are re‐aligned to an increasingly complex world and the onset of the new information economy. Attention has been drawn particularly to the need to improve corporate governance as a means to enhance corporate accountability and improve corporate performance. This paper consequently explores the distribution of corporate power and the processes that can foster higher quality decision making and actions by boards. The paper investigates the fundamental difference between the exercise of leadership, management and political power within an organization and, particularly, the responsibility and power relationships between an organization and its board. The authors assert that if the patterns of power are well understood then some things can be said about the patterns that are likely to emerge and what structures might be more effective than others. The paper concludes by arguing that the manner and style of corporate governance could benefit from some further refinement.

Patients with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are overrepresented in forensic samples. However, research on risk assessment in forensic patients with ASD is scarce. The purpose of this paper was to examine the prevalence of short-term inpatient aggression and explore the risk and protective factors for aggression in forensic psychiatric patients with ASD (N = 32).

The association between two commonly used violence risk assessment instruments (HKT-R and SAPROF) and physical aggression during ten weeks of inpatient stay was examined in a Dutch forensic psychiatric hospital.

Results showed no significant association between HKT-R and SAPROF and incidents of physical aggression. This suggests that the commonly used assessment instruments may be of limited use for assessing the risk of short-term inpatient aggression in patients with ASD.

Limitations to the current study include the relatively small sample size and the lack of information on index offenses. Further research with a larger, more homogeneous sample and longer follow-up is indicated to confirm the results of this study. Future research should also include the possible association between aggressive behavior of people with ASD and other factors that might be relevant, such as social cognition deficits, cognitive and sensory impairments, deficient empathy and emotion regulation problems.

To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to directly examine the prevalence of inpatient aggression of forensic psychiatric patients with ASD and its association with risk and protective factors.

This paper aims to analyse the relationships between management innovation, marketing innovation, technological innovation and the personnel involved in science, technology and innovation activities.

The work used data from the Technological Development and Innovation Survey – Colombian Industry VII 2013–2014. Six logistic regression models are tested for the analysis with 2,045 manufacturing firms.

The results suggest that the probability to pursue technological innovation diminishes in those firms that introduce management and/or marketing innovations. The same happens in firms seeking non-technological innovations with the introduction of product and process innovations. The human side, administrative and technical staff, working on innovation projects plays a key role in the success of different types of innovations.

At this time, there is a need for research studies with new approaches that look at innovation beyond the technological domain and focus on the human side of innovation and other important aspects such as the managerial contribution to innovation. Theoretically, the work contributes to expanding the scarce literature on the proposed relationship and, as far as is known, it is the only one with empirical data for an emerging economy such as the Colombian one. Empirically, useful information is provided for the design of strategies that seek to improve firms' innovation performance.