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The small business sector of the UK economy is extremely important and the government expends considerable resources in providing support services for this sector. This paper investigated the reasons why SMEs move from traditional commerce to e‐commerce, the efficacy of the support services and the barriers encountered by SMEs adopting e‐commerce. The research methodology involved literature review and interviews with SMEs’ owner‐managers and a UK Online business adviser. It was found that at least two “e‐commerce stars” used by the government to promote its support services had in fact not used those services. The historical relationship problems between Business Link and SMEs were still causing problems. Cost was not seen as an inhibitor to adopting e‐commerce. Some evidence was emerging that e‐commerce may be able to save failing or struggling businesses. Other unexpected outcomes were that e‐commerce had social benefits for SMEs’ owners in reducing working hours yet still increased sales.

Electric mobility as a service (eMaaS) is suggested as a possible solution to ease transportation and lessen environmental issues by providing a collaborative transport sharing infrastructure that is based on electric vehicles (EVs) such as electric cars, electric bicycles and so on. Accordingly, this study aims to propose a multi-tier architecture to support the collection, processing, analytics and usage of mobility data in providing eMaaS within smart cities. The architecture uses application programming interfaces to enable interoperability between different infrastructures required for eMaaS and allow multiple partners to exchange and share data for making decision regarding electric mobility services.

Design science methodology based on a case study by interview was used to collect data from an infrastructure company in Norway to verify the applicability of the proposed multi-tier architecture.

Findings suggest that the architecture offers an approach for collecting, aggregating, processing and provisioning of data originating from sources to improve electric mobility in smart cities. More importantly, findings from this study provide guidance for municipalities and policymakers in improving electric mobility services. Moreover, the author’s findings provide a practical data-driven mobility use case that can be used by transport companies in deploying eMaaS in smart cities.

Data was collected from a single company in Norway, hence, it is required to further verify the architecture with data collected from other companies.

eMaaS operates on heterogeneous data, which are generated from EVs and used by citizens and stakeholders such as city administration, municipality transport providers, charging station providers and so on. Therefore, the proposed architecture enables the sharing and usage of generated data as openly available data to be used in creating value-added services to improve citizen’s quality of life and viability of businesses.

This study proposes the deployment of electric mobility to address increased usage of vehicles, which contributes to pollution of the environment that has a serious effect on citizen’s quality of life.

This study proposes a multi-tier architecture that stores, processes, analyze and provides data and related services to improve electric mobility within smart cities. The multi-tier architecture aims to support and increase eMaaS operation of EVs toward improving transportation services for city transport operators and citizens for sustainable transport and mobility system.

This chapter seeks to bring more clarity and urgency to the debate about the impacts of ‘smart’ mobility by highlighting the critical role of the state in managing the transition to a ‘smart’ transport future. This debate is currently dominated by producer-led imaginings of how technological innovation will solve apparent mobility problems, but has yet to address substantively more complex questions about how the impacts of these innovations will disrupt the mobility status quo, and how changing patterns of mobility in a ‘smart’ future will redefine the places in which we live. The chapter explores what impacts such innovations might have on the economic, environmental and social outcomes associated with the mobility system, and some key issues that systems of governance will have to address as ‘smart’ options become an increasingly important part of overall mobility provision.

To set the context for this edited collection by situating the discussion within both a global setting as well as examining the development and framing of processes, initiatives, policy paradigms and theoretical models which have shaped contemporary discourse and practice.

To draw on extant and current academic literature, contemporary thinking derived from policy organisations, think tanks and governmental institutions but also draw on the experience and insights provided by the contributors.

There are three core findings drawn prior to March 2022. Firstly, that the overall impact of the Global Financial Crash of 2008 and COVID-19 marks a new paradigm shift that will, more likely, shape thinking over the next decade; secondly, global attention to the climate emergency and sustainability agendas suggest that new forms of locally led responses will be necessary; and thirdly, the perceived political uncertainty of the institutions of the European Union and the USA make the stability of the policy making process and its responses to COVID-19 or the Climate Emergency much less predictable over the next 5–10 years.

This series of essays reflects the work undertaken by each of those contributing to the collection. Each author was invited to start with their primary research focus and to take their ideas and thinking for a ‘walk’ in order to stimulate discussion, novel thinking and different approaches to policy dilemmas.

Purpose – This chapter draws on examples from the United Kingdom where changes in transport policy direction have occurred and considers how lessons that emerge might be applied in China.

Methodology – It is difficult to change the direction of transport policy decisions once embarked upon. The reason for this relates to the high cost and long-term nature of many transport interventions and the complex nature of transport problems which require the introduction of packages of measures rather than individual projects. This complexity that frequently sees changing circumstances can however lead to the adoption of a new policy direction. The issue is how such changes in policy direction can be achieved given the constraints identified. To this end, this chapter presents a series of notable examples of policy change from the transport sector in the United Kingdom to draw lessons from both the development of over-arching transport policies and the implementation of specific transport planning measures as instruments of policy across a geographical range of transport sectors. Specifically it draws on a literature review and presents a series of vignettes to outline the motivations and factors which can be seen to bring about transport policy change in the surface (land) transport sector.

Findings – Specifically the chapter finds that so-called ‘agents of change’ can be categorised as follows:

1.Public and political identification of a problem;2.The emergence of suitable policy ideas or solutions; and3.The occurrence of some kind of event in the policy arena.

Research limitations/implications – From these three categories, lessons are drawn from which policy makers and policy shapers in locations other than the United Kingdom (particularly China) can benefit.

Practical and social implications – The chapter aims to influence the broader debate in terms of delivering transport policy change – with the emergence of agents, most notably the growth of the environmental movement and its influence on policy, a comprehensive research base for policy making and political events at the UK and international level.

Originality – The chapter is based on a number of vignettes that seek to identify the factors that are influential in supporting policy change on a national, area-wide or site-specific basis in the United Kingdom.

Since 1973, the pharmacy operations division of the Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program (KPMCP) has used long-term action research programs as the principal method for orchestrating change. This chapter covers the evolution of action research theory within large, complex organizations, with particular attention to health care organizations. Four case examples from KPMCP are discussed in depth and mapped to the recently advanced Roth model of insider action research. This model considers external and internal business context, the perceived need to create new organizational capabilities, as well as insider action research theory and learning mechanisms used in change programs. Issues posed by the Roth model are explored, and new theory is advanced regarding the need for a long-term perspective, the advantages and difficulties posed when managers act as insider action researchers, and the quality of data gathering that takes place during insider action research change programs.

The auto ancillary industry in India has witnessed huge capacity expansion and modernization due to entry of foreign automobile manufacturers in the post liberalization era. In spite of potential benefits, the adoption of advanced IT among small to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) is low in India. There are several technological, economical and organizational factors that enable or inhibit the adoption of advanced IT. The primary objective of this research is to identify and evaluate the key factors that are enabling or inhibiting adoption of advanced IT in the Indian auto ancillary SMEs.

In order to identify and evaluate the enablers and inhibitors, a detailed survey was carried out among registered Indian auto ancillary SMEs during 2010. Out of 584 registered SMEs, 110 owners/top managers of the SMEs responded to the survey. The data collected through the survey were analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis and multivariate regression to evaluate the influence of enablers and inhibitors of advanced IT adoption by the auto ancillary SMEs.

The survey findings show that the level of advanced IT adoption in auto ancillaries is low with only 17 per cent of SMEs having adopted technologies. This study reveals that “perceived benefits” and “perceived competitive pressure” enable advanced IT adoption among auto ancillary SMEs in India. However, “lack of financial capacity”, “small scale operation and “lack of in‐house IT manpower” inhibit the adoption. It is also found that enablers such as “changes in business environment”, “IT experience of CEO/owner” and “increased information linkage with OEM/customer” do not have any influence on the adoption. Similarly in the case of inhibitors, “lack of IT Infrastructure” and “lack of information security” do not have significant association with IT adoption. Despite the positive external IT environment and recognition of benefits, advanced IT adoption by SMEs in the auto ancillaries is limited by lack of financial capabilities and in‐house IT human resources.

This is one of the early papers that brings out the enablers and inhibitors of advanced IT adoption by auto ancillaries in India. Further, these factors are systematically analyzed to assess the relative importance with reference to the SMEs. The findings contribute to theory of IT adoption among SMEs, but more importantly to the SMEs in the auto ancillary, and policy makers and IT service providers who are likely to facilitate increased adoption.

The purposes of this paper are to determine the role of organizational forgetting in different type of coaching companies and to determine organizational survival based on both knowledge structure of coaching companies and organizational forgetting with core features of organizations.

Within the context of this research, two worldwide and well-known coaching companies were examined as case study, and analyses of case studies which included company background and testimonial analysis was used as inputs for the semi-structured interviews of 12 PhD students in the UK who took seminars and training from the coaching companies. Based on the interviews, the authors concluded the research as describing knowledge structure, core features and organizational forgetting type. Thus, organizational survival based on organizational forgetting could be interpreted.

Based on the case studies and interview results, there were two findings. First, it was indicated that the type of organization (knowledge structure) had a different type of organizational forgetting. Second, core features of organizations based on the interviews and types of organizational forgetting were linked to each other. According to these results, organizational survival for coaching companies was discussed.

This study also has some limitations. First, this paper just focuses on coaching organizations to find new perspective for the organizational forgetting literature. Second, because of the scope of this research, interviewees are limited to individuals who have knowledge or take any seminars related to field of coaching. Other sectors also must be considered to attain detailed knowledge related to organizational forgetting because case-specific studies will bring new dimensions to the literature of organizational forgetting.

First, this study makes a research contribution to the field of organizational forgetting because studies related to organizational forgetting mostly consist of conceptual papers, and, second, we have introduced two new perspective to the concept of organizational forgetting through this research paper.