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The goal of this research is to investigate the relationship between two different sets of practices, lean startup and business planning, and their relation to entrepreneurial performance.

The authors collected data from 120 entrepreneurs across the US about a variety of new venture formation activities within the categories of lean startup or business planning. They use hierarchical regression to examine the relationship between these activities and new venture performance using both a subjective and objective measure of performance.

The results show that talking to customers, collecting preorders and pivoting based on customer feedback are lean startup activities correlated with performance; writing a business plan is the sole business planning activity correlated with performance.

This research lays the foundation for understanding the components of both lean startup and business planning. Moreover, these results demonstrate that the separation of lean startup and business planning represents a false dichotomy.

These findings suggest that entrepreneurs should engage in some lean startup activities and still write a business plan.

This article offers the first quantitative, empirical comparison of lean startup activities and business planning. Furthermore, it provides support for the relationship between specific lean startup activities and firm performance.

As publishers and academia swiftly head towards e-textbooks, it is important to understand how students feel about using e-textbooks as a primary learning tool. This paper discusses results of a small-scale study looking into how a group of language learners view and use e-textbooks as learning tools in ESL classrooms. The paper concludes by offering teaching implications that could ease integrating e-textbooks in language classrooms in a more effective and efficient manner.

In manufacturing, dedicated machine tools and flexible machine tools are failing to satisfy the ever-changing manufacturing demands of short life cycles and dynamic nature of products. These machines are limited when new product designs are introduced. The solution lies in developing responsive machines that can be adjusted or be changed functionally when these change requirements arise. These machines are reconfigurable machines which are becoming the new focus, as they rapidly respond to product variety and volume changes. A sheet metal working machine known as a reconfigurable guillotine shear and bending press machine (RGS&BPM) has been developed. The purpose of this paper is to present a methodology, function-oriented design approach (FODA), which was developed for the design of the RGS&BPM.

The design of the machine is based on the six principles of reconfigurable manufacturing systems (RMSs), namely, modularity, scalability integrability, convertibility, diagnosability and customisability. The methodology seeks to optimise the design process of the RGS&BPM through a design of modules that make up the machine, enable its conversion and reconfiguration. The FODA is focussed on function identification to select the operational function required. Two main functions are recognised for the machine, these being cutting and bending; hence, the design revolves around these two and reconfigurability.

The developed design methodology was tested in the design of a prototype for the reconfigurable guillotine shear and bending press machine. The prototype is currently being manufactured and will be subjected to functional tests once completed. This paper is being presented not only to present the methodology by to show and highlight its practical applicability, as the prototype manufacturers have been enthusiastic about this new approach.

The research was limited to the design methodology for the RGS&BPM, the machine which has been designed to completion using this methodology, with prototype being manufactured.

This study presents critical steps and considerations in the development of reconfigurable machines. The main thrust being to explore the best possibility of developing the machines with dual functionality that will assist in availing the technology to manufacturer. As the machine has been development, the success of the design can be directly attributed to the FODA methodology, among other contributing factors. It also highlights the significance of the principles of RMS in reconfigurable machine design.

The RGS&BM machine is an answer for the small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs), as the machine replaces two machines with one, and the methodology ensures its affordable design. It contributes immensely to the machine availability by eliminating trial and error approaches.

This study presents a new approach to the design of reconfigurable dual machines using principles of RMS. As the targeted market is the SME, it is not limited to that as any entrepreneur may use the machine to their advantage. The design methodology presented contributes to the body of knowledge in dual reconfigurable machine tool design.

This chapter focuses on how the idea of ‘an ordinary day in the life’ can serve as an entry point for understanding media use. I discuss how everyday media use can be conceptualized as mundane and meaningful, and as most easily noticed when changing. Building on day-in-the-life interview segments from qualitative studies, I discuss methodological merits and challenges of this approach. The analysis follows media users an ordinary day from morning to night, as they wake up with the smartphone, navigate across social domains, and seek connection and companionship. I argue that seemingly mundane media use practices are made meaningful through the connection they entail, and particularly discuss the conflicted position of smartphone checking in everyday life. The chapter empirically substantiates the arguments made in Chapter 1 about the centrality of smartphones in digital everyday lives.

The aim of the study is to review the extant literature on International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) adoption in emerging economies (EEs) and low-income countries (LICs) (“what do we know?”), and to propose an agenda for future research (“what do we need to know?”).

An analytical framework that builds on diffusion theory is developed. The authors follow the “PRISMA Flow Diagram” to reduce a total of 427 articles from four databases to a final sample of 41 articles. These studies are examined, aided by the analytical framework.

The authors find that IPSASs are a relevant issue for EEs/LICs. Overall, existing research is often explorative. The authors discover that the majority of articles rely on secondary data collection. While two-thirds of the studies perform a content analysis of pre-existing material, about one-fifth of the articles each collect primary data through means of interviews and questionnaires. The findings offer a holistic understanding of where and at what stages IPSAS reforms stand in EEs/LICs, and what factors influence the progression of reforms to the next stage of diffusion.

The authors outline a number of avenues for further research after discussing the dominating trends and structuring the literature based on our analytical framework. These stem from looking at the blank spots and an identified need to contextualise IPSASs adoption in EEs/LICs.

The aims of the paper were to highlight the dearth of applied practitioner research concerning the expression of neurodiversity at work and develop an epistemological framework for a future research agenda.

A systematic empty review protocol was employed, with three a priori research questions, inquiring as to the extent of neurodiversity research within mainstream work psychology, psychology in general and lastly within cross-disciplinary academic research. The results of the final search were quality checked and categorized to illustrate where studies relevant to practice are currently located.

The academic literature was found to be lacking in contextualized, practical advice for employers or employees. The location and foci of extracted studies highlighted a growing science-practitioner gap.

The research focused on common neurominority conditions such as autism and dyslexia; it is acknowledged that the neurodiversity definition itself is broader and more anthropological in nature. A need for a comprehensive research agenda is articulated, and research questions and frameworks are proposed.

Guidance is given on applying disability accommodation to both individual and organizational targets.

The disability employment gap is unchanged since legislation was introduced. The neurodiversity concept is no longer new, and it is time for multi-disciplinary collaborations across science and practice to address the questions raised in this paper.

This paper offers an original analysis of the neurodiversity paradox, combining systematic inquiry with a narrative synthesis of the extant literature. The conceptual clarification offers clear directions for researchers and practitioners.

This study aims to address customer focus as an important component of total quality management (TQM) and explore the key drivers of member satisfaction in tennis clubs via a novel theory-based member satisfaction index (MSI) model with high explanatory and predictive power. Furthermore, the study aims to investigate the relationship between satisfaction and behavioral intentions (willingness to stay; WTS) with consideration of the mediating effect of identification with the club.

This study uses variance-based partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to estimate the MSI model, which was tested in a leading tennis club in Germany (n = 185).

The results reveal that club atmosphere, club facilities and the price/quality ratio of the membership fee are the most important drivers of member satisfaction in tennis clubs. Member satisfaction has a large influence on the WTS of tennis club members. Identification with the club, when included as a mediator in the model, increases the variance explained in WTS considerably.

The small sample limits the generalizability of findings, and further research is recommended.

The MSI model is a useful benchmark tool for club managers who want to quantify the satisfaction and WTS of their club members. In addition, because of the integrated formative measurement models, the PLS-SEM results show which indicators can be used to positively impact satisfaction with each of the service quality dimensions, overall member satisfaction and WTS. The most important of these results are discussed in an importance-performance map analysis.

The MSI model is a multi-attribute index model through which members' evaluations of various dimensions of service and value are derived through multivariable linear function with each dimension weighted according to its importance in one holistic model. The model shows the strong impact of satisfaction on WTS of sports club members and reveals that findings of previous research on the relationship between fan and spectator identification and loyalty are transferable to sports club members. The MSI represents a new contribution to the literature; it was applied here to tennis clubs but is also suitable for application to other sports clubs.

Several healthcare quality assessment tools measure the processes and outcomes of the care system. The actual physical infrastructure (buildings and organizational) aspects are, however, rarely considered. The purpose of this paper is to describe the process of validation and weighting of an evidence-informed framework for the quality assessment of hospital facilities from social, environmental and organizational perspectives to complement other assessments.

Sustainable High-quality Healthcare version 2 (SustHealth v2) is the updated version of an existing framework composed of three domains (social, environmental and organizational quality). To validate and establish a relevant weighting, interviews were conducted with 15 professionals within the field of healthcare planning, design, research and management. The study has been conducted through semi-structured interviews and the application of the Simon Roy Figueras (SRF) procedure for the elicitation of weights criteria. The data collected have been processed through the DecSpace web platform.

Among the three domains, the organizational qualities appear to be the most important (W = 49%), followed by the environmental (W = 29%) and social aspects (W = 22%). Relevant indicators such as future-proofing, wayfinding and users’ space control emerged as the most important within each macro-area. Those results are confirmed by the outcome of the interviews that highlight user/patient-centeredness, wayfinding strategies and space functionality as the most important concepts to foster in existing healthcare facilities improvement.

The study highlights important structural and organizational aspects that hospital managers and planners can consider when dealing with healthcare facilities’ quality improvement.

The use of the SRF multicriteria method is novel in this context when used to weight an assessment tool with a focus on hospital built environment.

Many organisations, including professional councils, operate manually to ensure document flow to clients and stakeholders. This results in the loss of valuable documentation such as certificates and the incurring of costs due to the returning of post to the sender. The purpose of this study was to explore digital transformation of document flow at the South African Council for Social Science Professionals.

The methodological approach involved qualitative data collected through interviews, observation and document analysis in response to research questions. The study was a participatory action research project that involved collaboration between researchers and study participants in defining and solving the problem through needs assessment exercise. All three phases of participatory action research were followed, namely, the “look phase”: getting to know stakeholders so that the problem is defined on their terms and the problem definition is reflective of the community context; the “think phase”: interpretation and analysis of what was learned in the “look phase” and the “act phase”: planning, implementing, and evaluating, based on information collected and interpreted in the first two phases.

The study identified various issues relating to poor data quality, high rate of registered postal returns and non-delivery electronic messages that cannot reach all the intended recipients and accumulation of data for decades. In this regard, the study proposes a framework that can be used by SACSSP to update and verify their details on the portal, as well as digital certificates for membership.

Although the proposed framework is tailor-made for the professional council, it is not depended on prescribed technologies due to usage of open standards that can be used by industry and researchers. Therefore, it can be applied in other context where institutions such as universities communicate with many clients via postal or courier services.

The study used participatory action research involving the researchers and the organisation to solve the problem. The study presented a workflow that the council can use to ensure that the documents reach intended recipients. Furthermore, digital transformation of the process will ensure that the registered professionals are able to access their certificates online and can print them when necessary.

Restrictions on social interaction and travel due to the COVID-19 pandemic have affected how researchers approach fieldwork and data collection. Whilst online focus groups have received attention since the 2000s as a method for qualitative data collection, relatively little of the relevant literature appears to have made use of now ubiquitous video calling software and synchronous, interactive discussion tools. Our own experiences in organising fieldwork aimed at understanding the impact of different “future-proofing” strategies for the European agri-food system during this period resulted in several methodological changes being made at short notice. We present an approach to converting in-person focus group to a virtual methodology and provide a checklist for researchers planning their own online focus groups. Our findings suggest data are comparable to in-person focus groups and factors influencing data quality during online focus groups can be safeguarded. There are several key steps, both before and during the focus groups, which can be taken to ensure the smooth running of such events. We share our reflections on this approach and provide a resource for other researchers moving to online-only data collection.