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The purpose of this article is to develop an integrative framework of accelerator design to answer the question of what activities accelerators perform and how they function within a structured framework. Research on the functioning of accelerators as a mechanism for startup engagement produced multiple empirical results. However, the comparability of relevant research is strongly limited, currently hindering theoretical developments. Existing accelerator design models often differ and only partially overlap, which leaves extant literature with a fragmented and discordant conceptual understanding.

Based on a meta-synthesis method using qualitative analysis of 36 accelerator design articles, an integrative framework is developed. After identification of relevant literature, a renowned method for extracting, coding and synthesizing data on individual and cross-study level is applied to identify accelerator design constructs. Eventually, identified accelerator design constructs are integrated into a framework resting on the activity system lens of business model design.

The article reconciles fragmented knowledge on accelerator design and shows how accelerator design can be holistically conceptualized by 32 key activities clustered in eight design dimensions. The framework is complemented by an initial guideline for measurement. The findings further highlight formerly disregarded aspects of governance and community formation from a processual and structural perspective.

This article is the first to present a comprehensive picture of accelerator design integrating multiple empirical findings of prior research into a single coherent framework. This framework offers a shared foundation for future research exploring the delineations, functioning and impact of accelerators. From a practical perspective, the article provides managers of accelerators a guide to design, review and improve programs according to their value creation goals.

The combination of mobile devices and innovative tools offers new possibilities for the development of a community of practice for design makers. Mobile learning has become an essential method that design makers should adopt. The main content of this study is to explore the characteristics of learning behaviors and learning needs of creative design makers' group in forming a community of practice in the era of mobile learning.

This study conducted questionnaire research on the potentially associated or directly associated population of design makers. The process of the study also combined observational and interview studies to compensate for the lack of questionnaire research.

Based on the support of mobile learning technology, design makers share and co-create to achieve individual development and evolution of learning organizations, and produce creative value. Design-maker communities of practice form common communities in the framework of informal organizations to support continuous individual learning. Convergent interests or concerns in making things, real-world contexts based on makerspaces and hands-on practice based on real projects are the basis for forming design-maker communities of practice. A variety of open-source hardware, software and platforms that can support mobile learning are important for the development of design-maker communities of practice. The design-maker community of practice needs group factors, activity development, physical and technical resources, spatial support and institutional norms to enhance learning behaviors and satisfy learning needs.

The discovery and construction of these associated factors can help creative design practitioners form a lasting and virtuous organizational development. This study facilitates the formation of a social network for learning and knowledge sharing among design-maker communities of practice. It enhances the innovation ability and enthusiasm of design makers according to the population characteristics and learning needs of design makers. This study also facilitates the generation of a positive adaptive maker culture and maker spirit within design maker organizations.

Appropriate and deliberate use of drug prevention methods is the key to educating children about the dangers of addiction and the way of prevention. With the growing prevalence of digital games among youngsters, health education and communication among children can try adopting advergames on digital television instead of traditional media, which has also been supported by prior research. It is, therefore, this research attempts to apply digital games as a means of health promotion and carry drug prevention messages through digital gameplay. Based on behavioral models, this research investigated the communication design and effectiveness of advergames for children's health promotion.

Two studies were conducted in this research. In Study 1, the research team investigated how public health message was assimilated into advergames, which affect the health behaviors of children, they are (1) Knowledge about Drug, (2) Attitude Toward Drug and (3) Perceived Severity toward Drug-abuse. In Study 2, this research investigated the effects of the advergames on children through a between-group experiment. A pre-test/post-test for the control group and experimental group with 180 primary school children in Hong Kong was conducted.

The finding showed the potential use of advergames in health communication among children. The result proved that the anti-drug advergame is a more successful intervention among the participating children in the experimental group than the control group. The result triggers further investigations in academic, professional and educational values for advergames design, health education and communication areas.

Because of the chosen small sampling locally in Hong Kong, the research results may lack generalizability for other countries or practices.

The study evokes children's awareness of drug prevention, encourages their physical and emotional wellness, and finally advocates a healthy lifestyle for them, through the deployment of health game communication.

Despite this research studied the use of advergames, instead of digital games in general, for health promotion and delivering drug prevention messages. The research design distinctively allowed the primary students to participate in the design of the advergames instead of being passive players and/or in the information delivery process. This approach is indeed a pioneer attempt in that limited practice has been found academically. The study expands academic and practical knowledge on health game communication.

There is an urgent need in terms of changing world conditions to move beyond the dualist paradigm that has traditionally informed design research, education and practice. Rather than attempt to reduce uncertainty, novelty and complexity as is the conventional approach, an argument is presented in this article that seeks to exploit these qualities through a reconceptualisation of design in creative as well as systematic, rigorous and ethical terms. Arts‐based research, which ‘brings together the systematic and rigorous qualities of inquiry with the creative and imaginative qualities of the arts’, is presented as being central to this reconceptualisation. This is exemplified in the application of art‐informed inquiry in a research unit for graduating tertiary‐level interior design students. The application is described in this article and is shown to rely substantially on the image and its capacity to open up and reveal new possibilities and meaning.

The authors reflect on the academic bachelor and master programs of architecture. From the perspective of higher education policy in Flanders, Belgium, they examine the intrinsic challenges of the academic educational setting, and the way architectural education can fit in and benefit from it, without losing its specific design oriented qualities. Therefore, they unravel the process of architectural design research, as a discipline-authentic way of knowledge production, leading to the identification of a number of implicit features of an academic architectural learning environment. The disquisition is based on educational arguments pointed out by literature and theory. Furthermore, the authors analyze whether this learning environment can comply with general standards of external quality assurance and accreditation systems. Doing so, they reveal the Achilles’ heel of architectural education: the incompatibility of the design jury with formalized assessment frameworks. Finally, the authors conclude with an advocacy for academic freedom. To assure the quality of academic architectural programs, it is necessary that universities maintain a critical attitude towards standardized policy frameworks.

This paper aims to present an integrative review of the research studies on nursing unit layouts.

Studies selected for review were published between 1956 and 2014. For the purpose of this review, a framework for integrative review was developed using research orientations. The three primary dimensions – technical, psychological and social – of the designed environment and various combinations of these dimensions were used to define the research orientations of these studies.

Of all the publications reviewed for the paper, 21 presented technical orientations, 16 psychological orientations, 3 social orientations, 20 psychotechnical orientations, 10 sociotechnical orientations, 2 psychosocial orientations and 13 presented psychosociotechnical orientations. With only a few exceptions, several issues related to nursing unit layouts were investigated no more than one time in any one category of research orientations. Several other seemingly important issues including patient and family behavior and perception, health outcomes and social and psychosocial factors in relation to unit layouts have not been studied adequately.

Future studies on nursing unit layouts will need to focus on patient and family behavior and perception, health outcomes and social and psychosocial factors in different units. They will also need to focus on developing theories concerning the effects of layouts on the technical, psychological and social dimensions of nursing units.

Despite a long history of research on nursing unit layouts, an integrative review of these studies is still missing in the literature. This review fills in the gap using a novel framework for integrative review developed based on research orientations.

The purpose of this paper is to present a methodology for research through game design and discuss how simulation games can be used to bridge the gap between operational exercises and simulation or analytical modelling and to provide guidelines on how simulation games can be designed for different research purposes in the context of humanitarian logistics.

This paper combines a literature review on gaming as a research method with an analysis of requirements for humanitarian logistics research methods. Starting from this theoretical framework, the authors develop a design thinking approach that highlights how games can be used for different research purposes. To illustrate the approach, the authors develop two different game set-ups that are of increasing fidelity and complexity. Finally, the authors discuss the results of the evaluation of both approaches, reflect on the design choices and provide recommendations for research and practice.

Gaming is a suitable research method to explore and analyse behaviour and decisions in emergent settings that require team work and collaborative problem solving. Especially when safety and security concerns may hinder access and experimentation on site, gaming can offer a realistic and engaging quasi-experimental environment. The aspects of engagement and realism also make gaming a suitable tool to combine training and research.

Although the use of games has attracted some attention in commercial supply chain management and crisis response, there is no systematic overview of gaming as a research method in humanitarian logistics. This paper is set to make a headway in addressing this gap by proposing a concrete approach to design games for humanitarian logistics research.

This paper aims to propose a framework for the evaluation of artefacts in Design Science and test it using an exemplar case of a knowledge management system (KMS) developed for an Australian refrigeration manufacturing company.

The research uses Design Science research methodology in a specific case study context. The artefact studied was developed using an ontology based on an engineering design conceptualisation and created using an ontology generator, Protégé. Research data for the evaluation of the framework were collected using a combination of document analysis, interviews, shadowing and observations.

The evaluation framework developed for the research and applied to the KMS specifically built for the company was shown to be useful in determining the efficacy and effectiveness of the research outcomes in terms of usefulness to the company engineers in the technical analysis of their work, and for the CEO and COO as part of their strategic planning for the company. The evaluation framework helped the researcher and the engineers as collaborators to demonstrate the extent of improvement in the design and build processes in the company.

Prior research in both Information System and Design Science has not provided a specific, generalizable, evaluation framework for system developers to use as a guide during the systems development process. This research proposes an evaluation framework which covers all broad aspects of evaluation and efficacy, accepting that evaluation frameworks must be flexible in enabling changes to accommodate variations in the types and purposes of artefacts developed.

This paper aims to investigate the role of design as a knowledge translation mechanism in R&D-oriented open innovation. In particular, the paper intends to look at how design can be used as a means of knowledge transfer among various stakeholders who speak different languages and have divergent needs and interests in a process where knowledge openly flew across the boundaries of a high number of organizations.

The paper combines the insights from theory with the empirical evidences gathered by adopting an extreme case study approach: the detailed analysis of a case study related to an R&D project funded by the European Commission and aimed to investigate and produce innovative serious games in the area of healthcare. The project gathered a large number of stakeholders and deliberately adopted design to support an open innovation approach.

The paper provides insights into the use of design outputs such as artifacts, sketches, visual representations or prototypes to translate ideas, theoretical and technical requirements, documents and outputs into formats that can be more easily understood and appreciated by various stakeholders. This supports and favors coordination in open innovation projects where many different stakeholders are engaged in.

Although the adoption of an extreme case study approach offers important implications to understand the role of design in R&D-oriented open innovation, the use of a single case study represents the basis both to explore hypothesis and to provide first evidences that need to be further tested with other qualitative and quantitative analysis.

The paper offers practical implications about how design can help individuals and organizations involved in R&D activities to better communicate and share knowledge among various stakeholders by aligning their different needs, interests and languages along the various phases of their project development.

The originality of the paper lays at the intersection of three different fields: open innovation, knowledge management and design for innovation, thus integrating mature, but so far isolated, research streams. It provides insights for theory building by explaining the use of design as knowledge translational mechanism as well as it informs the practice by highlighting the power of design as a mean to support knowledge flows into open innovation-based R&D projects.

A substantial amount of research argues that built environmental interventions can improve the outcomes of patients and other users of healthcare facilities, supporting the concept of evidence-based design (EBD). However, the sources of such evidence and its flow into healthcare design are less well understood. This paper aims to provide insights to both the sources and flow of EBD used in three healthcare projects, to reveal practicalities of use and the relationships between them in practice.

Three healthcare case study projects provided empirical data on the design of a number of different elements. Inductive thematic analysis was used to identify the source and flow of evidence used in this design, which was subsequently quantised to reveal the dominant patterns therein.

Healthcare design teams use evidence from various sources, the knowledge and experience of the members of the design team being the most common due to both ease of access and thus flow. Practice-based research and peer-reviewed published research flow both directly and indirectly into the design process, whilst collaborations with researchers and research institutions nurture the credibility of the latter.

The findings can be used to enhance activities that aim to design, conduct and disseminate future EBD research to improve their flow to healthcare designers.

This research contributes to understandings of EBD by exploring the flow of research from various sources in conflation and within real-life environments.