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Article
Publication date: 1 August 2006

Helen Sanderson, Simon Duffy, Carl Poll and Chris Hatton

In Control is a system of self‐directed support. This paper tells the story of its first two years and of the pilot implementation projects run in six local authorities. The key…

Abstract

In Control is a system of self‐directed support. This paper tells the story of its first two years and of the pilot implementation projects run in six local authorities. The key findings from the evaluation are that people are more self‐determined, people have a better sense of direction in their lives, people's support has improved, people's money situation has improved, people are improving their home situation and people's community lives are improving.

Details

Journal of Integrated Care, vol. 14 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1476-9018

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 1 October 2015

Menachem (Meni) Abudy and Beni Lauterbach

We examine changes in controlling shareholder holdings, looking for evidence of financial tunneling (unfair wealth transfers from public investors to controlling shareholders)…

Abstract

We examine changes in controlling shareholder holdings, looking for evidence of financial tunneling (unfair wealth transfers from public investors to controlling shareholders). Our sample comprises yearly data during 2000–2011 on 75 large Israeli companies. We find that controlling shareholders are successful in timing the stock market – there exists a significant negative correlation between changes in the mean controlling shareholders’ equity holdings and market return. There is also some evidence that controlling shareholders increase (decrease) their holdings before years of positive (negative) excess returns in their shares. However, statistically significant mean excess returns are documented only after decreases in controlling shareholders’ holdings. Thus, we offer only limited support for the financial tunneling hypothesis.

Details

International Corporate Governance
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78560-355-6

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 23 September 2024

Atieh Poushneh and Arturo Vasquez-Parraga

Advances in autonomous technology have transformed customer experience. Most prior research has investigated the effect of augmented reality (AR) on purchase intention, yet few…

Abstract

Purpose

Advances in autonomous technology have transformed customer experience. Most prior research has investigated the effect of augmented reality (AR) on purchase intention, yet few research has discussed the effect of semiautonomous AR in the context of service use. Semiautonomous AR recognizes content in the present reality, inserts and adjusts virtual content, supervises the users and enables them to feel in control of the virtual content overlaid in observed reality resulting in enriched user experience and thereby augmentation experience. This research demonstrates how perceived control of virtual content leads to higher perceived augmentation experiences among semiautonomous AR users than among non-AR users. In addition, this research examines the mediation effects of enriched user experience and perceived augmentation experience on user satisfaction and users’ willingness to continue using AR. Results also indicate that AR users perceive a higher augmentation experience than non-AR users. However, users’ willingness to continue using AR is not significantly different between AR and non-AR users.

Design/methodology/approach

This study derives six hypotheses and uses a preliminary study, a field study and a lab study to evaluate the hypotheses. A field study was conducted in a car dealership to test the hypotheses, and a lab experiment was conducted in a controlled setting to corroborate the results obtained in the field study and test the underlying causal effects.

Findings

Semiautonomous AR can constantly sense, plan and not necessarily always act over the virtual content to sustain the interaction with its users. Perceived control of virtual content enhances perceived augmentation experience, and its effect of perceived control of virtual content on perceived augmentation experience is higher among semiautonomous AR users than among non-AR users. Perceived control of virtual content is a key to enriched user experience, augmentation experience and thereby users’ attitude and behavior. In addition, results showed that enriched user experience mediates the effect of perceived control of virtual content on perceived augmentation. User satisfaction mediates the effect of perceived augmentation experience on users’ willingness to continue using AR. The theoretical and practical contributions are comprehensively discussed.

Research limitations/implications

Some limitations of the studies are ascertained. First, a larger sample size might be required to achieve generalizability and a strong test of the applied theory. Second, new field studies can reflect customers’ real attitudes and behaviors so as to reveal realistic interactions between the device properties and the human will in solving actual problems. The user is interested in participating in the solution within the sensing-planning-acting process as depicted by this research. Third, new research to test AR’s capabilities in bounded and symbiotic conditions can illustrate the level of autonomy each type requires, providing additional insights into why supervised AR autonomy best reflects semiautonomous AR. The pioneering structural model offered in this study (perceived control of virtual content-perceived augmentation experience-users’ satisfaction-users’ willingness to continue using AR) should be tested with new samples in other industries, aside from including other variables that may enrich the model and increase its explanatory power. In addition, future research might use other AR devices such as smart glasses to explore the effects of AR on perceived control of virtual content, enriched user experience and perceived augmentation experience. Future studies can investigate the effect of auditory and visual augmentation on enriched user experience and perceived augmentation experience, and involve features of artificial intelligence (AI) to assist users in decision-making. Regarding context, this research showed that age and gender differences did not affect the results. Nonetheless, age and gender, and perhaps additional demographic characteristics, may concern future studies.

Practical implications

Some recommendations for technology developers are derived from this research. AR is revolutionizing service experience. As technologies are becoming autonomous, developers seek ways to design experiences to enhance consumers’ sense of control over their interaction with such systems. Companies cannot create customer experience (Becker and Jaakkola, 2020), yet they can leverage the level of autonomy in AR to sustain ongoing interaction with customers. It is vital to design an autonomous AR that focuses on users’ needs, desires and well-being (de Bellis and Johar, 2020) that drive novel experiences (Novak and Hoffman, 2019). This study recommends AR developers design autonomous features in AR that enable customers to interact with the virtual contents generated by AR and extend their own capabilities to perform a task and feel expanded. While designing a fully autonomous system may hinder users to feel in control of their choice (Schmitt, 2019), service companies can develop an AR system that sustains an interaction, involves the user in value co-creation and guides the user (Alimamy and Gnoth, 2022). AR can sustain an interaction with the users by continuously scanning the objects in the reality and providing sensory feedback such as product size recommendations (e.g. eyeglasses) that facilitate customers’ information processing (Poushneh, 2021b; Heller et al., 2019). To achieve this, developers may focus on technology qualities such as “image recognition,” a subset of AI. With image recognition, AR can effectively provide instruction as if the customer is in a real setting. The proper incorporation of image recognition in the design of AR while enabling users to interact with 3D virtual images sustains their interaction with AR and makes them feel in control of their interaction with AR. Service companies need to ensure users feel in control of their interaction and expand their capacities to engage in the service experience with AR to accomplish their desired tasks. AR’s capacities enable users to expand their abilities to fix their basic service problems without referring to or speaking to a service provider agent in a service context. Therefore, instead of taking their car back to the dealership, customers can use AR mobile applications or glasses provided by car manufacturers to learn and fix basic vehicle problems.

Originality/value

This research advances the marketing literature on how users feel in control of virtual content when they interact with a semiautonomous AR that subsequently influences enriched user experience, perceived augmentation experience, attitudes and behavior.

Details

European Journal of Marketing, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0309-0566

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 December 2004

Simon Duffy

This paper argues that human services should move towards self‐directed support. If people have more control over their own individual support, they will be better able to control…

208

Abstract

This paper argues that human services should move towards self‐directed support. If people have more control over their own individual support, they will be better able to control the quality of the support and to participate in community life. This hypothesis is being tested by the In Control programme.

Details

Journal of Integrated Care, vol. 12 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1476-9018

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 19 August 2009

Rita Brewis

This article outlines the work being taken forward by In Control, an independent social enterprise and charity, with a range of innovative PCTs and local authorities, to explore…

Abstract

This article outlines the work being taken forward by In Control, an independent social enterprise and charity, with a range of innovative PCTs and local authorities, to explore how the concept of personalisation may be applied in health. The programme has been called Staying in Control, to reflect the need for joining together health and social care so that a person does not lose control when their health deteriorates and different funding streams and services come into play.

Details

Journal of Integrated Care, vol. 17 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1476-9018

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 November 1998

Bowon Kim

We present two contingency rules to control a production process subject to a single assignable cause, i.e. the process shifts from in‐control to out‐of‐control state when the…

Abstract

We present two contingency rules to control a production process subject to a single assignable cause, i.e. the process shifts from in‐control to out‐of‐control state when the single assignable cause occurs. In this paper, we assume a 100 per cent inspection policy as opposed to the sampling concept. However, the first rule we suggest is comparable with the traditional sampling model in that its criterion to intervene in the process is based on the number of defective products. The second rule uses more information than the first does: it triggers intervening in the process when the inter‐arrival time between two consecutive defective products is smaller than an optimally derived cut‐off rate. We first show how the two rules can be derived, and, as a preliminary analysis, propose conditions under which one contingency rule might be more effective than the other.

Details

International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, vol. 15 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0265-671X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 19 April 2013

Sukhraj Singh and D.R. Prajapati

The purpose of this paper is to study the effect of correlation on the performance of CUSUM and EWMA charts. The performance of the CUSUM and EWMA charts is measured in terms of…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to study the effect of correlation on the performance of CUSUM and EWMA charts. The performance of the CUSUM and EWMA charts is measured in terms of average run lengths (ARLs) for the positively correlated data. The ARLs at various set of parameters of the CUSUM and EWMA charts are computed, using MATLAB. The behavior of the CUSUM and EWMA chart at the various shifts in the process mean is studied, analyzed and compared at different levels of correlation (Φ). The optimum schemes for both the charts are suggested for various levels of correlation (Φ).

Design/methodology/approach

Positively correlated observations having normal distribution are generated with the help of the MATLAB. Performance of both the charts in terms of ARLs is measured and compared at various levels of correlation (Φ). The optimal schemes of charts which give the desired in‐control ARLs are suggested for various levels of correlation (Φ).

Findings

For each level of correlation (Φ) various schemes of both the charts are suggested. Moreover those suggested schemes which give quick response to the shifts in the process mean is termed as optimal scheme. It is concluded that CUSUM schemes are preferred as compared to the EWMA schemes for quicker response. The optimal schemes of CUSUM and EWMA chart are also compared with the EWMAST chart suggested by Winkel and Zhang (2004).

Research limitations/implications

Both the schemes are optimized by assuming the autocorrelated numbers to be normally distributed. But this assumption may also be relaxed to design these schemes for autocorrelated data. Moreover sample size of four is taken while developing these schemes; various other schemes can also be developed for different sample sizes. Control charts for attribute type of data can also be developed for different level of correlation (Φ).

Practical implications

For a specific control chart, if the in‐control ARL of the process outputs of any industry is in accordance with the simulated in‐control ARL. It means the process outputs must have same level of correlation (Φ) corresponding to the simulated in‐control ARL and the suggested optimal schemes, corresponding to that level of correlation (Φ), must be adopted to avoid the false alarm rate. The correlation among the process outputs of any industry can be find out and corresponding to that level of correlation the suggested control chart parameters can be applied. Thus false alarms generated, will be minimum for the suggested schemes at different level of correlation (Φ).

Social implications

If the optimal CUSUM schemes are employed in process/service industry, there will be a considerable amount of saving in time and money expended in search of causes behind frequent false alarms. The rejection level of products in the industries can be reduced by designing the better control chart schemes which will also reduce the loss to the society, as suggested by Taguchi.

Originality/value

The research findings could be applied to various manufacturing industries as well as service industries where the data is positively correlated and normally distributed.

Article
Publication date: 29 April 2014

Manuel do Carmo, Paulo Infante and Jorge M Mendes

– The purpose of this paper is to measure the performance of a sampling method through the average number of samples drawn in control.

1122

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to measure the performance of a sampling method through the average number of samples drawn in control.

Design/methodology/approach

Matching the adjusted average time to signal (AATS) of sampling methods, using as a reference the AATS of one of them the paper obtains the design parameters of the others. Thus, it will be possible to obtain, in control, the average number of samples required, so that the AATS of the mentioned sampling methods may be equal to the AATS of the method that the paper uses as the reference.

Findings

A more robust performance measure to compare sampling methods because in many cases the period of time where the process is in control is greater than the out of control period. With this performance measure the paper compares different sampling methods through the average total cost per cycle, in systems with Weibull lifetime distributions: three systems with an increasing hazard rate (shape parameter β=2, 4 and 7) and one system with a decreasing failure rate (β=0, 8).

Practical implications

In a usual production cycle where the in control period is much larger than the out of control period, particularly if the sampling costs and false alarms costs are high in relation to malfunction costs, the paper thinks that this methodology allows us a more careful choice of the appropriate sampling method.

Originality/value

To compare the statistical performance between different sampling methods using the average number of samples need to be inspected when the process is in control. Particularly, the paper compares the statistical and economic performance between different sampling methods in contexts not previously considered in literature. The paper presents an approximation for the average time between the instant that failure occurs and the first sample with the process out of control, as well.

Details

International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, vol. 31 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0265-671X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 30 June 2020

Marta Fernandez-Olmos, Isabel Diaz-Vial and Giulio Malorgio

This study aims to focus on relational social capital in family wineries. Relational social capital is influenced by the family nature of the business and is at the same time a…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to focus on relational social capital in family wineries. Relational social capital is influenced by the family nature of the business and is at the same time a key antecedent of winery performance. The aim is to analyse these relationships in the qualified denomination of origin (DOC) Rioja wine industry (Spain).

Design/methodology/approach

Using a final sample of 110 family wineries, a Baron and Kenny approach was performed to investigate the causal and mediating relationships between the generation in control, relational social capital and family winery performance.

Findings

Using a final sample of 110 family wineries, the study demonstrates that later generations show a higher level of relational social capital, that the positive relationship between relational social capital and performance is maintained in a family firm sample and that the generation in control sequentially influence on performance through its influence on relational social capital.

Research limitations/implications

The main limitations are that empirical data were obtained only from DOC Rioja wine family businesses and a cross-sectional study was conducted.

Social implications

This study provides policymakers and family managers responsible for succession with a better understanding of the effects of transferring the business to the next generations in terms of relational social capital and performance.

Originality/value

To the best of the knowledge, this is the first study to examine the sequential relationships between generation, relational social capital and performance in DOC Rioja family wineries. The context of the DOC Rioja wine industry is particularly noteworthy for two reasons. First, in this industry, family-controlled firms predominate. Second, the DOC Rioja wine industry is focussed on the small-to-medium context, which has conventionally provided a very good area for the development of social capital theory.

Details

International Journal of Wine Business Research, vol. 33 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1751-1062

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 22 July 2009

Edward Hall

A central element in the shift to a ‘personalised’ care system in the UK is the opportunity for disabled people to hold and manage budgets for the purchase of care and support, to…

Abstract

A central element in the shift to a ‘personalised’ care system in the UK is the opportunity for disabled people to hold and manage budgets for the purchase of care and support, to replace local authority services. The delivery mechanisms of ‘Direct Payments’ and ‘Individual Budgets’ have allowed many disabled people to control their care and support better, and have promoted their social inclusion. However, the particular contexts and issues for people with learning disabilities in holding personal funding have been little considered. The paper sets out the broad themes of the introduction of personalised care, and examines the limited use by people with learning disabilities of Direct Payments and the subsequent development of Individual Budgets. The paper considers the challenges to the nature, spaces and relations of care commonly used by people with learning disabilities that personal budgets present, in particular for those with more severe disabilities. The paper concludes by suggesting ways in which people with learning disabilities can use personal budgets, whilst maintaining the collective relations and spaces of caring desired by many.

Details

Mental Health Review Journal, vol. 14 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1361-9322

Keywords

1 – 10 of over 18000