Search results

A new type of digital-based worker emerged during the COVID-19. As a result, during the adjustment to this scenario, family, resources and emotions were impacted. Technological and emotional skills were crucial to give continuity and certainty to business. However, despite benefits, remote working has negative consequences, especially in well-being perception. This study proposes a model to measure the impact on the well-being perception of workers that adapted their job to remote positions during a pandemic and offers a valuable framework to understand future emerging changes in remote working and the relationship with well-being perception, especially during crisis scenarios.

The study used an online questionnaire and a structural equation methodology by partial least squares (PLS) using SmartPLS 3.3.3. Data were obtained from 567 respondents workers who adapted to their jobs during the pandemic in Mexico.

The results showed that six model dimensions: human relations (RH), emotions (E), well-being behaviors related to Covid-19 (CB), family economics (EF), routines and habits (RS) and family life (VF) were positive and significant to reflect the Index of Perception of Well-being (iWB) using a structural equation model. This indicates how the lockdown process changed people's perception of well-being and concerns. According with this, for remote working employees, two dimensions were relevant: RH and EF. This finding is relevant because during emergency lockdown, these workers needed to adapt their activities and were separated from all human interactions.

The researchers’ model of Index of Perception of Well-being (iWB) has conceptual and practical implications. From a conceptual point of view, it offers a methodology to measure the relationships between remote working and employees' well-being perception. While for practice, it offers managerial implications to better manage remote working adaptation without compromising people's well-being to create future innovation management environments (IME) for organizations.

This study contributes to develop research about changes in workers' well-being perception during digital adaptation.

This chapter aims to analyze the participation of entrepreneurship studies from the perspective of capabilities and technology-based startups in Latin America, which implies considering capabilities from a perspective of innovation, technology, knowledge, and learning. The chapter conducts a bibliometric review from which the characteristics of the Latin American presence in the analysis of startups and related issues are identified. The analysis shows that Latin America has had a small but growing presence at the world level, as is the case with the treatment of the startups in the international arena, and where the topics of innovation and capabilities have been little addressed. A scheme is proposed based on which entrepreneurial capabilities are considered as a way of understanding the creation and trajectory of startup companies. In the trajectory of the startup companies, these capabilities unfold and grow through processes of integration of complementary resources and learning processes, which result in the construction of new capabilities that feed the further growth of the company.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze whether the influence of manufacturing flexibility on firms’ exploration/exploitation differs between firms that possess Certified Quality Management Systems (CQMS) and firms that do not.

The authors analyze a sample of 231 Spanish manufacturing firms, 131 of which had received some form of Quality Certification. The data were collected through a structured telephone questionnaire addressed to company CEOs. The relationships are modelled using regression equations, including interaction terms, in order to test for the existence of a moderating effect.

The results show that certified companies exploit their own abilities, whereas uncertified firms tend to explore new knowledge. The authors also justify the importance of manufacturing flexibility for both options, exploration and exploitation.

The limitations of this research include the fact that the authors study a variety of forms of certification, not only ISO, and the fact that all companies belong to the same country.

This study contributes to developing empirical knowledge of the benefits of CQMS in the firm.

The paper develops a new model to improve manufacturing flexibility and Quality Management.

DEPLOY is a successful technology demonstration project showing how state of the art technology can be implemented to achieve, continuous, real‐time monitoring of a river catchment.

The DEPLOY system is a wide area network of monitoring stations delivering data in near real‐time. The demonstration sites chosen are based in the River Lee, which flows through Ireland's second largest city, Cork. The sites include monitoring stations in five zones considered typical of significant river systems and demonstrate the versatility of the technology available. Data were collected from stations at pre‐programmed intervals and transmitted to the DEPLOY servers either by short range ISM band radio or directly via the GSM GPRS network. The data were then processed and made available in a controlled manner at www.deploy.ie Findings – The project demonstrates the capability of multi‐sensor systems to remotely monitor temporal and spatial variations in water quality, through the identification of short‐term events. A system like DEPLOY could be used as a decision support tool by regulatory bodies in managing our aquatic environment with the potential to cut overall monitoring costs and provide better coverage representing long‐term trends in fluctuations of pollutant concentrations.

The demonstration of a truly heterogeneous water quality monitoring networked system was one of the first of its kind in Ireland. Based on the collected data DEPLOY can provide recommendations for water quality monitoring systems from various perspectives, technical, operational and strategic.

This article aims to provide a new paradigm for thinking about disability, which can be applied to other social groups, historically invisible and whose rights have been violated. The Model of Communication and Legitimate Acknowledgement of Disability (MCLAD) tries to break with the logic of continuing to add terms and euphemisms around the issue. The author proposes a new line to think about relationships in democratic societies. Taking the step from inclusion to acknowledgment does not imply another way of naming the disability, but rather addressing the problem from concrete practices of recognition. In order to arrive at the proposal of the MCLAD, the author will make a journey that addresses how disability has been understood throughout history, according to the study of different authors.

Disability has been perceived over time in many different ways, which led some authors to build models in order to explain certain social approaches to the subject. This article traces a journey from the first model to the present. In turn, it proposes a new one: the MCLAD, which is characterized by a paradigm shift: moving from inclusion to acknowledgment. To substantiate this, three categories are presented: acknowledgment, distance and vulnerability. The different theories and concepts that support the model will also be presented. The purpose of the MCLAD is to deepen the idea of empowering people with disabilities as part of today’s diverse societies and closing historically constructed gaps which are still in force.

The MCLAD proposes three categories: acknowledgment, distance and vulnerability. In turn, in each of them, there is a link between three axes: person with disability/society/state, analyzing the dynamics of these relationships presented, will provide us with the necessary elements to understand the proposed turnaround.

Although the different models will be presented according to the chronological order of definition over time, all of them still coexist today, in many cases in hybrid and naturalized ways in social practices. Recognizing what practices and conceptions are behind each model, allows us to recognize and resignify the ways of communicating toward people with disabilities (PWD) and on the issue of disability. It also allows other specific recognition practices, such as the legitimization of public policies from the laws that protect them.

To replace the paradigm of inclusion for that of acknowledgment and to recognize how the three categories (acknowledgment, distance and vulnerability) are linked with the three issues (PWD – society and state) allowing specific relationship and practises of legitimate or not acknowledgement. When the author affirms that the MCLAD implies a paradigm shift, the author means that it provides some elements from legitimate acknowledgment to complement aspects which inclusion does not address, and that the other models did not take into account. These are: the self-acknowledgment of people with disabilities and the sense of responsibility linked to empowerment; vulnerability as a category of reconciliation, which is typical of every human being; the contribution of the Phenomenology of the Among to think about how relationships and practices actually occur in society and, finally, the role of the state, which must watch over all its citizens, avoiding the distance between discourse (laws) and practices and, above all, avoiding exclusion from the system due to lack of monitoring of actions.

It should be noted that the MCLAD starts from the idea of language as a constructor of realities and conceives communication as an enabler of the acknowledgment of the other, who is also subject to rights. At the same time, it vindicates the voice of people with disabilities as protagonists (“Nothing about us without us”) and fosters the need for PWD themselves to be active in their struggles, promulgating legitimate acknowledgment. At the same time, it points out that the empowerment of PWD implies not only that they are aware of their rights but also that they themselves know and fulfill their duties within the democratic societies of which they are a part of and which, at least discursively, are regulated by laws. In other words, being empowered is also being responsible for living in society.

The main contribution that the MCLAD has to offer is to replace the paradigm of inclusion for that of acknowledgment. And, throughout the path followed in this article, an attempt has been made to establish that the turnaround is not to capriciously install a new concept (acknowledgment), but to demonstrate that the new paradigm involves three categories that sustain and support a model that seeks to be the basis for effective public policies, for a society that values diversity and for people who feel worthy and contribute to dignify others.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of information technology (IT) competence – composed of IT infrastructure, IT technical and managerial knowledge and the integration of IT strategy with firm strategy – on quality performance. Since, according to the resource‐based view, IT alone is not able to sustain a competitive advantage, the moderating effect of leadership practice on this relationship must be analyzed.

A proposed research model is tested using survey data from a sample of 230 leading Spanish firms. Multiple regression analysis was performed with SPSS package.

The main findings show that: the existence of an IT competence will have a partial impact on improvement in quality performance; IT technical knowledge in itself does not influence the determination of improvement in quality performance – rather, one needs complementarity with leadership; and the impact of IT dimensions on quality performance will be greater in the presence of leadership practice.

Managers must be aware that the impact of IT on competitive advantage need not be direct; it can have influence through complementarity with other organizational capabilities.

The paper reinforces the need to explore in greater depth the relationship between IT and quality management. This appears to be one of the first papers to simultaneously explore relationships between IT, leadership and quality performance. The paper provides insights on the processes by which IT resources interact with other organizational resources, a topic that has received little attention to date.

The purpose of this paper is to devise an experimental lab like infrastructure in the higher education connecting social innovation with sustainable tourism.

In order to model a laboratory of social innovation and sustainable tourism lab (SISTOUR-LAB), the method of agile research was employed. This method involves the creation of successive and accumulative prototypes of four kinds: conceptual, relational, functional and transferable. Thus, agile research enables the integration of different social perspectives into the same prototype in a recursive manner.

The SISTOUR-LAB is a work-based learning strategy that allows for the development of a mapping process on tourism vulnerabilities (linked to opportunities for social innovation); the development of experimental training in prototyping social innovations on sustainable tourism; the design of hybrid social innovation business models linked to sustainable tourism; and the development of a relational model of evaluation linking together social innovation competencies with processes of transition toward sustainable tourism.

The SISTOUR-LAB is a prototypical lab that combines social innovation and sustainable tourism in an experimental setting. The SISTOUR-LAB has been modeled based on the agile research method, but it will be necessary to test it empirically to stabilize the model. Once stabilized, the model shall lead to a better understanding of the relationship between work-based learning, social innovation and sustainable tourism in the area of higher education.

The SISTOUR-LAB has four implications: teachers: the SISTOUR-LAB provides teachers with a setting for the development of experimental education models that connect the problems of conventional tourism with social innovation in order to foster new learning environments oriented toward sustainable tourism; students: the SISTOUR-LAB enhances the employability of students since it connects them with agents and demands of touristic transition, while also fostering entrepreneurial development by means of improving the acquisition of social entrepreneurship competences for sustainable tourism; organizations: the SISTOUR-LAB provides an experimental setting for the prototyping of social innovations so as to assist organizations in the formulation of models, prototypes and evaluations that facilitate the transition toward sustainable tourism; policymaking: the SISTOUR-LAB promotes the design of evidence-based public policies, which fosters inclusive models of innovation and the regional monitoring of transitions toward sustainable tourism.

There exist little reference to the link between social innovation and sustainable tourism in the academic and institutional literature. The SISTOUR-LAB is a work-based learning strategy that fosters the structuring of experimental relations between social innovation and sustainable tourism by integrating touristic organizations to the development of competencies in higher education. The SISTOUR-LAB has programmatic and prospective value. It can be considered as a guide for the development of generative competencies, i.e. competencies that generate social innovations that impact chain triggers transitions toward sustainable tourism.

This paper aims to offer a conceptual model for the development of a teaching–learning experiential ecosystem which favors university entrepreneurship in the area of sustainable tourism and innovation acceleration.

The methodology is carried out in two phases. First, participatory action research in the context of the “Protocol and Event Organization” subject, included in the Tourism degree taught at the University of Alicante, analyzing a didactic experience as a case study. Second, primary qualitative and quantitative research.

Although at a small scale, it is shown that the relational approach for university management fosters entrepreneurship and generates social awareness regarding the sustainable tourism business.

This is a local simulatory case on relational university and is based on only one subject. However, as a starting point, it has the following implications.

The authors contribute in a practical manner to model a learning and entrepreneurship ecosystem for configuring an education innovation agenda in the field of tourism, with the cooperation of all agents involved in this sector to accelerate novel entrepreneurships, as well as transitions, toward sustainability.

The model is useful to accelerate new entrepreneurship and transitions toward sustainable regional development.

Students have led the process and have become quintessential relationatory agents, creating their own career opportunities on sustainable tourism, in addition to creating society–university links.

Through the metaphor of navigation, we offer the reader a journey that goes from the literature review about the main theories of creativity throughout the last century to the present, to later address it for Latin America, outlining some reflections on its current context, as well as what the future holds. The literature review shows that, unlike the Western Hemisphere, creativity as a line of research in our region has been somewhat neglected, without being given its rightful place, generally very little addressed. Therefore, it is proposed to get back on track, rescuing what has been done and through an exercise of reflection, proposing new lines of research linked to creativity itself, to innovation, and also toward entrepreneurship.

This study explores the impact of new technologies, such as simulation and virtual reality, on the pedagogy and learning of engineering students. It aims to compare the effectiveness of these digital tools against traditional teaching methods in enhancing student learning experiences.

Utilizing a quantitative research approach, the study involved third-year engineering students from the “Production Management” course at the School of Engineering of Vitoria-Gasteiz. Data were collected through an ad hoc questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS software, focusing on student satisfaction, challenges in adopting new technologies and the evolving roles of students and teachers.

The research highlighted several key aspects. Firstly, it identified the need for adapting teaching methods to incorporate new technologies effectively. Secondly, the integration of simulation and virtual reality was found to facilitate a deeper understanding of real-world problems, as students could engage with these issues in a simulated, virtual environment. Finally, the study emphasized the importance of pedagogical approaches that leverage these technologies to increase student involvement and motivation. The results suggest a positive impact of digital tools on the learning process in engineering education.

The study’s scope was limited to one course within a single institution, suggesting the need for broader research across various disciplines and educational settings.

This research offers valuable insights into the integration of simulation and virtual reality in engineering education, underscoring their potential to enhance the learning experience and knowledge acquisition among students.