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This paper aims to evaluate how five Operation Soteria Bluestone (OSB) participating forces integrated principles of procedural justice and proactive disruption of offending into their investigations, specifically during the closing stages of a case when considering exit strategy and longer-term prevention.

A mixed-methods approach was taken, including 32 semi-structured interviews with officers and 59 case reviews of recent rape and serious sexual offences (RASSO). Data analysis methods included qualitative thematic analysis of interviews, while data from reviewed case logs was extracted and analysed using a bespoke case review tool.

Increased workloads, preparation of evidence and relational/communication difficulties with the crown prosecution service (CPS) were identified as barriers to implementing long-term disruption options. Dedicated resourcing, training and support are needed to promote suspect-focused investigative strategy and wider uptake of long-term disruption methods. Early investigative approach was also found to have “snowball” effects on suspect exit strategy, with initial lack of suspect focus and preoccupation with victim credibility, impeding consideration of long-term disruption and safeguarding options. Findings also point to a disparity between promising practice in relation to procedural justice for victims and (a relative lack of) proactive policing of repeat suspects.

The study represents a novel contribution to research on policing RASSO, illustrating the scale and nature of the obstacles to changing how these offences are investigated, even when under intense scrutiny from policy makers. It also highlights how increased organisational investment and support is linked to positive changes in practice in some forces.

The rapid growth of the mobile money industry has been matched by a rise in mobile money fraud. The technology required to apprehend perpetrators of such fraud is nonexistent in most developing countries. Hence, the need for individuals to be willing to pay for insurance against such frauds is crucial. This paper aims to examine individuals’ willingness to pay for insurance against mobile money fraud in Ghana.

The paper uses nationally representative data collected from 4,266 adults (persons 18 years and above) in Ghana. Individuals’ willingness to pay premiums for protection against mobile money fraud was elicited by a single-bound dichotomous choice and open-ended contingent valuation designs.

On average, 24.34% of Ghanaians are willing to pay premiums for insurance against mobile money frauds, with more men (26.37%) being willing than women (22.56%). Similarly, the average monthly premium that men are willing to pay for protection against mobile money fraud is GH¢32.16 (US$8.16), while that of women is GH¢22.5 (US$5.62). Furthermore, the results show that years of schooling, income, previous fraud experience, and using the accounts for saving are all positively associated with willingness to pay. However, using other networks apart from MTN has a negative association with willingness to pay.

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that examines willingness to pay for insurance against mobile money fraud. Thus, this is the first that estimate quantitatively how much mobile account holders will pay as premiums for insurance against mobile money fraud.

Over the past century, office designers have adapted to changing work conditions across various industries by creating workspaces that cater to the needs of modern workers. As a result, a range of office layouts have been developed, from traditional private offices to open-plan setups. The choice of layout can significantly impact communication, social interaction and overall performance. This study aims to explore the social and mental well-being of employees working in open-plan offices in the public sector in South Africa.

The research was conducted in the Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality, South Africa, focusing on five governmental departments. Using purposive sampling, employees working in open-plan offices were identified. A structured online interview form with open-ended questions was distributed to all selected employees between May and September 2021, resulting in 54 responses. Thematic content analysis using ATLAS.ti was used to analyze the data.

The findings suggest that while open-plan offices can enhance teamwork, communication, accessibility and inclusivity, their design can negatively affect employees’ perceptions of social and mental health in the workplace. Specifically, open-plan designs are perceived to compromise privacy, shorten attention spans, lower productivity and increase stress levels. Interestingly, absenteeism was not reported by employees in this study, which contradicts previous research and requires further investigation.

These findings can be valuable for human resource managers, facilities managers and office space designers.

This research contributes to the ongoing conversation surrounding the impact of open-plan offices on the mental and social well-being of employees in the public sector within the South African context. The contribution of this paper thus lies in the South-African context and the public sector angle plus a more in-depth insight on well-being through an extensive set of 54 interviews.

Prior research has extensively examined how bringing technology from work into the non-work life domain creates conflict, yet the reverse pathway has rarely been studied. The purpose of this study is to bridge this gap and examine how the non-work use of smartphones in the workplace affects work–life conflict.

Drawing from three literature streams: technostress, work–life conflict and role boundary theory, the authors theorise on how limiting employees' ability to integrate the personal life domain into work, by means of technology use policy, contributes to stress and work–life conflict. To test this model, the authors employ a natural experiment in a company that changed its policy from fully restricting to open smartphone access for non-work purposes in the workplace. The insights gained from the experiment were explored further through qualitative interviews.

Work–life conflict declines when a ban on using smartphones for non-work purposes in the workplace is revoked. This study's results show that the relationship between smartphone use in the workplace and work–life conflict is mediated by sensed stress. Additionally, a post-hoc analysis reveals that work performance was unchanged when the smartphone ban was revoked.

First, this study advances the authors' understanding of how smartphone use policies in the workplace spill over to affect non-work life. Second, this work contributes to the technostress literature by revealing how, in specific situations, engagement with ICT can reduce distress and strain.

During everyday work, individuals often engage in unplanned conversations that help them develop relationships, share information and coordinate tasks. Unfortunately, the work-from-home mandates issued due to the pandemic have reduced the frequency of unplanned conversations among employees. So, as businesses reopen, organizations are considering post-pandemic workplace solutions that can facilitate unplanned conversations. To aid these efforts and move research and theory on unplanned conversations forward, this study proposes and tests a multi-factor model of the antecedents of unplanned conversations.

This study adopted a multi-methodological approach and collected data using automated sensing technology, structured observations and cross-sectional survey methods. A total of 5,297 unplanned conversations among 61 employees were recorded using the custom mobile application and structured observations. Cross-sectional survey data about these employees' work contexts were also collected.

The study results showed that the model significantly predicted the frequency of unplanned conversations. Notably, technical expertise, perceived time pressure and team psychological safety significantly predicted the frequency of unplanned conversations. The study findings have both theoretical and practical significance.

Previous research studies have primarily focused on the influence of workplace designs on unplanned conversations. However, this study demonstrates that several other factors facilitate unplanned conversations. This research theorizes and empirically tests the relationship between unplanned conversations and several individual, team and organizational factors.

Accurate mapping is crucial for the positioning and navigation of mobile robots. Recent advancements in algorithms and the accuracy of LiDAR sensors have led to a gradual improvement in map quality. However, challenges such as lag in closing loops and vignetting at map boundaries persist due to the discrete and sparse nature of raster map data. The purpose of this study is to reduce the error of map construction and improve the timeliness of closed loop.

In this letter, the authors introduce a method for dynamically adjusting point cloud distance constraints to optimize data association (ODA-d), effectively addressing these issues. The authors propose a dynamic threshold optimization method for matching point clouds to submaps during scan matching.

Large deviations in LiDAR sensor point cloud data, when incorporated into the submap, can result in irreparable errors in correlation matching and loop closure optimization. By implementing a data association framework with double constraints and dynamically adjusting the matching threshold, the authors significantly enhance submap quality. In addition, the authors introduce a dynamic fusion method that accounts for both submap size and the distance between submaps during the mapping process. ODA-d reduces errors between submaps and facilitates timely loop closure optimization.

The authors validate the localization accuracy of ODA-d by examining translation and rotation errors across three open data sets. Moreover, the authors compare the quality of map construction in a real-world environment, demonstrating the effectiveness of ODA-d.

Integrating the theory of consumption value into the stimulus-organism-response framework, this study aims to analyse the influence of external and internal factors on the customers’ perceptions of utilitarian, hedonic, social and epistemic values as drivers of the overall perceived value and customers’ continuance use of mobile banking (m-banking).

An online survey was conducted with 252 actual m-banking users, and the partial least squares structural equations modelling was applied to analyse the data.

The results reveal that ubiquity and gamification positively influence the perceived usefulness and entertainment, that is the utilitarian and hedonic perceived values. Furthermore, users’ self-congruence and innovativeness affect subjective norms and novelty-seeking, representing social and epistemic values. Except for the hedonic value, each value element impacts the overall perceived value, which in turn incites clients’ intention to continue using m-banking services.

By exploring the simultaneous effect of service-related and personal factors (stimuli) on different elements of perceived value (organism), this study contributes to the existing knowledge of consumption reactions (response) in the context of m-banking. The research of the Macedonian m-banking offers a closer insight into Western Balkan mobile commerce.

Integrando la Teoría del Valor de Consumo (TCV) en el marco Estímulo-Organismo-Respuesta (S-O-R), este estudio pretende analizar la influencia de factores externos e internos en las percepciones de valor utilitario, hedónico, social y epistémico de los clientes, como impulsores del valor percibido global y del uso continuado del m-banking por parte de los clientes.

Se realizó una encuesta en línea a 252 usuarios reales de banca móvil y se aplicó el modelo de ecuaciones estructurales por mínimos cuadrados parciales (PLS-SEM) para analizar los datos.

Los resultados revelan que la ubicuidad y la gamificación influyen positivamente en la utilidad y el entretenimiento percibidos, es decir, en los valores utilitarios y hedónicos percibidos. Además, la autocongruencia y la capacidad de innovación de los usuarios afectan a las normas subjetivas y a la búsqueda de novedades, que representan el valor social y epistémico. A excepción del valor hedónico, cada elemento de valor influye en el valor percibido global, que a su vez incita a los clientes a seguir utilizando los servicios de banca móvil.

Al explorar el efecto simultáneo de factores personales y relacionados con el servicio (estímulos) sobre diferentes elementos del valor percibido (organismo), contribuimos al conocimiento existente sobre las reacciones de consumo (respuesta) en el contexto del m-banking. La investigación del m-banking macedonio ofrece una visión más cercana del comercio móvil de los Balcanes Occidentales.

本研究将消费价值理论（TCV）纳入刺激-组织-反应（S-O-R）框架, 旨在分析外部和内部因素对客户感知功利价值、享乐价值、社会价值和认识价值的影响, 这些因素是客户整体感知价值和持续使用移动银行的驱动因素。

对 252 名实际移动银行用户进行了在线调查, 并采用偏最小二乘法结构方程模型（PLS-SEM）分析数据。

结果表明, 普遍性和游戏化对用户的有用性和娱乐性感知, 即功利性和享乐性感知价值有积极影响。此外, 用户的自我一致性和创新性也会影响主观规范和新奇寻求, 这代表了社会价值和认识价值。除享乐价值外, 每个价值要素都会影响整体感知价值, 进而激发客户继续使用移动银行服务的意愿。

通过探索服务相关因素和个人因素（刺激）对感知价值不同要素（有机体）的同时影响, 我们为现有的有关移动银行背景下消费反应（响应）的知识做出了贡献。通过对马其顿移动银行的研究, 我们可以更深入地了解西巴尔干移动商务。

In today’s rapidly evolving work landscape, the design of office spaces is a crucial concern for organizations. Companies are redefining offices as collaboration hubs to entice employees back to in-person work. However, the understanding of how employees choose their workspaces, especially for collaborative activities, and how this should inform office design is lacking. Workers’ collaborative activity patterns can help better understand workspace choice behavior (WCB). In two studies, this paper aims to explore which characteristics of collaborative activities to consider when reshaping offices.

Data collected in a cross-sectional study design at a research institution (n = 285) and a university (n = 352) were used for confirmatory factor analyses and regression analysis.

The first study shows that collaborative activities can be classified into three distinct types: coordinative activities (planned and formal), deep collaboration (planned and complex) and spontaneous communication (informal and short encounters). The second study revalidates this classification and reveals patterns impacting WCB. Frequency and location preference of spontaneous communication and work environment satisfaction are strong predictors of on-site work. Personal characteristics like gender, age, managerial position or commute time are less consequential than assumed.

The results pinpoint guidelines for office designers and leaders in shaping effective workspaces and policies.

This paper provides new insights into classifying collaborative activities and personal characteristics, activity characteristics and environmental factors influencing WCB.