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Through examination of the Library Reference Model (LRM) specifications for nomen and the potential challenges visual nomen might present for their description and use in information systems, the purpose of this study was to investigate two questions: (1) how do nonlinguistic or nonalphanumeric signs or symbols act as nomen to identify entities? and (2) what details or attributes are relevant to describe and classify such nomen to integrate them into information systems?

This research was built on an exploratory, qualitative instrumental case study design using multiple (or comparative) cases. Using the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions LRM conceptualization of nomen as the basis, this research explored the similarities and differences between the LRM definition, its attributes and the use of nonlinguistic and nonalphanumeric “strings” for visual nomen to represent a res, moving iteratively between the LRM documentation, visual nomen identified in previous research and additional examples. This study used a constant comparative method to conduct a structured, focused comparison across different cases found in the source survey.

A close review of the history of the development of the nomen entity was made to understand the semiotic relationship between entities and their symbolic representation, how those symbols are then reified to be further classified and described and how such definitions in the LRM offer a path forward for better understanding the role and function of visual nomen. Based on the foundation of the nomen entity and its attributes established in the LRM, this research then looked at visual representations of concepts and entities to suggest a nascent framework for describing aspects of visual nomen which may be relevant to their use and application

This exploratory study of the use of supralinguistic ways of referencing entities delineates novel insights into a potential framework for describing and using visual nomen as a way of labeling or naming entities represented in information systems. By examining the specifications of the nomen entity and its attributes as delineated by the LRM, this study reinforces the applicability of LRM-defined attributes in the use of visual nomen in addition to offering other attributes or dimensions.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how holistic thinking and the use of systems methodologies can help organisations handle increased problem complexity. The paper provides a critical discussion of the development of applied systems thinking and examines how its main strands can deal with problem complexity, multiple perceptions of reality and the unequal access to power resources in organisations.

The paper uses social theory and a systems meta-theoretical framework to examine the different ontological and epistemological assumptions that each strand of applied systems thinking makes about the nature of problems and the way in which an intervention will be made.

Complex problems require joined-up thinking and the use of systems ideas. Viewing the problem situation from a holistic perspective and applying appropriate systems methodologies and tools can help managers handle the complexities that their organisations face.

The paper makes a clear link between systems approaches and social theory and emphasises the need to understand the different assumptions that theories, methodologies or people make when they intervene in complex problem situations.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the areas and logic of integration of different stakeholders using different methods and to analyse their applicability and challenges in practical projects. The main aim is to describe how these different methods impact value creation.

Action design research was carried out in a large hospital construction project where the first author acted as an “involved researcher” and the second author acted as an “outside researcher”. Two workshops were organised to evaluate the direct and indirect challenges and benefits of the applied four methods and to explain how different methods enable value creation.

All the studied methods provide good results in terms of usability and commitment to the aims of the project, thus delivering the direct benefits expected. Process, people and tools logic works well in this case project when applying the methods properly. Significant evidence was provided on secondary deliverables of the methods, and all analysed methods had a significant impact in the area of leading people, clarifying what “focus on people” means and how it is enabled.

Focus on people can be achieved through different operative methods if applied in the right way. It is necessary to select the most suitable methods based on all the direct and indirect deliverables.

This case project offered a platform to analyse integration methods in a real-life project using the collaborative contract method. The authors were able to participate in the analysis by taking action from the very beginning of the project in terms of training, learning, continuous development and coaching of these methods and evaluating the applicability.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the contribution that problem structuring methods – a branch of the decision support discipline of operational research – have made in helping managers deal with situations of high complexity. The paper reviews the limitations of traditional operational research and argues that problem structuring methods have expanded the entire discipline and significantly contributed to its holistic nature and problem-solving orientation.

The paper provides a critical discussion of the limitations of the traditional operational research approach and examines how the development and successful application of problem structuring methods have opened up a new paradigm of analysis in management science.

In theoretical terms, problem structuring methods have moved the discipline of operational research away from its positivistic epistemology and towards interpretivism and the acceptance of a subjective social reality. In practical terms, they offer managers a broad range of appropriate analytical tools which provide transparency and offer the opportunity to those affected by the problem situation to be actively involved in the entire modelling process within a facilitated environment.

The paper offers a critical discussion of the contribution that problem structuring methods have made while also identifying the challenges they face as they try to achieve higher levels of recognition and acceptance in management science.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a snapshot of secondary school food policy (SSFP) across the devolved nations (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) to offer insights into a growing area of policy concern. The selected context of research is school food policy (SFP), an area of research which has received little attention in terms of policy approaches. The review is focused on 2010 to 2022.

This work combines interdisciplinary perspectives spanning across food policy, public health, psychology, education and sociology. This combination has merit as it offers different perspectives in terms of understanding SFP. The study was conducted between August 2021 and March 2022, using a desk-based review, analysing policies on food in secondary schools. Data collection was conducted through the Web using key search terms. The READ (Read, Extract, Analyse, Distil) approach was used as a systematic procedure to analyse policy and evaluation documents.

To all levels of government, it is recommended that a coherent policymaking approach be used to tackle SSFP improvements, to progress a whole school approach to food, supported by long-term dedicated resources while engaging children in SSFP development. For education departments, it is recommended that a food curriculum review, connected to school meals alongside a refocus on school food standards monitoring and reporting is crucial in serving the future generations. The current economic crisis has had an impact on public spending. Universal Free School Meals has been said to make an enormous difference to well-being.

The current findings suggest that researching SFP across nations has merit. There is a relative lack of focus on secondary schools, in light of England’s focus on the National Food Strategy (focus on children), post-pandemic, economic crisis – together this makes school food and food policy a topic of real urgency and importance. Lessons can both be learned, particularly in promoting healthier and more educationally inclusive school food practices. Research in this area can inform curriculum design and school food environment and system changes from the perspective of learnings around taking a whole school food approach to education.

Virtual care is any interaction between a patient and clinician or clinicians, occurring remotely using information technologies. Like many international services, United Kingdom (UK) ambulance services use paramedics and nurses to undertake telephone assessments of patients calling the 999 emergency service line. Using their clinical knowledge, experience, and, at times, computer decision support software, these clinicians assess patients from a range of clinical acuities to confirm the need for an emergency response or identify and support those patients who can be cared for with remote treatment advice and referral. The Covid-19 pandemic saw UK ambulance services change and adapt their operating models to meet social distancing requirements, increase clinical staff numbers and mitigate staff becoming unavailable for work due to self-isolation. One such strategy was moving clinicians from Emergency Operations Centres (EOCs) to working at home. Staff utilised digital phone systems, remote computer-aided dispatch modules, remote clinical decision support software and video platforms, which allowed close to full functionality compared to inside typical EOCs. There is a dearth of literature exploring the comparative practice of clinicians from home rather than from EOCs. Therefore, this study reports the findings of a qualitative analysis of these effects from the clinician's perspective. The authors hope that the findings from this study will inform the operating, education and leadership practices of those delivering such services.

A convenience sample of telephone nurses and paramedics from one UK ambulance service in which home working had been implemented were contacted. 15 clinicians with recent home working experience responded to the invite out of a possible 31 (48%). All participants had previously practised remote assessment from within an EOC. Semi-structured interviews took place via video conferencing software and were recorded, transcribed and thematically analysed. An inductive approach was taken to generating codes and both researchers separately reading the transcripts before re-reading them, assigning initial themes and determining frequency.

Four main themes were identified with further associated sub-themes: (1) performance, (2) support, (3) distractions and interruptions and (4) confidence in decision-making.

There are very few studies exploring the practice of remote clinicians in emergency EOCs. This study identified that home working clinicians felt their productivity had increased, making them more satisfied in their practice. However, there were mixed feelings over the level of support they perceived they now received, despite the mechanisms of support being largely the same. Supervisors found it especially challenging to provide support to practitioners; and employers might need to clarify the support mechanisms they provide to homeworkers. The elimination of distractions and interruptions was seen as a largely positive result of homeworking; however, these interruptions were not seen as inappropriate, thus, identifying a need for role clarity and task coordination rather than interruption elimination. Finally, clinicians felt that they become more confident when working from home, researching more, trusting themselves more and relying less on others to reach safe outcomes. However, there were missed opportunities to learn from listening to others' clinical practice.

This research proposes how Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) provides a complementary approach for business process management (BPM) lifecycle implementation in order to address gaps identified in the current literature.

The mandatory elements of a method (MEM) framework is used to illustrate DFSS's maturity as a process redesign method. The use of DFSS in a BPM context is described through several action research case examples.

This research specifies the procedure model (order of development activities), techniques, results, roles and information/meta model (conceptual data model of results) associated with using DFSS to address BPM-related challenges. The action research case examples provided discuss the details of implementing BPM using DFSS to design, implement and test redesigned processes to ensure they fulfill the needs of process participants.

While the case examples discussed were performed in only a few settings, which limits the generalizability of their results, they provide evidence regarding the wide range of domains in which the proposed DFSS-BPM approach can be applied and how the tools are used in different contexts.

This research offers a road map for addressing the challenges practitioners often face with BPM lifecycle implementation.

This research provides the first attempt to integrate DFSS as a complementary method for BPM lifecycle implementation.

Mental ill health is on the rise amongst undergraduate students and has been investigated using both positivist/quantitative and exploratory/qualitative research methods. However, the lived experiences of mature students who have mental ill health have not been directly investigated. A limited research literature suggests that challenges particular to mature undergraduate students can cause mental ill health or exacerbate existing needs. Further research exploring the lived experiences of mature undergraduate students with mental ill health is thus warranted.

A qualitative approach was adopted to explore lived experiences of mental ill health for mature students in higher education. The interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) explores the experience of higher education mature students who self-identify as having mental ill health. Five participants were interviewed about their personal stories and perceptions.

The study found that participants interpreted the experience of mental ill health as very difficult with no redeeming features reported. A lack of control over mental ill health experiences was contrasted with attempts to control mental ill health, whether successful or not, in order to progress with their learning. Participants conceptualised being mature undergraduate students as a last chance succeed in life, education or a career. This increased stress that interacted with their mental ill health symptoms.

IPA calls for a small, homogenised participant sample. This limits generalisation of the research findings. Recruitment criteria welcomed participants who self-identified as experiencing mental ill health, leading to potential bias in reported lived experiences.

The research findings highlight the value of considering the lived experience of students experiencing mental ill health whilst studying. Whilst general approaches to support can be successful, this research demonstrates how higher educational professionals must orient towards an ideographic perspective when considering how to provide individualised, inclusive support for students experiencing mental ill health. A discussion on how this can be actualised is provided.

The research provides impetus to the perspective that students have unique lived experiences of mental ill health, and that this is particularly so for mature undergraduate students. A key social implication of this is that, whilst positive based, one-size fits most, interventions for students experiencing mental ill health are useful, higher education educators must also be cognizant of unique, dynamic experiences each student will have. As such, there is a need to move towards a relational, dialogic approach when considering and designing tailored support.

Mature undergraduate students who experience mental ill health are at risk of not reaching their potential. Yet despite this, exploration of mature undergraduate student's experiences of mental ill health is nascent in the academic literature. Research considering their unique perspectives as an avenue to develop joint compassionate understandings and interactions between students and educators are additionally scant. The current study begins to address this dearth of exploration and commentary. It provides an idiosyncratic, novel inquiry into this important issue.

This paper aims to investigate the link between internal capabilities, innovation strategies and export performance (EP), considering the corporate social responsibility (CSR) principle as a moderator.

The statistical population of the current study is the food and agricultural products exporting small- and medium-sized enterprises (SME) which participated in the 27th International Agrofood Exhibition (2021) in Tehran, Iran. A sample of 296 managers was selected, using systematic random sampling, to answer the questionnaire. To analyze the data, we used structural equation modeling (SEM) and Hayes PROCESS in SPSS.

Results show that just manufacturing capabilities affect both exploratory and exploitative innovation, in contrast to marketing capabilities that does not have any significant impact on these two innovation strategies. Moreover, the impact of both explorative and exploratory innovation on EP is supported in the context of food and agricultural SMEs. However, CSR positively moderates the impact of exploratory innovation on EP, showing it has a negative effect on the impact of exploitative innovation on EP.

By addressing the research gap on the link between internal capabilities, innovation strategies, EP and CSR among SMEs, the current research provides valuable body of research that later studies in the literature can leverage or build upon.

This research aims to explore people management (PM) dimensions in Nepalese recycling startups (R-startups).

It follows a case study and qualitative research approach. Information is collected from Internet searches and R-startups’ blogs. For research purposes, 12 cases out of 30 R-startups are selected using convenient and purposeful non-probability sampling methods.

Three major findings are as follows: (1) the founders of R-startups have become more environmentally aware and motivated to source materials, manufacture products and deliver them without harming the environment; (2) the founders are establishing work-flow to create future employment opportunities and (3) the PM dimensions in R-startups appear to be sustainable and apparently linked with Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12.5, which aims to reduce waste generation substantially through prevention, reduction, recycling and reuse.

Since researchers use widely accessible internet information, there is no possibility of interfering with the website's text and data. The analysis is solely based on the opinions of founders/co-founders of R-startups.

This research presents PM dimensions in R-startups and contributes to the literature in this new field of study. Although on a small scale, this research can provide a basis for minimizing circulatory gaps and closing the loop through circular business (CB). It also provides insights into managing waste in order to create opportunities and wealth.

This is one of the few unexplored areas of academic research. The critical PM dimensions investigated in this study can serve as a baseline for future theoretical development in the context of a specific country.