Search results

This paper proposes to rethink the concepts of relevance and usefulness and their relation to the theory–practice gap in management research.

On the basis of the cognitive-linguistic relevance theory or inferential pragmatics, supplemented by insights from information science, we define relevance as a general conceptual category, while reserving usefulness for the instrumental application in a particular case.

There is no reason to hold onto the difference between theoretical and practical relevance, nor to distinguish between instrumental and conceptual relevance.

This novel approach will help to clarify the confusion in the field and contribute to a better understanding of the added value of management research.

This article aims to explore anticipation from an ontological point of view and to analyze in particular some of Nicolai Hartmann's ideas.

The paper presents a conceptual analysis of an ontological theory of anticipation.

Analyzing philosophical problems related to “futures” and “anticipation”, to the framework of modal categories, and connecting Hartmann with Ludwig von Bertalanffy and comparing the outcome with some Artistotelian theses, offers a philosophical perspective on futures studies.

The “human” phenomenon of anticipation will be defined as possibly the only form of authentic anticipation, interpreted as a teleological act.

The result is obtained through the distinction, articulated for each level of reality, among different kinds of determination.

The purpose of this paper is to provide new and deeper insight into how creative knowledge processes are facilitated in multidisciplinary groups working with innovation in knowledge-intensive organizations.

Data were collected through an ethnographic fieldwork following two groups in a Norwegian oil and gas company and one group in a Norwegian research institute working with innovation. The analysis is inductive and conducted within a qualitative framework seeking to go deeper into the complexity of the facilitation of creative knowledge processes. The analytical framework is sociocultural and underscores how new knowledge and ideas are facilitated in the tension between different voices.

Analyses show how the leaders of the groups facilitated imaginative and creative processes through open dialog by giving room for diverse disciplinary knowledge and stimulating different roles in the groups. The diverse experiences of the occupational disciplines in addition to four complementary roles that ensured group dynamics, stimulated polyphony and creative tension in the groups. This creative tension enhanced the groups’ imagination, which again enabled innovative idea development.

This contribution is limited by looking at three groups in two organizations. On the premise that model generalization depends on extensive empirical data, the current paper should be considered as preliminary/exploratory research that aims at investigating how creative knowledge processes leading to innovative ideas are facilitated in knowledge-intensive organizations.

The paper offers a practical contribution in how leaders can facilitate such creative processes leading to innovative ideas. The paper is a contribution to leadership as a relational and dialogical practice.

The way the creative knowledge processes are orchestrated is visualized in a phase model. The paper contributes to new conceptualizations and thus theory development of leadership by offering polyphonic orchestration as a concept and a way of understanding facilitation from a sociocultural perspective.

The primary goal of university education globally is to promote research, knowledge, and innovations instrumental for national development and societal transformation. In line with this goal, East African countries, namely Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania have invested heavily in university education in the last 60 years since independence. The evidence of this is the increasing number of both private and public universities, and the number of students joining the institutions. While the expansion of university education is to be celebrated, it should not be taken for granted that this expansion indicates development. The purpose of this research was to assess the impact of university education on regional development in the three East African countries, that is, Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. Data were collected through historical analyses, database searches on electronic and printed sources, and interviews. The study found out that the three African countries have formulated the goals of education toward the achievement of development and that large budgets have been committed to educational expansion in the university in recent years. However, the impact of the universities in the development of the region expected through research and innovation is minimal because of major challenges that include expansion of access without adequate government funding; compromises quality; graduate unemployability and political interference; students’ unrest and strikes; weaknesses in earlier levels of education; regional, gender, and class inequalities; and misalignment of education, development, and contextual strengths. Proposed future strategies included the calls for governments to enhance regional consultations on development and education, the need for specialization in programs rather than duplication, enhancement of international collaborations and networking, rethinking the role of education in development within given contextual and environmental realities, and good governance and adequate funding of education.

Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) is an occlusive atherosclerotic disease that affects blood vessels and reduces blood flow in the lower limbs. It is estimated that around 200 million people worldwide suffered from it, with a significant number of older people affected. Walking is one of the first-line therapeutic measures for intermittent claudication (IC) in patients with PAD. Supervised Exercise Therapy (SET) programs effectively increase walking distances, however, remain an underutilized tool because they are not readily available in most clinical centres, are extremely expensive, and patient participation is low mainly due to socioeconomic constraints. Home-based Exercise Therapy (HBET) programs are an effective and low-cost alternative to improve both the functional capacity and quality of life (QoL) of patients with IC, as they are performed in the patient’s area of residence and not in the hospital. The WalkingPad program conciliated a smartphone app – the WalkingPad app – with behaviour change intervention to increase walking distances and decrease walking impairment as well to improve QoL at 6 months.

There are approximately 24 million children living in conflict areas across the globe who are not enrolled in school. The reasons vary greatly; while some have access to a school, many do not attend. School safety is a primary concern, in the form of bullying and racism, school attacks, and sexual abuse. Other refugee children are required to find employment during normal school hours to help their family. In addition, host governments struggle to find qualified teachers and administrators in many of these conflict-strewn nations. Over the next 10 years, these unschooled refugees will reach adulthood, lacking the tools necessary to build successful lives, either abroad or back in their devastated homelands.

The modern homeschooling movement presents an opportunity to address these challenges. Key technological enablers – fast microprocessors, high-speed internet, cloud computing, etc. – are becoming ubiquitous and cheap. Online, free curriculum, combined with translation software, presents a new paradigm. Even caregivers with limited education themselves can facilitate a learning environment in the home, wherever that home may be. While homeschooling will not work in every situation, it could quickly become an option that positively affects the future of tens of thousands of refugees.

This paper aims to identify and to characterize the current evolution of “sustainable mobility” solutions. After considering this trend as an expression of eco-innovation, the authors look at the impacts of the emerging business models for the introduction of these eco-innovations, on the wider “eco-system” of mobility.

This paper uses both an abductive as well as a inductive approach of responsible innovation. To assume contextualization of responsible innovation, the authors choose eco-innovation in the mobility sector that impacts as much on business models as on industrial organizations and as a global value chain.

Eco-mobility is defined as a disruptive innovation that must be understood as a responsible innovation. The importance of social and institutional dimensions defining acceptance and uptake of the innovation is integrated in innovation characterization. Modifying the perception of eco-innovation, the e-mobility business model has to be reinvented. Doing this, impacts on global value chain of the mobility sector organization have to be analysed.

If the academic literature proposes a satisfactory analysis of the determinants of eco-innovation, the presentation of the “smart mobility” ecosystem as an open and shared innovation remains limited, compared with the question of value creation. The business models which are at present under development will deepen these questions.

This paper discusses inputs for decision-makers in climate change policy and insights for reorganization of the global value chain in the car manufacturing sector.

This paper presents solutions to reduce the negative externalities (social and environmental) of the car manufacturing sector with good possibilities of mobility, inputs to accelerate new markets and new jobs in mobility sector and adequation of mobility services to social demand.

Mixed analyses of sustainable development economics, innovation economics and organization management, and elements to build new business models in eco-mobility as a first step for the question of the adequate business models for “Smart Cities” – an application sector of functionality or service economy – have been presented.

The purpose of this monograph is to examine the main elements of the Copyright Designs & Patents Act 1988 which received the Royal Assent on the 15th November 1988. The Act provided for a major overhaul of the law on copyright and on registered designs, as well as certain adjustments to patent and trademark law and two major new regimes on performers' rights and design rights. While this is a major domestic reform the law is unlikely to remain unaltered for long because of the move towards a single market within the E.E.C. by 1992. This will lead to the introduction of harmonised regimes on the various elements of intellectual property law such as copyright and industrial design which will no doubt require some readjustment to U.K. domestic law. Recently the E.E.C. Commission published a Green Paper on “Copyright and the Challenge of Technology” which suggests solutions to some questions such as the vexed problem of illegal home taping which are different to those adopted by the U.K. in the new Act. [On 21/12/88 a draft directive on Copyright & Computer Software which proposes a harmonised regime for the protection of computer programs and related matters was published]. It also has to be borne in mind that while Article 222 of the Treaty of Rome states that the treaty does not affect the existence of national intellectual property right regimes the “exercise” of these national rights may be found to infringe the provisions of the Treaty on free movement of goods (Arts. 30–36) or on competition law (Arts. 85–86).