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1 – 10 of 174P.K. Ullas, Dhiman Chatterjee and S. Vengadesan
Understanding the interaction of turbulence and cavitation is an essential step towards better controlling the cavitation phenomenon. The purpose of this paper is to bring out the…
Abstract
Purpose
Understanding the interaction of turbulence and cavitation is an essential step towards better controlling the cavitation phenomenon. The purpose of this paper is to bring out the efficacy of different modelling approaches to predict turbulence and cavitation-induced phase changes.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper compares the dynamic cavitation (DCM) and Schnerr–Sauer models. Also, the effects of different modelling methods for turbulence, unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (URANS) and detached eddy simulations (DES) are also brought out. Numerical predictions of internal flow through a venturi are compared with experimental results from the literature.
Findings
The improved predictive capability of cavitating structures by DCM is brought out clearly. The temporal variation of the cavity size and velocity illustrates the involvement of re-entrant jet in cavity shedding. From the vapour fraction contours and the attached cavity length, it is found that the formation of the re-entrant jet is stronger in DES results compared with that by URANS. Variation of pressure, velocity, void fraction and the mass transfer rate at cavity shedding and collapse regions are presented. Wavelet analysis is used to capture the shedding frequency and also the corresponding occurrence of features of cavity collapse.
Originality/value
Based on the performance, computational time and resource requirements, this paper shows that the combination of DES and DCM is the most suitable option for predicting turbulent-cavitating flows.
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Ulla K. Bunz and Jeanne D. Maes
In an era in which adapting to change means survival, it is important to study what successful organizations have done. While the airline industry in the USA has not made thriving…
Abstract
In an era in which adapting to change means survival, it is important to study what successful organizations have done. While the airline industry in the USA has not made thriving financial headlines, one small company has been able to satisfy its customers completely and achieve a place among the Fortune 500 in a relatively short period of time. In three steps, this article examines what Southwest Airlines has done to reach this level of achievement and maintain its excellent employee and customer relations. First, the company is defined as “excellent” according to the criteria established by Peters and Waterman. Second, management‐employee relations, organizational training and strong leadership are identified as the sources of employee motivation. Third, loss of strong leadership and organizational structure are discussed as possible future problems influencing motivation and service. The article closes by pointing to Southwest Airline’s concept of service as the true source of motivation and excellence.
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This paper investigates how academic teachers engage in identity work and make sense of entrepreneurship and academia in an entrepreneurship training programme.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper investigates how academic teachers engage in identity work and make sense of entrepreneurship and academia in an entrepreneurship training programme.
Design/methodology/approach
By employing a sensemaking approach, the paper inductively analyses materials from a business idea development camp organised for academic teachers.
Findings
In collective sensemaking during the camp, non-academic facilitators strongly influenced the reflection-in-experience via normative ideas of entrepreneurship and their othering of entrepreneurship from academic work. In their post-camp individual essays, the academic teachers reflect-on-experience and draw parallels between entrepreneurship and academic work constructing sameness.
Research limitations/implications
Longitudinal research is needed in identity work and sensemaking among academic teachers in relation to entrepreneurship.
Practical implications
Universities need to offer arenas for teachers and other faculty to support identity work and sensemaking.
Originality/value
This study generates new understanding of how academic teachers engage in identity work and make sense of entrepreneurship in training when interacting with others. It underscores the importance of time needed for reflection-on-action.
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Jacob Mickelsson, Ulla Särkikangas, Tore Strandvik and Kristina Heinonen
People with complex health conditions must often navigate landscapes of uncoordinated public, private and voluntary health-care providers to obtain the care they need. Complex…
Abstract
Purpose
People with complex health conditions must often navigate landscapes of uncoordinated public, private and voluntary health-care providers to obtain the care they need. Complex health conditions frequently transcend the scope of typical health-care service systems. The purpose of this paper is to explore and characterize such unique assemblages of actors and services as “user-defined ecosystems”.
Design/methodology/approach
Building on literature on customer ecosystems, this paper introduces the concept of the user-defined ecosystem (UDE). Using an abductive approach, the authors apply the concept in an interpretive, qualitative study of ten families with special needs children.
Findings
This study uncovers complex UDEs, where families actively combine a broad range of services. These ecosystems are unique for each family and extend beyond the scope of designed service ecosystems. Thus, the families are forced to assume an active, coordinating role.
Research limitations/implications
This paper shows how to identify ecosystems from the user’s point of view, based on the selected user unit (such as a family) and the focal value-creating function of the ecosystem for the user.
Social implications
This paper highlights how service providers can support and adapt to UDEs and, thus, contribute to user value and well-being. This can be used to understand users’ perspectives on service and systems in health and social care.
Originality/value
This study develops the concept of the UDE, which represents a customer-focused perspective on actor ecosystems and contrasts it with a provider-focused and a distributed perspective on ecosystems. This study demonstrates the practical usefulness of the conceptualization and provides a foundation for further research on the user’s perspective on ecosystems.
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Ulla Saastamoinen, Lasse Eronen, Antti Juvonen and Pasi Vahimaa
Schools have a significant role in ensuring children's wellbeing as children spend a lot of time at school. Students need to have an active role in their learning and an…
Abstract
Purpose
Schools have a significant role in ensuring children's wellbeing as children spend a lot of time at school. Students need to have an active role in their learning and an opportunity to participate in issues concerning wellbeing and studying. This research examines students' wellbeing in an innovative learning environment. The classroom is built with professionals, teachers and students (aged 9). The authors call it Learning Ground.
Design/methodology/approach
Students' wellbeing was measured with smart device application for a six-week period. Students answered the questionnaire with a Likert scale of five (very poor – excellent) responses. Two weeks during the six weeks research period, students were able to use digital study aids, EEG-biosensor headsets, to observe the effectiveness of their learning, defined by NeurSky app. The EEG-biosensors enabled students to use a tool to recognise their own learning factors during the lessons. The effectiveness was available to students via tablets all the time.
Findings
The students at the Learning Ground are satisfied with wellbeing and the environment support for students' wellbeing experience is notable. They have “good vibes” before and after the school day. When wearing EEG-headsets “study aids”, which enabled them to observe their learning via tablets at lessons, the wellbeing experience in the mornings even increased.
Originality/value
Schools need to be visionaries concerning 21st century learning and children's wellbeing. Building flexible learning environments and bringing innovative technologies into schools to provide active support for students will enable 21st century learning. Wellbeing of children should become first when developing the future schools.
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The paper aims to elucidate the potential of a socio-cultural approach to social marketing. Drawing on a practice-theoretical understanding of change, the paper discusses how a…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to elucidate the potential of a socio-cultural approach to social marketing. Drawing on a practice-theoretical understanding of change, the paper discusses how a socio-cultural approach can inform social marketing and enhance the possibilities of the field to address complex, multifaceted issues that require changes beyond the individual.
Design/methodology/approach
While the paper is conceptual in nature, it uses an illustrative example of food waste as the basis for an investigation of what a socio-cultural approach, rooted in practice-theoretical understanding of change, means for social marketing.
Findings
The paper is conceptual in nature but highlights new opportunities for social marketing connected to a socio-cultural approach foregrounding practice changes. The paper introduces potential roles that social marketers can adopt to initiate and support practice changes in the context of food waste.
Practical implications
The paper emphasises the importance of focussing on the socio-culture and practices connected to the issue in question, both when scoping for insight and when developing the ways to address it.
Originality/value
By integrating a practice-theoretical understanding of change, social marketing and food waste literature, the paper offers novel insights about the potential of adopting a socio-cultural approach to social marketing. The paper discusses a socio-cultural approach to social marketing in context, emphasising the roles social marketers can play in practice changes.
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Jouni Hintikka, Kyllikki Taipale-Erävala, Ulla Lehtinen and Leena Eskola
The purpose of the study is to clarify Finnish youth’s attitudes toward entrepreneurship and evaluate both regional and background factors influencing those attitudes.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the study is to clarify Finnish youth’s attitudes toward entrepreneurship and evaluate both regional and background factors influencing those attitudes.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted a survey of 1,497 students aged 15 to 24 years and analyzed the data using descriptive statistical analysis.
Findings
The study’s results indicate positive attitudes toward entrepreneurship among the youth. One of the notable findings of the study was the number of students who had already worked as entrepreneurs. The study also revealed background factors that affected entrepreneurial attitudes, such as regional aspects, entrepreneurial background and gender.
Practical implications
The results of this study highlight the importance of regional-level entrepreneurial education activities for increasing the vitality and entrepreneurial intentions within remote areas of Finland. This study suggests to develop new teaching methods to further raise entrepreneurial attitudes and expand gender equal entrepreneurial education programs aimed at promoting entrepreneurship, especially in remote areas.
Originality/value
The study results reveal that the attitudes of young Finnish people toward entrepreneurship seem to be at a more positive levels than indicated by earlier studies. In previous Global Entrepreneurship Monitor studies, researchers evaluated Finnish youth’s attitudes toward entrepreneurship. By contrast, this study’s data was based on the opinions of youth in the region with the youngest population in Finland, and they described the entrepreneurial attitudes of themselves and their peers.
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Ulla Hoppu, Hanna Lagström and Mari Sandell
Polymorphisms in taste receptor genes may be associated with taste sensitivity and possibly with food consumption and body weight. Previous studies relating bitter taste…
Abstract
Purpose
Polymorphisms in taste receptor genes may be associated with taste sensitivity and possibly with food consumption and body weight. Previous studies relating bitter taste sensitivity to body mass index (BMI) had inconsistent findings. This paper aims to investigate the weight and body composition indicators among the TAS2R38 bitter taste receptor genotype groups.
Design/methodology/approach
Adults participating in the STEPS study (steps to the healthy development and well-being of children) cohort in Southwest Finland have been investigated. DNA has been extracted from buccal cell samples, and alleles of the gene TAS2R38 have been determined. Measurements at the follow-up visit include weight and height to calculate BMI, waist circumference (WC) and body composition with bioimpedance (women n = 757, men n = 714).
Findings
The mean BMI was 25.3 (SD 5.4) kg/m2 among women and 26.7 (SD 3.9) kg/m2 among men. BMI, WC and body fat percentage did not differ significantly between the TAS2R38 genotype groups in either gender. The proportion of subjects classified as overweight (BMI ≥ 25) did not vary significantly between the genotype groups.
Originality/value
The TAS2R38 genotype is not associated with being overweight in this cohort. Determinants of body weight are complex, and the role of other taste genotypes and phenotypes should be investigated in the future.
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Päivi Tuulikki Siivonen, Kirsi Peura, Ulla Hytti, Kati Kasanen and Katri Komulainen
The purpose of this paper is to critically investigate how collective identity is constructed and regulated by board members and other active members of student entrepreneurship…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to critically investigate how collective identity is constructed and regulated by board members and other active members of student entrepreneurship societies (ESs).
Design/methodology/approach
A discursive analysis focusing on collective identity construction and regulation based on focus group discussions in two student-led Finnish ESs affiliated with higher education institutions (HEIs).
Findings
ES members construct and regulate collective entrepreneurial identity based on a shared narrative of entrepreneurship and the affective state of positive energy and thinking, i.e. “positive buzz.” Being entrepreneurial was constructed as having the right kind of mentality to cope with uncertain and rapidly changing working life and to break free of old moulds of working. The shared narrative was coherent, and critical reflection on the values or risks of entrepreneurship was mainly silenced.
Research limitations/implications
As ESs are a relatively new phenomenon future research could explore ESs in different cultural and regional contexts and compare the identity construction and regulation of ES student members and non-members.
Practical implications
Strong collective identity and sense of commitment to doing things together may mitigate the pressures of being entrepreneurial and taking charge of one’s life.
Social implications
Educational practice and research could benefit from better understanding of the informal context in which entrepreneurship education takes place.
Originality/value
The paper contributes to the relatively new research stream on ESs as student-led entrepreneurial organizations in HEIs. The research demonstrates how ES members participate in constructing a collective and coherent identity that is regulated by shared values and a positive state of mind. This study extends the understanding of ESs from the functional perspective to viewing them as a social community. It contributes to the definition of ESs and the self-understanding of ES actors.
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There has been a tradition of comparative research into the health services of England and Sweden. This has focused mainly on health care financing, organisational structures and…
Abstract
There has been a tradition of comparative research into the health services of England and Sweden. This has focused mainly on health care financing, organisational structures and health inequalities (Anderson 1972; Helco 1974; Heidenheimer and Elvander 1980; Ham 1988; Ham et al 1990). Less attention however has been paid to the policies on, and philosophies of, public health and health promotion in the two countries. This may of course be because it is only comparatively recently that such policies have come to the fore on the political agenda in both countries. It is on these areas that we focus our attention. Consequently this paper will do three things. First, describe the current policies on public health and health promotion at national level in both countries. Second, draw attention to the differences and similarities which are manifest in the policies of these two countries and develop a summary of the two national strategies. Third, we will consider some possible reasons and explanations for the contemporary emergence of public health.