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Contemporary public service innovations to an important degree are initiated and enabled by digitalization. Digitalization stimulates entry of new firms (start-ups) based on innovative implementation of digital technology for public services. The interwoven digitalization and innovation processes involve interaction and interdependencies between private business actors and public service providing actors. In this paper, the authors take the perspective of a start-up business actor that tries to develop and implement a viable business model in the very dynamic context of digital transformation of public education. The purpose of this paper is to analyze how the instability of a startup firm’s business model during public service innovation can be explained. The research question is: “How can business modeling by a start-up firm be explained by tensions between its business model and public service provision models?”

Based on an abductive logic, the authors choose a single-case study of a start-up firm’s development in 2010-2018 and its interaction with public actors. Information about the firm acquired in the first phase of the study showed that it frequently changed its business model. A general analytical framework was developed to aid in efforts to answer the research question.

The case showed that a business model could be seen as a temporary outcome of a business modeling process, and that also concurrently public actors change their public actors’ service provisioning models. Public-private interaction reveals tensions that drive business modeling.

The study contributes to empirical knowledge about private-public interaction in the dynamic and complex context in which digital transformation in society drives public service innovations. The conceptual contribution rests more generally in the analytical framework and how it frames public actor’s “service provision modeling” as a driver of business modeling.

One of the main challenges faced by libraries is to present their services and holdings to patrons in a truly professional and user‐friendly way. The standard library software available does not usually adapt to new technology as quickly as library users and staff would like. However, such limitations need not be accepted. By thinking in terms of small‐scale, incremental development and by using general computer software, an ambitious library can create a technologically up‐to‐date information browsing instrument even though finances and resources are limited. This paper describes the strategic and technological steps involved in such a process.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a new conceptual framework that reflects network dynamics in Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled service innovation processes.

Based on literature on service innovations, business networks and IoT, dynamic concepts are selected. Aided by information about an evolving case “The connected vehicle”, propositions about interaction between the variables in the framework are formulated.

A conceptual framework consisting of four interacting variables: overlapping, intermediating, objectification of actors and business modelling is developed, linking several streams of research. Propositions are motivated and issues for further research questions formulated.

The framework may stimulate further research on IoT-enabled service innovations.

Understanding network dynamics for developing and implementing business models for service innovations.

The conceptual framework provides an original contribution to understanding IoT-enabled service innovations.

The purpose of this paper was to assess the economic impact of investment in different animal welfare–enhancing flooring solutions in Swedish dairy farming.

The authors developed a bio-economic model and used stochastic partial budgeting approach to simulate the economic consequences of enhancing solid and slatted concrete floors with soft rubber covering.

The findings highlight that keeping herds on solid and slatted concrete floor surfaces with soft rubber coverings is a profitable solution, compared with keeping herds on solid and slatted concrete floors without a soft covering. The profit per cow when kept on a solid concrete floor with soft rubber covering increased by 13%–16% depending on the breed.

Promoting farm investments such as improvement in flooring solution, which have both economic and animal welfare incentives, is a potential way of promoting sustainable dairy production. Farmers may make investments in improved floors, resulting in enhanced animal welfare and economic outcomes necessary for sustaining dairy production.

This literature review indicated that the economic impact of investment in specific types of floor improvement solutions, investment costs and financial outcomes have received little attention. This study provides insights needed for a more informed decision-making process when selecting optimal flooring solutions for new and renovated barns that improve both animal welfare and ease the burden on farmers and public financial support.

Work‐place learning takes place in many settings and in different ways, resulting in knowledge and skills of different kinds. The recognition process in the work place is however often implicit and seldom discussed in terms of recognition of prior learning (RPL). The aim of this paper is to give examples of how the knowledge/skills of employees get recognition in the workplace and to discuss what the consequences of such recognition processes might be.

This paper is based on a study in two companies and two municipalities, where 21 interviews were conducted with human resource managers, team leaders and union representatives. The research questions concerned the ways skills were recognised among employees and how the logics of these actions could be understood.

The findings show that both companies and municipalities have their own ways of assessing knowledge/skills, mostly out of a production logic of what is needed at the workplace. However, certain skills are also made “unvisualised” for the employee. This employer‐controlled recognition logic is important to understand when RPL models are brought to the work place in order to obtain win‐win situations for both employers and employees.

It seems important to identify an already existing system for assessment of knowledge/skills at the workplace when bringing RPL processes to the workplace.

The approach to understand assessment processes in these companies and municipalities from an RPL perspective has not been widely covered before.

A longitudinal case study of the diffusion and change of mobile telephony in Sweden highlights the effects on service distribution against the background of rapid technological development and deregulations in the telecommunications industry. The descriptive and explorative study advances a contextual‐historical and interorganizational network perspective on service channel change and retail evolution. Explores the service distribution consequences of the emerging, increased technological integration within telecommunications, between fixed and mobile telephony, and between telecommunications and information and computer technology. Argues that these technological changes and the move towards convergence of telecommunications and information technology functions are connected to important structural changes in the distribution channels for these services. Builds on a case study of the Swedish distribution network for mobile telephony and identifies a number of significant structural channel changes. Discusses the distribution network consequences of technological convergence, in terms of new emerging patterns of channel relations and in terms of new roles and role sets. Elaborates on some general business implications of the convergence of former independent telephone, cable and information technology services.

Depicts a path to follow when studying longitudinal change processes in distribution systems. The objective is met by linking a network approach to marketing systems with the area of organization theory focusing on the dynamic ideas behind loosely coupled systems. Research implications point out the importance of a more varied view of the properties of marketing systems. Basically theoretical and restricted to general conceptual discussions.

The purpose of this paper is to capture the actual structural behavior of the longest timber footbridge in Spain by means of a multi-scale model updating approach in conjunction with ambient vibration tests.

In a first stage, a numerical pre-test analysis of the full bridge is performed, using standard beam-type finite elements with isotropic material properties. This approach offers a first structural model in which optimal sensor placement (OSP) methodologies are applied to improve the system identification process. In particular, the effective independence (EFI) method is used to determine the optimal locations of a set of sensors. Ambient vibration tests are conducted to determine experimentally the modal characteristics of the structure. The identified modal parameters are compared with those values obtained from this preliminary model. To improve the accuracy of the numerical predictions, the material response is modeled by means of a homogenization-based multi-scale computational approach. In a second stage, the structure is modeled by means of three-dimensional solid elements with the above material definition, capturing realistically the full orthotropic mechanical properties of wood. A genetic algorithm (GA) technique is adopted to calibrate the micromechanical parameters which are either not well-known or susceptible to considerable variations when measured experimentally.

An overall good agreement is found between the results of the updated numerical simulations and the corresponding experimental measurements. The longitudinal and transverse Young's moduli, sliding and rolling shear moduli, density and natural frequencies are computed by the present approach. The obtained results reveal the potential predictive capabilities of the present GA/multi-scale/experimental approach to capture accurately the actual behavior of complex materials and structures.

The uniqueness and importance of this structure leads to an intensive study of its structural behavior. Ambient vibration tests are carried out under environmental excitation. Extraction of modal parameters is obtained from output-only experimental data. The EFI methodology is applied for the OSP on a large-scale structure. Information coming from several length scales, from sub-micrometer dimensions to macroscopic scales, is included in the material definition. The strong differences found between the stiffness along the longitudinal and transverse directions of wood lumbers are incorporated in the structural model. A multi-scale model updating approach is carried out by means of a GA technique to calibrate the micromechanical parameters which are either not well-known or susceptible to considerable variations when measured experimentally.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the effect of job satisfaction on the intended retirement age of self‐employed and organisationally‐employed white‐collar professionals. The analysis also examines potential boundary conditions imposed by other domains of life for the applicability of this relationship.

The study employs ordered probit regressions to analyse primary survey data comprising 1,262 Finnish white‐collar professionals.

The econometric results suggest that job satisfaction is a significant determinant of the intention to retire later and thus prolong a career. The analysis does not find a difference in the effect of job satisfaction between salary earners and self‐employed individuals. However, the analysis finds that other domains of life influence how job satisfaction affects retirement‐age intentions, and that these influences differ between self‐employed and salaried respondents.

The findings imply that developing measures to improve the job satisfaction of (highly educated) older workers is an alternative to the widely debated regulatory approach of prolonging working careers by increasing the statutory retirement age. The principal limitation is the focus on white‐collar professionals in a single country.

This is the first empirical comparison of the effect of job satisfaction on the intended retirement age between salary earners and self‐employed individuals. It is also the first examination of the effect of job satisfaction on retirement intentions or behaviour that accounts for the effects of other domains of life satisfaction.

To review the evidence from high quality human intervention studies that reported links between oat consumption and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors.

Using Medline, a search was made for all randomized controlled trials published between 1990 and 2008 that met defined inclusion criteria. Studies had a minimum duration of 14 days, used oat products rather than purified extracts, and included plasma lipid levels as outcome variables.

A total of 21 eligible studies were located 13 of which reported significant reductions in total cholesterol when oats were consumed, while 14 reported significant reductions in low‐density lipoprotein cholesterol. A few studies found increases in high‐density lipoprotein cholesterol and more favourable cholesterol ratios when oats were consumed.

It was not possible to analyse differences in response between health and “at risk” subjects. A meta‐analysis would be a useful step forward, as would research on the long‐term impact of oats on body weight.

Intakes of oats in successful intervention studies were impractical for most consumers. However, expert bodies base approved health claims on an achievable 3 g β‐glucan per day. Additional research on portion sizes for commercially‐available foods would increase consumer awareness of how to access the cholesterol‐lowering benefits of oats. Effective portion sizes may differ by gender, age and CVD risk.

This review provides further evidence that regular oat consumption is an effective dietary strategy for helping to attenuate CVD risk and sets this within the context of claims for food stuffs.