Search results

The paper aims to advance knowledge by investigating the main factors that impact on innovation through the co-development process between researchers and firms at the very early stage of proof of concept.

The authors developed an empirical analysis on the proof of concept network project, through a mixed empirical analysis. They explored the main factors that affect the enactment of the co-development process and tested the impact of such factors on the probability for partners to enact a co-development project and generate innovation.

From the quantitative analysis comes out that the trust of the research team into the potentiality of the technology, the commitment of researchers concerning the scalability of technology and the IP value issued by external experts have a positive impact on the probability to create a match among partners and generate innovation.

Even if all the population of technologies (108) considered in the project implementation are analyzed, the development of the empirical analysis on a specific project within a single country represents a limitation. Future analysis will concentrate on a larger panel of proof of concept experience across Europe.

The success of a co-development process between researchers and companies at the embryonic phase of the technology considers the opportunity to exploit the technologies into real products for the market.

This is an empirical analysis of the first Italian proof of concept implementation that deeply investigates which critical factors can enable innovation by enacting a co-development process between researchers and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

The Howard Shuttering Contractors case throws considerable light on the importance which the tribunals attach to warnings before dismissing an employee. In this case the tribunal took great pains to interpret the intention of the parties to the different site agreements, and it came to the conclusion that the agreed procedure was not followed. One other matter, which must be particularly noted by employers, is that where a final warning is required, this final warning must be “a warning”, and not the actual dismissal. So that where, for example, three warnings are to be given, the third must be a “warning”. It is after the employee has misconducted himself thereafter that the employer may dismiss.

This paper aims to describe an effort to provide for a robust and secure software development paradigm intended to support DevSecOps in a naval aviation enterprise (NAE) software support activity (SSA), with said paradigm supporting strong traceability and provability concerning the SSA’s output product, known as an operational flight program (OFP). Through a secure development environment (SDE), each critical software development function performed on said OFP during its development has a corresponding record represented on a blockchain.

An SDE is implemented as a virtual machine or container incorporating software development tools that are modified to support blockchain transactions. Each critical software development function, e.g. editing, compiling, linking, generates a blockchain transaction message with associated information embedded in the output of a said function that, together, can be used to prove integrity and support traceability. An attestation process is used to provide proof that the toolchain containing SDE is not subject to unauthorized modification at the time said critical function is performed.

Blockchain methods are shown to be a viable approach for supporting exhaustive traceability and strong provability of development system integrity for mission-critical software produced by an NAE SSA for NAE embedded systems software.

A blockchain-based authentication approach that could be implemented at the OFP point-of-load would provide for fine-grain authentication of all OFP software components, with each component or module having its own proof-of-integrity (including the integrity of the used development tools) over its entire development history.

Many SSAs have established control procedures for development such as check-out/check-in. This does not prove the SSA output software is secure. For one thing, a build system does not necessarily enforce procedures in a way that is determinable from the output. Furthermore, the SSA toolchain itself could be attacked. The approach described in this paper enforces security policy and embeds information into the output of every development function that can be cross-referenced to blockchain transaction records for provability and traceability that only trusted tools, free from unauthorized modifications, are used in software development. A key original concept of this approach is that it treats assigned developer time as a transferable digital currency.

At the English local authority level, there has been significant investment in e‐government infrastructure (e‐channels) in the last five years, but take‐up of these e‐channels is low. This paper aims to look at e‐citizen, a £3 million project funded by the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) and led by Norwich City Council, which has developed a methodology to enable local authorities to encourage their citizens to use e‐channels.

The paper undertakes a comprehensive research programme to inform the national approach towards the take‐up and marketing of local authority e‐channels.

The study finds that there are a large number of English adults who are ready, willing and able to use e‐channels, the so‐called potential early adopters of e‐government. Take‐up is low, however, because awareness of e‐channels is low. One solution to increase take‐up is to run targeted marketing communications campaigns. The gross potential take‐up market in England is 17.5 million adults aged 15+.

The research conducted by e‐citizen is the largest and most comprehensive study of the take‐up of local government e‐channels in the world. This work has established that there is a large potential market for e‐government in England and that running marketing campaigns is one way of realising this potential. These findings can be applied throughout the UK and also internationally, although the project did not test whether different nationalities might have different reactions to marketing campaigns. e‐citizen did not consider other variables which impact on take‐up, such as accessibility of e‐channels and their effectiveness.

The methodology and findings from e‐citizen have already been taken‐up by a number of English local authorities. The UK Government, through the DCLG, has picked‐up the e‐citizen findings and applied them in a £4.6 million national marketing campaign.

Work of this nature and scale has not been conducted before. It has been financed by central government but delivered by a consortium of English local authorities, government representatives and private sector suppliers.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the incidence of “extreme jobs” among middle managers in acute hospitals, and to identify individual and organizational implications.

The paper is based on interviews and focus groups with managers at six hospitals, a “proof of concept” pilot with an operations management team, and a survey administered at five hospitals.

Six of the original dimensions of extreme jobs, identified in commercial settings, apply to hospital management: long hours, unpredictable work patterns, tight deadlines with fast pace, broad responsibility, “24/7 availability”, mentoring and coaching. Six healthcare-specific dimensions were identified: making life or death decisions, conflicting priorities, being required to do more with fewer resources, responding to regulatory bodies, the need to involve many people before introducing improvements, fighting a negative climate. Around 75 per cent of hospital middle managers have extreme jobs.

This extreme healthcare management job model was derived inductively from a qualitative study involving a small number of respondents. While the evidence suggests that extreme jobs are common, further research is required to assess the antecedents, incidence, and implications of these working practices.

A varied, intense, fast-paced role with responsibility and long hours can be rewarding, for some. However, multi-tasking across complex roles can lead to fatigue, burnout, and mistakes, patient care may be compromised, and family life may be adversely affected.

As far as the authors can ascertain, there are no other studies exploring acute sector management roles through an extreme jobs lens.

This chapter reviews the underlying technologies of cryptoassets, including fundamental cryptographic primitives used in distributed ledger technologies and permissionless blockchain technologies and their consensus protocols such as proof-of-work and proof-of-stake. It discusses the pros and cons of existing approaches to improve blockchain scalability and considers the requirements for security and decentralization. The chapter also examines the following techniques: layer 1 tuning, layer 1 sharding, and layer 2 solutions. It concludes with an overview of technologies to swap cryptoassets off-chain, technical requirements for cross-chain transactions, and reviews cross-chain atomic swap implementation using hashed time lock contracts.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the value of Blockchain technology as a solution to creating and preserving trustworthy digital records, presenting some of the limitations, risks and opportunities of the approach.

The methodological approach involves using the requirements embedded in records management and digital preservation standards, specifically ISO 15,489, ARMA’s Generally Accepted Recordkeeping Principles, ISO 14,721 and ISO 16,363, as a general evaluative framework for a risk-based assessment of a specific proposed implementation of Blockchain technology for a land registry system in a developing country.

The results of the analysis suggest that Blockchain technology can be used to address issues associated with information integrity in the present and near term, assuming proper security architecture and infrastructure management controls. It does not, however, guarantee reliability of information in the first place, and would have several limitations as a long-term solution for maintaining trustworthy digital records.

This paper contributes an original analysis of the application of Blockchain technology for recordkeeping.