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A key challenge for cost-effective Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITSs) is the ability to create generalizable domain, learner, and pedagogical models so they can be re-used many times over. Investment in this technology will be needed to succeed in developing ITSs for team training. The purpose of this chapter is to propose an instructional framework for guiding team ITS researchers in their development of these models for reuse. We establish a foundation for the framework with three propositions. First, we propose that understanding how teams develop is needed to establish a science-based foundation for modeling. Toward this end, we conduct a detailed exploration of the Kozlowski, Watola, Jensen, Kim, and Botero (2009) theory of team development and leadership, and describe a use case example to demonstrate how team training was developed for a specific stage in their model. Next, we propose that understanding measures of learning and performance will inform learner modeling requirements for each stage of team development. We describe measures developed for the use case and how they were used to understand teamwork skill development. We then discuss effective team training strategies and explain how they were implemented in the use case to understand their implications for pedagogical modeling. From this exploration, we describe a generic instructional framework recommending effective training strategies for each stage of team development. To inform the development of reusable models, we recommend selecting different team task domains and varying team size to begin researching commonalities and differences in the instructional framework.

Studies have shown (1) that a company that ignores lead‐time demand variability may suffer great financial damage, (2) that the gamma distribution provides the most common best fit to lead‐time demand for a variety of inventory items, and (3) that a fixed lead‐time demand assumption or a normal approximation to it will often yield significant errors because the true distribution is usually very much skewed to the right. Unfortunately, all of the methods for solving the <Q,r> inventory model with gamma lead‐time demand call for tabulated values and perhaps interpolation between them in every iteration. This paper developed an efficient and accurate algorithm for solving the <Q,r> model with gamma lead‐time demand. The suggested algorithm eliminates the need for tabulated values completely and converges to the optimal solution quadratically. Solutions for two special cases of gamma lead‐time demand were also discussed.

As little is known about the productivity levels of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) engaging with universities and the relative changes in productivity of SMEs subsequent to these collaborations, the paper examines the following questions: (1) Does the relative productivity of SMEs engaging in university collaboration differ from those that do not? (2) Are subsequent changes in firm productivity following university collaboration related to their initial levels of productivity?

The paper utilises data on 254 SMEs from the Longitudinal Small Business Survey and uses two statistical techniques: First, bivariate tests of difference were used to inspect the relationships between productivity levels and whether the firm collaborated with a university to introduce its innovation. Second, ordinary least squares regressions were used to test whether the future productivity of SMEs that collaborated with universities was related to their initial productivity levels.

The analysis reveals that SME–university collaboration is unrelated to starting productivity. Furthermore, the analysis suggests a nonlinear relationship exists between the starting productivity of SMEs and their subsequent productivity following a university collaboration. Therefore, higher levels of subsequent productivity are observed among those SMEs where starting productivity was either relatively low or high, suggesting that collaborations have a transformative effect on SMEs with relatively lower initial levels of productivity and a maintenance effect for SMEs with relatively higher levels of initial productivity.

Given the fact that the extant literature also suggests that, overall, university collaboration is beneficial, policymakers should strive to encourage greater levels of collaboration involving SMEs. In light of the evidence that SME–university collaborations can transform less productive firms, it appears unjustified for practitioners and policymakers to only consider stronger-performing firms to be included in such programmes.

The study contributes new theoretical and practical knowledge to the understanding of the role of firm productivity in predicting the proclivity of firms to collaborate with universities. Furthermore, as few studies have examined the impact of these collaborations on the subsequent productivity of firms that collaborate with universities, this paper fills an existing gap in the literature.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the particularities of the time consumption of transactions performed in an insurance firm and the prospective impact on costing.

This paper uses the results of an archival study conducted on data collected in an insurance firm.

The results suggest that the reasons underlying the heterogeneity of transactions’ time consumption are multiple and rule out a systematic and unique explanation. They lend support to the importance of the “human effect” in explaining the time consumption of service transactions and support the need for more research into the evolution of marketing thought that subordinates the concept of transaction to the concept of relationship. In addition, our results not only suggest that the drivers of time consumption and their importance are contingent on the type of service activity performed within the same firm, but also that inside a generic service activity, deviations in time consumption remain due to the provision of specific services.

Services have their own characteristics which make it difficult to trace their resource consumption. Yet limited research has focused on examining the impact of services’ characteristics on predicting costs. Our findings contribute to our understanding of such impact and cast doubt on the possibility of obtaining accurate costs for very detailed transactions for an acceptable cost-benefit trade-off.

The purpose of this paper is to outline current efforts in the USA to build and create safe and affirming housing for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) older adults.

The authors approach this task through a survey of existing publicly available information about LGBT-specific housing projects, as well as literature on methods to make existing housing welcoming to LGBT elders.

The authors find that there are a number of LGBT-specific housing options currently available, and many more in the development phase. Additionally, given the large number of LGBT older adults in the USA and the relatively small number of LGBT-specific housing units, the authors also discuss other interventions that can be applied to create safe housing. The practical implication of this research is to provide advocates for LGBT people with a sense of what is happening in the USA, as well as some guidance on how to replicate LGBT affirming housing models in other contexts.

To the authors’ knowledge, this is the only and most comprehensive survey of LGBT-specific elder housing in the USA to be published in the academic literature.

This chapter examines some of the challenges and emerging strategies for authoring, distributing, managing, and evaluating Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITSs) to support computer-based adaptive instruction for teams of learners. Several concepts related to team tutoring are defined along with team processes, and fundamental tutoring concepts are provided including a description of the learning effect model (LEM), an exemplar describing interaction between learners and ITSs with the goal of realizing optimal tutor decisions. The challenges noted herein are closely related to the LEM and range from acquisition of learner data, synthesis of individual learner and team state models based on available data, and tutor decisions which center on optimizing strategies (recommendations) and tactics (actions) given the state of the learner, the team, and the conditions under which they are being instructed, the environment. Finally, we end this chapter with recommendations on how to use this book to understand and design effective ITSs for teams.

Over the last 20 years we have witnessed the emergence of a large‐scale, world‐wide academic movement concerned with the management of services. This paper charts the role and impact of operations management on this movement and proposes that the current key focus for service academics should be with the application of frameworks and techniques. Also suggests that as the service movement has grown, with increasing overlap between the subjects of operations, marketing and HRM for example, there is a need to “return to roots”. Contends that service academics, in their bid to develop cross‐functional service management material, may have lost, or inadvertently ignored, the strength of their core disciplines. Re‐focusing on the traditional strengths of operations management, such as performance quality, design, and operational improvement, might help provide a greater rigour to the developing subject of service management. Discusses nine areas for service operations research and suggests specific research questions. The topics include linking operational performance to business drivers, performance measurement and operations improvement, service design, service technology, the design of internal networks and managing service capacity.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which gatekeepers of information stymie due diligence investigations in the multi-owned property environment.

The study reviewed and analysed the relevant state legislative provisions providing statutory protections for (pre)purchasers of lots within the multi-owned property context. Further, an exploratory survey questionnaire was distributed to owners corporation (OC) managers in Victoria to gain knowledge and a greater understanding of the extent to which OC managers are gatekeepers of information.

The study emphasises how relevant state governments, OC managers and sellers of multi-owned properties (MOPs) are involved in gatekeeping activities. The governments have created a legislative framework that appears to offer “protections” to pre(purchasers), however, discretion and exemptions within the legislation can hinder the undertaking of due diligence investigations. OC managers are, generally, protective about the information in their custody and contribute to the gatekeeping environment by stymieing the dissemination of information.

To date, there has been a paucity of scholarly attention directed to understanding the barriers faced by purchasers when buying into the MOP environment. This paper contributes to the wider body of knowledge relating to purchasing decisions within the multi-owned property context. More specifically, gatekeeping theory is used in this context to highlight the barriers that stymie a buyer’s right to discover information and decide on their purchase. The findings of this study are relatable to other countries using a similar MOP structure as Australia.

In conventional boundary element formulations, the singularities of the fundamental solution are usually located on the problem boundary. This leads to difficulties in evaluating solution quantities on or near the boundary. A method is presented for locating the singularities on an auxiliary boundary outside the problem domain and having this auxiliary boundary location determined automatically via a Galerkin criterion. This automatic generation of the auxiliary boundary results in a highly accurate, adaptive but non‐linear method. The number of singularities can be significantly reduced compared to conventional boundary element formulations which usually require the same number of singularities as the number of boundary elements used. The method is illustrated with three examples involving Laplace's equation in two dimensions. Excellent numerical results are obtained in all cases using only a few singularities.