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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of symbolic product information (symbolic product design) on consumers’ perceived brand evaluations. In an experimental setting, the authors consider as key factors the congruence between symbolic product design and product category, the level of product involvement as well as brand strength.

In an experiment of 490 participants, consumers are confronted to different symbolic product designs connotations. Based on the cognitive process model “SARA” (selective activation, reconstruction and anchoring), the authors examined how symbolic product design associations are used as heuristics in the working memory when making brand judgement.

The results show that product design associations are used in consumers’ information processing as anchor for brand evaluations. This effect is stronger if symbolic design associations are incongruent to the product category because of consumers’ deeper elaboration process. Furthermore, the impact of symbolic product design is higher for weak compared to strong brands.

This research supports the cognitive process model “SARA” being an appropriate foundation explaining the effects of symbolic product design. Further research should extend this experiment, using a field study in a more realistic setting and/or a choice situation between different alternative product designs at the point of sale. Furthermore, the consumers’ elaboration process should be manipulated differently, e.g. in a mental load condition.

Symbolic product design is important to enhance brand association networks in the consumers’ mind, particularly if the brand is weak. Marketers should use incongruent symbolic product information to differentiate from competitors who use “stereotype” product designs.

Research about product design in the marketing discipline is still limited. The authors analyse the impact of symbolic product design on brand evaluations in an experimental setting of 490 respondents in four product categories. The findings support that consumers use product design as heuristics to evaluate brands.

The National Intelligence Model, described as a ‘model for policing’, defines a process for setting priorities and a framework in which problem solving can be applied. Its strength is a systematic approach that demands standard products and consistent methods of working, which ensure high levels of ownership and accountability. The problem solving approach can also work within this framework. It provides techniques to assist in analysis and develops the tasking and co‐ordinating mechanism through multi‐agency partnerships, which can deliver more sustainable solutions.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how initial frameworks for understanding police problems influence how police analyze and address those problems in the context of problem-oriented policing. The paper shows why researchers, and police, should pay more attention to problem theories.

Data for this case study were obtained from the Middletown, Ohio Police Department, the Middletown housing authority, and the Butler County auditor. Frequency tables and simple graphs were used to identify patterns in the calls for service. Discussions with police officials were used to describe how police originally conceptualized the problem described.

The paper found that initial problem framing has a significant impact on the available interventions and that problem solvers should be vigilant against errors of problem identification.

Caution must be taken when generalizing from a single case study. Nevertheless, more attention needs to be placed on problem identification and framing in the problem-solving process.

Police problem solvers should be vigilant against errors in problem identification, particularly when the original problem identification is broad or when interventions based on the original problem frame do not produce the desired effect.

There are few studies that specifically examine the problem identification and definition process. This paper adds to the literature on problem-oriented policing by examining the critical yet understudied process of problem framing. It also adds to our knowledge of place-specific analysis.

In this paper the problem of the dynamic optimal time‐energy Off‐Line programming of an autonomous mobile robot in a crowded environment is considered. First, kinematic model and planning are presented. Then a dynamic model based on Euler‐Lagrange formalism is developed and a mobility estimation function of the robot is considered. This dynamic estimation of the robot mobility takes into account of the velocity and the orientation of the robot. Then the scene structuration and a path finder algorithm are developed. After, the optimal dynamic off‐line programming is formulated as a nonlinear programming problem under nonlinear equality and inequality constraints. The Discrete Augmented Lagrangian (DAL) is used to obtain the optimal trajectograhy. We develop an extended DAL to DALAP, DALAdaptive Penalty. RoboSim 1.0 simulator is developed to perform kinematic and DALAP based algorithms on a large class of mobile robots optimal time‐energy off‐line programming. A comparative study with kinematic planning is considered. It is shown that the performance of the dynamic optimal time‐energy control and off‐line programming is much better than kinematic and heuristic based schemes. This strategy of trajectory planning was implemented on the case study of the SARA mobile robot model.

This paper aims to suggest that a police organization should prefer change management approaches and methods that would not only lead the organization towards an effective position in preventing crime and fighting terrorism but also enable it to be in harmony with the organizational environment that answers both the expectations of the organization's employees and of the public.

This is a discussion paper.

The goal will be achieved through developing a new approach, namely the “Tailoring model”, setting out from the similarities between the change manager and a tailor, who designs and prepares a garment taking into consideration both the physical characteristics and personal preferences of the client with the environmental conditions where the suit will be worn.

The paper not only adds significant perspectives for police organization managers in conducting reform initiatives to adapt community policing successfully but also contributes to the literature by developing a model for adapting change management approaches on a specific field of police organizations.

Physical education (PE) and PE teacher education have great potential to target goals that are important from an education for sustainable development (ESD) perspective. However, ESD has not been studied extensively in the PE context. The purpose of this paper is to explore subjective theories of PE teacher educators about the concepts of sustainability and ESD because they are important precursors of implementing ESD in PE teacher education.

This study was conducted using a qualitative cross-sectional design. Subjective theories about sustainability and ESD from N = 9 PE teacher educators from a university in Germany were assessed in a multistage process, including semistructured interviews and the structure-formation technique. Subsequently, subjective theories were analyzed using qualitative content analysis.

The results reveal a wide range of subjective theories about the concept of sustainability. PE teacher educators described the dimensions of the sustainability concept (ecological, economic, social and political) to different depths and placed different emphases in terms of the levels of action needed to reach sustainable development. The subjective theories regarding the concept of ESD mostly include instrumental and emancipatory aspects of ESD. These subjective theories differ in that they emphasize different forms of ESD.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first of its kind to examine subjective theories regarding the concepts of sustainability and ESD in the context of PE teacher education. This study is one of only a few studies to provide detailed insights into the subjective theories of teacher educators in the area of sustainability and ESD.

This paper aims to present the Expero4care model. Considering the growing need for a training evaluation model that does not simply fix processes, the Expero4care model represents the first attempt of a “quality model” dedicated to the learning outcomes of healthcare trainings.

Created as development of the Expero model (Cervai et al., 2013), the Expero4care model has been tailored for workplace learning in the healthcare sector and tested in six organizations across Europe. The model has been validated through the review of an international team of experts and its approval as QualiCert standard.

Expero4care allows the evaluation of the quality of learning outcomes focusing on competences, impact in the workplace, transferability, participation and credits. The evaluation process involves different categories of stakeholders (learners, trainers, colleagues, managers, internal or external bodies that can benefit the training’s results, i.e. final users of the service, such as patients and citizens), and it is based on a systematic data collection and comparison among expectations and perceptions. The implementation of the Expero4care model gives the opportunity to start a continuous improvement process of the trainings in the healthcare service.

Expero4care has been tested in both university courses and organizational trainings dedicated to professionals in the healthcare sector. The initial sample is not wide enough to cover all the countries and the types of trainings, so a larger implementation is needed to validate its appropriateness.

Expero4care is the first model created specifically for organizations providing training in the healthcare sector. The implementation of the Expero4care model – adaptable to different kind of organizations and trainings – means that it is possible to highlight the value of the training considering its impact on the workplace and on the citizens.

As the most commonly used tools to assess the quality of trainings consist of questionnaires submitted to participants at the end of the training and considering that quality models have not been utilized to analyse learning outcomes in healthcare, Expero4care represents the first quality model dedicated to training in healthcare service.

This paper describes how a problem solving approach was used to identify good practice lessons from four community safety projects implemented in Birmingham, and how these lessons were disseminated to meet the different needs of practitioners, managers and a wider community safety audience.

In this paper we discuss an area of information systems management and development that appears to have been practised by many major European and US organisations: the area of corporate data modelling. However, rather suprisingly perhaps, it is clear that there is little theoretical or empirical literature devoted to this important issue. There is little empirical evidence to indicate the actual scale of adoption of this practice, and there is certainly little analytical material devoted to questions of the efficacy of this activity or considerations of good practice in this area. The main aim of this paper is to begin to offer some early empirical and analytical material on corporate data modelling. We have been conducting a study of a number of organisation’s experience of corporate data modelling in the UK. We would hope that an examination of the current corporate experience of corporate data modelling will stimulate a clearer discussion of the purposes and practices of this important area of modern information systems planning.