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1 – 10 of 77Katarzyna Janusz, Sofie Six and Dominique Vanneste
In a current trend of a growing amount of short city trips, it becomes crucial to understand how local residents perceive the presence of tourists and tourism in their cities and…
Abstract
Purpose
In a current trend of a growing amount of short city trips, it becomes crucial to understand how local residents perceive the presence of tourists and tourism in their cities and how their socio-cultural context influences those perceptions. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to this understanding which will enable the city planners to take actions to create the well-balanced and resilient communities in which the needs of residents and tourists are equally met.
Design/methodology/approach
To understand residents’ perceptions’ about tourism in Bruges, this research applied photo-elicitation interviews with 28 residents who lived in various locations in the historical center to understand socio-cultural background of residents, their tourism-related concerns and whether they are in line with what is commonly perceived as problematic in Bruges.
Findings
Results show that as long as residents can benefit from tourism and tourism-related infrastructure, they support tourism. On the other hand, tourism decreases the liveability of the historical center due to supersession of infrastructure serving the residents by tourist-oriented amenities.
Practical implications
To build a sustainable and resilient city in the future, the authorities of Bruges should cease further “museumification” of the historical city by breaking the hegemony of tourism industry, providing affordable housing and rethinking the concentration model of tourism.
Originality/value
The photo-elicitation method proved to produce rich content and good-quality data by stimulating respondents’ memories and evoking experiences and emotions. Thus, this paper recommends that future research about residents’ attitudes is developed around visual methods as they give voice to the residents and are able to uncover issues which are difficult to capture with other methods.
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Laszlo Hetey, Eddy Neefs, Ian Thomas, Joe Zender, Ann-Carine Vandaele, Sophie Berkenbosch, Bojan Ristic, Sabrina Bonnewijn, Sofie Delanoye, Mark Leese, Jon Mason and Manish Patel
This paper aims to describe the development of a knowledge management system (KMS) for the Nadir and Occultation for Mars Discovery (NOMAD) instrument on board the ESA/Roscosmos…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to describe the development of a knowledge management system (KMS) for the Nadir and Occultation for Mars Discovery (NOMAD) instrument on board the ESA/Roscosmos 2016 ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) spacecraft. The KMS collects knowledge acquired during the engineering process that involved over 30 project partners. In addition to the documentation and technical data (explicit knowledge), a dedicated effort was made to collect the gained experience (tacit knowledge) that is crucial for the operational phase of the TGO mission and also for future projects. The system is now in service and provides valuable information for the scientists and engineers working with NOMAD.
Design/methodology/approach
The NOMAD KMS was built around six areas: official documentation, technical specifications and test results, lessons learned, management data (proposals, deliverables, progress reports and minutes of meetings), picture files and movie files. Today, the KMS contains 110 GB of data spread over 11,000 documents and more than 13,000 media files. A computer-aided design (CAD) library contains a model of the full instrument as well as exported sub-parts in different formats. A context search engine for both documents and media files was implemented.
Findings
The conceived KMS design is basic, flexible and very robust. It can be adapted to future projects of a similar size.
Practical implications
The paper provides practical guidelines on how to retain the knowledge from a larger aerospace project. The KMS tool presented here works offline, requires no maintenance and conforms to data protection standards.
Originality/value
This paper shows how knowledge management requirements for space missions can be fulfilled. The paper demonstrates how to transform the large collection of project data into a useful tool and how to address usability aspects.
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Ad van den Oord, Karen Elliott, Arjen van Witteloostuijn, Melody Barlage, Laszlo Polos and Sofie Rogiest
In this paper, the authors develop a cognitive organization theory (COT) of organizational change. COT was developed in the 2000s, by taking insights from cognitive psychology and…
Abstract
Purpose
In this paper, the authors develop a cognitive organization theory (COT) of organizational change. COT was developed in the 2000s, by taking insights from cognitive psychology and anthropology to rebuild the foundation of organizational ecology (OE), grounding macro processes of organizational legitimation, inertia and mortality in micro processes of appeal and engagement. COT also explored the micro-level process of organizational change, arguing that four features (i.e. asperity, intricacy, opacity, and viscosity) of an organization's texture impact the appeal of organizational change. However, to data, empirical studies of a COT of organizational change are absent. An important reason is that many of the new COT constructs are not linked to empirical measures. The purpose of this paper is to develop reliable and valid survey measures of COT's key constructs.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors follow a three-step procedure to develop reliable and valid survey measures of COT's key constructs. First, the authors construct survey measures by using existing organizational behavior (OB) scales and develop new scales in consultation with COT experts. Second, the authors apply factor analysis to evaluate convergent and discriminant validity and use Cronbach's α to determine the reliability of the scales. Third, the authors estimate a structural equation model to determine external validity, by exploring whether the measures have the effect hypothesized in COT.
Findings
The authors find that existing OB scales can be used to proxy for COT's key constructs of appeal and engagement. The authors also find that two organizational texture variables (i.e., asperity and opacity) are significantly associated with the appeal of organizational change, further confirming the validity of applying a COT to organization change. The results are promising, proving evidence as to the criterion-related validity of the measures of COT constructs. From the total of 39 coefficients of COT-inspired independent and control variables, 22 are significant.
Research limitations/implications
The authors’ findings illustrate that micro OB and macro OE can be effectively combined in a COT of organizational change. However, the authors' contribution is only a first step, requiring further theoretical and methodological refinement. Theoretically, OB and OE can be integrated further, by linking together more concepts and constructs from the two streams of literature. Methodologically, the link between constructs and empirical measures can be refined, by adding extra scales and items, and collecting more data to validate them.
Originality/value
In this paper, the authors develop a COT of organizational change and link its central constructs to empirical measures, by connecting them to existing OB constructs and developing new scales and items. This opens the door to empirical studies on a COT of organizational change, hereby providing a stepping-stone for further integration of micro OB and macro OE.
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This paper aims to develop a methodology to accurately and timely measure movements in housing markets by constructing a continuously estimated house price index.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to develop a methodology to accurately and timely measure movements in housing markets by constructing a continuously estimated house price index.
Design/methodology/approach
The continuous index, which is extracted from an additive model that includes the temporal and the locational effects as smooth functions, can be interpreted as an extension of the classical hedonic time-dummy method. The methodology is applied to housing sales from Sydney, Australia, between 2001 and 2011, and compared to three types of discrete indexes.
Findings
Discrete indexes turn out to approach the continuously estimated index with decreasing period lengths but eventually become wiggly and unreliable because of fewer observations per period. The continuous index, in contrast, is stable, has favourable robustness properties and is more objective in several ways.
Originality/value
The resulting index tracks movements in the housing market precisely and in “real-time” and is hence suited for monitoring and assessing housing markets. Because turbulence in housing markets is often a harbinger of financial crises, such monitoring tools support policymakers and investors in tailoring their decisions and reactions. Additionally, the index can be evaluated arbitrarily frequently and therefore is well suited for use in property derivatives.
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Maria Eugenia Fernandez, Lilian Daset, Wouter Vanderplasschen, Cesar Daniel Costa Ball, Lore Van Damme and Sofie Vindevogel
The purpose of this paper is to explore risk and protective factors for alcohol use among school-going adolescents in Montevideo (Uruguay).
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore risk and protective factors for alcohol use among school-going adolescents in Montevideo (Uruguay).
Design/methodology/approach
A self-report survey was administered to 331 school-going adolescents in Montevideo (Uruguay) (Mage=13; SD=0.05), using the alcohol screening instrument of the Uruguayan National Drug Board to assess adolescents’ alcohol use (yes/no), a screening instrument for psychopathology and resilience (the adolescent self-report) and a socio-demographic questionnaire.
Findings
Logistic regression analyses identified antisocial behaviour, substance use and negative emotionality (F2), disruptive and dysregulated behaviour (F8), higher age and recent death of a close relative as risk factors, while the number of close friends was identified as a protective factor for past year alcohol use (yes/no). No straightforward relationship was found between schools and the risk for the past year alcohol use. In addition, age, F2, F8 and recent death of a close relative appeared to be the most robust predictors.
Research limitations/implications
The study was the first in Uruguay to relate adolescents’ alcohol use to risk and protective factors. Given the cross-sectional nature of the study, causal relationships could not be determined.
Originality/value
The study provides preliminary recommendations for policy makers and other stakeholders involved in youth affairs on core elements to focus on school-, community- and family-based alcohol prevention programmes for adolescents.
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Sofie Vengberg, Mio Fredriksson, Bo Burström, Kristina Burström and Ulrika Winblad
Payments to healthcare providers create incentives that can influence provider behaviour. Research on unit-level incentives in primary care is, however, scarce. This paper…
Abstract
Purpose
Payments to healthcare providers create incentives that can influence provider behaviour. Research on unit-level incentives in primary care is, however, scarce. This paper examines how managers and salaried physicians at Swedish primary healthcare centres perceive that payment incentives directed towards the healthcare centre affect their work.
Design/methodology/approach
An interview study was conducted with 24 respondents at 13 primary healthcare centres in two cities, located in regions with different payment systems. One had a mixed system comprised of fee-for-service and risk-adjusted capitation payments, and the other a mainly risk-adjusted capitation system.
Findings
Findings suggested that both managers and salaried physicians were aware of and adapted to unit-level payment incentives, albeit the latter sometimes to a lesser extent. Respondents perceived fee-for-service payments to stimulate production of shorter visits, up-coding of visits and skimming of healthier patients. Results also suggested that differentiated rates for patient visits affected horizontal prioritisations between physician and nurse visits. Respondents perceived that risk-adjustments for diagnoses led to a focus on registering diagnosis codes, and to some extent, also up-coding of secondary diagnoses.
Practical implications
Policymakers and responsible authorities need to design payment systems carefully, balancing different incentives and considering how and from where data used to calculate payments are retrieved, not relying too heavily on data supplied by providers.
Originality/value
This study contributes evidence on unit-level payment incentives in primary care, a scarcely researched topic, especially using qualitative methods.
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Sofie Stulens, Kim De Boeck and Nico Vandaele
Despite HIV being reported as one of the major global health issues, availability and accessibility of HIV services and supplies remain limited, especially in low- and…
Abstract
Purpose
Despite HIV being reported as one of the major global health issues, availability and accessibility of HIV services and supplies remain limited, especially in low- and middle-income countries. The effective and efficient operation of HIV supply chains is critical to tackle this problem. The purpose of this paper is to give an introduction to HIV supply chains in low- and middle-income countries and identify research opportunities for the operations research/operations management (OR/OM) community.
Design/methodology/approach
First, the authors review a combination of the scientific and grey literature, including both qualitative and quantitative papers, to give an overview of HIV supply chain operations in low- and middle-income countries and the challenges that are faced by organizing such supply chains. The authors then classify and discuss the relevant OR/OM literature based on seven classification criteria: decision level, methodology, type of HIV service modeled, challenges, performance measures, real-life applicability and countries covered. Because research on HIV supply chains in low- and middle-income countries is limited in the OR/OM field, this part also includes papers focusing on HIV supply chain modeling in high-income countries.
Findings
The authors conclude this study by identifying several tendencies and gaps and by proposing future research directions for OR/OM research.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first literature review addressing this specific topic from an OR/OM perspective.
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This paper aims to review of the use of robots in two healthcare applications: surgery and prosthetics.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to review of the use of robots in two healthcare applications: surgery and prosthetics.
Design/methodology/approach
Following a brief introduction, this paper first considers robotic surgery and discusses a selection of commercial products, applications and recent technological advances. It then considers recent developments in robotic prosthetics.
Findings
It is shown that surgical robots are being employed in an ever‐growing range of clinical procedures. Systems employing tactile feedback are under development. Improved robotic prosthetics are the topic of a major research effort and recent developments include hands and grippers, walking aids and novel control techniques, including thought‐activated systems which exploit advances in brain‐computer interface technology.
Originality/value
This paper provides details of recent developments and applications of robotic surgery and prosthetics.
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Brenda Frederiks, Baukje Schippers, Moniek Huijs and Sofie Steen
The purpose of this paper is to advance a number of outlooks on the reporting of the use of coercive measures in the care for persons with intellectual disabilities. The following…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to advance a number of outlooks on the reporting of the use of coercive measures in the care for persons with intellectual disabilities. The following questions will be discussed: which forms of involuntary care should be externally reported and how is this external reporting influenced by environmental and other factors?
Design/methodology/approach
This paper describes an important part of the New Dutch Care and Coercion Act (Wet zorg en dwang) concerning reporting the use of coercive measures. The implications of reporting the use of coercive measures have been discussed at a meeting for experts in mental health law and the care of people with an intellectual disability. The issue has been presented to the participants as neutrally as possible, so as to provide the researchers a comprehensive picture of the different views on reporting the use of coercive measures. The outcome of this meeting has served as the input for a further step in the research – using the Delphi method – in order to address the issue comprehensively.
Findings
The Dutch legislation on reporting involuntary care implies that measures carried out only in the face of resistance should be externally reported. The experts that participated in this study endorse the importance of a real-time external reporting system. They believe that standardized and reliable external reporting requires involuntary care, the categories of involuntary care and the environmental and other factors that affect external reporting to be defined more concretely. They regard environmental and other factors as decisive for assessing whether a measure constitutes involuntary care. This in turn, therefore, has consequences for whether such incidents should be reported.
Research limitations/implications
Many concepts in the new Dutch Care and Coercion Act (Wet zorg en dwang) are not formally defined. Instead, the legislator has left it to those in the field to decide how they should be interpreted. This prompted many questions from those attending the expert meeting and in our own analysis. The researchers could possibly have resolved this confusion during the meeting by formulating more detailed definitions of terms such as “resistance” and “involuntary care” beforehand. The disadvantage of this, however, would have been that those attending the meeting would have had no opportunity to define the terms on the basis of their own expertise. As a result, the researchers have obtained all relevant information comprehensively to use as the input for the next step of the research, which employs the Delphi method.
Practical implications
This viewpoint emphasises the need to take a wide range of factors into account throughout the process in order to establish whether care can be seen as involuntary. The researchers regard the care providers’ expertise in dealing with these factors – client factors, and behavioural or environmental factors, for example – as being of essential importance if care is to be recognised as involuntary and reported as effectively as possible. Therefore, the researchers discuss whether the legal position of clients is protected if care providers register only those forms of involuntary care where there is obvious resistance. In this case, many forms of resistance are overlooked, which may be to the detriment of the legal protection of clients with intellectual disabilities. However, the system in the UK shows that it can be quite complicated to develop a clear definition of involuntary care that is usable in practice, without giving rise to an enormous amount of bureaucracy and thus distracting from the real issue: protecting the legal position of clients with an intellectual disability.
Originality/value
Academic papers clearly demonstrate that external reporting of involuntary care has not yet become properly established, either in the Netherlands or elsewhere, such as in the UK. This paper seeks to provide insights into new Dutch legislation about external reporting of involuntary care. By organising a meeting with experts, the factors that have so far acted as obstacles in the reporting of involuntary care are problematized. The findings of this paper will help to further the process of developing an effective system for reporting involuntary care.
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