Search results
1 – 10 of 10Mark Blome, Kevin McPeak, Sven Burger, Frank Schmidt and David Norris
The purpose of this paper is to find an optimized thin-film amorphous silicon solar cell design by numerically optimizing the light trapping efficiency of a…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to find an optimized thin-film amorphous silicon solar cell design by numerically optimizing the light trapping efficiency of a pyramid-structured back-reflector using a frequency-domain finite element Maxwell solver. For this purpose short circuit current densities and absorption spectra within the investigated solar cell model are systematically analyzed. Furthermore, the authors employ a topology simulation method to accurately predict the material layer interfaces within the investigated solar cell model. The method simulates the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process that is typically used to fabricate thin-film solar cells by combining a ballistic transport and reaction model (BTRM) with a level-set method in an iterative approach. Predicted solar cell models are far more realistic compared to solar cell models created assuming conformal material growth. The purpose of the topology simulation method is to increase the accuracy of thin-film solar cell models in order to facilitate highly accurate simulation results in solar cell design optimizations.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors perform numeric optimizations using a frequency domain finite element Maxwell solver. Topology simulations are carried out using a BTRM combined with a level-set method in an iterative fashion.
Findings
The simulation results reveal that the employed pyramid structured back-reflectors effectively increase the light path in the absorber mainly by exciting photonic waveguide modes. In using the optimization approach, the authors have identified solar cell models with cell periodicities around 480 nm and pyramid base widths around 450 nm to yield the highest short circuit current densities. Compared to equivalent solar cell models with flat back-reflectors, computed short circuit current densities are significantly increased. Furthermore, the paper finds that the solar cell models computed using the topology simulation approach represent a far more realistic approximation to a real solar cell stack compared to solar cell models computed by a conformal material growth assumption.
Research limitations/implications
So far in the topology simulation approach the authors assume CVD as the material deposition process for all material layers. However, during the fabrication process sputtering (i.e. physical vapor deposition) will be employed for the Al:ZnO and ITO layers. In the framework of this ongoing research project the authors will extend the topology simulation approach to take the different material deposition processes into account. The differences in predicted material interfaces will presumably be only minor compared to the results shown here and certainly be insignificant relative to the differences the authors observe for solar cell models computed assuming conformal material growth.
Originality/value
The authors systematically investigate and optimize the light trapping efficiency of a pyramid nano-structured back-reflector using rigorous electromagnetic field computations with a 3D finite element Maxwell solver. To the authors’ knowledge such an investigation has not been carried out yet in the solar cell research literature. The topology simulation approach (to the best of the authors’ knowledge) has previously not been applied to the modelling of solar cells. Typically a conformal layer growth assumption is used instead.
Details
Keywords
Stefanie Paluch, Sven Tuzovic, Heiko F. Holz, Alexander Kies and Moritz Jörling
As service robots increasingly interact with customers at the service encounter, they will inevitably become an integral part of employee's work environment. This research…
Abstract
Purpose
As service robots increasingly interact with customers at the service encounter, they will inevitably become an integral part of employee's work environment. This research investigates frontline employee's perceptions of collaborative service robots (CSR) and introduces a new framework, willingness to collaborate (WTC), to better understand employee–robot interactions in the workplace.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on appraisal theory, this study employed an exploratory research approach to investigate frontline employees' cognitive appraisal of service robots and their WTC with their nonhuman counterparts in service contexts. Data collection consisted of 36 qualitative problem-centered interviews. Following an iterative thematic analysis, the authors introduce a research framework of frontline employees' WTC with service robots.
Findings
First, this study demonstrates that the interaction between frontline employees and service robots is a multistage appraisal process based on adoption-related perceptions. Second, it identifies important attributes across three categories (employee, robot and job attributes) that provide a foundation to understand the appraisal of CSRs. Third, it presents four employee personas (supporter, embracer, resister and saboteur) that provide a differentiated perspective of how service employee–robot collaboration may differ.
Practical implications
The article identifies important factors that enable and restrict frontline service employees' (FSEs’) WTC with robots.
Originality/value
This is the first paper that investigates the appraisal of CSRs from the perspective of frontline employees. The research contributes to the limited research on human–robot collaboration and expands existing technology acceptance models that fall short to explain post-adoptive coping behavior of service employees in response to service robots in the workplace.
Details
Keywords
Håvard Ness, Jarle Aarstad and Sven Arne Haugland
This study aims to investigate how and to what extent structural network properties affect dyadic negotiation behavior in tourism destination ecosystems. Specifically…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate how and to what extent structural network properties affect dyadic negotiation behavior in tourism destination ecosystems. Specifically, this study addresses negotiation behavior in terms of problem-solving and contending, because these two key strategies reflect the integrative and distributive aspects of dyadic interactions.
Design/methodology/approach
This study relies on network data and dyadic survey data from nine mountain tourism destinations in Southeastern Norway. The structural network properties the authors research are triadic closure – the extent to which a dyad has common ties to other actors – and structural equivalence – the similarities in networking patterns that capture firms’ competition for similar resources. In addition, the authors also study a possible effect of relationship duration on negotiation behavior.
Findings
Triadic closure and relationship duration have positive effects on problem-solving, and structural equivalence tends to decrease problem-solving, although the effect is inconsistent; none of these three independent variables was found to affect contending negotiation behavior.
Research limitations/implications
This study shows that a dyad’s structural network embeddedness has implications for negotiation behavior. Further research is encouraged to develop this theoretical perspective.
Originality/value
This study is a pioneering investigation of how structural network properties affect dyadic negotiation behavior in ongoing coproducing relationships in real-world destination ecosystems.
Details
Keywords
Sven Maricic, Daniela Kovacevic Pavicic, Barbara Ptacnik and Romina Prziklas Druzeta
This study aims to develop a specialized and economically feasible educational model using a combination of conventional approach and additive technology with a precision…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to develop a specialized and economically feasible educational model using a combination of conventional approach and additive technology with a precision that proves to be sufficient for educational use. With the use of computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing models in educational stages, the possibility of infectious diseases transmission can be significantly reduced.
Design/methodology/approach
The proposed process involves the planning and development of specialized anatomical three-dimensional (3D) models and associated structures using omnipresent additive technologies. A short survey was conducted among dental students about their knowledge of applying additive technologies in dental medicine and their desire to implement such technologies into existing curricula.
Findings
The results revealed how an educational 3D model can be developed by optimizing the mesh parameters to reduce the total number of elements while maintaining the quality of the geometric structure. The survey results demonstrated that the willingness to adapt to new technologies is increasing (p < 0.001) among students with a higher level of education. A series of recent studies have indicated that the lack of knowledge and the current skill gap remain the most significant barriers to the wider adoption of additive manufacturing.
Practical implications
An economically feasible, realistic anatomical educational model in the field of dental medicine was established. Additive technology is a key pillar of new specialized-knowledge digital skills for the enhancement of dental training.
Originality/value
The novelty of this study is the introduction of a 3D technology for promoting an economically feasible model, without compromising the quality of dental education.
Details
Keywords
Vanessa Duarte and Soumodip Sarkar
The main objective of this paper is to shed light on the confusion of terminologies related to open innovation through the development of an open innovation taxonomy. By…
Abstract
Purpose
The main objective of this paper is to shed light on the confusion of terminologies related to open innovation through the development of an open innovation taxonomy. By analyzing published case studies using numerical taxonomy methods, it proposes a taxonomic classification of open innovation.
Design/methodology/approach
Earlier work on firm collaboration and concepts related to open innovation in order to understand the main motivations, and conditions behind open innovation‐like strategies is first to be reviewed in this paper. It then proceeds to collect and systematically analyze 20 published case studies, and using numerical taxonomy methods it produces a taxonomic classification of open innovation. As a first approach to taxonomy on open innovation strategies, the UPGMA methodology used seems very promising. The taxonomy of open innovation developed here can also be used as a decision‐making tool through the comparison of open innovation strategies inherent in the taxonomy.
Findings
Through the numerical taxonomy analysis the paper has been able to objectively create groups of similar cases, and strategies therein. This paper is able to draw some interesting conclusions by identifying two general strategies of collaboration ‐ a free revealing “democratic” strategy and a formal collaboration strategy. The first involves a proliferation of partners whose technical and creative skills are specific to the industry and the source of knowledge, and where the degree of interaction plays an important role. The second broad strategy of cooperation is linked to more formal collaboration, generally firm‐firm collaboration; in this group a large focus on markets features, especially technological intensity, was found.
Originality/value
This paper adds objectivity to the research of different open innovation strategies by using a method developed in the natural sciences. Based on a systematic review of literature, the paper was able to identify key characters describing features and come up with a taxonomy of open innovation, which goes a significant way towards making sense of the plethora of terminology related to open innovation. Key features of different open innovation strategies are also revealed.
Details
Keywords
Ulf Diefenbach, Benedikt Schnellbächer and Sven Heidenreich
The purpose of this paper is to examine whether and how the usage of regulatory fit in cost reduction announcements affects employees’ willingness to engage in the cost…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine whether and how the usage of regulatory fit in cost reduction announcements affects employees’ willingness to engage in the cost reduction program (CRP).
Design/methodology/approach
Based on the regulatory fit theory, a scenario-based experiment was conducted (n = 517) to investigate the effect of promotion- or prevention-oriented framing of the CRP on the acceptance and the motivation to actively contribute to the CRP using multiple ANOVAs.
Findings
The study results point out that the framing of the cost announcement messages should use feelings or emotions and ensure gains for promotion-focused employees to decrease the negative effects of regulatory nonfit. However, in the case of prevention-focused employees, facts and reasons should be used in combination with an assertion of nonlosses in the announcement message to prevent regulatory nonfit.
Research limitations/implications
This research deepens the understanding on the decision-influencing role of managerial cost announcements on employee motivation and the impact of different regulatory orientations. By this, the authors enhance the current understanding of how employees can effectively be integrated into CRPs and expand previous research on how regulatory fit theory can be used by organizations dealing with negative events.
Practical implications
The study findings offer several opportunities and implications for managers engaged in corporate communication. More specifically, the study findings provide helpful guidelines for organizations to align their cost reduction announcement with the regulatory focus of their employees to reach regulatory fit and thus enhance employee willingness to participate in the CRP.
Originality/value
Despite the increasing attention of regulatory focus and regulatory fit theory and to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first attempt to search for combined effects of emotions and facts versus potential gains and ensuring nonlosses, which both were shown to influence outcomes predicted by regulatory fit.
Details
Keywords
Lotte Holck and Sara Louise Muhr
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the construction and everyday maintenance of racialized psychological borders in the Greenlandic Police Force reproduce a…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the construction and everyday maintenance of racialized psychological borders in the Greenlandic Police Force reproduce a postcolonial hierarchy of knowledge, where Danish knowledge and perceptions of professionalism are constructed as superior to Greenlandic knowledge and perceptions of professionalism.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is based on an ethnographic study comprising 5 days of observation of a training course for Danish police officers going to Greenland on summer assistance, 13 days of observation of police work in Greenland, 2 days of participatory observation of a leadership development seminar in Greenland, 26 interviews conducted in Denmark and Greenland with both Danish and Greenlandic officers and interventions in Denmark and Greenland.
Findings
The racialized borders create strong perceptions of “us” and “them”, which are maintained and reinforced through everyday work practices. The borders have damaging effects on the way police officers collaborate in Greenland and as the borders are maintained through (often implicit) everyday micro-processes, management has difficulty dealing with it. However, the way the racialized borders became visible through this research project created an awareness of – and sparked conversation about – the colonial stereotypes that have constructed and reinforce the borders. This awareness opens up possibilities of collaborative disruption of those borders.
Research limitations/implications
The paper shows how racialized borders limit the way professionalism is understood in the Greenlandic Police Force. But it also shows that, because these borders are socially constructed, they can be contested. Making the implicit everyday discrimination explicit through vignettes, for example, offers the chance to contest and disrupt the colonial hierarchy otherwise deeply embedded in the work practices of the police force.
Originality/value
Thanks to unique access to Greenland’s police force, this paper offers exclusive in-depth insights into current processes of racialization and colonialization in a contemporary colonial relationship.
Details
Keywords
With the growing importance of services in the overall economy, it is surprising that the notion of service firms investing in systematic and dedicated innovation…
Abstract
Purpose
With the growing importance of services in the overall economy, it is surprising that the notion of service firms investing in systematic and dedicated innovation activities has taken so long to materialize. This is now set to change as service firms undertake the kind of research, design and development disciplines which for more than a century have been mainstays of modern manufacturing.
Design/methodology/approach
S&L interviews the well-known former editor of Harvard Business Review Thomas A. Stewart and his co-author, former BloombergBusinessweek.com editor Patricia O’Connell, in their latest book, Woo, Wow and Win: Service Design, Strategy and the Art of Customer Delight (Harper Business, 2016). They believe we are on the cusp of a “design revolution” in services.
Findings
The central thesis of their book is that services “should be designed with as much care as products are” and they include service “delivery” in that premise.
Practical implications
Service design principles offer powerful new ways to address the three basic strategy questions: What do we sell? To whom? And how do we win?
Originality/value
Service design helps you understand how to configure a set of activities, behaviors and touchpoints–a journey–that allows you to serve that customer well.
Details
Keywords
Kris Rutten, Helena Calleeuw, Griet Roets and Angelo Van Gorp
In Flanders, the subventions in the cultural sector are mainly divided and decided upon within the framework of the Arts Decree. Within this policy framework, art…
Abstract
Purpose
In Flanders, the subventions in the cultural sector are mainly divided and decided upon within the framework of the Arts Decree. Within this policy framework, art organizations may choose in their funding applications for “participation” as one of the five possible functions to describe their artistic and cultural practices. However, questions need to be raised about the different interpretations of the notion of participation within this policy framework. The growing trend of evidence-based policy-making implies that participation risks to become a “target” that needs to be achieved instrumentally, which paradoxically ignores the fact that participatory practices within culture and the arts are very often diverse, multi-layered and context-specific practices. Starting from this paradox, the purpose of this paper is to explore how the current policy framework is translated into different “participatory” art practices by art organizations and specifically how cultural practitioners themselves conceptualize it.
Design/methodology/approach
In this paper, the authors discuss the results of a qualitative research based on semi-structured interviews with cultural practitioners about how they grapple with the notion of participation within their organizations and practices.
Findings
The results clearly show that practitioners use micro-politics of resistance to deal with different, and often conflicting, conceptualizations of participation in relation to this cultural policy framework.
Research limitations/implications
The implications of the findings are vital for the discussion about cultural policy. These micro-politics of resistance do not only have an impact on the development of individual participatory art practices but also on the broader participatory arts landscape and on how the function of participation is perceived within the renewed policy framework.
Originality/value
The original contribution of this paper is to explore the perspective of practitioners in cultural organizations about the function of participation in the Arts Decree in Flanders and specifically how the notion of participation is operationalized in their practices in relation to this cultural policy framework.
Details