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The purpose of this paper is to explore the distinction between human-delivered service and technology-based, automated customer assistance.

This is a conceptual paper. There is no methodology.

The concept of service is primarily delivered when a human helps another. When technology is infused into the process and becomes the major component of delivering the aid that is requested, the process is automated customer assistance. Thus, “self-service” is not service. It is automated customer assistance.

The definition of service is refined to describe the process of a human helping another person. When technology is used to provide the needed aid, it is no longer a service. Instead, it is automated customer assistance. The implication is that researchers should closely examine how users assess and perceive the two separate approaches to providing the needed aid.

The definition of service is refined to describe the process of a human helping another person. When technology is used to provide the needed aid, it is no longer a service. Instead, it is automated customer assistance. Researchers should closely examine how users assess and perceive the two separate approaches. Industry professionals should be mindful of the distinction between the delivery of service, which requires staff, and the provisioning of technology to provide assistance, which requires little to no staff. Intentionality should drive when customers are better helped by a human or by technology.

The value provided helps both providers create and users express when human-based service is needed versus assistance provided by technology.

The aim of this paper is to study the development of a smoldering crisis over time. The focus is on a nationwide news media and online news communication related to a smoldering crisis running in the Danish healthcare system since 2016: the problematic implementation of a large-scale electronic health record (EHR), technology entitled Sundhedsplatformen (SP), in the hospitals of the capital region of Denmark.

Based on insights from crisis communication theories and in particular rhetorical arena theory (RAT), traces of SP smoldering crisis and patterns of discursive strategies are identified and explained from a longitudinal perspective to explain the communicative complexity that characterizes this smoldering crisis. To build an understanding of how this smoldering crisis is perceived, followed and kept alive, an analysis of (de)legitimation discursive strategies employed strategically by various actors and voices in news articles is conducted in relation to four communicative themes: issue identification, warnings, blame attribution and potential solutions.

It has been found that a legitimacy deficit emerges communicatively through specific (de)legitimation strategies during this smoldering crisis. New insights into RAT (Frandsen and Johansen, 2017) are also provided.

This study is not only of theoretical relevance, but it is also of practical relevance for public relation professionals who aim to identify characteristics of starting smoldering crises as well as to find strategic responses to the ongoing challenges and the developing over time of smoldering crises.

New insights into RAT (Frandsen and Johansen, 2017) are provided.

This chapter presents results from initial studies on personal certifications of innovation management professionals, drawing from a Swedish context. The results capture motivations for, as well as effects from, the certification process. They are discussed from the perspective of how this is relevant for developing and enhancing innovation leadership competencies. Increased knowledge, enhanced professional communication, and strengthened self-confidence related to innovation management were identified as outcomes for individuals pursuing the certifications. Further, this laid the ground for increased visibility, expanded network, and thus more opportunities to influence innovation work. An overarching theme appearing in the study is how a certification can contribute to strengthening the legitimacy of working with innovation management, and thus serve as an enabler for innovation management practice and subsequently innovation leadership. Effects from the certification that may be beneficial for successful innovation leadership include the opportunity for practitioners to articulate their own experiences and competencies, in addition to improving the impact of their efforts utilising innovation terminology. For organisations, knowledge of personal certification can be used both for recruitment and for development of existing personnel and their innovation leadership. Through a longer perspective, it can also contribute to decreasing the dependence on a few specific individuals and instead strengthen the long-term organisational innovation capabilities.

This study examines how technical drivers as well as social drivers influence organic communication and top management involvement (TMI) in new product development (NPD) projects. Technical drivers are of strategic importance and product innovativeness and social drivers are of intrinsic and extrinsic relevance. Organic communication is defined as continuous, bidirectional and informal communication between top management and the NPD teams. Further, arguing that TMI must be studied as a multifaceted construct, it is conceptualized to occur as guidance, active motivation and providing resources and creating a tolerant climate. Subsequently, the effect of TMI and organic communication on NPD performance is investigated.

The data set, collected via surveys from top managers and project managers involved in 86 NPD projects in 85 firms, is analyzed using PLS structural equation modeling.

The authors show that the strategic importance of the project has a positive influence on TMI through active motivation, providing resources and creating a tolerant climate for innovation, but does not have an effect on guidance. Results also show that active motivation and organic communication improve budget and schedule adherence, whereas providing guidance and stimulating a tolerant climate have detrimental effects. In summary, the results show that only active motivation enhances all types of performance while stimulating a tolerant climate appears to have the opposite effect. The results revealed that organic communication between top management and the NPD team has a strong positive effect on all elements of TMI (providing guidance, actively motivating the NPD team, providing resources and creating a tolerant climate). In other words, when top management communicates with the NPD team throughout the project in an informal way and listens to them in addition to engaging in a one-way communication, they are more likely to be seen by the team as being deeply involved in the project.

Executives must walk a managerial tightrope to actively motivate and to assist in providing resources, yet they must not be overbearing with direct guidance and must limit their tolerance for failures.

Involvement of key organizational actors such as top management and the link to project performance has attracted significant attention in research. However, nuanced empirical insights into the dyad of top management and project teams has so far been absent. The study’s findings detail the effect of technical and social drivers of top management involvement in new product development projects. Most notably, (1) the effect of motivation and stimulating a tolerant climate on performance, and (2) the effect of organic communication on top management involvement. Moreover, this study is unique in that it empirically examines TMI from both top management and team perspectives.

While the phenomenon of technostress has received significant attention from researchers in recent years, empirical findings concerning the consequences of specific forms of techno-stressors have remained scattered and contradictory. The authors aim to integrate the conclusions of previous studies to understand the effects of specific techno-stressors on strain and job performance.

This study employs meta-analytic techniques to calibrate the findings of 67 studies investigating more than 63,100 employees.

In general, not all techno-stressors have adverse effects. In particular, techno-uncertainty does not impact job performance. In addition, relative weight analyses reveal the relative importance of techno-complexity and techno-insecurity as predictors of both strain and job performance. Finally, this study finds that the effects of specific techno-stressors on job performance vary depending on research participants' gender, educational attainment and employment status.

First, this study provides a more nuanced view of the effects of specific techno-stressors. Second, this research clarifies the relative importance of specific techno-stressors as predictors of strain and job performance. Finally, this study reveals the moderating effects of demographic variables on the relationships between specific techno-stressors and job performance.

Internal gearings are commonly used in transmissions due to their advantages like high-power density. To ensure high efficiency, load-carrying capacity and good noise behavior, a profound knowledge of the local gear mesh is essential. The tooth contact of internal gears relates to a convex and concave surface that form a conformal contact. This is in contrast to external gears, where two convex surfaces form a contraformal contact. This paper aims at a better understanding of conformal contacts under elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) to improve the design of internal gearings.

An existing numerical EHL model is used for studying the characteristic properties of a hard conformal EHL line contact. A hard contraformal EHL line contact is studied as reference. Non-Newtonian fluid behavior and thermal effects are considered. By taking into account the local contact conformity and kinematics, the effects and relevance of the curvature of the lubricant gap and micro-slip are analyzed. In a parameter study, scale effects of the contact radii on film thickness, temperature rise and friction are examined.

The curvature of the lubricant gap and effects of micro-slip are small in hard conformal EHL line contacts. For high micro-slip, it can be neglected. Hence, the modeling of conformal contacts using an equivalent geometry of the contact problem is reasonable. The parameter study shows beneficial tribological aspects of the conformal contact compared to the contraformal contact. Higher film thickness and lower fluid coefficient of friction are observed for conformal contacts, which can be attributed to lower pressures for the case of the same external normal force, or to a higher contact temperature rise for the case of equivalent contact pressure.

Despite its widespread existence, the local geometry and kinematics in hard conformal EHL line contacts like in internal gearings have been rarely studied. The findings help for a better understanding of local contact characteristics and its relevance. The quantified scale effects help to improve the efficiency and load-carrying capacity of machine elements with hard conformal EHL contacts, like internal gearings.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/ILT-12-2022-0366/

Consumer behavior has evolved because of technological development. Nowadays, consumers carry out the different stages of the decision-making process by combining multiple devices which has been defined as multi, cross and omnichannel behavior. These behaviors have attracted the attention of academics and become a hot topic in literature. As a result, vast amounts of studies on the subject need to be revised and clarified. Thus, the aim of this chapter is to synthetize the primary academic literature that analyzes multi, cross and omnichannel behavior from the consumer point of view. To do that, first, the main concepts (multi, cross and omnichannel) and their differences are clarified. Second, the major findings of channel mix literature regarding the topics, channel scope and theories are exposed and described. Third, the opportunities and future lines of research are presented. This chapter contributes to the literature by clarifying the conceptualization of multi, cross and omnichannel behaviors; offering a complete picture of the main topics, channel approaches and theories addressed in channel mix literature; and presenting future research opportunities and open research questions in a channel mix context that could serve as a starting point to build further research.