Search results

1 – 10 of over 60000
Article
Publication date: 14 July 2020

Anna Karin Olsson, Iréne Bernhard, Tobias Arvemo and Ulrika Lundh Snis

The purpose is to develop a work-integrated learning (WIL) model for university-society research collaboration facilitating societal impact toward short lag yet sustainable…

1014

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose is to develop a work-integrated learning (WIL) model for university-society research collaboration facilitating societal impact toward short lag yet sustainable societal impact for local innovation.

Design/methodology/approach

The methodology applied was engaged scholarship based on a WIL approach involving a network of collaborating partners from different sectors of society and cross-disciplinary university researchers. Mixed data collection methods were applied.

Findings

Conceptualization of university-society research collaboration for local innovation is presented as a WIL model including the elements of continuity and commitment, coordination, communication and relationships, trust, courage and creativity and co-creation opportunities. Short lag societal impact as local innovation was identified as product and process innovations.

Research limitations/implications

Further validation of the model is encouraged for the model to be viable in various contexts and to generate different kinds of societal impact.

Practical implications

The model may act as a governing tool for project management to facilitate co-creative and short lag societal impact for local innovation to ensure that engaged and learning activities are embedded in the collaborative process.

Social implications

The model has implications for inclusiveness and co-creation fostering transparency, respect and mutuality in university-society research collaboration and to equate both academic and practice knowledge.

Originality/value

The conclusions drawn support the understanding of a WIL approach practicing engaged scholarship in research collaborations. The main theoretical and practical contributions of the article are the conceptual model for university-society research collaboration generating short lag societal implications and local innovation.

Details

European Journal of Innovation Management, vol. 24 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1460-1060

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 21 November 2022

Ulrica Nylén

The purpose of this paper is to understand the dynamic and power-laden nature of universitysociety collaboration from the individual academic's point of view.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to understand the dynamic and power-laden nature of universitysociety collaboration from the individual academic's point of view.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper applies an autoethnographic approach in following a specific collaboration process through detailed fieldnotes and continuous reflections.

Findings

This research presents universitysociety collaboration as an emergent, volatile and fairly unpredictable process, involving a multitude of actors on both sides. The interactions among actors shape the emerging process and power relationships. The academic's situation could be understood in terms of multiple and shifting subject positions that could be embraced, accepted, resisted or surrendered to by the academic.

Practical implications

These findings may help academics with own experiences of collaboration to shed light on their observations. Novice academics, interested in collaborating with society, should be aware of the possibility of tensions and exercise of power in interactions with societal actors. When setting up collaboration agreements, academic and societal actors are advised to openly discuss potential problems and how to handle those.

Originality/value

This unique, in-depth testimony of a single collaboration process from the individual academic's point of view uncovers previously unobserved dynamic and political attributes of the process.

Details

Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management: An International Journal, vol. 17 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1746-5648

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 24 July 2023

Irene Bernhard and Anna Karin Olsson

The purpose of this study is to explore the benefits and barriers for learning in industrial PhD education through the perspectives of industrial PhD students. A work-integrated…

1018

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to explore the benefits and barriers for learning in industrial PhD education through the perspectives of industrial PhD students. A work-integrated learning (WIL) approach is applied to highlight key issues that university and industry need to consider promoting mutual learning.

Design/methodology/approach

The empirical context is a Swedish university profiling WIL offering PhD programs in three disciplines for industrial PhD students from both the private and public sectors. Data was gathered using qualitative methods; 19 semistructured interviews with industrial PhD students.

Findings

Findings show that industrial PhD students are developing practical and transferable skills, hence, contributing to research of interest for academia and work–life. Identified benefits for learning include proximity and access to data, project and networks and contextual understanding and tacit knowledge. Barriers for learning are the perceived limited understanding of employers, the dilemma of balancing and switching between different roles, lack of belonging and identity, deficient collaboration agreements and ethical dilemmas.

Research limitations/implications

Contributes insights into an industrial PhD education transforming along with societal needs promoting a future workforce of researchers with skills, new work practices and learning capabilities applicable in the work–life of contemporary society.

Originality/value

This study contributes to the emerging field of studies of alternative doctoral educations by identifying benefits and barriers for learning and providing recommendations for how university and industry may promote learning in a resilient industrial PhD education collaboration.

Details

Journal of Workplace Learning, vol. 35 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1366-5626

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 19 June 2020

Ajibola Anthony Akanji

The phenomenon of globalization is a popular and controversial issue that has many facets. According to Lee and Vivarelli 2006), most conversations around globalization tend to…

Abstract

The phenomenon of globalization is a popular and controversial issue that has many facets. According to Lee and Vivarelli 2006), most conversations around globalization tend to describe it in terms of increase in trade and liberalization policies and reduction in transportation costs and technology transfer. Heine and Thakur (2011) opine on globalization as follows:

Many regard globalization as both a desirable and an irreversible engine of commerce that will underpin growing prosperity and a higher standard of living throughout the world. Others recoil from it as the soft underbelly of corporate imperialism that plunders and profiteers on the basis of unrestrained consumerism. (p. 2)

Many regard globalization as both a desirable and an irreversible engine of commerce that will underpin growing prosperity and a higher standard of living throughout the world. Others recoil from it as the soft underbelly of corporate imperialism that plunders and profiteers on the basis of unrestrained consumerism. (p. 2)

The Brundtland Report (1987) was put together in response to agitations over such loses/discontents. This report gave birth to what unarguably is the most popular concept in sustainable development. The Report features the integration of the concerns about strands of development as experienced and as projected across divides, as well as concerns about their interrelationship, and effects on people and the environment. It seeks to reconcile the future with current developments. The recommendations of the report in the end materialized into the millennium development goals (MDGs) in January 2000, which in turn metamorphosed into the sustainable development goals (SDGs) in January 2016. The bulk of the SDGs are to be achieved in the global-south as countries within this categorization including Nigeria have more to do within their territories in order to ensure its actualization. One of the major challenges facing the SDGs in Nigeria is institutionalizing mobilization for the actualization of the goals. Against this backdrop, the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) was launched to bring on board academic institutions, civil societies, non-governmental organizations, and businesses, and mobilize their activities into fewer but more efficient units.

This chapter contextually explores the purpose and roles of the SDSN in Nigeria, and conceptualizes how it will play out for both sustainable development and qualitative participation in globalization. It identified and explored the interface between the three variables of universities: cooperativism, cooperatives, cooperation, and solidarity economics; communities as integral to the actualization of the SDGs; and proportionate participation in globalization. Deficiencies were identified, and remedial actions proffered.

Details

University Partnerships for Sustainable Development
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78973-643-4

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 4 December 2023

Bengi Ertuna, Maria D. Alvarez and Burcin Kalabay Hatipoglu

This chapter examines the role of higher education institutions (HEIs) as partners in multi-stakeholder initiatives to implement sustainable development goals (SDGs) in tourism…

Abstract

This chapter examines the role of higher education institutions (HEIs) as partners in multi-stakeholder initiatives to implement sustainable development goals (SDGs) in tourism. Accordingly, the study describes the actions and leadership of the HEIs, explaining how they engage with diverse stakeholders to enable transformative change at various levels. A conceptual model is proposed and used to evaluate the 12 case studies identified by a systematic literature search. The results generate insights into the actions of the HEIs in terms of modes of partnership and their commitment. The cases document the diversity of roles assumed by HEIs for creating impact at different levels when integrating SDGs in tourism and paving the way for transformative change and sustainable development through tourism. The findings suggest a critical leadership role for HEIs through sense-making, interpretation of societal challenges, and alignment of stakeholders’ values and goals by facilitating multi-stakeholder consultations.

Details

Higher Education for the Sustainable Development Goals: Bridging the Global North and South
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80382-526-7

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 18 May 2023

Alba Viana-Lora and Marta Nel-lo-Andreu

This paper aims to analyse Barcelona City Council's tourism policy documents to detect how, through the influence of research, different pathways are produced to achieve social…

36568

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to analyse Barcelona City Council's tourism policy documents to detect how, through the influence of research, different pathways are produced to achieve social impact.

Design/methodology/approach

Using the case study approach, a qualitative content analysis is applied to review 31 tourism policy documents of Barcelona City Council.

Findings

The results show that the influence of tourism research on Barcelona City Council's policy documents occurs through the following pathways that drive potential social impact: the development of shared research programmes, joint projects, the creation of information exchange platforms, support for academia, the creation of debates, the founding of institutes, the referencing of scientific articles and studies commissioned directly by the City Council from higher education bodies for implementation in the city.

Originality/value

The originality of this paper is to highlight the social relevance of research and to contribute to raising awareness among researchers. The social impact of research is an under-explored topic in the field of tourism. Moreover, there is little research that conducts this analysis through policy documents.

Details

International Journal of Tourism Cities, vol. 9 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2056-5607

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 23 June 2022

Lorena del Carmen Álvarez-Castañón

The chapter analyzed the knowledge transfer processes of the Latin American academy to the actors in its environment, and the Science, Technology, and Innovation policy that…

Abstract

The chapter analyzed the knowledge transfer processes of the Latin American academy to the actors in its environment, and the Science, Technology, and Innovation policy that facilitates or inhibits the processes of generation and use of this university knowledge. The cases of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico were analyzed to understand the practice of the university knowledge transfer model at different levels – strategic, organizational, and operational – and the complexities involved in the process. It was evidenced by the urgent demand for the transformation of the Latin American University through sustainability and digitalization approaches to be a catalyst for development in the region. The chapter closes with a critical analysis of the phenomenon, future lines of research, and implications of the praxis.

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 25 February 2021

Ulrika Lundh Snis, Anna Karin Olsson and Iréne Bernhard

Within the ongoing digitalization of society and dimensions of integration, equality, citizen needs, sustainability and quality of life are of increasing importance as driving…

3935

Abstract

Purpose

Within the ongoing digitalization of society and dimensions of integration, equality, citizen needs, sustainability and quality of life are of increasing importance as driving forces for cities to become smart. The purpose of this paper is to examine participatory management challenges in becoming a smart old town in the context of cultural heritage.

Design/methodology/approach

An explorative approach was applied on a qualitative single case study including in-depth interviews with 21 stakeholders representing local entrepreneurs, nonprofit organizations, the municipality, politicians, tourism organization and residents of an old town district in a Norwegian city. Additionally, participatory observations and document studies were performed. Findings were continuously validated with the respondents.

Findings

The present study contributes with stakeholder views on challenges arising from the development of a smart old town and suggests possible innovative solutions for participatory management. The transformation of a city with cultural heritage into a smart city require efforts that go beyond smart ICT implementations into issues of social sustainability.

Research limitations/implications

The study brings forward the opportunities that lie in the dynamics of interaction between the spirit of cultural heritage and the body of participatory management. It con-tributes by responding to calls for further research to deepen the insights into stakeholder inclusion in cultural heritage-based city transformation. This explorative study has its limitations as it is based on one qualitative single case.

Practical implications

Participatory management insights and recommendations for smart city transformation are provided.

Social implications

The study addresses socially sustainable outcomes to create democratic conditions that promote inclusion and community building by understanding what people need and expect from the place where they live and work.

Originality/value

This study is positioned as unique in terms of its complex nature of transforming an old town to become a smart old town based on cultural heritage and an open and coordinated inclusion of stakeholders. Smartness in context of city transformation is revealed in many dimensions ranging from technology-driven to more participant-driven.

Details

Journal of Cultural Heritage Management and Sustainable Development, vol. 11 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2044-1266

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 12 April 2024

Kristina M. Eriksson, Anna Karin Olsson and Linnéa Carlsson

Both technological and human-centric perspectives need to be acknowledged when combining lean production practices and Industry 4.0 (I4.0) technologies. This study aims to explore…

Abstract

Purpose

Both technological and human-centric perspectives need to be acknowledged when combining lean production practices and Industry 4.0 (I4.0) technologies. This study aims to explore and explain how lean production practices and I4.0 technologies may coexist to enhance the human-centric perspective of manufacturing operations in the era of Industry 5.0 (I5.0).

Design/methodology/approach

The research approach is an explorative and longitudinal case study. The qualitative data collection encompasses respondents from different job functions and organizational levels to cover the entire organization. In total, 18 interviews with 19 interviewees and five focus groups with a total of 25 participants are included.

Findings

Identified challenges bring forth that manufacturing organizations must have the ability to see beyond lean production philosophy and I4.0 to meet the demand for a human-centric perspective in socially sustainable manufacturing in the era of Industry 5.0.

Practical implications

The study suggests that while lean production practices and I4.0 practices may be considered separately, they need to be integrated as complementary approaches. This underscores the complexity of managing simultaneous organizational changes and new digital initiatives.

Social implications

The research presented illuminates the elusive phenomena comprising the combined aspects of a human-centric perspective, specifically bringing forth implications for the co-existence of lean production practices and I4.0 technologies, in the transformation towards I5.0.

Originality/value

The study contributes to new avenues of research within the field of socially sustainable manufacturing. The study provides an in-depth analysis of the human-centric perspective when transforming organizations towards Industry 5.0.

Details

Technological Sustainability, vol. 3 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2754-1312

Keywords

Content available

Abstract

Details

Journal of Workplace Learning, vol. 35 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1366-5626

1 – 10 of over 60000