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The effectiveness of a message and its attributes have become important for digital media. This study aims to investigate how different elements of a website including both argument-oriented and emotional stimuli based on the elaboration likelihood model (ELM) can affect the issue involvement and change the attitude of the website visitors of a healthcare service provider.

The Ministry of Health and Education (MOHME) website was selected to explore how its content and design can persuade visitors. An online survey was conducted on 355 adults engaging in health protection behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis showed that one design element, i.e. website navigation and one social cue, i.e. social connectedness, have positive impact on issue involvement, while social presence and website satisfaction have a negative effect on issue involvement because of the random fluctuation suppressor effect. In addition, prior knowledge significantly influenced the issue's involvement. Further, website satisfaction has impacted attitudes directly. There was no significant relationship between argument quality and issue involvement.

Previous works have studied health-related behaviors in offline contexts; however, the scholars have not focused on the individuals' persuasion using ELM regarding the healthcare services provided in online communities. The results of the current study have theoretical and practical implications for scholars, website designers and policymakers.

Designing digital artifacts is not a linear, straightforward process. This is particularly true when applying a user-centered design approach, or co-design, with users who are unable to participate in the design process. Although the reduced participation of a particular user group may harm the end result, the literature on solving this issue is sparse. In this article, proxy design is outlined as a method for involving a user group as proxy users to speak on behalf of a group that is difficult to reach. The article investigates the following research question: How can roleplaying be embedded in co-design to engage users as proxies on behalf of those who are unable to represent themselves?

The article presents a design ethnography spanning three years at a cancer rehabilitation clinic, where digital artifacts were designed to be used collaboratively by nurses and patients. The empirical data were analyzed using content analysis and consisted of 20 observation days at the clinic, six proxy design workshops, 21 telephone consultations between patients and nurses, and log data from the digital artifact.

The article shows that simulated consultations, with nurses roleplaying as proxies for patients ignited and initiated the design process and enabled an efficient in-depth understanding of patients. Moreover, the article reveals how proxy design as a method further expanded the design. The study findings illustrate: (1) proxy design as a method for initiating design, (2) proxy design as an embedded element in co-design and (3) six design guidelines that should be considered when engaging in proxy design.

The main contribution is the conceptualization of proxy design as a method that can ignite and initiate the co-design process when important users are unreachable, vulnerable or unable to represent themselves in the co-design process. More specifically, based on the empirical findings from a design ethnography that involved nurses as proxy users speaking on behalf of patients, the article shows that roleplaying in proxy design is a fitting way of initiating the design process, outlining proxy design as an embedded element of co-design.

Video game streaming (VGS) is emerging as an extremely popular, highly interactive, inordinately subscribed and very dynamic form of digital media. Incorporated environmental elements, gratifications and user pre-existing attitudes in VGS, this paper presents the development of an extended model of uses and gratification theory (EUGT) for predicting users' behavior in novel technological context.

The proposed model was empirically tested in VGS context due to its popularity, interactivity and relevance. Data collected from 308 VGS users and structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to assess the hypotheses. Multi-model comparison technique was used to assess the explanatory power of EUGT.

The findings confirmed three significant types elements in determining VGS viewers' engagement, including gratifications (e.g. involvement), environmental cues (e.g. medium appeal) and user predispositions (e.g. pre-existing attitudes). The results revealed that emerging technologies provide potential opportunities for new motives and gratifications, and highlighted the significant of pre-existing attitudes as a mediator in the gratification-uses link.

This study is one of its kind in tackling the criticism on UGT of considering media users too rational or active. The study achieved this objective by considering environmental impacts on user behavior which is largely ignored in recent UGT studies. Also, by incorporating users pre-existing attitudes into UGT framework, this study conceptualized and empirically verified the higher explanatory power of EUGT through a novel multi-modal approach in VGS. Compared to other rival models, EUGS provides a more robust explanation of users' behavior. The findings contribute to the literature of UGT, VGS and users' engagement.

Developing green innovative services is critical to the restaurant industry to achieve significant benefits as well as environmental sustainability. This study aims to explore the mechanisms through which employees’ green involvement can foster green service innovation behavior.

The data set garnered from employees who worked in restaurants was used to test these mechanisms. A partial least square technique was conducted on this data set.

The results revealed the employees’ green involvement significantly influences their green service innovation intention, which subsequently influences their green service innovation behavior. Furthermore, information technology (IT) adoption was found to fortify the linkage of employee green involvement with green service innovation intention.

The results suggest to the restaurant industry that awareness of green service innovation and IT adoption practices can help restaurants to develop effective sustainability work practices and meet societal expectations.

This study extends the restaurant management literature by linking the green involvement of restaurant employees to green service innovation intention as well as identifying the moderating role of IT adoption underlying this link.

The study is positioned at the crossroads of transformative social marketing and social innovation literature through the lens of participatory design (PD). This exploratory study aims to explore how social enterprises in India engage economically marginalized people in transformative social marketing and innovation for sustainable development through PD.

The study includes a case study with a matched pairs analysis approach. The data analysis reports three themes depicting the role of PD in different stages of the social innovation process (codiscovery, codesign and scaling-up), the challenges faced in the process and the outcomes of the PD process.

The authors propose that social enterprises can act as sustainable development catalysts for more inclusive sustainable development through their proactive and creative uses of PD. Still, PD also has limitations for addressing the challenges stemming from marginalized contexts, which requires effective social marketing strategies to overcome.

The study contributes to the emerging dialogue on PD with marginalized users and widens the scope of studies on transformative social marketing and innovation. The findings also provide practical insights for PD practitioners on how designers can learn from diverse PD practices in the context of economically marginalized people.

This article expands literature on user innovation by exploring the mechanisms that support user innovations in the context of a public organisation. Research has hitherto documented support mechanisms for user innovation in producer companies, where users contribute in early or temporary innovation phases as external non-employees or lead-users engaged by the producer. Complementarily, this paper explores a lesser known area of support mechanisms, those that support internal user innovations in a public sector setting.

Employing a qualitative study of a Norwegian public hospital at the interface between users (personnel and patients) and organisational support (facilitators who orchestrate user innovations), this article analyses in-house user innovation based on observations, text documentation and interviews over a four-year period.

In this public hospital, holistic organisational facilitation of “public user innovators” formed the key support mechanism built on “people” (facilitating co-creation), “process” (facilitating ideas, project realisation and implementation) and “coordination” (facilitating systems and communication). The findings show that public and producer organisational mechanisms both resemble and differ in many respects, as illustrated by the framework developed to describe these characteristics, such as that producers insource users, while the public organisation outsources production.

The originality of the article lies in the identification and description of “public user innovation”, a new term developed from this study of a public organisation in contrast to the dominant literature on producer companies. This article contributes new insights by differentiating the roles of user innovators and the mechanisms that support such innovations. New implications are drawn from the public side of organisational support in user innovation research.

In 2014, the Health Service Executive (HSE) in Ireland published its Safeguarding National Policy and Procedures (HSE, 2014). Under this policy, all agencies providing services through the social care directorate must ensure a robust culture of safeguarding is in place. Concurrent to this has been a move in social policy, practice and research to include the voice of the service user, both in terms of planning and reviewing services. (e.g. HIQA, 2012; Flanagan, 2020) This article examines whether service users with intellectual disabilities want to be involved in safeguarding plans and, if so, how that can be supported. Using focus groups service users demonstrated their knowledge of safeguarding as a concept, how they felt about the issues raised, and, crucially what they felt they would like to see happen next in addressing a safeguarding incident or concern. The focus groups took place in a large organisation providing residential services, day services, independent living supports and clinical supports. Engaging service users in planning and responding to safeguarding concerns is a fundamental principle of human rights legislation, both nationally and internationally. This study aims to highlight that it is both possible and desirable to engage fully with service users using a range of simple communication tools. For this to be implemented as routine practice in services providing support for people with intellectual disabilities, authentic leadership is required. Services will need to devote time, human resources and will need champions to get on board with the necessary culture shift.

Qualitative research examined peoples’ “lived experiences” and knowledge of safeguarding. Focus groups were used with thematic analysis highlighting common themes throughout, as guided by Braun and Clarke (2006). There were two objectives: Objective 1: measuring participant’s understanding of the safeguarding process. Objective 2: compare the potential differences between safeguarding plans devised by the participants in the focus groups, versus plans devised by trained designated officers responsible for safeguarding within the service.

Four principal themes emerged – 1. participants understanding of safeguarding; 2. restorative justice; 3. consent; and 4. high levels of emotional intelligence and compassion. Participants demonstrated that they could and did want to be involved in safeguarding planning and showed little variation in the plans compared to those completed by trained staff.

The study was completed with a small sample size in a single service in one area. It may not represent the lived experiences and knowledge of safeguarding in other services and indeed other countries. The video may have led to some priming; for instance, the Gardai in the footage being called may have resulted in the participants stating that contacting Gardai should be part of the plan. After the video was shown, there was a heightened awareness of safeguarding. This may indicate that participants are aware of safeguarding but unsure of the terminology or how to discuss it out of context.

For this to be implemented as routine practice in services providing support for people with intellectual disabilities, authentic leadership is required. Services will need to devote time and human resources and will need champions in the safeguarding arena to get on board with the shift in culture required.

While there did not appear to be many barriers to listening to participants, to progress this as a standard practice a very real shift in culture will be needed. It is important for practitioners to ask: Is the vulnerable person aware that this concern has been raised? What is known of the vulnerable person’s wishes in relation to the concern? To truly engage with service users in safeguarding plans these questions need to be more than a “tick box” exercise. This process needs to be fully embedded into a culture that promotes a person-centred, rights-based, inclusive approach as a standard rather than a one-off project. Some structural changes will be needed regarding the time given to designated officers, and what resources they can access (such as speech and language therapy). However, the real difference will be made by services operating authentic leadership that champions engagement on this scale, to fully answer the question posed by the researchers at the beginning of this report, “Whose safeguarding is it anyway?”

There appears to be little evidence of service user engagement in terms of planning and processing safeguarding responses, either in research or anecdotally.

This study aims to investigate how living lab (LL) activities align with responsible research and innovation (RRI) principles, particularly in artificial intelligence (AI)-driven digital transformation (DT) processes. The study seeks to define a framework termed “responsible living lab” (RLL), emphasizing transparency, stakeholder engagement, ethics and sustainability. This emerging issue paper also proposes several directions for future researchers in the field.

The research methodology involved a literature review complemented by insights from a workshop on defining RLLs. The literature review followed a concept-centric approach, searching key journals and conferences, yielding 32 relevant articles. Backward and forward citation analysis added 19 more articles. The workshop, conducted in the context of UrbanTestbeds.JR and SynAir-G projects, used a reverse brainstorming approach to explore potential ethical and responsible issues in LL activities. In total, 13 experts engaged in collaborative discussions, highlighting insights into AI’s role in promoting RRI within LL activities. The workshop facilitated knowledge sharing and a deeper understanding of RLL, particularly in the context of DT and AI.

This emerging issue paper highlights ethical considerations in LL activities, emphasizing user voluntariness, user interests and unintended participation. AI in DT introduces challenges like bias, transparency and digital divide, necessitating responsible practices. Workshop insights underscore challenges: AI bias, data privacy and transparency; opportunities: inclusive decision-making and efficient innovation. The synthesis defines RLLs as frameworks ensuring transparency, stakeholder engagement, ethical considerations and sustainability in AI-driven DT within LLs. RLLs aim to align DT with ethical values, fostering inclusivity, responsible resource use and human rights protection.

The proposed definition of RLL introduces a framework prioritizing transparency, stakeholder engagement, ethics and sustainability in LL activities, particularly those involving AI for DT. This definition aligns LL practices with RRI, addressing ethical implications of AI. The value of RLL lies in promoting inclusive and sustainable innovation, prioritizing stakeholder needs, fostering collaboration and ensuring environmental and social responsibility throughout LL activities. This concept serves as a foundational step toward a more responsible and sustainable LL approach in the era of AI-driven technologies.

This study aims to investigate the engagement gap between Metaverse and in-person travel, the influence of Metaverse tourism on tourists and the industry and the challenges and responses associated with Metaverse technology. The study presents practical cases and highlights the implications of this research for practice, society and future research.

This study uses a literature review to explore concerns about Metaverse technology in tourism. It analyzes the difference between in-person travel and Metaverse tourism, the impact on tourists and the industry and challenges and responses to Metaverse. The review shows a rising trend in Metaverse tourism research.

These findings suggest differences between Metaverse tourism and in-person travel. By providing personalized travel options, social interaction, immersive experiences and soliciting visitor feedback, it is possible to enhance the tourist experience. Additionally, the study highlights the opportunities and challenges that Metaverse tourism presents to the tourism industry. The study provides practical cases in the tourism industry and implications for practice, society and future research.

The study’s implications for Metaverse tourism are practical, societal and future research-related. Metaverse technology can enhance the tourist experience through personalized options, social interaction, immersive experiences and feedback. This inclusivity can promote social equity and cultural exchange. Further research is needed to explore the social effects of Metaverse tourism and its long-term impacts on local communities, economies and the environment.

This study contributes by exploring the impact of Metaverse tourism, supporting academic research and practice. It fills a knowledge gap by analyzing the application of Metaverse technology in tourism, providing insights for researchers and practitioners. It offers practical guidance by identifying opportunities and challenges in Metaverse tourism, fostering industry innovation. Additionally, it informs policymakers about the impact of Metaverse tourism on development.

In recent years, crowdsourcing – an open and innovative model for outsourcing tasks to a crowd – has become popular for production processes, allowing organizations and firms in different industries to access external skills and expertise efficiently. Companies have opened their innovation processes to crowds outside their boundaries, and users and customers are often involved in developing products in line with market needs. This work aims to investigate the link between crowdsourcing, production and quality to better understand this new interesting phenomenon.

An explicit and systematic method for reviewing the literature was used. Through the selection and analysis of the relevant articles in the field, this paper presents a comprehensive overview of the pros and cons, risks and opportunities, disadvantages, or concerns, as addressed in the literature, for the adoption of crowdsourcing in the production processes.

It identifies where, how and to what extent crowdsourcing can be applied profitably within the production of products and services, highlighting how crowdsourcing could affect product and process quality. Finally, some directions for future research are outlined from the analysis conducted.

This work applied the systematic literature review to investigate and evaluate the actual use and impact of crowdsourcing on the production process, focusing on quality enhancement contribution.