Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly used within plant science, yet it is far from being routinely and effectively implemented in this domain. Particularly relevant to the development of novel food and agricultural technologies is the development of validated, meaningful and usable ways to integrate, compare and visualise large, multi-dimensional datasets from different sources and scientific approaches. After a brief summary of the reasons for the interest in data science and AI within plant science, the paper identifies and discusses eight key challenges in data management that must be addressed to further unlock the potential of AI in crop and agronomic research, and particularly the application of Machine Learning (AI) which holds much promise for this domain. 

Design representation is a common task in the design process to facilitate learning, analysis, redesign, communication, and other design activities. Traditional representation techniques rely on human expertize and manual construction and are difficult to repeat and scale. Here, we present a methodology that utilizes a readily available large-scale multidisciplinary design knowledge base (KB) to automatically generate design representation as a semantic network, i.e. a network of the entities and relations, based on design descriptions in textual form. The methodology requires no ad hoc statistics, but a readily available KB. Thus, the KB has an essential impact on the usefulness and effectiveness of the methodology. Based on a participatory study, we observe the effectiveness and differences of the semantic network representations that are automatically generated with alternative KBs. Specifically, a KB that is trained on engineering-related data, TechNet, provides a more sensible representation of engineering design than commonsense KBs, WordNet and ConceptNet, to the participants who are engineers. We further discuss the implications of the findings and future research directions to enhance design representation as semantic networks. 

AbstractAcademics and practitioners have shown a growing interest in automobile reverse supply chain (RSC) management as a result of the rise of circular economy and the development of Industry 4.0. Accurate quantity prediction enhances the efficiency of all decision levels in automobile RSC, not only the recovery of end-of-life vehicles (ELVs). Therefore, a comprehensive state-of-the-art review, evaluating ELVs quantity forecasting methodologies and summarizing the main variables influencing forecasting outcomes, is conducted to throw shed light on future research directions. 

Digitally enhanced advanced services (DEAS), offered currently by various industries, could be a challenging concept to comprehend for potential clients. This could result in limited interest in adopting (DEAS) or even understanding its true value with significant financial implications for the providers. Innovative ways to present and simplify complex information are provided by serious games and gamification, which simplify and engage users with intricate information in an enjoyable manner. Despite the use of serious games and gamification in other areas, only a few examples have been documented to convey servitization offers. This research explores the design and development of a serious game for the Howden Group, a real-world industry partner aiming to simplify and convey existing service agreement packages. The system was developed under the consultation of a focus group comprising five members of the industrial partner. The final system was evaluated by 30 participants from engineering and servitization disciplines who volunteered to test online the proposed system and discuss their user experience (UX) and future application requirements. The analysis of users’ feedback presented encouraging results, with 90% confirming that they understood the DEAS concept and offers. To conclude, the paper presents a tentative plan for future work which will address the issues highlighted by users’ feedback and enhance the positive aspects of similar applications. 

Abstract
Although employees are an important means of detecting and preventing misconducts through whistleblowing, many witnesses choose to remain silent. One reason to remain silent is the discomfort of reporting a colleague. Intuitively, employees should be less likely to report a close or trusted colleague, but a previous review suggests that the opposite may actually be true. However, later studies have shown mixed effects of social closeness on whistleblowing. To gain a better understanding of how social closeness affects whistleblowing, we meta-analyzed 22 experimental studies on intentions to blow the whistle. Overall, the studies show no effect of social closeness on whistleblowing intentions, d =  − 0.21, p = .05. However, when separating the studies by type of closeness, we find that psychological closeness has a negative effect, d =  − 0.46, p < .001, while hierarchical closeness has a positive effect, d = .34, p < .001 on whistleblowing intentions. This means that employees are most likely to report misconduct if the perpetrator is at the same hierarchical level in the organization and not a close or trusted friend. Since close psychological bonds are more likely to develop between employees at the same hierarchical level, the two types of closeness may counteract each other. This dilemma could be part of the explanation why so many witnesses choose to remain silent. 

There are many facets to creativity, and the topic has a profound impact on society. Substantial and sustained study on creativity has been undertaken, and much is now known about the fundamentals and how creativity can be augmented. To draw these elements together, a framework was developed called the creativity diamond, formulated on the basis of reviews of prior work, as well as the consideration of 20 PhD studies on the topics of creativity, design, innovation, and product development. The framework embodies the principles that quantity of ideas breeds quality through selection, and that a range of creativity tools can provoke additional ideas to augment our innate creativity. The creativity diamond proposed is a tool consisting of a divergent phase associated with the development of many distinctive ideas and a convergent phase associated with the refinement of ideas. The creativity diamond framework can be used to prompt and help select which tool or approach to use in a creative environment for innovative tasks. The framework has now been used by many students and professionals in diverse contexts. 

Abstract266 fuzzy front-end (FFE) studies in the new product development (NPD) sector were examined. The studies were selected using a bibliometrics method, and chronologically and statistically examined with ten criteria divided into two dimensions. The first dimension is associated with overall attributes of the FFE, consisting of six criteria: the study taxonomy, model type, NPD speed, NPD attributes, model characteristic, and model structure. The second dimension is relevant to the FFE performance structure related to process parameters, comprised of four criteria: the FFE task, activity, performance method, and toolkit. In terms of those two dimensions, the paper looks at previous FFE studies to gain an understanding of features of each FFE study along with related knowledge and theories, as well as identification of evolution trends of FFE studies. Based on the identification, an FFE model development strategy for each criterion is formulated, and this paper proposes possible options for executing those strategies which exert influence on the form of the cluster network. The intention is for the database to be utilised as an overview of all existing FFE studies and allow specific FFE studies to be selected to examine FFE approaches.This paper provides FFE model development guidance on how to deal with the overall attributes and outcomes of the FFE which affect the entirety of the innovation process, and how to manage the performance structure related to process parameters. 

Consideration of sustainability in product development is becoming increasingly important and encompasses many aspects of product design. In this study, a bibliometric review of recent sustainable product design publications using Web of Science and VOSViewer is carried out. The review indicates that the majority of publications concerning sustainable product design is oriented towards environmental science-led subject areas and production-led journals. Analysis of author keyword co-occurrences reveals that circular economy, life cycle assessment, sustainable management, and optimization are the most popular topics in sustainable product design research. The analysis also reveals that the researchers fail to link sustainability research to activities in product design, which leads to the lack of access to relevant research that can make products more sustainable. Building on the findings, the authors propose four future research directions that aim to guide researchers to better correlate sustainability with product design, namely: sustainability interpretation, integration, assessment and validation, and improvement. 

AbstractCreativity is crucial in design. In recent years, growing computational methods are applied to improve the creativity of design. This paper aims to explore an approach to generate creative design images with specific feature or design style. A Generative Adversarial Network model is applied in the approach to learn the specific design style. The target products will be projected into the latent space of model to transfer their styles and generate images. The generated images combine the features of the specific design style and the features of the target product. In the experiment, the approach using the generated images to inspire the human designer to generate the creative design in according styles. According to the primary verification by participants, the generated images can bring novelty and surprise to participants, which gain the positive impact on human creativity. 

AbstractThis paper asked participants to assess four selected expert-rated Taiwan International Student Design Competition (TISDC) products using four methods: Consensual Assessment Technique (CAT), Creative Product Semantic Scale (CPSS), Product Creativity Measurement Instrument (PCMI), and revised Creative Solution Diagnosis Scale (rCSDS). The results revealed that, between experts and non-experts, the ranking results by the CAT and CPSS were the same, while the ranking results of the rCSDS were different. The CAT, CPSS, and TISDC methods provided the same results indicating that raters may return the same results on creativity assessment, and the results are not affected by the selected methods.If it is necessary to use non-experts to assess creativity and the creativity results are expected to be the same with that of experts, asking non-expert raters to use CPSS to assess creativity and then ranking the creativity score is more reliable. The study offers a contribution to the creativity domain on deciding which methods may be more reliable from a comparison perspective. 

The delayed delivery, poor fitting and discomfort of customised orthoses are reported in rehabilitation clinics as resulting in more invasive interventions. The current practice of orthosis customisation relies heavily upon the experience and fabrication processes of therapists. In order to better understand the current practice, and thus identify data that is required for better comfort moving towards a data-driven customisation, this article describes a study generating working models of therapists. Customisations of hand and wrist orthoses for 18 patients were observed. Verbal protocol analysis was employed to extend the current understanding of fabrication processes. Working models of four therapists were established with quantitative evaluation on major phases, interactive activities and iterations of performing tasks during fabrication, revealing different working models between in- and out-patient departments (e.g. fabrication for in-patients was more complex and focussed on ergonomic fitting whereas fabrication for out-patients paid attention to durability) which were qualitatively explained. Practitioner summary: Fit and comfort are imperative for orthosis design and fabrication, however the current practice of customisation of an orthosis relies upon the experience of individual hand therapist. The article presents working models of hand therapists, and relevant data that would enable customisation of orthosis for better fit. Abbreviations: VPA: verbal protocol analysis; h&w: hand and wrist; LTT: low temperature thermoplastic; ANOVA: analysis of variance. 

AbstractCreativity is considered to have a significant impact on the design process and its outcomes, while aesthetics and functionality are considered key characteristics of products. A relationship between creativity, aesthetics and functionality is, therefore, often assumed, however, researchers view the relations between creativity, functionality and aesthetics differently. In this paper, the authors present first evidence that novelty, usefulness and surprise are the core elements of design creativity. The aim of this research is the exploration of the relations between functionality, aesthetics, novelty, usefulness, surprise, and overall creativity, by means of an experimental case study involving design experts evaluating forty-five design samples. Statistical analysis has been conducted to investigate and understand these relations. The results obtained indicate that aesthetics has a significant positive relationship with creativity but that functionality does not have a statistically significant relationship with creativity in general. Further analysis confirms that design creativity is strongly and positively related to novelty and surprise, but not significantly related to usefulness. In addition, high correlation coefficient values have revealed that creativity, novelty and surprise are perceived as the same dimension as are functionality and usefulness. This paper may be of interest to researchers, practitioners, and educators in the broader realm of design, including industrial design, creativity in design, engineering design, design innovation, product design and new product development. It provides new insights into how creativity is perceived within the field and offers a new point of view on creativity and its dimensions for the community to meditate and to debate. 

Purpose: the objective of this work is to empirically investigate the design of a service delivery system that supports the provision of modular service logistics offerings. Design/methodology/approach: an in-depth single-case study relying on interview data and extensive documentary evidence is carried out in the business-to-business (B2B) logistics sector. Three main analytical techniques are used to make sense of the qualitative data: thematic analysis, process mapping and the application of modular operators. Findings: a modular service delivery system comprises three types of processes that collectively deliver modular offerings. The platform consists of core processes that enable the collection, transport and delivery of physical items for all offerings (modular and non-modular). Dedicated modular processes are mandatory and exclusive to individual modular offerings. Optional modular processes are shared across several modular offerings. Interfaces regulate physical (e.g. parcels or parts) and information (e.g. booking data) inputs provided by the customer in order to control the interdependencies within these different process types. Practical implications: the identification of three process types and their interdependencies provides detailed insights into how managers can design modular logistics services that benefit from economies of scale and meet increasingly variable customer requirements. The importance of well-designed interfaces among the customers, the service offering and the service delivery system is highlighted. Originality/value: This study extends previous modularity studies in service logistics. It is the first study to apply modular operators to determine the presence of modularity in the service delivery system and to establish the role of different process types in enabling modularity in the service delivery system. 

AbstractCreativity is required in engineering design. It is required in the aspects of problem-solving - conceptualizing a new solution to a problem, and problem-exploring - conceptualizing a new problem. Studies show that, in both aspects, creativity is a difficult task in practice. The aim of this study is to support the engineering design community by easing the difficulty in the problem-exploring practice. To achieve this, a computational problem-exploring (CPE) model is developed to mimic how design engineers identify a valid design problem. Consequently, a CPE tool - Pro-Explora V1 is developed based on the CPE model. The CPE model consists of a synergy of emergent computational technologies including data retrieval and machine learning. A Markovian model is employed in the CPE model to enable a data-driven random process for exploring design problems. In pilot test, Pro-Explora V1 generated some engineering design-related problems which are meaningful, unique, and could not be distinguished from naturally generated ones. It provides support to design engineers in problem-exploring at the early stage in engineering design. This study contributes to the global effort towards data-driven processes in the fourth industrial revolution. 

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly used within plant science, yet it is far from being routinely and effectively implemented in this domain. Particularly relevant to the development of novel food and agricultural technologies is the development of validated, meaningful and usable ways to integrate, compare and visualise large, multi-dimensional datasets from different sources and scientific approaches. After a brief summary of the reasons for the interest in data science and AI within plant science, the paper identifies and discusses eight key challenges in data management that must be addressed to further unlock the potential of AI in crop and agronomic research, and particularly the application of Machine Learning (AI) which holds much promise for this domain. 

AbstractCreativity is a significant element in design education, and frequently a significant competency during recruitment for design professions. Group work and individual work are widely employed in higher education. Many studies have highlighted the merits of employing group work in design education, cultivating collaborative design abilities and fostering sought-after employability skills. Although the benefits of group work in design practice and education are widely recognised, few studies have shown evidence that group work outperforms individual work regarding creative design activities in higher education contexts. Therefore, the aim of this research is to explore whether group or individual work is more beneficial for fostering students in generating creative designs in STEM design education. A case study, involving two cohorts of second-year undergraduate students studying a UK Engineering degree Industrial Design programme, is reported. The case study compares the design outputs produced by the two cohorts tackling the same design challenge in a product design module but employing individual and group work, respectively. The case study results show that no significant differences have been found between the design outputs produced by group work and individual work, considering novelty, usefulness and overall creativity. Further analysis reveals that a student’s academic performance is not significantly related to the level of creativity of the design produced. This research indicates design educators should employ both group and individual work to complement each other in design education, and suggests potential solutions to enhance students’ design creativity. 

Although products can contribute to ecosystems positively, they can cause negative environmental impacts throughout their life cycles, from obtaining raw material, production, and use, to end of life. It is reported that most negative environmental impacts are decided at early design phases, which suggests that the determination of product sustainability should be considered as early as possible, such as during the conceptual design stage, when it is still possible to modify the design concept. However, most of the existing concept evaluation methods or tools are focused on assessing the feasibility or creativity of the concepts generated, lacking the measurements of sustainability of concepts. The paper explores key factors related to sustainable design with regard to environmental impacts, and describes a set of objective measures of sustainable product design concept evaluation, namely, material, production, use, and end of life. The rationales of the four metrics are discussed, with corresponding measurements. A case study is conducted to demonstrate the use and effectiveness of the metrics for evaluating product design concepts. The paper is the first study to explore the measurement of product design sustainability focusing on the conceptual design stage. It can be used as a guideline to measure the level of sustainability of product design concepts to support designers in developing sustainable products. Most significantly, it urges the considerations of sustainability design aspects at early design phases, and also provides a new research direction in concept evaluation regarding sustainability. 

AbstractThere have been growing uses of semantic networks in the past decade, such as leveraging large-scale pre-trained graph knowledge databases for various natural language processing (NLP) tasks in engineering design research. Therefore, the paper provides a survey of the research that has employed semantic networks in the engineering design research community. The survey reveals that engineering design researchers have primarily relied on WordNet, ConceptNet, and other common-sense semantic network databases trained on non-engineering data sources to develop methods or tools for engineering design. Meanwhile, there are emerging efforts to mine large scale technical publication and patent databases to construct engineering-contextualized semantic network databases, e.g. B-Link and TechNet, to support NLP in engineering design. On this basis, we recommend future research directions for the construction and applications of engineering-related semantic networks in engineering design research and practice. 

Abstract
. In the past two decades, there has been increasing use of semantic networks in engineering design for supporting various activities, such as knowledge extraction, prior art search, idea generation and evaluation. Leveraging large-scale pre-trained graph knowledge databases to support engineering design-related natural language processing (NLP) tasks has attracted a growing interest in the engineering design research community. Therefore, this paper aims to provide a survey of the state-of-the-art semantic networks for engineering design and propositions of future research to build and utilize large-scale semantic networks as knowledge bases to support engineering design research and practice. The survey shows that WordNet, ConceptNet and other semantic networks, which contain common-sense knowledge or are trained on non-engineering data sources, are primarily used by engineering design researchers to develop methods and tools. Meanwhile, there are emerging efforts in constructing engineering and technical-contextualized semantic network databases, such as B-Link and TechNet, through retrieving data from technical data sources and employing unsupervised machine learning approaches. On this basis, we recommend six strategic future research directions to advance the development and uses of large-scale semantic networks for artificial intelligence applications in engineering design. 

AbstractConceptual design, as an early phase of the design process, is known to have the highest impact on determining the innovation level of design results. Although many tools exist to support designers in conceptual design, additional knowledge, especially knowledge related to emerging technologies, is still often needed. In this paper the authors aim to propose a data-driven creative concept generation and evaluation approach to support designers in incorporating emerging technologies in the new product early development stage. The approach is demonstrated by means of an illustrated example. 

AbstractCombinational creativity can play a significant role in supporting designers to produce creative ideas during the early stages of new product development. This paper explores conceptual distances in combinational creativity from computational perspectives. A study conducted indicates that different computational measurements show different conceptual distance results. However, the study suggests far-related ideas could lead to outcomes that are more creative than closely-related ones. This paper provides useful insights into exploring future computational design support tools. 

AbstractCrowdfunding is the process of taking a project in need of investment and asking a large group of people to supply the investment. It allows organisations to sell their product before production, reducing the risk of new product development. Organisations such as Tesla and General Electric have used crowdfunding successfully but crowdfunding is yet to be explored as part of a formalised product development framework. This paper includes the business case for commercialising new products with crowdfunding and presents crowdfunding as part of a product development and commercialisation framework. 

Shared understanding is central to a design team's performance. While current literature describes general relationships between team interaction and the development of shared understanding, it is not known if or how dynamic patterns in team processes impact this. Using a comparative study, we describe dynamic process patterns that influence the relationship between collaborative design work and shared understanding development. We propose two major patterns that impact shared understanding development: taskwork-teamwork interdependency and inter-action heartbeat, and describe how what we term cross-level pattern alignment moderates their effect. We propose a conceptual model that integrates these insights and provides testable propositions. As such, this work has significant implications for both design researchers and practitioners. 

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to develop a risk prediction model identifying general practices at risk of workforce supply-demand imbalance. DESIGN: This is a secondary analysis of routine data on general practice workforce, patient experience and registered populations (2012 to 2016), combined with a census of general practitioners' (GPs') career intentions (2016). SETTING/PARTICIPANTS: a hybrid approach was used to develop a model to predict workforce supply-demand imbalance based on practice factors using historical data (2012-2016) on all general practices in England (with over 1000 registered patients n=6398). The model was applied to current data (2016) to explore future risk for practices in South West England (n=368). PRIMARY OUTCOME MEASURE: the primary outcome was a practice being in a state of workforce supply-demand imbalance operationally defined as being in the lowest third nationally of access scores according to the General Practice Patient Survey and the highest third nationally according to list size per full-time equivalent GP (weighted to the demographic distribution of registered patients and adjusted for deprivation). RESULTS: Based on historical data, the predictive model had fair to good discriminatory ability to predict which practices faced supply-demand imbalance (area under receiver operating characteristic curve=0.755). Predictions using current data suggested that, on average, practices at highest risk of future supply-demand imbalance are currently characterised by having larger patient lists, employing more nurses, serving more deprived and younger populations, and having considerably worse patient experience ratings when compared with other practices. Incorporating findings from a survey of GP's career intentions made little difference to predictions of future supply-demand risk status when compared with expected future workforce projections based only on routinely available data on GPs' gender and age. CONCLUSIONS: it is possible to make reasonable predictions of an individual general practice's future risk of undersupply of GP workforce with respect to its patient population. However, the predictions are inherently limited by the data available. 

AbstractCombinational creativity is a significant element of design in supporting designers to generate creative ideas during the early phases of design. There exists three driven approaches to combinational creativity: problem-, similarity- and inspiration-driven. This study provides further insights into the three combinational creativity driven approaches, exploring which approach could lead to ideas that are more creative in the context of practical product design. The results from a case study reveal that the problem- driven approach could lead to more creative and novel ideas or products compared with the similarity- and inspiration-driven approach. Products originating from the similarity- and inspiration-driven approach are at comparable levels. This study provides better understanding of combinational creativity in practical design. It also delivers benefits to designers in improving creative idea generation, and supports design researchers in exploring future ideation methods and design support tools employing the concept of 'combination'. 

AbstractCreativity is often said to play a vital role in the product design process, while functionality and aesthetics are considered key factors of actual products. Functionality refers to the performance of a product, and aesthetics represents the visual and ergonomic appeals of the product. However, there appears to be an elusive relation between creativity, functionality and aesthetics. This study explores how functionality, aesthetics and creativity are related to one another in design. Through exploring the definitions and assessments of creativity in design, this study reveals that novelty, usefulness and surprise are the three core elements of design creativity. A case study involving experts evaluating design samples in terms of novelty, usefulness, surprise, functionality, aesthetics and overall creativity is conducted. The results imply that there are no statistically significant relations between creativity, functionality, and aesthetics. Considering the three core elements of design creativity, the results indicate that creativity is only statistically significantly related to novelty. Moreover, our results suggest that creativity and novelty are measuring the same construct. 

Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), such as blockchain, has the potential to transform supply chains. It can provide a cryptographically secure and immutable record of transactions and associated metadata (origin, contracts, process steps, environmental variations, microbial records, etc.) linked across whole supply chains. The ability to trace food items within and along a supply chain is legally required by all actors within the chain. It is critical to food safety, underpins trust and global food trade. However, current food traceability systems are not linked between all actors within the supply chain. Key metadata on the age and process history of a food is rarely transferred when a product is bought and sold through multiple steps within the chain. Herein, we examine the potential of massively scalable DLT to securely link the entire food supply chain, from producer to end user. Under such a paradigm, should a food safety or quality issue ever arise, authorized end users could instantly and accurately trace the origin and history of any particular food item. This novel and unparalleled technology could help underpin trust for the safety of all food, a critical component of global food security. In this paper, we investigate the (i) data requirements to develop DLT technology across whole supply chains, (ii) key challenges and barriers to optimizing the complete system, and (iii) potential impacts on production efficiency, legal compliance, access to global food markets and the safety of food. Our conclusion is that while DLT has the potential to transform food systems, this can only be fully realized through the global development and agreement on suitable data standards and governance. In addition, key technical issues need to be resolved including challenges with DLT scalability, privacy and data architectures. 

There is a growing focus on achieving ‘openness’ in the design and transformation of organizations, in which the enabling role of ICTs is considered increasingly central. However, bureaucratic organizations with rigid structures continue to face significant challenges in moving towards more open forms of organizing. In this paper, we contribute to our understanding of these challenges by building on existing conceptualizations of openness as a form of boundary work that transforms by challenging both internal and external organizational boundaries. In particular, we draw on a performative view derived from actor-network theory to analyze a case study of ICT-based administrative reforms in a judicial system. Building on our case analysis, we develop a typology of the various roles that ICTs can play in both enabling and constraining ongoing boundary work within the context of their implementation. We thus present a view of ICT-enabled open organizing as a process where ICTs contribute to problematizing, shifting, and augmenting ongoing boundary work. This view highlights the inherently equivocal nature of the role of ICTs in transformations towards higher levels of openness. 

Departing from established research on entrepreneurship, design-based entrepreneurship places an explicit emphasis on the entrepreneurial process as evolutionary and emergent in which knowledge and understanding of an opportunity are acquired incrementally by means of design and evaluation of alternative solutions. This paper develops a use case of BioBeats Ltd. a UK-based university spin-off which has successfully managed to turn an opportunity in digital health into a commercially viable enterprise. Adopting a design-based paradigm, the company under study started by building a technical solution informed by a set of design principles which subsequently allowed the company to convert the socio-technical nature of the opportunity into technological artefacts that were further refined and tested by means of real-world experiments with third parties and citizens. 

AbstractVisual stimuli can be useful in supporting design ideation process. However, researchers still know very little about how stimuli should be delivered to designers during the early design stage. This question is crucial to the effective use of stimuli because previous researches have proved that ill-presented stimuli can have a negative impact on design creativity. Therefore, an empirical study was conducted with the aim of exploring if and how combinational pictorial stimuli can affect designers' creative performance. Results from a total of 36 participants show that the design outcomes presented by the group exposed to combinational pictorial stimuli were more creative than those given by the group exposed to no stimuli or randomly presented pictorial stimuli. These results imply that the form of stimuli delivery can affect creative design outcomes and combinational pictorial stimuli best support design creativity among these three conditions. These findings give us a better understanding of the roles that visual stimuli play in design, which is expected to bring us important implications for both design education and design support tool development 

BackgroundUK general practice faces a workforce crisis, with general practitioner (GP) shortages, organisational change, substantial pressures across the whole health-care system and an ageing population with increasingly complex health needs. GPs require lengthy training, so retaining the existing workforce is urgent and important.Objectives(1) to identify the key policies and strategies that might (i) facilitate the retention of experienced GPs in direct patient care or (ii) support the return of GPs following a career break. (2) to consider the feasibility of potentially implementing those policies and strategies.DesignThis was a comprehensive, mixed-methods study.SettingThis study took place in primary care in England.ParticipantsGeneral practitioners registered in south-west England were surveyed. Interviews were with purposively selected GPs and primary care stakeholders. A RAND/UCLA Appropriateness Method (RAM) panel comprised GP partners and GPs working in national stakeholder organisations. Stakeholder consultations included representatives from regional and national groups.Main outcome measuresSystematic review – factors affecting GPs’ decisions to quit and to take career breaks. Survey – proportion of GPs likely to quit, to take career breaks or to reduce hours spent in patient care within 5 years of being surveyed. Interviews – themes relating to GPs’ decision-making. RAM – a set of policies and strategies to support retention, assessed as ‘appropriate’ and ‘feasible’. Predictive risk modelling – predictive model to identify practices in south-west England at risk of workforce undersupply within 5 years. Stakeholder consultation – comments and key actions regarding implementing emergent policies and strategies from the research.ResultsPast research identified four job-related ‘push’ factors associated with leaving general practice: (1) workload, (2) job dissatisfaction, (3) work-related stress and (4) work–life balance. The survey, returned by 2248 out of 3370 GPs (67%) in the south-west of England, identified a high likelihood of quitting (37%), taking a career break (36%) or reducing hours (57%) within 5 years. Interviews highlighted three drivers of leaving general practice: (1) professional identity and value of the GP role, (2) fear and risk associated with service delivery and (3) career choices. The RAM panel deemed 24 out of 54 retention policies and strategies to be ‘appropriate’, with most also considered ‘feasible’, including identification of and targeted support for practices ‘at risk’ of workforce undersupply and the provision of formal career options for GPs wishing to undertake portfolio roles. Practices at highest risk of workforce undersupply within 5 years are those that have larger patient list sizes, employ more nurses, serve more deprived and younger populations, or have poor patient experience ratings. Actions for national organisations with an interest in workforce planning were identified. These included collection of data on the current scope of GPs’ portfolio roles, and the need for formal career pathways for key primary care professionals, such as practice managers.LimitationsThe survey, qualitative research and modelling were conducted in one UK region. The research took place within a rapidly changing policy environment, providing a challenge in informing emergent policy and practice.ConclusionsThis research identifies the basis for current concerns regarding UK GP workforce capacity, drawing on experiences in south-west England. Policies and strategies identified by expert stakeholders after considering these findings are likely to be of relevance in addressing GP retention in the UK. Collaborative, multidisciplinary research partnerships should investigate the effects of rolling out some of the policies and strategies described in this report.Study registrationThis study is registered as PROSPERO CRD42016033876 and UKCRN ID number 20700.FundingThe National Institute for Health Research Health Services and Delivery Research programme. 

AbstractAnalogy is a core cognition process used to produce inferences as well as new ideas using previous knowledge and experience. Ontology is a formal representation of a set of domain concepts and their relationships. The use of analogy and ontology in design activities to support design creativity have previously been explored. This paper explores an approach to construct ontologies with sufficient richness and coverage to support reasoning over real-world datasets for prompting creative idea generation. This approach has been implemented into a computational tool for assisting designers in generating creative ideas during the early stages of design. The tool, called “the Retriever”, has been developed based on ontology by embracing the aspects of analogical reasoning. A case study has indicated that the tool can be effective and useful for idea generation. The results have indicated that the tool, in its current formulation, can significantly improve the fluency and flexibility of idea generation and the usefulness of ideas, as well as slightly increase the originality of ideas, for the case study concerned. 

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide novel theoretical insight into service delivery system (SDS) design. To do so, this paper adopts a customer journey perspective, using it as a frame to explore dimensions of experience quality that inform design requirements.

Methodology
This study utilises UK Patient Opinion data to analyse the stories of 200 cancer patients. Using a critical incident technique, 1,207 attributes of experience quality are generated and classified into 17 quality dimensions across five stages of the customer (patient) journey.

Findings
Analysis reveals both similarity and difference in dimensions of experience quality across the patient journey: seven dimensions are common to all five journey stages, from receiving diagnosis to end of life care; ten dimensions were found to vary, present in one or several of the stages but not in all.

Limitations
Limitations include a lack of representativity of the story sample and the impossibility to verify the factual occurrence of the stories.

Practical implications
Adopting a patient journey perspective can improve practitioner understanding of the design requirements of SDS in healthcare. The results of the study can be applied by managers to configure SDS that achieve higher quality of patient care throughout the patient journey.

Originality/value
This paper extends existing literature on SDS design by adopting a customer journey perspective, revealing heterogeneity in experience quality across the customer journey currently unaccounted for in SDS design frameworks. Specifically, the findings challenge homogeneity in extant SDS design frameworks, evidencing the need for multiple, stage specific SDS design requirements. 

The user experience of a product is recognized as having an increasing importance in particular in consumer products. Current approaches to designing user experiences are not easily translated to languages that a computer can understand. This paper examines a particular aspect of user experience, namely perception of the aesthetics of a product, to formalize this to rules, which are embedded into a tool to generate design. Investigating the perception of consumers is key to designing for their aesthetic preferences. Previous research has shown that consumers and designers often perceive the same products differently. This paper aims to embed rules on perception into a tool to support designers during design synthesis. Aesthetic design rules connecting perceptions with aesthetic features were integrated into a set grammar and a parametric modeling tool, and applied to the particular case of vases. The generated tool targeted the creation of vases with the perception of beautiful, elegant, and exciting. Results show that it is possible to generate beautiful, elegant, and exciting vases following the three aesthetic design rules, i.e. tall, simple, and curvy. The main contribution of this paper is the method used to incorporate information on perception into the set grammar and the parametric model. The tool is additionally proposed for supporting designers during design synthesis of shapes. The results are valid for vases but the method can be applied to other perceptions and product categories. 

This paper examines how new and creative relationships in datasets, not easily revealed by conventional information retrieval methods and technologies, can be identified using a mix of established and new methods. The authors present how the integration of computerised morphological analysis with new computational models, incorporating web crawler, data processing networking and data mining algorithms, can help facilitate the identification of new ideas. Boden’s concept of ‘Combinational Creativity’ indicates a structured process, which generates unfamiliar combinations of familiar concepts and constructs allowing creative styles of thought. This structured approach has been constrained by the resultant combinatorial explosion and the dearth of easily accessible computer software and supporting methodologies, to help identify viable new solutions. Feature-enhanced computerised morphological analysis provides a new structural support tool for creativity and innovation. Morphological analysis systematically structures and examines all the possible relationships in a multidimensional, highly complex, usually non-quantifiable problem space. Computerisation of the process now permits large number of configurations (millions) in the problem space to be majorly reduced (typically > 95%), identifying only internally consistent solutions. These solutions are likely to embrace configurations containing something, which has not previously been considered, thus increasing the probability of some form of technological or design breakthrough and hence truly creative.  

Idea generation is significant in design, but coming up with creative ideas is often challenging. This paper presents a computer-based tool, called the Combinator, for assisting designers to produce creative ideas. The tool is developed based on an approach simulating aspects of human cognition in achieving combinational creativity. It can generate combinational prompts in text and image forms through combining unrelated ideas. A case study has been conducted to evaluate the Combinator. The study results indicate that the Combinator, in its current formulation, has assisted the tool users involved in the case study in improving the fluency of idea generation, as well as increasing the originality, usefulness, and flexibility of the ideas generated. The results also indicate that the tool could benefit its users in generating high-novelty and high-quality ideas effectively. The Combinator is considered to be beneficial in expanding the design space, increasing better idea occurrence, improving design space exploration, and enhancing the design success rate. 

BACKGROUND: the use of communication apps on mobile phones offers an efficient, unobtrusive, and portable mode of communication for medical staff. The potential enhancements in patient care and education appear significant, with clinical details able to be shared quickly within multidisciplinary teams, supporting rapid integration of disparate information, and more efficient patient care. However, sharing patient data in this way also raises legal and ethical issues. No data is currently available demonstrating how widespread the use of these apps are, doctor's attitudes towards them, or what guides clinician choice of app. OBJECTIVE: the objective of this study was to quantify and qualify the use of communication apps among medical staff in clinical situations, their role in patient care, and knowledge and attitudes towards safety, key benefits, potential disadvantages, and policy implications. METHODS: Medical staff in hospitals across Victoria (Australia) were invited to participate in an anonymous 33-question survey. The survey collected data on respondent's demographics, their use of communication apps in clinical settings, attitudes towards communication apps, perceptions of data "safety," and why one communication app was chosen over others. RESULTS: Communication apps in Victorian hospitals are in widespread use from students to consultants, with WhatsApp being the primary app used. The median number of messages shared per day was 12, encompassing a range of patient information. All respondents viewed these apps positively in quickly communicating patient information in a clinical setting; however, all had concerns about the privacy implications arising from sharing patient information in this way. In total, 67% (60/90) considered patient data "moderately safe" on these apps, and 50% (46/90) were concerned the use of these apps was inconsistent with current legislation and policy. Apps were more likely to be used if they were fast, easy to use, had an easy login process, and were already in widespread use. CONCLUSIONS: Communication app use by medical personnel in Victorian hospitals is pervasive. These apps contribute to enhanced communication between medical staff, but their use raises compliance issues, most notably with Australian privacy legislation. Development of privacy-compliant apps such as MedX needs to prioritize a user-friendly interface and market the product as a privacy-compliant comparator to apps previously adapted to health care settings. 

With the advent of the big-data era, massive information stored in electronic and digital forms on the internet become valuable resources for knowledge discovery in engineering design. Traditional document retrieval method based on document indexing focuses on retrieving individual documents related to the query, but is incapable of discovering the various associations between individual knowledge concepts. Ontology-based technologies, which can extract the inherent relationships between concepts by using advanced text mining tools, can be applied to improve design information retrieval in the large-scale unstructured textual data environment. However, few of the public available ontology database stands on a design and engineering perspective to establish the relations between knowledge concepts. This paper develops a “WordNet” focusing on design and engineering associations by integrating the text mining approaches to construct an unsupervised learning ontology network. Subsequent probability and velocity network analysis are applied with different statistical behaviors to evaluate the correlation degree between concepts for design information retrieval. The validation results show that the probability and velocity analysis on our constructed ontology network can help recognize the high related complex design and engineering associations between elements. Finally, an engineering design case study demonstrates the use of our constructed semantic network in real-world project for design relations retrieval. 

The concept of “Government as a Platform” (GaaP) (O'Reilly, 2009) is coined frequently, but interpreted inconsistently: views of GaaP as being solely about technology and the building of technical components ignore GaaP's radical and disruptive embrace of a new economic and organisational model with the potential to improve the way Government operates – helping resolve the binary political debate about centralised versus localised models of public service delivery. We offer a structured approach to the application of the platforms that underpin GaaP, encompassing not only their technical architecture, but also the other essential aspects of market dynamics and organisational form. Based on a review of information systems platforms literature, we develop a Platform Appraisal Framework (PAF) incorporating the various dimensions that characterise business models based on digital platforms. We propose this PAF as a general contribution to the strategy and audit of platform initiatives and more specifically as an assessment framework to provide consistency of thinking in GaaP initiatives. We demonstrate the utility of our PAF by applying it to UK Government platform initiatives over two distinct periods, 1999–2010 and 2010 to the present day, drawing practical conclusions concerning implementation of platforms within the unique and complex environment of the public sector. 

© 2017 John Wiley. &. Sons, Ltd. Distributed ledger technologies (DLTs) are rewriting conventional notions of business transacting, creating fresh opportunities for value creation and capture. Using qualitative interview data as a primary resource, the proposed five-point model synthesizes these possibilities, demonstrating how they may lead to “disruptive innovation.” a further conceptual model is subsequently provided with a view to assisting future problem solving in the area. 

Service research highlights the utility of adopting a service ecosystem approach to studying service innovation. It suggests that service innovations can arise from challenging and developing the institutions (i.e. norms, rules, practices, meanings, and symbols) which underpin an ecosystem. Also, recent emphasis on consumer well-being posits that studies of service provision to poor consumers are needed. Reflecting these research priorities, the context of this case study on service innovation is the food waste ecosystem, whereby service innovations can contribute to the alleviation of food poverty for thousands of citizens. The central actor of the ecosystem is the leading UK charity organization fighting food waste. The paper’s contribution lies in using data from ecosystem actors to clarify the distinctions between institutions, thereby enhancing understanding of the application of institutional theory within the ecosystem and highlighting some theoretical implications for service innovation both within- and between-system levels. An actor institutions matrix is offered as a fruitful outcome of the analysis of the institutions, and suggested recommendations for operationalizing service ecosystem studies are outlined.  

Creativity is a crucial element of design. The aim of this study is to investigate the driving forces behind combinational creativity. We propose three driven approaches to combinational creativity, problem-, similarity- and inspiration-driven, based on previous research projects on design process, strategy and cognition. A case study involving hundreds of practical products selected from winners of international design competitions has been conducted to evaluate the three approaches proposed. The results support the three driven approaches and indicate that they can be used independently as well as complementarily. The three approaches proposed in this study have provided an understanding of how combinational creativity functions in design. The approaches could be used as a set of creative idea generation methods for supporting designers in producing creative design ideas.  

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the contingencies and characteristics of service recovery system (SRS) design.


Design/methodology/approach
Informed by extensive case study data from two large Italian retail banks, the theory-building study builds on the seven design characteristics proposed by Smith et al. (2009). In all, 19 sub-dimensions are identified that provide a finer-grain view of the SRS at the operational level. The design characteristics and the corresponding sub-dimensions comprise the SRS design framework. These sub-dimensions are then analysed across the two cases. Specific attention is given to sub-dimensions that are contingent upon service recovery strategy.


Findings
The findings suggest that the extended set of SRS sub-dimensions (providing greater specificity) contributes to identifying commonality and difference between SRS configurations. This specificity facilitates the identification of two sets of SRS design characteristics (S-type and C-type) that correspond with the SR strategy. Two propositions have been formulated with respect to this SR strategy – SRS contingency. An additional set of sub-dimensions, common to both cases, is explained by conformance to regulatory control.


Originality/value
The paper provides novel theoretical insights into SRS design. The increased specificity of the SRS framework and the sets of sub-dimensions contingent on SR strategy extend the current theory. This provides opportunities for both practising managers and for future theoretical development.
 

Purpose – Improvement of reverse supply chains requires accurate and timely information about the patterns of consumption. In the consumer context, the ways to generate and access such use-visibility data are in their infancy. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate how the Internet of Things (IoT) may be operationalised in the domestic setting to capture data on a consumer’s use of products and the implications for reverse supply chains. Design/methodology/approach – This study uses an explorative case approach drawing on data from studies of six UK households. “Horizontal” data, which reveals patterns in consumers’ use processes, is generated by combining “vertical” data from multiple sources. Use processes in the homes are mapped using IDEF0 and illustrated with the data. The quantitative data are generated using wireless sensors in the home, and qualitative data are drawn from online calendars, social media, interviews and ethnography. Findings – the study proposes four generic measurement categories for operationalising the concept of use-visibility: experience, consumption, interaction and depletion, which together address the use of different household resources. The explorative case demonstrates how these measures can be operationalised to achieve visibility of the context of use in the home. The potential of such use-visibility for reverse supply chains is discussed. Research limitations/implications – This explorative case study is based on an in-depth study of the bathroom which illustrates the application of use-visibility measures (UVMs) but provides a limited use context. Further research is needed from a wider set of homes and a wider set of use processes and contexts. Practical implications – the case demonstrates the operationalisation of the combination of data from different sources and helps answer questions of “why?”, “how?”, “when?” and “how much?”, which can inform reverse supply chains. The four UVMs can be operationalised in a way that can contribute to supply chain visibility, providing accurate and timely information of consumption, optimising resource use and eliminating waste. Originality/value – IDEF0 framework and case analysis is used to identify and validate four UVMs available through IoT data – that of experience, consumption, interaction and depletion. The UVMs characterise IoT data generated from a given process and inform the primary reverse flow in the future supply chain. They provide the basis for future data collection and development of theory around their effect on reverse supply chain efficiency. 

Purpose – the purpose of this paper is to explore how financial services (FS) organizations manage the customer experience. It aims to establish what practices are used, to articulate the role of the FS context in influencing the choice of practices, and to identify how these practices support experience co-creation from the perspective of the organization. Design/methodology/approach – the authors adopt a multiple case study approach. In total, 23 cases provide a rich understanding of the phenomenon studied which permits grounding the findings on robust data. Findings – the authors identify five practices that are consistently used by FS organizations to manage the customer experience. The findings suggest that four industry-specific characteristics affect the choice of these practices. The results also reveal how these practices support the co-creation of the customer experience. Research limitations/implications – the authors focus on the FS context only, do not examine the impact of the practices on performance, and do not explore experience co-creation from the perspective of the customer. Practical implications – Adopting these practices can facilitate a more co-created customer experience, which in turn can provide FS organizations with a competitive differentiator. Originality/value – the paper advances current knowledge by revealing five customer experience management practices that are specific to the FS context. Moreover, this is one of the first studies to explore experience co-creation from the perspective of the organization and to identify ways in which organizations can support customers in co-creating the experiences. 

Purpose – the purpose of this paper is to set out to explore how cancer patients and their carers perceive and evaluate the healthcare experience in order to develop and validate a classification framework for experience quality in healthcare. Design/methodology/approach – the empirical work is centred on the systematic analysis of 200 cancer patient stories published on an independent healthcare feedback web site. Using the critical incident method, the authors captured 1,351 experience quality data items. Three judges independently sorted and classified these data items. Findings – the authors identify and describe 22 main categories and 51 sub-categories that underlie the experience quality concept in healthcare and present them in a classification framework. The framework is informed through the categorisation of direct, indirect, and independent interactions. It also suggests a relationship between experience quality and satisfaction and loyalty behaviours. Research limitations/implications – This study provides researchers with a foundation for the further development and validation of a measurement scale for experience quality in healthcare. Practical implications – the framework assists managers and healthcare professionals with the definition, evaluation, and improvement of the quality of the experience of patients and their carers. Originality/value – the main contributions of this study lie in: first, a comprehensive classification framework for experience quality in healthcare; second, dimensions that extend existing health service quality models; third, dimensions that contextualise the generic concept of customer experience quality to healthcare. 

This paper addresses the call for the development of product service supply chains (PSSC) model in support of supply chain integration, focusing specifically on the inter-relationship of product and services in PSSC. Whilst the product aspects of supply chains have been extensively researched there is widespread recognition that the service elements have received inadequate attention and that is the focus of the early part of the paper. We examine the features of service environments using unified service theory concluding that supply chain operations reference is unsuitable for developing a PSSC model. We apply their Operate model to Talkphone, an internationally leading telecoms company with an integrated PSSC. Using the case research method, we develop an IDEF0 model of the core operate processes of Talkphone. We then use the IDEF0 model to highlight the importance of co-ordinating product and multiple service concepts for integrated PSSCs. An important observation is the importance of the model as a heuristic device for managing and co-ordinating PSSCs, particularly where there are multiple service concepts (see Figure 8). Finally, we consider the implications for future work including the potential for further empirical work into types of integrated PSSC which combine the four product and four service types into 16 possible combinations. 

The term end-to-end process management is now commonplace in the language and practice of operations. Managers are encouraged to migrate from functional process management to end-to-end process management to realise a range of performance improvements. However, these improvements are often elusive; the specific challenges associated with such a migration are under-researched. This paper uses a cross-sector study to identify the challenges of end-to-end process management and to generate practical managerial guidance. Three areas are identified that demand particular managerial attention: the need to move beyond process mapping, the role of IT in process management and maintaining the process infrastructure as a strategic asset. More significantly, the findings highlight the need for greater conceptual clarity regarding the end-to-end concept itself. The existing literature suggests that scope is the primary differentiator of the end-to-end process - the requirement to manage an extended boundary from customer order through to customer fulfilment. However, this research suggests that the end-to-end concept is more complex, comprising of three core constructs with seven dimensions: scope (boundary conditions, sequence/flow and controls); scale (resources and input/output transformation) and complexity (interrelationships and orientation). End-to-end process management involves much more than an extended boundary. It requires a systemic perspective and clarity regarding controls and transforming resources. 

This paper explores the process improvement approaches of organisations. It seeks to identify process redesign principles and the combinations of these principles that are used successfully in industry. We use Q-methodology to explore the viewpoints of a range of highly experienced process experts about the success of 16 improvement practices. Q-methodology enables the examination of the similarities and differences in the success of the improvement principles used by organisations in order to inform archetypes of process improvement. Overall, our findings suggest that process improvement is determined through the application of two foundational principles combined with one of four archetypes. Remove non-value-adding tasks and re-sequence tasks are described as foundational principles of process improvement, whilst outsourcing needs to be approached with caution. Furthermore, we articulate four distinctive archetypes comprising unique configurations of improvement principles that can be used to redesign operational processes. Based on this evidence we propose a typology of process improvement. This work suggests that rather than adopting generic improvement frameworks, managers should consult the typology to determine the archetype in closest proximity to their specific requirements. This study has several limitations including the small number of items populating the concourse and the fact that implementation problems are not taken into account. © 2013 Taylor & Francis. 

Purpose – the purpose of this paper is to examine the leadership role of authors, institutions, and countries based on research co-authorship networks in the field of operations management (OM) and ranks European authors, institutions, and countries using network centrality measures. It also identifies the primary research areas of each of the leading European authors and maps the areas that European research in general has focussed most on. Design/methodology/approach – Based on co-authorships in publications appearing in a representative set of three leading OM journals over the 15-year period of 1998-2012, network measures of total degree centrality and betweenness centrality are used to identify influential European agents serving as leaders and bridge builders in OM research. Keyword analysis is used to identify the dominant areas of OM research in Europe as well as the primary areas of research of the leading authors. Findings – with UK, Spain, the Netherlands, and Italy accounting for the dominant share of authorship of papers in the journal set, many authors and institutions from these countries are also found to rank high on network centrality measures. While certain authors, institutions, and countries are found ranking high on total degree centrality based on number of direct connections in the network, others are found to play uniquely important roles as gatekeepers and bridge builders in network relationships. The body of research is found to be focussed most on the area of supply chain management. It is also found to be focussed more on manufacturing than service. Research limitations/implications – the examination of networks in this study based on co-authorships in publications in the set of three leading journals: Journal of Operations Management, International Journal of Operations & Production Management, and Production and Operations Management, is not all encompassing as there are likely other co-authorship relationships of OM researchers that go beyond publications in this set of journals. Practical implications – Co-authorship of papers in the leading academic journals in a discipline provides a window on patterns of collaboration among key researchers within that academic community. The findings of this study inform the community of stakeholders on who the leading European agents in OM research are, what the primary areas of research of the leading European authors are, and areas that European research has focussed most on. Originality/value – This is the first study of its kind that identifies and maps key European authors, institutions, and countries based on the analysis of co-authorship networks of researchers who have published in a set of leading OM journals that are considered to be among the most relevant outlets in the field of OM. It also maps the primary areas of research. 

Stem cell researchers labor in unpredictable circumstances, beset by uncertainties allied to the study of cellular signaling behaviors. STS research, based primarily on the work of Star (1985), has demonstrated that medical scientists often approach these vicissitudes using a type of phronesis that aims to better qualify the causes of experimental ambiguities, while also identifying optimistic reference points to help guide future research. Knowledge of this type of phronesis is extended by this article, which examines the composition of the three most popular citations allied to the regenerative cellular biology/human-induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC) literature. When analyzed, these papers afford evidence that the adducement of positive signals begins with sorting and categorizing. This article finds that, when representing the outcomes of this cataloging for peer-review consumption, the authors concerned predicated their observations in a perspicacious rhetoric, which serves to reinforce positive-leaning ascriptions by couching them in images of virtue, fortitude, and due diligence. The research findings presented herewith suggest that adducements of this kind may be anchored in a representational practice that could be described as “modal splicing.” This article contributes to the STS literature by observing connections between modal splicing, perspicacious representation, and knowledge affirmations in hiPSC contexts.  

This article argues that the future of public services will be shaped increasingly by the evolution of global, Internet-enabled, digital platforms, with two distinctive technical and commercial features. First, use of open standards and architectures that separate standard business logic from supporting applications will allow government to become technology- and vendor-agnostic, freeing it from its overdependence on proprietary systems and suppliers. Second, over time, open standards and increased market choice will drive both innovation and progressive convergence on cheaper, standard "utility" public services. These two features will combine to create a powerful dynamic situation, driving disintegration of traditional "black boxed" technologies and services, traditionally organized around "systems integrators" and departmental structures, and their reaggregation around the citizen in the form of services. Such reaggregation is allowing progressively sharp distinctions between niche/innovative and commodity/standard offerings, supplied by a plural, innovative, and more cost-effective marketplace, with unprecedented implications for the way in which the state buys and deploys technology. We draw on a range of data from across public and private sectors to illustrate our argument and identify some key policy and implementation recommendations. © 2013 the Author. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Inc. All rights reserved. 

PurposeCompanies are increasingly engaged with global engineering networks through offshoring of product development activities from R&D to production. This creates many new challenges as operations get physically and culturally decoupled. The purpose of this paper is to improve understanding of how to effectively manage engineering offshoring activities in a context of global engineering networks. The main research question, therefore, is: “Can offshoring of engineering tasks be explained and managed using the concept of Global Engineering Networks (GEN)?” Effective approaches to handling the associated risks of engineering offshoring will be a key area of the investigation.Design/methodology/approachThe research approach is based on the engineering design research methodology developed by Blessing and Chakrabarti, including a descriptive phase and a prescriptive phase. Four case studies of large multinational corporations in Denmark were carried out. Data gathering was mainly documentary studies and interviews. The main data analysis approaches were coding (Strauss and Corbin) and pattern‐matching (Yin). The dataset was analysed using the GEN framework suggested by Zhang et al. and Zhang and Gregory.FindingsEngineering offshoring presents companies with challenges related to communication and knowledge sharing which is addressed through formal and informal mechanisms as well as a more streamlined operation. However, this did not remove the challenges. The GEN framework suggests a systematic approach to understanding global engineering networks through investigating their contextual features, critical capabilities to compete in a particular contextual circumstance, and configuration characteristics to deliver the capabilities. Using the GEN framework, the challenges faced by companies and the risks associated with their engineering offshoring activities can be explained as a mismatch between the required capabilities and the companies' ability to deliver these capabilities.Originality/valueThis paper provides new theoretical insight into both engineering offshoring and GEN theories by extending the GEN framework to address complications within engineering offshoring. This strengthens both academic fields, and will be able to help engineering managers to develop appropriate engineering network configurations for offshore engineering operations. 

This article contributes to the emerging discipline of service science through an empirical investigation of value propositions as connections between service systems. The starting point for our research is that service science is an interdisciplinary approach to the study, design and implementation of service systems, a service system being considered a dynamic configuration of resources (people, technology, organisations and shared information) that create and deliver value between the provider and the customer through service (IfM and IBM 2008). Specifically, this article investigates value propositions in the context of equipment-based service systems. Our qualitative findings identify three value proposition cycles: Recovery, Availability and Outcome. In so doing, showing that providers offer three distinct propositions of value with three different primary transformations. This research contributes to theory in service systems by identifying value propositions as multiple, simultaneous and iterative connections between provider and customer systems. © 2012 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC. 

We demonstrate photon-pair generation in a reverse proton exchanged waveguide fabricated on a periodically poled magnesium doped stoichiometric lithium tantalate substrate. Detected pairs are generated via a cascaded second order nonlinear process where a pump laser at wavelength of 1.55 m is first doubled in frequency by second harmonic generation and subsequently downconverted around the same spectral region. Pairs are detected at a rate of 42/s with a coincidence to accidental ratio of 0.7. This cascaded pair generation process is similar to four-wave-mixing where two pump photons annihilate and create a correlated photon pair. © 2011 American Institute of Physics. 

AbstractDefining the aesthetic and emotional value of a product is an important consideration for its design. Furthermore, if several designers are faced with the task of creating an object that describes a certain emotion/perception (aggressive, soft, heavy, etc.), each is most likely to interpret the emotion/perception with different shapes composed of a set of different geometric features. The authors propose an automatic approach to formalize the relationships between geometric information of three-dimensional objects and the intended emotional content using fuzzy logic. In addition, the automatically generated fuzzy knowledge base was compared to the user's perceptions and to the manually constructed fuzzy knowledge base. The initial findings indicate that the approach is valid to formalize geometric information with perceptions and validate the author's manually developed fuzzy models. 

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to explore and empirically investigate the characteristics and contingencies of service delivery system design.Design/methodology/approachInformed by the service strategy triad, a single embedded case study was designed to explore empirical data on four target markets, four service concepts, and on the design characteristics of the corresponding four service delivery systems. Data were collected in a market‐leading organisation in the business‐to‐business sector within the power industry. The service delivery systems comprise processes that sell electricity contracts and processes that bill against those contracts.FindingsFirst, the findings indicate what design characteristics are contingent upon the degree of customisation of the service concept. The authors show how this contingency has implications for the extents of employee skills, employee discretion, task routineness, automation, and for front office (FO)‐back office (BO) configurations. Second, the authors challenge the consensus that low customer‐contact processes are designed for the purpose of efficiency. Third, the findings contradict Metters and Vargas who state that it is not possible to have different FO‐BO configurations in a single organisation.Research limitations/implicationsWhile there are major interactions between the four service delivery systems supporting each individual service concept, this paper does not examine the trade‐offs between the various possible designs of these service delivery systems.Practical implicationsThe paper emphasises the importance of considering the complexity of the service offering, the customer relationship strategy, and of taking a process‐orientation to address service delivery system design.Originality/valueThis paper extends current understanding of service delivery system design characteristics and contingencies. The authors show how design characteristics are contingent on the service concept. Research propositions are formulated to emphasise this contingency. Additionally, we report findings which challenge existing FO‐BO design theory. 

the Bristol Inquiry is arguably one of the most important cases of judicial medical investigation held in the United Kingdom (UK), which continues to raise important insights into the social construction of medical and scientific risks. As a way of marking the inquiry’s tenth anniversary year, this article returns to an important conversation held between noted pediatric cardiothoracic and cardiovascular specialists, on days 49 and 50 of the inquiry’s proceedings. Their conversance principally describes a pathway of scientific advancement across four decades (c. the mid-1960s to 1999). Risks, and the avoidance of medical error (iatrogenesis), represent important subtopics of the ensuing historical narrative, within which the experts describe opportunities for error as diminishing in-line with paradigmatic advancement. The telling of this story of risk mitigation involves the expurgation of considerable sensitivities to scientific uncertainty. In analyzing this example of expert scientific witness testimony, the article primarily considers how representations of uncertainty are formulated in language. The article concludes that, in this instance, the social construction of risk and uncertainty were heteroglossically premised upon language catalysts, cognitive metaphors, and logic-based mathematical rubrics.