1,563 research outputs found
A decision consequence-based model to understand the phenomena in motorcycle engineering design from a human factor's perspective
Research has shown that motorcycle riders' persona and posture have a large impact on motorcycle safety, bringing these challenges into the domain of human factors. Besides these aspects, motorcycle designers must consider the emotional values of such artefacts for it to be successful in the market. Indeed, motorcycle designers must take into account multitude of factors when developing such artefacts. These all pose challenges to designers whilst carrying out motorcycle design. A study was carried out with motorcycle designers to investigate their current design practices, and challenges faced during motorcycle design. A critical literature review revealed that there is a research gap in decision consequence models which do not take a holistic view of the underlying phenomena during design decision-making of motorcycle designers. The gap in literature together with the outcome of the study, collectively led to the development of a decision consequence-based phenomena model during motorcycle design. The model is validated with two case studies from the motorcycle industry through the use of a comparative-validation approach.peer-reviewe
VALUE CO-CREATION AND OPPORTUNITIES IN HEALTH CARE AND WELLBEING: THE CASE OF THE GREEN PRESCRIPTION
The Green Prescription (GRx) is a health and wellbeing service that aims to manage the in-creasing obesity rates in the New Zealand population by providing free advice and support to at-risk patients. We evaluate the GRx service ecosystem using a qualitative approach and apply-ing a value co-creation framework. The resulting mapping allows us to identify new value co-creation opportunities and implications for practitioners. The research contributes a mapping of customer, supplier and encounter processes to a healthcare ecosystem and identifies existing and new value co-creation opportunities within the GRx ecosystem. We suggest that the GRx provider design a technological solution that allows the actors within the ecosystem to collabo-rate and create value. We also suggest that the service supplier could facilitate value co-creation by considering patients’ extrinsic motivators. The service supplier could improve the health-related intervention delivery by the use of Web 2.0 facilities, and enhance resource-sharing relationship experiences by making transparent a larger range of resources. Our study shows how the healthcare service provider may benefit from understanding active customer involvement in the relationship experience. We suggest that innovative research approaches such as the one applied may be useful when studying active customers and co-creation practices
Designing for human factors : development and evaluation of a harmonistic knowledge-based design decision support tool
Dual ontological products are a physical construction and an emotional construction. Multitude of human factors must be considering when designing dual ontological products. To increase the product’s impact and reach, designers should also understand the requirements of potential users. A design stage conflict exists between the emotional construction and the physical construction of a product when considering human factors. Designers find it difficult to achieve the right compromise between these constructions and hence, the balancing of the two is crucial. This research therefore contributes a novel harmonistic knowledge-based framework which makes designers aware of design stage conflicts and consequences of commitments made on human factors in the use-phase of the artefact. This approach was implemented in a machine learning based computational tool which exploits harmonistic knowledge and information collected from potential users to proactively assist, guide, and motivate product designers. This paper also presents a descriptive study for the evaluation of the framework and its implementation as a computer-based prototype tool. Results show the necessity and beneficial use of the tool for design engineering practice.peer-reviewe
Towards handling worker emotions for improved product development
Product development is a process in which important decisions pertaining to the artefact and its
interaction with other life-phase systems are made. The consequences of these interactions influence in
a direct manner the degree of success of product development in terms of cost, time and quality. One
type of consequence which emanates from the interaction involving the human worker and other lifephase
systems is the elicitation of human emotions. The investigation presented in this paper indicates
that the elicitation of negative emotions from human workers can have significant ramifications on the
product development process. The main contribution of this paper is the development of a support
means which enables product development stakeholders to foresee the type of emotions elicited from
human workers as a consequence of decisions made.peer-reviewe
Strategic Renewal Process Towards Sustainability – An Ecosystem Approach
Due to the ongoing sustainability megatrend, companies are increasingly incorporating environmental sustainability concerns into their strategies. Meanwhile this sustainability transition, strategic renewal processes of individual companies are inevitably co-evolving with their increasingly dynamic and complex business ecosystems. The internal rate of change in a company needs to be adjusted to that of its environment. Consequently, when companies are renewing their strategies, they need to consider not only the transition towards sustainability, but also their alignment within the constantly evolving business ecosystem and its focal value proposition. Addressing the limited existing knowledge on these issues, the objective of this study is to investigate how the process of strategic renewal towards environmental sustainability is co-evolving with its business ecosystem.
To meet the research objective, a qualitative longitudinal single-case study of extreme kind was conducted at a technological forerunner Neste Oyj. Longitudinal and multi-sourced data covered Neste’s strategy process renewal from 2000 to 2019 with 6 top management interviews, validating group discussions with interviewees and Neste strategy team, 14 annual reports from 2005 to 2018, and versatile secondary data. Data-driven and thematical analysis of the rich dataset was enhanced by mapping the longitudinal processes with critical incident technique and ecosystem mapping software Kumu.
The findings show that the mapped strategic renewal process follows the steps of formulation, implementation and evaluation meanwhile its encompassing business ecosystem follows the business ecosystem lifecycle of birth, expansion, leadership and renewal. These co-evolutionary processes in Neste case have taken place over time in four identified eras, which each have had their own critical incidents that construct sub-processes of strategic renewal. These sub-processes have been influenced by both internal and external drivers, which have discrete and ongoing natures. Identified internal drivers include organizational structure, organizational culture, competences and leadership, whereas external ones are divided into market development, regulation, collaboration, society and other drivers.
The study contributes to the intersection of strategic renewal, business ecosystem and sustainability transition literature by providing longitudinal and processual insights to an extreme case with an exceptional strategic renewal process. As for managerial implications, top management benefits from considering strategy as a cyclic process that co-evolves with its business ecosystem and acknowledging that in the early phases of this co-evolutive process, inter-nal drivers have a dominant role. Along with other internal drivers, strengthening an internal vi-sion is of high importance as it allows engagement and proactive steering of ecosystem actors through collaborations throughout the entire process of strategic renewal. When renewing a value proposition along the renewed strategy, communications with ecosystem actors play a significant role in ensuring a successful re-alignment of business ecosystem to its focal value proposition. Further, the findings of this study are useful to policymakers who consider driving measures for strategic renewal towards sustainability. For future research agenda, it is recom-mended to expand the research scope to the hindering factors and drivers which may simultaneously hinder and support the strategic renewal towards environmental sustainability
Exploring Teachers\u27 Perspective of Digital Literacy Pedagogy: Implications for Future Practice
Pedagogy has not addressed the literacy shift from reading, writing, and speaking to include cognitive digital literacy skills. Teachers lack the technological pedagogical content knowledge to integrate digital literacy skills into student learning. Using a digital literacy framework with 6 essentials skills, the purpose of this qualitative case study was to investigate teachers\u27 (a) current understanding, knowledge and skills; (b) current integration of digital literacy skills; (c) challenges they face in integration; and (d) supports needed in shifting pedagogical practices to address change. Participants were 13 teachers from high school content areas. Data were gathered through focus groups interviews, observations, and artifacts. Data were coded with MAXQDA software, compared, organized, and refined based on the 4 research questions. Findings revealed high levels of knowledge for the terms digital literacy and photovisual literacy. Integration levels of digital literacy skills varied with more evidence in photovisual and reproduction literacy. Five minor challenge themes (critical thinking; time; information and technology literacy; infrastructure and access; and behavior and attitude) and 4 minor support themes (professional development; planning and preparation time; observation and feedback; and schoolwide focus and routines) emerged. Analysis of findings revealed 4 major themes: critical thinking, integrated professional development, effective use of time, and infrastructure and schoolwide routines. Findings may affect positive social change by engaging teachers in critical reflection through professional development leading to improvements in teacher pedagogical practices related to furthering the digital literacy skills of youth
Pupils’ emotional experience in human-technology interactions
The experience of human emotion is a central topic in the research field of product design and human interactions. Emotions have the ability to affect pupils’ experience deeply since the elicitation of emotion has the ability to affect attention, behaviour and attitude towards man-made artefacts. The qualitative study presented in this paper is part of ongoing research intended to develop a framework for modelling pupils’ emotional experiences when interacting with technological artefacts. This paper underlines how the elicitation of emotion is itself a consequence of the interaction between the human individual and the technological artefact. These conceptualisations underline the necessity to study the attributes both human and technological artefacts responsible for the elicitation of emotion. The study presented in this paper focuses on the human element. The participants in this study were students undertaking an undergraduate programme in technical design and technology offered by the Department of Technology and Entrepreneurship Education at the University of Malta. The study reveals that 43% of the subjects are concerned with being provided proper guidance and mentoring particularly when interacting with technological artefacts which are novel to the pupils. In addition, the study reveals that the inherent simplicity of a technological artefact and the ability to provide an immediate visual feedback, as factors which contribute to render the interaction between pupils and technological artefacts more enjoyable. The results emerging from the empirical study are discussed in light of how pupils’ concerns and emotional experiences influence attitudes towards technological artefacts.peer-reviewe
- …