Early independent production entrepreneurs in UK television: agents of a neo-liberal intervention

This essay focuses on the operation of the UK independent television production sector in the context of the entrepreneurial aspirations of company owners in the 1990s. The calculative practices used running these small and medium sized companies are examined and the experiences in managing them are mapped as they negotiated an evolving fitness landscape. Analysis is provided of the strategies adopted including the need to develop reputation and relational contracts to secure a constant flow of commissions. Conclusions are drawn about this transitional phase of entrepreneurship in this sector ahead of Government intervention in the market through imposing new terms of trade between independent production companies and broadcasters

Beyond the Threshold: Investing in Women-led Small and Growing Businesses

This collaborative research project was designed to address the need for greater depth, insight, and clarity on the problems of underinvestment in Women-led Small and Growing Businesses (WSGBs), including those led by younger women (18-35 years old). It is an intentionally exploratory process intended to foster collaboration among ANDE members while also contributing to the existing body of knowledge and identifying areas for further exploration, study, and action. The research recognizes that women entrepreneurs are not a homogenous group, and attempts where possible to make distinctions based on other socioeconomic and demographic factors, as well as to acknowledge the variance in preferences even among those narrower groups

Psychological Strategies in the Process of Pitching New Business Opportunities

This article reviews psychological strategies that lead to revealing the potential of new business opportunities. One of the most effective means of finding investments is the art of right pitching. The procedure of persuading one to invest into a project is a soft skill with an interdisciplinary approach. One of the factors of successful pitching is choosing the right strategy. This theoretical paper addresses the question by analysing the strategies and psychological factors of a successful pitching process. The purpose of this article is to give the directions of how to build soft skills of pitching in the most efficient way. There has been made an analysis of the recent research in the field of pitching strategies and psychological factors. The findings of this paper show the effectiveness of uniting all the pitching strategies into one and contributes to the practical field of pitching.This article reviews psychological strategies that lead to revealing the potential of new business opportunities. One of the most effective means of finding investments is the art of right pitching. The procedure of persuading one to invest into a project is a soft skill with an interdisciplinary approach. One of the factors of successful pitching is choosing the right strategy. This theoretical paper addresses the question by analysing the strategies and psychological factors of a successful pitching process. The purpose of this article is to give the directions of how to build soft skills of pitching in the most efficient way. There has been made an analysis of the recent research in the field of pitching strategies and psychological factors. The findings of this paper show the effectiveness of uniting all the pitching strategies into one and contributes to the practical field of pitching

Implementation of digital role-playing games in Higher Education classrooms to accomplish learning outcomes

Industries have expectations that university graduates possess well-rounded theoretical and practical knowledge to be successful in their jobs. While effective teaching and learning are essential goals in higher education institutions, lessons and learning activities in traditional classroom settings are often out of context, presented to students with much theoretical generality and abstract representations. This leads to a disconnection between academia and industry, where students struggle to apply abstract principles and knowledge in a real-world context to perform effectively in their workplace. Live role-play has been traditionally used as an educational technique to engage students and provide them the opportunity to learn with a real-world context within classroom settings. While role-playing in the classroom encourages transfer of learning, one of its limitation is traditional role-play often does not provide an authentic and believable real-world experience to participants. The primary aim of this study is to converge the pedagogical benefits of role-playing, educational technology and digital games to investigate the effectiveness of using digital role-playing games in classrooms to achieve learning outcomes. Qualitative data were collected from digital media lecturers of a transnational university based in Vietnam and Australia to identify desirable learning outcomes and describe teaching and learning challenges of digital media courses. Through interviews, lecturers also discussed their perceptions of digital RPGs and their level of acceptance in using this educational technology as part of their teaching practice to accomplish learning outcomes. The results highlighted three key desirable learning outcomes: The first learning outcome is students should develop solid understanding of theoretical and foundational design knowledge, enabling effective application of theoretical knowledge to produce creative digital media outputs. The second learning outcome - students should speak the "design language". Students should develop the ability to articulate, critique and explain creative works using appropriate design vocabularies and terminologies, which are used by design practitioners in the industry. The third learning outcome indicated that students should be resourceful and self-sufficient to conceptualise and generate creative ideas. Using Bloom’s taxonomy categories, game characteristics and identified learning outcomes, a conceptual framework was developed for the design and use of digital RPGs to achieve learning outcomes for digital media education. In validating this conceptual framework, a 3d digital role-playing game, Virtual Designer was developed and implemented in classroom environment. A pre/post-test experimental setup was implemented, in which performance gains were measured and compared between control (conventional learning methods) and treatment group (played digital RPG) to determine the learning effectiveness of digital RPGs. Opinion-based survey and focus group interview was also conducted. Based on collected feedback, students find Virtual Designer an effective tool to assess their state of knowledge in different areas of design and apply theoretical knowledge into practical contexts. Students find the game to be an engaging alternative to conventional learning methods, but some have commented the game to be too difficult and at times frustrating to play. Lecturers have also play-tested Virtual Designer and provided favorable views on the overall feasibility of using similar digital RPGs as a teaching and learning tool to sustain students’ interest in learning their subjects – and successfully accomplishing learning outcomes

Methodological guidelines for the design, implementation and assessment of Digital Action

This report aims to create the conditions for the co-creation of Digital Action between citizens, HE staff and students. It is intended as the basis for a set of methodological guidelines for the design, implementation and assessment of digital activities by High Education Institutions. All the information is based on existing guidelines and insights on the barriers and drivers of Digital Action

Spartan Daily, May 4, 1976

Volume 66, Issue 50https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartandaily/6081/thumbnail.jp

Conversations on design thinking : understanding, value and adoption in businesses today

Today design is part of coffee table conversations as much as boardroom discussions. In everyday language design as a concept is understood differently by people with different backgrounds. The different interpretations pose a challenge, and it is commonly stated that design thinking lacks a clear definition which threatens it to end up as a management buzz word that will eventually fade away. In this master’s thesis we will look into the ways design as a practice and its value is communicated and how is it understood outside the design community. The theoretical review looks into defining the design concepts and methodology, and builds understanding what the academic community says about design concepts. Thesis also looks into research on how design is seen and used in organizations. The research for this master’s thesis was done by interviewing four persons working in roles that are not traditional designer roles, to gain insights how people outside the design community perceive design thinking. In this master’s thesis we found that some of the basic elements of design thinking are understood by people outside of design community. Focus is heavily on user centricity. People entirely outside of design community seems to associate design with final form giving and visual aspects. Key to communicating value is understanding where and how value is manifesting. Best ways of communicating design value are demonstrating the design process itself and finding real tangible business performance measures to showcase design value. The intent to integrate design in organizations is there, but there are still signals that the integration is not complete. The need for interdisciplinary understanding came through strongly. Both in creating best possible design outcomes but also in being able to communicate design and interact with people with various backgrounds and being able to demonstrate design capabilities

Digitalization of healthcare services. Backstage communication channels at HUS.

Digital technology has been transforming the way services are created, delivered and consumed. They support the everyday processes of organizations and have become a valuable asset in the competitive global economy. Public healthcare has a lot of challenges in adopting new technologies that are not directly related to patient care. The most puzzling dilemma is the distribution of limited resources. Public healthcare backstage — the part that supports the frontstage operations but is not visible from the outside — is in an urgent need of transformation. This master’s thesis observes and suggests possible ways to overcome this challenge. It presents the complexity of public healthcare service, studies the reasons for digitalizing the internal communication channels that are part of public healthcare service backstage. Next, the thesis explores the processes that might support digital transformation of public healthcare services and assumes the challenges and opportunities for digitalization for stakeholders of public healthcare service. The master thesis is supported by a case that was a study project in Aalto University School of Business. The project was a joint effort of Aalto University students and professors, representatives of Fjord and Accenture, and the clients from the Finnish public sector. The case for this thesis presents the project in collaboration with HUS (the Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa). Service design methodologies and tools were used as a framework for the thesis. The author tries to clarify how service design methodology and its tools are able to help in the digital transformation of public healthcare services and, especially, the backstage part of those services