Mapping and Developing Service Design Research in the UK.

This report is the outcome of the Service Design Research UK (SDR UK) Network with Lancaster University as primary investigator and London College of Communication, UAL as co-investigator. This project was funded as part of an Arts and Humanities Research Council Network grant. Service Design Research UK (SDR UK), funded by an AHRC Network Grant, aims to create a UK research network in an emerging field in Design that is Service Design. This field has a recent history and a growing, but still small and dispersed, research community that strongly needs support and visibility to consolidate its knowledge base and enhance its potential impact. Services represent a significant part of the UK economy and can have a transformational role in our society as they affect the way we organize, move, work, study or take care of our health and family. Design introduces a more human centred and creative approach to service innovation; this is critical to delivering more effective and novel solutions that have the potential to tackle contemporary challenges. Service Design Research UK reviewed and consolidated the emergence of Service Design within the estalished field of Design

Mobile learning for sales and service personnel:Case studies in the corporate training environment

This research investigates how organisations where e-learning is already firmly established experience the adoption of mobile learning. Drawing on responses from training managers and sales and service staff, it investigates key aspects of mobile learning, as understood in organisations; how they perceive the relationship between mobile learning and e-learning provision; their key objectives for deploying mobile learning; and the dynamics of mobile learning practice as it is emerging. The project uses a multi-case study methodology with data collected from three corporate organisations in different sectors (healthcare, computing, and financial services). In each case, data is drawn from interviews with training managers and questionnaire responses from sales and service staff. Sharples’ framework for mobile learning, which focuses on the mobility of learners and learning as ‘conversations’, forms the analytical basis for the study. Three case reports are first presented, and then a cross-case analysis is conducted to draw out points of commonality and difference between the cases. My findings show that mobile learning is understood in the organisations through the lens of e-learning: while the two are not perceived as the same thing, the relationship is perceived to be close. While some barriers to adoption are technological, most concern social factors (stakeholder resistance and lack of leadership support). There is also a lack of use of collaborative aspects of mobile learning in emerging practices, even though respondents were aware that such possibilities existed. Most importantly, actual practices of mobile learning are driven more by the organisations’ business needs and how they have previously used e-learning, rather than their specific perceptions of mobile learning. The work contributes to existing research on mobile learning in the corporate sector (especially the perceived advantages and effectiveness of mobile learning, and challenges in adopting it), and in particular, the influence of context (social factors) on integrating mobile learning in organisations

South American Expert Roundtable : increasing adaptive governance capacity for coping with unintended side effects of digital transformation

This paper presents the main messages of a South American expert roundtable (ERT) on the unintended side effects (unseens) of digital transformation. The input of the ERT comprised 39 propositions from 20 experts representing 11 different perspectives. The two-day ERT discussed the main drivers and challenges as well as vulnerabilities or unseens and provided suggestions for: (i) the mechanisms underlying major unseens; (ii) understanding possible ways in which rebound effects of digital transformation may become the subject of overarching research in three main categories of impact: development factors, society, and individuals; and (iii) a set of potential action domains for transdisciplinary follow-up processes, including a case study in Brazil. A content analysis of the propositions and related mechanisms provided insights in the genesis of unseens by identifying 15 interrelated causal mechanisms related to critical issues/concerns. Additionally, a cluster analysis (CLA) was applied to structure the challenges and critical developments in South America. The discussion elaborated the genesis, dynamics, and impacts of (groups of) unseens such as the digital divide (that affects most countries that are not included in the development of digital business, management, production, etc. tools) or the challenge of restructuring small- and medium-sized enterprises (whose service is digitally substituted by digital devices). We identify specific issues and effects (for most South American countries) such as lack of governmental structure, challenging geographical structures (e.g., inclusion in high-performance transmission power), or the digital readiness of (wide parts) of society. One scientific contribution of the paper is related to the presented methodology that provides insights into the phenomena, the causal chains underlying “wanted/positive” and “unwanted/negative” effects, and the processes and mechanisms of societal changes caused by digitalization

Achieving Complex Development Goals Along China’s Digital Silk Road

This report is divided into four main parts. Section 2 summarises the general literature on ICTs and the SDGs to illustrate both synergies and potential trade-offs between accelerating ICT adoption and achieving complex development goals. It first identifies key SDGs that explicitly call for greater ICT adoption and access to ICT infrastructure, and then covers the literature in five key areas: (i) the relationship between ICTs and economic growth and using ICTs to achieve development outcomes; (ii) the relationship between ICTs and inequality and the “leave no one behind” (LNOB) agenda; (iii) digital barriers and inequality that go beyond the provision of infrastructure; (iv) ICTs and the future of work; and (v) ICTs and environmental sustainability. Although digital technologies could be a force for good and help achieve the SDGs, this trajectory is not automatic, nor is it a given, and in many regards current trends can lead to the contrary. Achieving the SDGs in an increasingly digital world will necessarily mean reversing negative trends and finding ways to deal with some of the challenges emerging from greater ICT adoption. This will require actions above and beyond building infrastructure from a wide range of actors. Section 3 covers the “digital Silk Road” and analyses it according to the literature on the interactions between ICTs and the SDGs covered in the previous section. It starts by covering some of the policy objectives of the digital Silk Road. It then lightly analyses potential SDG contributions and challenges on some of the main elements of the digital Silk Road including: ICT infrastructure, the growing market share of Chinese device manufacturers, the promotion of “inclusive globalisation” through e-commerce, the exportation of “smart cities” to countries along the BRI, the expansion of China’s internet giants, and the Digital Belt and Road Program Science Plan. Overall, Section 3 highlights that although Chinese actors in the BRI often frame their activities as having only positive SDG impacts, they fail to consider the potential challenges arising from a greater adoption of ICTs and digitisation including: the potential of increasing inequalities, the implications for leaving no one behind, energy consumption and e-waste among others. Section 4 concludes and provides policy recommendations for traditional development actors seeking to engage with the digital Silk Road. It suggests that traditional donors should: (a) use their convening power to bring together a diverse group of stakeholders to work through the complexities of achieving the SDGs as ICTs continue to spread; (b) be honest knowledge brokers for developing country governments about ICTs and their synergies and trade-offs with achieving the SDGs; (c) work on providing offline channels so the unconnected do not fall further behind; and (d) focus on the future of work which largely gets overlooked in the digital Silk Road. However, direct partnerships in digital BRI projects may be risky for traditional development donors due to concerns that may not bode well with their citizens about the digital Silk Road spreading an unfree internet and technologies that could be used to empower governments while disempowering citizens

The Industry and Policy Context for Digital Games for Empowerment and Inclusion:Market Analysis, Future Prospects and Key Challenges in Videogames, Serious Games and Gamification

The effective use of digital games for empowerment and social inclusion (DGEI) of people and communities at risk of exclusion will be shaped by, and may influence the development of a range of sectors that supply products, services, technology and research. The principal industries that would appear to be implicated are the 'videogames' industry, and an emerging 'serious games' industry. The videogames industry is an ecosystem of developers, publishers and other service providers drawn from the interactive media, software and broader ICT industry that services the mainstream leisure market in games, The 'serious games' industry is a rather fragmented and growing network of firms, users, research and policy makers from a variety of sectors. This emerging industry is are trying to develop knowledge, products, services and a market for the use of digital games, and products inspired by digital games, for a range of non-leisure applications. This report provides a summary of the state of play of these industries, their trajectories and the challenges they face. It also analyses the contribution they could make to exploiting digital games for empowerment and social inclusion. Finally, it explores existing policy towards activities in these industries and markets, and draws conclusions as to the future policy relevance of engaging with them to support innovation and uptake of effective digital game-based approaches to empowerment and social inclusion.JRC.J.3-Information Societ

Final report of work-with-IT: the JISC study into evolution of working practices

Technology is increasingly being used to underpin business processes across teaching and learning, research, knowledge exchange and business support activities in both HE and FE. The introduction of technology has a significant impact on the working practices of staff, often requiring them to work in a radically different way. Change in any situation can be unsettling and problematic and, where not effectively managed, can lead to poor service or functionality and disenfranchised staff. These issues can have a direct impact on institutional effectiveness, reputation and the resulting student experience. The Work-with-IT project, based at the University of Strathclyde, sought to examine changes to working practices across HE and FE, the impact on staff roles and relationships and the new skills sets that are required to meet these changes

Dynamic Capability Building through partnering: An Australian Mobile handset case Study

Dynamic capabilities are increasingly seen as an organisational characteristic for innovation and are regarded as a source of competitive advantage. In a quest for sustainability, service organisations are partnering with their stakeholders, and subsequently are aptly bringing innovation in services to market. Most of existing empirical research regarding dynamic capabilities seeks to define and identify specific dynamic capabilities, as well as their organizational antecedents or effects. Yet, the extent to which the antecedents of success in particular dynamic capabilities, contribute to innovation in service organisations remains less researched. This study advances the understanding of such dynamic capability building process through effective collaboration, and highlights the detailed mechanisms and processes of capability building within a service value network framework to deliver innovation in services. Deploying a case study methodology, transcribing interviews with managers and staff from an Australian telco and its partnering organisations, results show that collaboration, collaborative organisational learning, collaborative innovative capacity, entrepreneurial alertness and collaborative agility are all core to fostering innovation in services. Practical implications of this research are significant, and that the impacts of collaboration and the dynamic capabilities mentioned above are discussed in the context of a mobile handset case study

Mobile-Based Financial Management System For Micro, Small, Medium Enterprises

Micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) is a productive economic enterprises owned by individuals or business entity with net worth not more than the provisions in the legislation. The majority of MSMEs conduct financial, purchase and sale transactions, raw materials, finished goods, and the bill records, in the conventional paper-based. This raises a variety of issues such as financial calculation errors, damage or loss of paper records that could be at risk in a loss of information in it, along with the difficulty to process data into information needed in decision-making. In addition, the user’s computer literacy, is also a problem in itself, if MSMEs are required to use a computer system. Most users currently use a smartphone easier than to operate a computer. This is what underlies the development of mobile based financial management system for MSMEs. This system is expected to allow users to perform simple financial management process, management of raw materials and finished goods, as well as provide information that is useful in decision making through a smartphone. In the verification phase, the tests performed on the system that has been made, to ensure that the system is free from errors. While in the validation phase, conducted the interviewing process by users who have tried to use this system, to ensure that the systems are in accordance with the needs of the user. Based on test and interview results, it can be concluded that the mobile-based financial management system for micro, small, medium enterprises can simplify the management of financial transactions, raw materials, finished goods, and also be able to present useful information in a report that is useful as a consideration in the decision by the MSMEs