The Innovation-to-Occupations Ontology: Linking Business Transformation Initiatives to Occupations and Skills

The fast adoption of new technologies forces companies to continuously adapt their operations making it harder to predict workforce requirements. Several recent studies have attempted to predict the emergence of new roles and skills in the labour market from online job ads. This paper aims to present a novel ontology linking business transformation initiatives to occupations and an approach to automatically populating it by leveraging embeddings extracted from job ads and Wikipedia pages on business transformation and emerging technologies topics. To our knowledge, no previous research explicitly links business transformation initiatives, like the adoption of new technologies or the entry into new markets, to the roles needed. Our approach successfully matches occupations to transformation initiatives under ten different scenarios, five linked to technology adoption and five related to business. This framework presents an innovative approach to guide enterprises and educational institutions on the workforce requirements for specific business transformation initiatives.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figures, Camera-ready version in ACIS 202

Is operational research in UK universities fit-for-purpose for the growing field of analytics?

Over the last decade considerable interest has been generated into the use of analytical methods in organisations. Along with this, many have reported a significant gap between organisational demand for analytical-trained staff, and the number of potential recruits qualified for such roles. This interest is of high relevance to the operational research discipline, both in terms of raising the profile of the field, as well as in the teaching and training of graduates to fill these roles. However, what is less clear, is the extent to which operational research teaching in universities, or indeed teaching on the various courses labelled as analytics , are offering a curriculum that can prepare graduates for these roles. It is within this space that this research is positioned, specifically seeking to analyse the suitability of current provisions, limited to master s education in UK universities, and to make recommendations on how curricula may be developed. To do so, a mixed methods research design, in the pragmatic tradition, is presented. This includes a variety of research instruments. Firstly, a computational literature review is presented on analytics, assessing (amongst other things) the amount of research into analytics from a range of disciplines. Secondly, a historical analysis is performed of the literature regarding elements that can be seen as the pre-cursor of analytics, such as management information systems, decision support systems and business intelligence. Thirdly, an analysis of job adverts is included, utilising an online topic model and correlations analyses. Fourthly, online materials from UK universities concerning relevant degrees are analysed using a bagged support vector classifier and a bespoke module analysis algorithm. Finally, interviews with both potential employers of graduates, and also academics involved in analytics courses, are presented. The results of these separate analyses are synthesised and contrasted. The outcome of this is an assessment of the current state of the market, some reflections on the role operational research make have, and a framework for the development of analytics curricula. The principal contribution of this work is practical; providing tangible recommendations on curricula design and development, as well as to the operational research community in general in respect to how it may react to the growth of analytics. Additional contributions are made in respect to methodology, with a novel, mixed-method approach employed, and to theory, with insights as to the nature of how trends develop in both the jobs market and in academia. It is hoped that the insights here, may be of value to course designers seeking to react to similar trends in a wide range of disciplines and fields

Digital and life sciences skills in D2N2: labour market intelligence report for Nottingham College

This report assesses the national, regional and local labour market in the digital and life sciences sectors in support of a proposal to deliver a Skills Accelerator Programme as part of the Strategic Development Fund (SDF). To do so, the report includes an extensive review of the relevant research and policy literature and a detailed analysis of regional and local data. We examine demand from the perspective of the employer and not the potential student. That is, the report is concerned with the demand for labour and not the demand for courses

How people successfully get in and get on in the UK broadcast television industry: implications for skills policymakers

This thesis examines the working lives of early career media workers in the UK broadcast television industry (BTI) during the 2010 decade. It is a continuation and builds on the 1990s British Film Institute (BFI) study of media workers and labour studies by the Centre on Skills, Knowledge and Organisational Performance. This research presents an area of work that has not been looked at to date and gives a new perspective on working in the media by focusing on a cohort of workers, aged 30 and under, deemed successful ‘hot shots’ by their managers and peers. The research takes two lines of enquiry. First, it is an audit of the BTI working environment in the 2010s. It reviews data from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) to question the claim from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) that the UK creative industries are engines of growth in gross value added (GVA) and jobs in the UK economy. The work offers an interpretation of new evidence in its critique of the data on the creative industries. The findings refute the case for growth in terms of GVA and workforce numbers. Second, the empirical study presents and analyses fieldwork data from two groups. The 25 informants from across the BTI offer the employers’ view. A series of in-depth interviews with 31 respondents supported by an online self-evaluation questionnaire examines the workers’ perspective. The questionnaire is based on the career development model devised for this study. Specifically, it identifies common attributes of successful young media workers. The attribute-composition model of professional identity based on expertise theory, derived from the fieldwork, is a synthesis of ideas not made before in this field. This research questions the role and effectiveness of the skills policy community in the creative industries. The findings challenge policymakers’ argument that high-skills lead to high skilled jobs. Marginalising the vocational pathway offered by universities and further education colleges with sector skills councils (SSCs) has done little to enhance career progression for workers in high skills industries. Furthermore, these SSCs have failed to increase the creative industries’ diversity or inclusivity

Audience engagement and monetisation of creative content in digital environments: a creative SME perspective.

Creative SMEs face a number of limitations that can hamper their ability to develop and establish original content in digital environments. These limitations include a lack of resources, struggles for visibility, limits of engagement, audience pressures and free culture. The constant pressures from growing competition and fragmented audiences across digital environments amplify these limitations, which means SMEs can struggle in these highly competitive, information rich platforms. Research sought to explore how creative SMEs may circumvent these limitations to strengthen their positioning in digital environments. Two areas of focus are proposed to address these issues; firstly a study and development of audience engagement, and secondly an analysis of the monetisation options available for digital content and their links to engagement. With a focus on audience engagement the theoretical grounding of this work is based within the engagement literature. Through this work a new Dynamic Shaping of Engagement is developed and used as a foundation of analysis, which informs the development of practical work in this study. Findings present insight into the methods and practices that can help creative SMEs circumvent their limitations and strengthen their positioning within digital environments. However, the findings continue to emphasise the difficulties faced by creative SMEs. These companies are hampered by paradoxes that arise due to their resource limitations that limit their ability to gain finances, develop audiences and produce content. It is shown that those with the ‘key’ to audience attention are the ones best positioned to succeed in these environments, often at the expense of the original content creators themselves. Therefore, visions of a democratic environment, which levels the playing field for SMEs to compete, are diminished and it is argued digital environments may act to amplify the positioning of established media. Therefore, greater support is required to aid these companies, which must look beyond short-term solutions that focus on one-off projects, towards broader, more long-term support. This support can then enhance creative SMEs ability to not only deliver, but also establish and potentially monetise content in digital environments, which in turn can make continued production more sustainable

A Future for Public Service Television

Television is on the verge of both decline and rebirth. Vast technological change has brought about financial uncertainty as well as new creative possibilities for producers, distributors, and viewers. This volume from Goldsmiths Press examines not only the unexpected resilience of TV as cultural pastime and aesthetic practice but also the prospects for public service television in a digital, multichannel ecology. The proliferation of platforms from Amazon and Netflix to YouTube and the vlogosphere means intense competition for audiences traditionally dominated by legacy broadcasters. Public service broadcasters—whether the BBC, the German ARD, or the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation—are particularly vulnerable to this volatility. Born in the more stable political and cultural conditions of the twentieth century, they face a range of pressures on their revenue, their remits, and indeed their very futures. This book reflects on the issues raised in Lord Puttnam's 2016 Public Service TV Inquiry Report, with contributions from leading broadcasters, academics, and regulators. With resonance for students, professionals, and consumers with a stake in British media, it serves both as historical record and as a look at the future of television in an on-demand age

Influence policing: Strategic communications, digital nudges, and behaviour change marketing in Scottish and UK preventative policing

Influence policing is an emerging phenomenon: the use of digital targeted ‘nudge’ communications campaigns by police forces and law enforcement agencies to directly achieve strategic policing outcomes. While scholarship, civil society, and journalism have focused on political influence and targeting (often by malicious actors), there has been next to no research on the use of these influence techniques and technologies by governments for preventative law enforcement. With grant funding from SIPR and support from The Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research (SCCJR), we have studied how this novel mode of police practice is developing through an in-depth study of Police Scotland’s strategic communications unit and a wider systematic overview of these campaigns across the UK

Precarious Creativity: Working Lives in the British Independent Television Production Industry

Broadcasting is undergoing a period of profound change. Convergence and digitisation are reshaping production and consumption. In the multi-channel environment, public service broadcasting (PSB) finds itself under threat, as traditional funding models are threatened by increased choice, new modes of delivery, and, for commercial public service broadcasters, a reduction in advertising revenue. In the UK, the industry base has undergone significant restructuring over the last twenty-five years. This has occurred following the creation of Channel 4 in 1982, and the emergence of the independent television production sector (ITPS) , coupled with a steady process of employment and industry deregulation. Labour in the sector is now predominantly freelance (Skillset, 2006a, 2007a), and increasingly concentrated in the ITPS, largely in London but with growing production bases at a regional level. Furthermore, the independent sector itself is reshaping, from a sector predominantly made up of small 'one-man band' lifestyle companies, to the more commercially facing, vertically integrated 'super-indies' which now dominate the sector (Mediatique, 2004). In this context of transformation, this thesis is an investigation of creative labour in the ITPS in the UK, focused specifically on factual television production. Based on extended qualitative research of a group of twenty individuals over a six-month period, and supplementary interviews with company managers, the research examines the nature of work and production for individuals in this industry. The sample is cross-generational and includes a wide range of production positions, from researcher to series producer. The research focuses on the consequences of casualisation and risk for television workers, exploring how they manage their careers in the face of rampant insecurity. Drawing on Sennett's (1998) method of narrative sociology, the thesis explores the personal consequences of flexible labour markets (of which television is exemplary) on working individuals. It focuses on the subjective response of individuals to working in this area of the cultural economy, exploring the attractions of cultural labour despite the ontological insecurity and (self)-exploitation which often accompanies such work. It examines the emergence of 'network sociality' (Wittel, 2001) in the creative labour market, and the implications of this for recruitment and access to the television industry. Finally, it utilises the notion of 'craft' (Sennett, 2006), in order to explore the impact of flexible accumulation on television workers' production value

The Creation of Creativity in Radio: How does radio as an industry define, practice and negotiate creativity?

This dissertation explores the way that creativity manifests within the everyday labour of practitioners at radio stations in the United Kingdom. In the United Kingdom, the radio industry is framed in policy as a creative industry by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) (1998; 2001; 2015). However, understanding and defining creativity is complex and exploring the creativity of radio specifically is an under-researched area within radio studies. This research synthesises debates around creativity and radio to consider how radio as an industry defines, practices and negotiates creativity. This study responds to the challenge of researching creativity by introducing a combined and multi-level methodological approach to study creativity within the radio industry. Using interviews, autobiographical analysis, and an exploration of work and policy documents I explore individual, workplace, organisational and industry framings of radio’s creativity in community, commercial and public service (BBC) radio in the United Kingdom. To analyse this data, I draw on theoretical frameworks from both creative industries and radio research to explore the way that creativity manifests within the specificities of radio work and production. Exploring radio practitioners in a variety of roles, I argue that to some extent radio workers can be framed as creative workers. However, these individuals also face distinct elements of work that are unique to roles in the radio industry, and this has implications for understanding creativity in a specific radio context. These workers use certain phrases when articulating their notions of creativity in radio, and these align with the paradox of radio that results from the routinised production of new, but familiar outputs. Therefore, radio’s creativity manifests in a particular way through the practices and processes that individuals undertake when making radio. These practices are shaped by the wider radio environment which influences the conceptual space that radio practitioners have to be creative. I suggest that the nature of radio’s creativity can only be understood as tied to the specificities of the radio workplace, radio practice and the wider radio environment. Using this notion opens up possibilities for future research to further advance academic understandings of radio’s creativity