A randomised feasibility study to investigate the impact of education and the addition of prompts on the sedentary behaviour of office workers

Abstract Background Office workers have been identified as being at risk of accumulating high amounts of sedentary time in prolonged events during work hours, which has been associated with increased risk of a number of long-term health conditions. There is some evidence that providing advice to stand at regular intervals during the working day, and using computer-based prompts, can reduce sedentary behaviour in office workers. However, evidence of effectiveness, feasibility and acceptability for these types of intervention is currently limited. Methods A 2-arm, parallel group, cluster-randomised feasibility trial to assess the acceptability of prompts to break up sedentary behaviour was conducted with office workers in a commercial bank (n = 21). Participants were assigned to an education only group (EG) or prompt and education group (PG). Both groups received education on reducing and breaking up sitting at work, and the PG also received hourly prompts, delivered by Microsoft Outlook over 10 weeks, reminding them to stand. Objective measurements of sedentary behaviour were made using activPAL monitors worn at three time points: baseline, in the last 2 weeks of the intervention period and 12 weeks after the intervention. Focus groups were conducted to explore the acceptability of the intervention and the motivations and barriers to changing sedentary behaviour. Results Randomly generated, customised prompts, delivered by Microsoft Outlook, with messages about breaking up sitting, proved to be a feasible and acceptable way of delivering prompts to office workers. Participants in both groups reduced their sitting, but changes were not maintained at follow-up. The education session seemed to increase outcome expectations of the benefits of changing sedentary behaviour and promote self-regulation of behaviour in some participants. However, low self-efficacy and a desire to conform to cultural norms were barriers to changing behaviour. Conclusions Prompts delivered by Microsoft Outlook were a feasible, low-cost way of prompting office workers to break up their sedentary behaviour, although further research is needed to determine whether this has an additional impact on sedentary behaviour, to education alone. The role of cultural norms, and promoting self-efficacy, should be considered in the design of future interventions. Trial registration This study was registered retrospectively as a clinical trial on ClinicalTrials.gov (ID no. NCT02609282 ) on 23 March 2015

Beyond BRIC: offshoring in non-BRIC countries: Egypt – a new growth market: an LSE Outsourcing Unit report January 2009

This report was commissioned as an independently researched report by Hill & Knowlton, acting for the Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) of Egypt. The global offshore outsourcing market for IT and business services exceeded $55 billion USD in 2008, and some estimates suggest an annual growth rate of 20% over the next five years. It is common to talk of Brazil, Russia, India and China as the BRIC inheritors of globalisation, offering both offshore IT and back-office services, and also, with their vast populations and developing economies, huge potential markets. This report, however, which was commissioned by the Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) of Egypt, set out to investigate to what extent, within this context, non-BRIC countries could also be seen to be potential inheritors of globalisation. A representative sample of 14 countries drawn from Central and Eastern Europe, the African Mediterranean, the Americas and Asia Pacific, where the main active non-BRIC economies can be found, provided the focus for the systematic comparison of their relative competitiveness from which a benchmarking index could be developed. Setting out the long-term context and trends through which these countries are emerging as IT and business service 'hot spots', and identifying the global sourcing trends and pressures that are likely to develop in the next five years and their implications for these non-BRIC countries, the report turns in its final chapters to consider Egypt in more detail to assess its current positioning, the future path that it can take, and the challenges it faces as well as actions needed for it to get there

Defining best practices in sustainable urban regeneration projects

This paper aims at analysing three international sustainable urban regeneration projects. The analysis is based in the application of ten urban sustainability indicators from two sustainability assessment tools (Sustainable Building Tool for Urban Planning in Portugal - SBToolPT-UP and International Sustainable Building Tool for Urban Planning– SBTool Urban) that are being developed at national and international level, respectively. Through this analysis it is intend to define the best practices for sustainable urban design, which allows to define the benchmarks of both tools and to support designers in the processes of decision making which goal is to optimize the sustainability of new or regenerated urban areas

An object-oriented model for strategic analysis

Strategic analysis is a domain in which human expertise and experience are key factors. This is the reason that attempts have been made to automate the strategic analysis by expert systems. This article means to capture the expert knowledge to be used in an expert system with the focus on an object-oriented model of the domain. Based on this OO model an expert system can be developed that is able to analyze a corporate enterprise with several Strategic Business Units each of which carrying more than one product at a time. Such an expert system would be able to analyze the various synergetic aspects

Managing stakeholder knowledge for the evaluation of innovation systems in the face of climate change

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to frame the stakeholder-driven system mapping approach in the context of climate change, building on stakeholder knowledge of system boundaries, key elements and interactions within a system and to introduce a decision support tool for managing and visualising this knowledge into insightful system maps with policy implications. Design/methodology/approach – This methodological framework is based on the concepts of market maps. The process of eliciting and visualising expert knowledge is facilitated by means of a reference implementation in MATLAB, which allows for designing technological innovation systems models in either a structured or a visual format. Findings – System mapping can contribute to evaluating systems for climate change by capturing knowledge of expert groups with regard to the dynamic interrelations between climate policy strategies and other system components, which may promote or hinder the desired transition to low carbon societies. Research limitations/implications – This study explores how system mapping addresses gaps in analytical tools and complements the systems of innovation framework. Knowledge elicitation, however, must be facilitated and build upon a structured framework such as technological innovation systems. Practical implications – This approach can provide policymakers with significant insight into the strengths and weaknesses of current policy frameworks based on tacit knowledge embedded in stakeholders. Social implications – The developed methodological framework aims to include societal groups in the climate policy-making process by acknowledging stakeholders’ role in developing transition pathways. The system map codifies stakeholder input in a structured and transparent manner. Originality/value – This is the first study that clearly defines the system mapping approach in the frame of climate policy and introduces the first dedicated software option for researchers and decision makers to use for implementing this methodology

The role of environmental accounting in organizational change: An exploration of Spanish companies

Critique originated by earlier theorization of environmental accounting, as a way of building environmentalist visibility of business, led Gray et al., to study environmental accounting in the dynamics of organizational change. They concluded that environmental accounting is being used to ``negotiate the conception of the environment'' by companies that have not significantly changed. In order to investigate whether Gray et al.'s model and conclusions apply to a different cultural context, we have conducted nine case studies in Spain. We found that Spanish organizations are not truly changing their conventional perception of the environment, even in those cases where generalized structural and organizational changes are taking place. Moreover, the use of environmental accounting is coupled with an attempt to negotiate and control the environmental agenda

A Personal Construct Psychology based investigation into a Product Service System for renting pushchairs to consumers

This is the peer-reviewed version of the following article: Maurizio Catulli and Nick Reed, ‘A Personal Construct Psychology Based Investigation Into a Product Service System for Renting Pushchairs to Consumers’, Business Strategy and the Environment, Vol. 26(5): 656-671, February 2017, which has been published in final form at DOI: 10.1002/bse.1944. Under embargo. Embargo end date: 1 February 2019. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving.This paper explores how consumers construe a Product Service System (PSS) for the supply of pushchairs. A PSS is a system of products, services, networks of actors and supporting infrastructure designed to be more sustainable than traditional business models. PSS face an implementation challenge in consumer markets and this case based research explores some reasons for this. The study applies Personal Construct Psychology (in particular, Repertory Grid Technique) which has not previously been used in relation to researching PSS. Results suggest that PSS might be difficult to implement in relation to pushchairs. Renting pre-used equipment may meet resistance because of a perceived risk that acquisition by this means might endanger infants. Participants in the study construed buying new products from specialist infant product shops as being the best way of acquiring them. Accordingly PSS providers may, for instance, have to implement certified quality assurance processes in order to reassure consumers.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio