Ideator Types in Electronic Brainstorming

Large scale ideation continues to gain importance in today's economy, driving research and development. One of its best-known techniques is electronic brainstorming (EBS), which has proven to be successful at producing a large number of ideas but struggles with a high quantity of low-quality ideas. This weakness motivated the question: How can the quality of these ideas be improved? While much research on the improvement of idea quality has been done regarding what kind of inspiration is given during ideation and in what way, little has been looked into individual differences of ideators who may have different needs in terms of inspiration and therefore show different behavior when exposed to inspiration. This thesis examines whether such types of ideators with individual differences can be identified. As individual differences may have various dimensions, first, an in-situ exploratory study was conducted to identify individual differences in the context of inspirations, that can be tested for its impact on the ideation outcome in a subsequent, quantitative study. The exploratory study induced the idea of the existence of the ideator types inspiration seeker (benefiting from inspiration) and inspiration avoider (feeling distracted by inspiration). The analysis of data from previous EBS studies showed that this idea applies not only to classical group ideation but to a large-scale ideation setting as well. In order to understand the impact of the identified ideator types, a quantitative study was conducted. It aimed at replicating a recent study on the influence of inspirational stimuli (Siangliulue et al., 2015), while additionally examining different effects of these stimuli on inspiration seekers and inspiration avoiders. The analysis of the study showed that the ideator type did not seem to have an impact on the number of submitted ideas or their value. However, avoiders produced ideas with a higher maximum novelty per session than seekers across all inspiration conditions with the greatest difference between the types when no inspiration at all was provided. The results show that individual differences regarding inspirational stimuli exist and do impact the fluency and quality of ideas. Paying attention to these differences is a promising approach to improve the quality of the ideas produced in electronic innovation systems. This classification could potentially be used to create personalized inspiration systems catering to the needs of different ideator types

Using a maturity model to move student engagement practices beyond the generational approach

This paper proposes that the generational approach to conceptualising first year student learning behaviour, while it has made a very useful contribution to understanding that behaviour, can be expanded upon. The generational approach has an explicit focus on student behaviour and it is suggested that a capability maturity model interpretation may provide a complementary extension of that as it allows an assessment of institutional capability to initiate, plan, manage and evaluate institutional student engagement practices. The development of a Student Engagement, Success and Retention Maturity Model (SESR-MM) is discussed along with Australasian FYE generational data and Australian SESR-MM data

SUPPLY CHAIN INTEGRATION IN THE FOOD AND CONSUMER GOODS INDUSTRIES

The interorganizational structures necessary to implement and achieve the logistical performance improvements identified in the Efficient Consumer Response (ECR) initiative and related supply chain management concepts are difficult to develop. Firms continue to struggle to implement integrated programs and techniques, particularly with respect to changing operating structures, relationships, and mindsets to facilitate true supply chain integration. This research explores the logistical strategies and structures used by selected food and consumer goods firms to integrate their supply chains. It illustrates effective integration strategies and identifies critical success factors and barriers to successful ECR implementation. A framework is used to guide managers in developing the competencies essential to integrating the supply chain and to establishing the relationships necessary to operate in an ECR environment. The framework, entitled Supply Chain 2000, depicts supply chain value creation as achieving synchronization and coordination across four critical supply chain flows: product/service; market accommodation; information; and cash.Industrial Organization,

A FRAMEWORK FOR THE ECONOMIC EVALUATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE

Economists, especially agricultural economists, have undertaken extensive analysis of the gains of technological-based scientific research. This is in stark contrast to the efforts undertaken to understand the economic effects of environmental scientific research. Economic evaluation of environmental science is important because knowledge-based government agencies are regularly required to justify their research expenditure and set clear priorities for their research programmes. This paper addresses the gap in the literature by offering a general framework for evaluating environmental scientific research. The paper is structured around two themes central to appraisals of environmental research: (a) the non-market nature of environmental outcomes; and (b) the pathways to achieve these outcomes. Some of the more important and unique issues addressed include the links between the natural systems being researched, the benefits in terms of resulting goods and services, and their subsequent values, as well as the factors influencing the overall contribution research makes to environmental decision-making.Environmental Economics and Policy, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Consciosusness in Cognitive Architectures. A Principled Analysis of RCS, Soar and ACT-R

This report analyses the aplicability of the principles of consciousness developed in the ASys project to three of the most relevant cognitive architectures. This is done in relation to their aplicability to build integrated control systems and studying their support for general mechanisms of real-time consciousness.\ud To analyse these architectures the ASys Framework is employed. This is a conceptual framework based on an extension for cognitive autonomous systems of the General Systems Theory (GST).\ud A general qualitative evaluation criteria for cognitive architectures is established based upon: a) requirements for a cognitive architecture, b) the theoretical framework based on the GST and c) core design principles for integrated cognitive conscious control systems

CERN openlab Whitepaper on Future IT Challenges in Scientific Research

This whitepaper describes the major IT challenges in scientific research at CERN and several other European and international research laboratories and projects. Each challenge is exemplified through a set of concrete use cases drawn from the requirements of large-scale scientific programs. The paper is based on contributions from many researchers and IT experts of the participating laboratories and also input from the existing CERN openlab industrial sponsors. The views expressed in this document are those of the individual contributors and do not necessarily reflect the view of their organisations and/or affiliates