Disruptive innovation in the higher education sector : The case of the one planet MBA

In 2010 the MBA team at the University of Exeter in the UK faced a strategic challenge: how to differentiate and grow their MBA provision in a context in which there were major players with size, location and branding advantages. The decision was taken to adopt a radical approach, building on early discussions with the WWF (World Wildlife Fund), and to create a ‘One Planet MBA’ with the explicit mission of providing relevant management skills to people who in the future would help deal with the challenge of sustainability. The strategy was developed and framed in part through the emerging theory of disruptive innovation (Christensen, 1997) and tried to open up a distinctive market niche in a previously underserved segment of the management education marketplace. This chapter reviews the case and the learning which came from trying to deal with a number of challenges at institutional, faculty, student and market level. It offers insights for institutional players looking to align their offering more closely with the wider societal concerns as framed, for example, by the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.publishedVersio

Modelos de Negócios Sustentáveis: Uma Revisão Sistemática de Abordagens e Desafios na Manufatura

Objective: there is an ongoing need for businesses to strive to maintain ideals within environmental, economic, and social values — commonly known as the triple bottom line. Manufacturing as a sector has advanced drastically and the literature on sustainable business models in this sector has emerged. The purpose of this paper is to analyze sustainable business models in manufacturing and the approaches and challenges faced in creating and implementing them. Methods: this paper uses a systematic approach to review the literature. We identify sustainable business models and classify them within different industry areas while strategies and challenges emerge from the literature. Results: the findings indicate that there is some empirical work done in investigating the social and environmental dimensions of sustainability in manufacturing. Overall, there is an ongoing transition to sustainable business models in varying divisions of industry. However, the creation and delivery of sustainable economic value is still unexplored. Conclusions: the research provides insight to researchers and practitioners on how organizations implement sustainability while delivering value to their stakeholders. It also provides new avenues for conducting research in unexplored strategies of sustainable business modeling.Objetivo: há uma necessidade contínua de que as empresas se esforcem para manter os ideais dentro dos valores ambientais, econômicos e sociais - comumente conhecidos como triple bottom line. A manufatura como um setor avançou drasticamente e a literatura sobre modelos de negócios sustentáveis neste setor emergiu. O objetivo deste artigo é analisar modelos de negócios sustentáveis na manufatura e as abordagens e desafios enfrentados na sua criação e implementação. Métodos: este artigo usa uma abordagem sistemática para revisar a literatura. Identificamos modelos de negócios sustentáveis e os classificamos em diferentes áreas da indústria, enquanto estratégias e desafios emergem da literatura. Resultados: os resultados indicam que há algum trabalho empírico realizado na investigação das dimensões sociais e ambientais da sustentabilidade na manufatura. No geral, há uma transição contínua para modelos de negócios sustentáveis em várias divisões da indústria. No entanto, a criação e entrega de valor econômico sustentável ainda são inexploradas. Conclusões: a pesquisa fornece uma visão para pesquisadores e profissionais sobre como as organizações implementam a sustentabilidade e, ao mesmo tempo, agregam valor às suas partes interessadas. Ele também fornece novos caminhos para a realização de pesquisas em estratégias inexploradas de modelagem de negócios sustentável.publishedVersio

Changing role of users : Innovating responsibly in digital health

Despite the recognition of the importance of stakeholder inclusion into decisions about new solutions offered to society, responsible innovation (RI) has stalled at the point of articulating a process of governance with a strongly normative loading, without clear practical guidelines toward implementation practices. The principles of RI direct us to involve the user early in the innovation process. However, it lacks direction of how to involve users and stakeholders into this process. In this article, we try to understand how to empower users to become a part of innovation process though empirical cases. Based on 11 cases of firms innovating in digital health and welfare services, we look on firm practices for user integration into their innovation process, as well as how the user’s behavior is changing due to new trends such as availability of information and digitalization of services. We try to explore this question through lenses of responsible innovation in the emerging field of digital healthcare. Our findings indicate that users are not a homogenous group—rather, their willingness to engage in innovative processes are distributed across a spectrum, ranging from informed to involved and, at extreme, to innovative user. Further, we identified signs of user and stakeholder inclusion in all our cases—albeit in different degrees. The most common group of inclusion is with involved users, and firms’ practices varying from sharing reciprocal information with users, to integration through focus groups, testing or collecting a more formative feedbacks from users. Although user inclusion into design space is perceived as important and beneficial for matching with market demands, it is also a time-consuming and costly process. We conclude with debating some policy impacts, pointing to the fact that inclusion is a resource-consuming process especially for small firms and that policy instruments have to be in place in order to secure true inclusion of users into the innovation process. Our article sheds light on RI practices, and we also suggest some avenues for future research to identify more precisely whom to include, when to include and at what stage of the innovation process.publishedVersio

Innovating Responsibly—Challenges and Future Research Agendas

Innovation involves creating value from ideas, but this raises the question of for whom is the value created? Especially when there is growing recognition of global challenges such as poverty, inequality, aging population or availability of quality healthcare [1], responsible research and innovation (RRI) is suggested to govern innovation development. The core principles of RRI suggest broader stakeholder inclusion during the decisionmaking process, the anticipation of societal needs and reflection of concerns and a capacity to build flexibility into innovation wherever possible [2–4]. Aligning with these principles calls for new innovation policies [5,6] without which there may be problems; in particular the failure of institutions to include all layers of society into decision-making processes can lead to a sense of an individual powerlessness. While Sustainability 2021, 13, 3215. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13063215 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability Sustainability 2021, 13, 3215 2 of 6 several researchers claim that RRI is advantageous for businesses [14], other studies point to the negative effects of RRI on innovation processes [15]. With this background, we suggest that responsibility lies with individual actors [10] and that responsible decisions need to be undertaken at the firm level [16]. We suggest there is scope for ‘responsible innovation’ (RI) approach, which has a more fine-grained focus on the innovation itself [17,18] and may be more amenable to operationalization. In this SI we invited theoretical and empirical contributions that focus on how firms organize their entrepreneurial and innovation process to ensure responsible outcomes.publishedVersio

A Home-Based eHealth Intervention for an Older Adult Population With Food Insecurity: Feasibility and Acceptability Study

Background: Food insecurity is a global public health challenge, affecting predominately the most vulnerable people in society, including older adults. For this population, eHealth interventions represent an opportunity for promoting healthy lifestyle habits, thus mitigating the consequences of food insecurity. However, before their widespread dissemination, it is essential to evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of these interventions among end users. Objective: This study aims to explore the feasibility and acceptability of a home-based eHealth intervention focused on improving dietary and physical activity through an interactive television (TV) app among older adults with food insecurity. Methods: A pilot noncontrolled quasi-experimental study was designed with baseline and 3-month follow-up assessments. Older adult participants with food insecurity were recruited from 17 primary health care centers in Portugal. A home-based intervention program using an interactive TV app aimed at promoting healthy lifestyle behaviors was implemented over 12 weeks. Primary outcomes were feasibility (self-reported use and interest in eHealth) and acceptability (affective attitude, burden, ethicality, perceived effectiveness, and self-efficacy), which were evaluated using a structured questionnaire with a 7-point Likert scale. Secondary outcomes were changes in food insecurity (Household Food Insecurity Scale), quality of life (European Quality of Life Questionnaire with five dimensions and three levels and Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Fatigue), physical function (Health Assessment Questionnaire, Elderly Mobility Scale, grip strength, and regularity of exercise), and nutritional status (adherence to the Mediterranean diet). Results: A sample of 31 older adult individuals with food insecurity was enrolled in the 12-week intervention program with no dropouts. A total of 10 participants self-reported low use of the TV app. After the intervention, participants were significantly more interested in using eHealth to improve food insecurity (baseline median 1.0, IQR 3.0; 3-month median 5.0, IQR 5.0; P=.01) and for other purposes (baseline median 1.0, IQR 2.0; 3-month median 6.0, IQR 2.0; P=.03). High levels of acceptability were found both before and after (median range 7.0-7.0, IQR 2.0-0.0 and 5.0-7.0, IQR 2.0-2.0, respectively) the intervention, with no significant changes for most constructs. Clinically, there was a reduction of 40% in food insecurity (P=.001), decreased fatigue (mean −3.82, SD 8.27; P=.02), and improved physical function (Health Assessment Questionnaire: mean −0.22, SD 0.38; P=.01; Elderly Mobility Scale: mean −1.50, SD 1.08; P=.01; regularity of exercise: baseline 10/31, 32%; 3 months 18/31, 58%; P=.02). No differences were found for the European Quality of Life Questionnaire with five dimensions and three levels, grip strength, or adherence to the Mediterranean diet. Conclusions: The home-based eHealth intervention was feasible and highly acceptable by participants, thus supporting a future full-scale trial. The intervention program not only reduced the proportion of older adults with food insecurity but also improved participants’ fatigue and physical function.publishedVersio

Sustainable Business Models: A Systematic Review of Approaches and Challenges in Manufacturing

Objective: there is an ongoing need for businesses to strive to maintain ideals within environmental, economic, and social values — commonly known as the triple bottom line. Manufacturing as a sector has advanced drastically and the literature on sustainable business models in this sector has emerged. The purpose of this paper is to analyze sustainable business models in manufacturing and the approaches and challenges faced in creating and implementing them. Methods: this paper uses a systematic approach to review the literature. We identify sustainable business models and classify them within different industry areas while strategies and challenges emerge from the literature. Results: the findings indicate that there is some empirical work done in investigating the social and environmental dimensions of sustainability in manufacturing. Overall, there is an ongoing transition to sustainable business models in varying divisions of industry. However, the creation and delivery of sustainable economic value is still unexplored. Conclusions: the research provides insight to researchers and practitioners on how organizations implement sustainability while delivering value to their stakeholders. It also provides new avenues for conducting research in unexplored strategies of sustainable business modeling

A Home-Based eHealth Intervention for an Older Adult Population With Food Insecurity: Feasibility and Acceptability Study

Background: Food insecurity is a global public health challenge, affecting predominately the most vulnerable people in society, including older adults. For this population, eHealth interventions represent an opportunity for promoting healthy lifestyle habits, thus mitigating the consequences of food insecurity. However, before their widespread dissemination, it is essential to evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of these interventions among end users. Objective: This study aims to explore the feasibility and acceptability of a home-based eHealth intervention focused on improving dietary and physical activity through an interactive television (TV) app among older adults with food insecurity. Methods: A pilot noncontrolled quasi-experimental study was designed with baseline and 3-month follow-up assessments. Older adult participants with food insecurity were recruited from 17 primary health care centers in Portugal. A home-based intervention program using an interactive TV app aimed at promoting healthy lifestyle behaviors was implemented over 12 weeks. Primary outcomes were feasibility (self-reported use and interest in eHealth) and acceptability (affective attitude, burden, ethicality, perceived effectiveness, and self-efficacy), which were evaluated using a structured questionnaire with a 7-point Likert scale. Secondary outcomes were changes in food insecurity (Household Food Insecurity Scale), quality of life (European Quality of Life Questionnaire with five dimensions and three levels and Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Fatigue), physical function (Health Assessment Questionnaire, Elderly Mobility Scale, grip strength, and regularity of exercise), and nutritional status (adherence to the Mediterranean diet). Results: A sample of 31 older adult individuals with food insecurity was enrolled in the 12-week intervention program with no dropouts. A total of 10 participants self-reported low use of the TV app. After the intervention, participants were significantly more interested in using eHealth to improve food insecurity (baseline median 1.0, IQR 3.0; 3-month median 5.0, IQR 5.0; P=.01) and for other purposes (baseline median 1.0, IQR 2.0; 3-month median 6.0, IQR 2.0; P=.03). High levels of acceptability were found both before and after (median range 7.0-7.0, IQR 2.0-0.0 and 5.0-7.0, IQR 2.0-2.0, respectively) the intervention, with no significant changes for most constructs. Clinically, there was a reduction of 40% in food insecurity (P=.001), decreased fatigue (mean −3.82, SD 8.27; P=.02), and improved physical function (Health Assessment Questionnaire: mean −0.22, SD 0.38; P=.01; Elderly Mobility Scale: mean −1.50, SD 1.08; P=.01; regularity of exercise: baseline 10/31, 32%; 3 months 18/31, 58%; P=.02). No differences were found for the European Quality of Life Questionnaire with five dimensions and three levels, grip strength, or adherence to the Mediterranean diet. Conclusions: The home-based eHealth intervention was feasible and highly acceptable by participants, thus supporting a future full-scale trial. The intervention program not only reduced the proportion of older adults with food insecurity but also improved participants’ fatigue and physical function