Social Entrepreneurs by Chance: How environmentalists provide a favorable context for social entrepreneurial action.

How, why, and under what conditions can social movements contribute to the development of social entrepreneurial process developed by embedded actors? Social entrepreneurship scholars are increasingly adopting social movement theories to explain how individual entrepreneurs develop their social ventures. Despite the synergies achieved when combining social movement with social entrepreneurship literature, social entrepreneurial outcomes are still mostly explained by the efforts of atomistic actors. In this paper we offer an embedded perspective on social entrepreneurship and social movement, which enables us to examine their complementary features in a sustainable development project in a Dutch region. While contentious activity did not produce the desired effect in our case, we found that the various stages of social entrepreneurship processes (opportunity identification, evaluation, formalization, and exploitation) through which embedded actors develop their ventures were especially enhanced by joint knowledge creation between movements and embedded actors, the construction of producer identities, and direct business support. This study contributes to the social movement literature by showing how movements can bring about change by providing embedded actors with producers’ identities and hands-on support. The literature on social entrepreneurship is also complemented, as we show how motives and behaviors to engage in social entrepreneurship are shaped by social movements, in combination with changes in the degree of embeddedness

Towards Cancer Hybrid Automata

This paper introduces Cancer Hybrid Automata (CHAs), a formalism to model the progression of cancers through discrete phenotypes. The classification of cancer progression using discrete states like stages and hallmarks has become common in the biology literature, but primarily as an organizing principle, and not as an executable formalism. The precise computational model developed here aims to exploit this untapped potential, namely, through automatic verification of progression models (e.g., consistency, causal connections, etc.), classification of unreachable or unstable states and computer-generated (individualized or universal) therapy plans. The paper builds on a phenomenological approach, and as such does not need to assume a model for the biochemistry of the underlying natural progression. Rather, it abstractly models transition timings between states as well as the effects of drugs and clinical tests, and thus allows formalization of temporal statements about the progression as well as notions of timed therapies. The model proposed here is ultimately based on hybrid automata, and we show how existing controller synthesis algorithms can be generalized to CHA models, so that therapies can be generated automatically. Throughout this paper we use cancer hallmarks to represent the discrete states through which cancer progresses, but other notions of discretely or continuously varying state formalisms could also be used to derive similar therapies.Comment: In Proceedings HSB 2012, arXiv:1208.315

App-based treatment for female urinary incontinence:evidence-based eHealth as an alternative to care-as-usual

App-based treatment for female urinary incontinence. Urinary incontinence affects 1 in 3 women, and only few of them ask for help. Pelvic floor muscle training and bladdertraining are effective, however they are also costly and adherence varies. An app-based treatment could offer a solution. There are already over 100 incontinence-apps available, but research into their effectiveness is scarce. It is important to know if an app is as effective as care-as-usual, before women start downloading and using it. We developed an app-based treatment for stress-, urgency- and mixed type female urinary incontinence. We compared the app with care-as-usual in a randomized controlled trial and we performed interviews. This thesis shows that an app-based treatment is at least as effective as care-as-usual and cheaper. We personalized treatment-decision as we predicted per patient, based on her characteristics, which of both treatment options would lead to the most improvement of incontinence. Interviews with women with high- and low treatment effect showed that factors that act as facilitators and barriers are very personal. In general, adherence is the most important factor for success. Furthermore, factors that were expected to facilitate (for example graphs and reminders) for some women actually had an opposite effect. App-based treatment for urinary incontinence offers a viable alternative to care-as-usual. Based on these results, the URinControl-app is now freely available for all women in the Netherlands (urincontrol.online). This was subsidized by ZonMw and part of further research into implementation. Scientific results are translated into illustrations, they are available in the thesis and on the website www.urincontrol.nl

Master plan : Greenport Shanghai Agropark

Greenport Shanghai is the innovative and ambitious exploration of how Chinese metropolitan agriculture will jump into the 21st century: circular, sustainable and profitable

a dyadic perspective

Sahhar, Y., Loohuis, R., & Henseler, J. (2021). Towards a circumplex typology of customer service experience management practices: a dyadic perspective. Journal of Service Theory and Practice, 31(3), 366-395. https://doi.org/10.1108/JSTP-06-2020-0118Purpose: The purpose of this study is to identify the practices used by service providers to manage the customer service experience (CSE) across multiple phases of the customer journey in a business-to-business (B2B) setting. Design/methodology/approach: This study comprises an ethnography that investigates in real time, from a dyadic perspective, and the CSE management practices at two service providers operating in knowledge-intensive service industries over a period of eight months. Analytically, the study concentrates on critical events that occurred in phases of the customer journey that in some way alter CSE, thus making it necessary for service providers to act to keep their customers satisfied. Findings: The study uncovers four types of service provider practices that vary based on the mode of organization (ad hoc or regular) and the mode of engagement (reactive or proactive) and based on whether they restore or bolster CSE, including the recurrence of these practices in the customer journey. These practices are conveniently presented in a circumplex typology of CSE management across five phases in the customer journey. Research limitations/implications: This paper advances the research in CSE management throughout the customer journey in the B2B context by showing that CSE management is dynamic, recurrent and multifaceted in the sense that it requires different modes of organization and engagement, notably during interaction with customers, in different phases of the customer journey. Practical implications: The circumplex typology acts as a tool for service providers, helping them to redesign their CSE management practices in ongoing service and dialogical processes to keep their customers more engaged and satisfied. Originality/value: This paper is the first to infuse a dyadic stance into the ongoing discussion of CSE management practices in B2B, in which studies to date have deployed only provider or customer perspectives. In proposing a microlevel view, the study identifies service providers' CSE management practices in multiple customer journey phases, especially when the situation becomes critical.publishersversionpublishe

The influence of different framing strategies in the social construction of a niche: ambidexterity in developing a bio resource market

Which framing strategy helps developing a regional bio resource market? Building on literature interested in the social construction of niches in the renewable energy technology, we examine how the enactment of different framing strategies (diagnostic, prognostic, and motivational) influence how a niche is shielded against competing bio-resource niches, how mobilization and learning unfolds, and pre-determine the strategies underlying the empowerment of a niche. In a comparative study, we evaluate two regional bio-resource projects aimed to develop a sustainable bio resource market for small scale combustion in the Netherlands in the period 2009 until 2014. In analyzing the first project, we found that a diagnostic framing strategy that emphasizes the sustainable character of a project is important for shielding a bio-resource project as well as developing exposure and legitimacy. However, it constrains mobilization and learning processes and requires a radical transformation of existing logics and practices. In the second project, we found that prognostic and motivational framing strategies are useful to spur nurturing in terms of mobilization and learning because such strategies provide a rational for action especially when such strategies account for the individual economic and image benefits of participating parties. Overall, our study suggest that a diagnostic frame is important to justify a bio-resource project but should not overshadow the processes that support the nurturing and empowerment of a bio resource niche. This papers aims to contribute to scholarship interested in the social construction of renewable energy niches by showing how framing strategies influence the development of niches. Furthermore, we offer interested renewable energy practitioners a taxonomy of framing strategies that can be used for shielding, nurturing, and empowering their ideas

GraphEx:Visualizing and managing customer experience in its multidimensionality

Sahhar, Y., Loohuis, R., & Henseler, J. (2023). GraphEx: Visualizing and Managing Customer Experience in its Multidimensionality. Journal of Service Theory and Practice, 33(7), 94-115. https://doi.org/10.1108/JSTP-03-2023-0077Purpose – Customer experience has become a vital premise in service theory and practice. Despite researchers’ and managers’ growing interest, the customer experience remains a complex and multidimensional concept that is challenging for service providers to understand. This study aims to graph the experience in its multidimensionality by categorizing and proposing matching practices for service marketing managers to channel and foster customer experiences in customer journeys. Design/methodology/approach – To support the predominantly conceptual nature of the study, an abductive approach underpinned by the authors’ vast experience in academia and practice, real-life autohermeneutic phenomenological experience tales and theory on customer experience and its management by providers is deployed to craft a model that addresses and highlights the multidimensionality of experience. Findings – This study introduces the “GraphEx” (Graph Experience) hip-pocket model, which expresses customer experience in a simple yet multidimensional fashion and offers managerial practices to foster the customer’s experience. The model contains three dimensions (valence, type of experience and visceral intensity) and five managerial practices (urgent patchwork, restoring, activating and stimulating desire, bolstering and safeguarding appreciation). Originality/value – This study contributes to the service literature by creating granularity in the multidimensionality of customer experience. This study advances customer experience management in practice by providing service managers with novel possibilities for understanding and managing customer experiences intelligently. This can help service providers streamline and innovate customer experience strategies during customer journeys and foster customer loyalty.publishersversionpublishe