Professional service firms are relationship marketers: But does size matter?

There are few research-based insights into professional service firms’ (PSFs) contemporary marketing practices. This is unfortunate as the professional services sector is a key contributor to growth in Australian and other economies around the world. As professional services are unique in a number of ways and their operations and marketing activities inextricably intertwined, the present study investigated the extent to which PSFs practice marketing and whether this differs according to size. Depth interviews were held with thirty seven Australian senior managers in four key industries. We examined the extent of relationship marketing, conceptualised at an overall managerial level as well as four sub-practices identified in research by Coviello and colleagues. We found relationship management and interaction marketing were the most common practices, which is consistent with the inseparability concept, and that relationship management and database marketing were more common in larger firms, which is consistent with their relative resource strength

Engaging stakeholders in research to address water-energy-food (WEF) nexus challenges

The water–energy–food (WEF) nexus has become a popular, and potentially powerful, frame through which to analyse interactions and interdependencies between these three systems. Though the case for transdisciplinary research in this space has been made, the extent of stakeholder engagement in research remains limited with stakeholders most commonly incorporated in research as end-users. Yet, stakeholders interact with nexus issues in a variety of ways, consequently there is much that collaboration might offer to develop nexus research and enhance its application. This paper outlines four aspects of nexus research and considers the value and potential challenges for transdisciplinary research in each. We focus on assessing and visualising nexus systems; understanding governance and capacity building; the importance of scale; and the implications of future change. The paper then proceeds to describe a novel mixed-method study that deeply integrates stakeholder knowledge with insights from multiple disciplines. We argue that mixed-method research designs—in this case orientated around a number of cases studies—are best suited to understanding and addressing real-world nexus challenges, with their inevitable complex, non-linear system characteristics. Moreover, integrating multiple forms of knowledge in the manner described in this paper enables research to assess the potential for, and processes of, scaling-up innovations in the nexus space, to contribute insights to policy and decision making

Reconceptualizing professional service firm innovation capability: Scale development

Building on capability theory, this paper presents a reconceptualization of the innovation capability construct within a knowledge-intensive service context, specifically, professional service firms (PSFs). Employing a rigorous multi-stage scale development process we interviewed 37 participants and surveyed 463 respondents across a wide range of PSFs including lawyers, accountants, consulting engineers and management consultants. The results of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses highlight the multi-dimensional nature of innovation capability within this context. Three dimensions were identified: client-focused, marketing focused, and technology-focused innovation capability. We provide evidence of face validity, content validity, convergent and discriminant validity, nomological validity and reliability of our scale. Our scale offers a new way to measure innovation capability within PSFs and highlights the need to move beyond the narrow manufacturing mind-set focus of prior innovation research. Implications for theory and practice are discussed

Exploring trade-offs between landscape impact, land use and resource quality for onshore variable renewable energy : An application to Great Britain

The authors gratefully acknowledge the contributions of David Schlund, who carried out some of the wind analysis whilst a Student Assistant at KIT, as well as Camille Moutard, upon whose Master Thesis at DTU this article builds (Assessing the ‘acceptable’ onshore wind potential in the UK, 2019, https://findit.dtu.dk/en/catalog/2451029061). The authors also gratefully acknowledge the anonymous feedback from three anonymous referees on an earlier version of this paper. The usual disclaimer applies. Credit author statement Conceptualisation: RM, IM, JMW; Methodology: all; Software: RM, IM, JMW, JP, SP; Data curation: RM, IM, JMW, JP, SP; Writing – Original Draft: All, Writing – Review & Editing: All; Visualisation: IM, JMW, JP, SP; Supervision: RM; Project Administration: RM.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Exploring trade-offs between landscape impact, land use and resource quality for onshore variable renewable energy: an application to Great Britain

The ambitious Net Zero aspirations of Great Britain (GB) require massive and rapid developments of Variable Renewable Energy (VRE) technologies. GB possesses substantial resources for these technologies, but questions remain about which VRE should be exploited where. This study develops a transferable methodology to explore the trade-offs between landscape impact, land use competition and resource quality for onshore wind as well as ground- and roof-mounted photovoltaic (PV) systems for the first time across GB. These trade-offs constrain the technical and economic potentials for these technologies at the Local Authority level. Our approach combines techno-economic and geospatial analyses with crowd-sourced ‘scenicness’ data to quantify landscape aesthetics. Despite strong correlations between scenicness and planning application outcomes for onshore wind, no such relationship exists for ground-mounted PV. The innovative method for rooftop-PV assessment combines bottom-up analysis of four cities with a top-down approach at the national level. The results show large technical potentials that are strongly constrained by both landscape and land use aspects. This equates to about 1324 TWh of onshore wind, 153 TWh of rooftop PV and 1200–7093 TWh ground-mounted PV, depending on scenario. We conclude with five recommendations that focus around aligning energy and planning policies for VRE technologies across multiple scales and governance arenas

Exploring trade-offs between landscape impact, land use and resource quality for onshore variable renewable energy: an application to Great Britain

The ambitious Net Zero aspirations of Great Britain (GB) require massive and rapid developments of Variable Renewable Energy (VRE) technologies. GB possesses substantial resources for these technologies, but questions remain about which VRE should be exploited where. This study explores the trade-offs between landscape impact, land use competition and resource quality for onshore wind as well as ground- and roof-mounted photovoltaic (PV) systems for GB. These trade-offs constrain the technical and economic potentials for these technologies at the Local Authority level. Our approach combines techno-economic and geospatial analyses with crowd-sourced scenicness data to quantify landscape aesthetics. Despite strong correlations between scenicness and planning application outcomes for onshore wind, no such relationship exists for ground-mounted PV. The innovative method for rooftop-PV assessment combines bottom-up analysis of four cities with a top-down approach at the national level. The results show large technical potentials that are strongly constrained by both landscape and land use aspects. This equates to about 1324 TWh of onshore wind, 153 TWh of rooftop PV and 1200-7093 TWh ground-mounted PV, depending on scenario. We conclude with five recommendations that focus around aligning energy and planning policies for VRE technologies across multiple scales and governance arenas

mTOR independent alteration in ULK1 Ser758 phosphorylation following chronic LRRK2 kinase inhibition

Unc-51 Like Kinase 1 (ULK1) is a critical regulator of the biogenesis of autophagosomes, the central component of the catabolic macroautophagy pathway. Regulation of ULK1 activity is dependent upon several phosphorylation events acting to repress or activate the enzymatic function of this protein. Phosphorylation of Ser758 ULK1 has been linked to repression of autophagosome biogenesis and was thought to be exclusively dependent upon mTOR complex 1 kinase activity. In this study, a novel regulation of Ser758 ULK1 phosphorylation is reported following prolonged inhibition of the Parkinson's disease linked protein Leucine Rich Repeat Kinase 2 (LRRK2). Here, modulation of Ser758 ULK1 phosphorylation following LRRK2 inhibition is decoupled from the repression of autophagosome biogenesis and independent of mTOR complex 1 activity

Two novel missense mutations in ABCA1 result in altered trafficking and cause severe autosomal recessive HDL deficiency

AbstractExtremely low concentrations of high density lipoprotein (HDL)-cholesterol and apolipoprotein (apo) AI are features of Tangier disease caused by autosomal recessive mutations in ATP-binding cassette transporter A1 (ABCA1). Less deleterious, but dominantly inherited mutations cause HDL deficiency. We investigated causes of severe HDL deficiency in a 42-year-old female with progressive coronary disease.ApoAI-mediated efflux of cholesterol from the proband's fibroblasts was less than 10% of normal and nucleotide sequencing revealed inheritance of two novel mutations in ABCAI, V1704D and L1379F. ABCA1 mRNA was approximately 3-fold higher in the proband's cells than in control cells; preincubation with cholesterol increased it 5-fold in control and 8-fold in the proband's cells, but similar amounts of ABCA1 protein were present in control and mutant cells. When transiently transfected into HEK293 cells, confocal microscopy revealed that both mutant proteins were retained in the endoplasmic reticulum, while wild-type ABCA1 was located at the plasma membrane.Severe HDL deficiency in the proband was caused by two novel autosomal recessive mutations in ABCA1, one (V1704D) predicted to lie in a transmembrane segment and the other (L1379F) in a large extracellular loop. Both mutations prevent normal trafficking of ABCA1, thereby explaining their inability to mediate apoA1-dependent lipid efflux

Adaptively monitoring streamflow using a stereo computer vision system

The gauging of free surface flows in waterways provides the foundation for monitoring and managing the water resources of built and natural environments. A significant body of literature exists around the techniques and benefits of optical surface velocimetry methods to estimate flows in waterways without intrusive instruments or structures. However, to date, the operational application of these surface velocimetry methods has been limited by site configuration and inherent challenging optical variability across different natural and constructed waterway environments. This work demonstrates a significant advancement in the operationalisation of non-contact stream discharge gauging applied in the computer vision stream gauging (CVSG) system through the use of methods for remotely estimating water levels and adaptively learning discharge ratings over time. A cost-effective stereo camera-based stream gauging device (CVSG device) has been developed for streamlined site deployments and automated data collection. Evaluations between reference state-of-the-art discharge measurement technologies using DischargeLab (using surface structure image velocimetry), Hydro-STIV (using space–time image velocimetry), acoustic Doppler current profilers (ADCPs), and gauging station discharge ratings demonstrated that the optical surface velocimetry methods were capable of estimating discharge within a 5 %–15 % range between these best available measurement approaches. Furthermore, results indicated model machine learning approaches leveraging data to improve performance over a period of months at the study sites produced a marked 5 %–10 % improvement in discharge estimates, despite underlying noise in stereophotogrammetry water level or optical flow measurements. The operationalisation of optical surface velocimetry technology, such as CVSG, offers substantial advantages towards not only improving the overall density and availability of data used in stream gauging, but also providing a safe and non-contact approach for effectively measuring high-flow rates while providing an adaptive solution for gauging streams with non-stationary characteristics.</p