How Digital Platforms with a Social Purpose Trigger Change towards Sustainable Supply Chains

While digital platforms have been intensively researched, there has been little investigation into their role in sustainable change. Our study focuses on food supply chains and food waste and sustainable challenges. Using data collected from exploratory case studies of digital platforms and traditional actors in the food industry of a Nordic country, we categorized three major sustainable platform types: Alterationist, Redistributor, and Capability Builder. We view these as “Zebras,” a business serving profit and social purpose, and observe their emerging role in the food supply chain. We also identify key dimensions of governance and sustainability impact. With this study, we investigate how digital platforms contribute to sustainable change while also retaining their profit focus

M_LK 2.0: Leveraging Digital Technologies for Planternative Ecosystems

The agri-food industry is one of the largest contributors to our climate crisis by emitting one third of the world’s greenhouse gases. However, the industry also brings great potential to reverse climate change. For example, a plant-based diet might be the single most efficient action to combat climate change. This paper explores the plant-based dairy industry and the utilization of digital technologies. We analyze how the plant-based industry is leveraging digital technologies to revolutionize traditional market configurations. The findings show that digital technologies enable systemic change and facilitate the emergence of digital ecosystems. In particular, Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology can be seen as a digital disruptor. For example, in the plant based dairy industry, AI calculates combinations for plant-based products that mimic the flavor and texture of animal products

Human-AI Collaboration – Coordinating Automation and Augmentation Tasks in a Digital Service Company

Organizations are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence (AI) to support service development and delivery. Both AI and human action need to be organized and coordinated. Recently, the automation-augmentation paradox has been discussed in literature. Automation implies that machines take over a human task, whereas with augmentation humans and machines collaborate closely to perform different tasks. In this paper, we investigate how the collaboration between humans and AI unfolds in different organizational coordination mechanisms. Using Mintzberg’s coordination mechanism (1989), we analyzed the division of labor between human and AI in a case company offering personalized recipes of vegetarian dishes. Our findings suggest that certain primary coordination mechanisms (direct supervision and standardization of norms) need to be in place for the AI to perform properly. We find that AI can take control over service scaling and service personalization (augmentation), whereas humans are in control of service improvement (automation)

A simulation study: comparing the Markov decision process approach to the expected marginal seat revenue b heuristic under differing demand behaviour

In this article, we compare Markov Decision Process (MDP) to expected marginal seat revenue b (EMSRb) under realistic demand behaviour by implementing both in a stochastic simulation model. First come first served as well as an upper bound, serves for reference. We give a short explanation of the investigated methods, describe the simulation setup, in particular the demand model, and carry out sensitivity analyses regarding settings of the demand generator and the optimisation methods. Computational results show that MDP outperforms EMSRb in all investigated scenarios but we raise the question how much improvement is needed to justify the additional effort of the more complicated procedure.dependent demand; EMSRb; expected marginal seat revenue b; MDP; Markov decision process; revenue management; stochastic simulation; upselling; demand behaviour.

Functional Outcome of Intravenous Thrombolysis in Patients With Lacunar Infarcts in the WAKE-UP Trial

Importance: The rationale for intravenous thrombolysis in patients with lacunar infarcts is debated, since it is hypothesized that the microvascular occlusion underlying lacunar infarcts might not be susceptible to pharmacological reperfusion treatment. Objective: To study the efficacy and safety of intravenous thrombolysis among patients with lacunar infarcts. Design, Setting, and Participants: This exploratory secondary post hoc analysis of the WAKE-UP trial included patients who were screened and enrolled between September 2012 and June 2017 (with final follow-up in September 2017). The WAKE-UP trial was a multicenter, double-blind, placebo-controlled randomized clinical trial to study the efficacy and safety of intravenous thrombolysis with alteplase in patients with an acute stroke of unknown onset time, guided by magnetic resonance imaging. All 503 patients randomized in the WAKE-UP trial were reviewed for lacunar infarcts. Diagnosis of lacunar infarcts was based on magnetic resonance imaging and made by consensus of 2 independent investigators blinded to clinical information. Main Outcomes and Measures: The primary efficacy variable was favorable outcome defined by a score of 0 to 1 on the modified Rankin Scale at 90 days after stroke, adjusted for age and severity of symptoms. Results: Of the 503 patients randomized in the WAKE-UP trial, 108 patients (including 74 men [68.5%]) had imaging-defined lacunar infarcts, whereas 395 patients (including 251 men [63.5%]) had nonlacunar infarcts. Patients with lacunar infarcts were younger than patients with nonlacunar infarcts (mean age [SD], 63 [12] years vs 66 [12] years; P = .003). Of patients with lacunar infarcts, 55 (50.9%) were assigned to treatment with alteplase and 53 (49.1%) to receive placebo. Treatment with alteplase was associated with higher odds of favorable outcome, with no heterogeneity of treatment outcome between lacunar and nonlacunar stroke subtypes. In patients with lacunar strokes, a favorable outcome was observed in 31 of 53 patients (59%) in the alteplase group compared with 24 of 52 patients (46%) in the placebo group (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 1.67 [95% CI, 0.77-3.64]). There was 1 death and 1 symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage according to Safe Implementation of Thrombolysis in Stroke-Monitoring Study criteria in the alteplase group, while no death and no symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage occurred in the placebo group. The distribution of the modified Rankin Scale scores 90 days after stroke also showed a nonsignificant shift toward better outcomes in patients with lacunar infarcts treated with alteplase, with an adjusted common odds ratio of 1.94 (95% CI, 0.95-3.93). Conclusions and Relevance: While the WAKE-UP trial was not powered to demonstrate the efficacy of treatment in subgroups of patients, the results indicate that the association of intravenous alteplase with functional outcome does not differ in patients with imaging-defined lacunar infarcts compared with those experiencing other stroke subtypes.status: publishe