Building virtual bridges: how rural micro-enterprises develop social capital in online and face-to-face settings

In rural UK, businesses are often isolated and have much to gain from healthy networks, yet studies show that many rural business owners fail to network effectively. Information communications technologies offer new ways to network that might benefit rural businesses by expanding their reach. This study looked at online and face-to-face networking behaviour among rural micro-enterprises in Scotland in relation to the development of bonding and bridging social capital. Given the challenges of remoteness faced by many rural businesses, online networking is particularly useful in developing bridging capital, but is an unsuitable context for building the trust needed to gain tangible benefits. The article therefore highlights the importance of face-to-face interactions in developing trust and bonding social capital. Rural business owners face distinctive challenges with respect to online communications, which are explored in this article

Does the way in which a firm interacts with its network partners influence its formulation of product innovation strategies?

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Improving client transitions between SLT teams in NHSGG&C : a knowledge exchange service development project

Introduction SLT services in NHSGG&C are offered from around 37 locations, managed within community and hospital, adult and paediatric units. SLTs work in teams serving specified populations, and facilitating client transitions amongst SLT teams is a priority. Researchers at Strathclyde University interviewed 28 SLTs and 7 service-users about successful and less successful transitions between the 21 SLT teams for adults with long-term SLCN, including unplanned transitions on entering acute services, and planned transitions on leaving school (McCartney & Muir, 2015, 2016). The overarching themes facilitating or impeding transitions, showing both negative and positive examples, were SLT team properties; communication and information exchange; and outside influences on teams. Following this, a University of Strathclyde and NHSGG&C SLT services Knowledge Exchange (KE) project was jointly funded, and a 'transitions' working group representing SLTs across all client groups formed. This group extended the research analysis, and suggested further service improvements. AimThe overall aim was to promote seamless care, improving clinical outcomes and patient safety due to reduced care gaps, and enhancing patient experience due to better communication and planning of transitions. Aimed-for improvements were: improved health outcomes and anxiety reduction through receiving good information and timely access to service;improved information and knowledge of available services for SLTs and SLT managers;improved information and knowledge about SLT team services for wider professional and service-user groups.Evidence used The evidence gathered by McCartney & Muir (2015,2016) was reported at a whole-SLT team conference. A 'transitions' working group covering all clients was formed in response to a call for members, and the research themes were agreed as relevant to transitions across the range of client groups. These were then used to scaffold further discussion, alongside professional examples and experiences collected from working group members and their colleagues, and from service-users who gave feedback to the group. Main outcomesThe working group: •developed and piloted a set of procedures to be employed to effect successful transitions and report outcomes, and a form to record these; •created a detailed directory of SLT teams, the clients served and services offered, with a dissemination and update plan; •developed a procedure to flag school leavers who had been discharged from SLT services at school but needed re-referral to plan post-school SLT interventions;•arranged for electronic record sharing for discharged service users who may be later referred to another team;•prepared a summary report and plan for further development of transitions pathways, including further development of accessible and compatible electronic patient records.ConclusionIssues influencing cross-team transitions identified in a research study were further considered in a formal KE service development project. The outcome was the construction of improved transition pathways constructed to meet the needs of clients within this large, complex SLT service, which are now being implementedImplications and future directionsCollection of SLT and client views about the new pathways is being undertaken, to monitor their utility and scope further improvements. Impact on SLTs and their clientsThere is an increased understanding of and procedure for implementing transitions, leading to increased client satisfaction, improved SLT team-working and information exchange, and improved SLT job satisfaction. Key wordsTransitions, pathways, developmentThree learning outcomes:1 Cross-SLT team planning of pathways is required to secure smooth transitions between SLT teams for clients.2 Transition pathways depend upon rapid access to client records.3 There remains a need for better public information on SLT services.For Conference ProgrammeResearch identified factors impeding or facilitating transitions between SLT teams in NHSGG&C. A Knowledge Exchange project between NHSGG&C and Strathclyde University validated these across other client groups. The project developed improved transition procedures, a form to record outcomes, and a directory of services. The process and outcomes will be presented

Legitimacy and innovation in social enterprises

This article examines the interrelationship between legitimacy building efforts – the different ways in which social enterprises (SEs) conform to stakeholder expectations – and types of innovation – the different approaches by which they create social and economic value through product, process and business model innovation. Using a multi-case study research design of twenty SEs in Scotland and Romania, we find that the SEs adjusted their approach to legitimacy building depending upon the types of innovation and stakeholder involved. Also, while all SEs pursued pragmatic and moral legitimacy through conforming with their stakeholders’ expectations, the type of innovation shaped the way in which they prioritised one form of legitimacy over another to deal with the tensions involved in pursuing legitimacy with heterogeneous stakeholders. This finding underscores the importance of innovation type when explaining how SEs balance the tensions involved in trying to conform to a wide range of heterogeneous stakeholders with different expectations

Mapping the benefits and costs associated with process innovation

a b s t r a c t The successful implementation of any innovation requires an understanding of its benefits and costs. This study examines the changes in the magnitude of costs and benefits associated with technology process innovation adoption as the innovation diffuses across different industries. Using RFID as an exemplar technology, the study shows that the magnitude of benefits and costs associated with technological process innovation adoption within different industries varies as technology diffuses beyond early adopters to the early majority. During the early stages of technology evolution, the development cost, the cost of capital, ethical costs and simple direct implementation costs (in the form of the cost of tags) predominate. As a dominant design emerges the profile of costs changes with the emphasis on initiation costs, more holistic direct implementation costs and indirect implementation costs. A similar change in the emphasis of benefits is observed, with a shift from direct to indirect benefits being noticeable as the technology moves from early adopters to early majority adopters. Our findings help to explain the difficulties in consistently measuring innovation outcomes observed in the innovation implementation literature, and emphasize the need to take into consideration the stage of technology development as a significant factor that influences the realised outcomes from innovation implementation

Improving client transitions between SLT teams in NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde: A knowledge exchange service development project

Susan Lloyd - ORCID: 0000-0003-4338-3630 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4338-3630Deposited in University of Strathclyde (Strathprints) repository on 9 May 2018, available at: https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/id/eprint/63973Introduction SLT services in NHSGG&C are offered from around 37 locations, managed within community and hospital, adult and paediatric units. SLTs work in teams serving specified populations, and facilitating client transitions amongst SLT teams is a priority. Researchers at Strathclyde University interviewed 28 SLTs and 7 service-users about successful and less successful transitions between the 21 SLT teams for adults with long-term SLCN, including unplanned transitions on entering acute services, and planned transitions on leaving school (McCartney & Muir, 2015, 2016). The overarching themes facilitating or impeding transitions, showing both negative and positive examples, were SLT team properties; communication and information exchange; and outside influences on teams. Following this, a University of Strathclyde and NHSGG&C SLT services Knowledge Exchange (KE) project was jointly funded, and a 'transitions' working group representing SLTs across all client groups formed. This group extended the research analysis, and suggested further service improvements.Research funded by the Nancy Maxwell Memorial Bequesthttps://www.rcslt.org/past-events-and-webinars/rcslt-conference-201

Homogeneity and heterogeneity in information technology private standard settings - the institutional account

The IT (information technology) standardisation landscape is characterised by the increasing importance of private standard setting consortia, a greater convergence between the structural features of formal and private standard organisations, and greater diversity in standard organisations. Institutional theory has been applied to explain the convergence of standard setting bodies. This paper applies institutional theory to four studies of standards organisations, showing that there are indeed homogenising mimetic, coercive and normative forces in standard setting that lead to the convergence of emergent organisations with the institutional features, but that there are also forces promoting heterogeneity, in particular the multiplicity of institutional fields within which standards consortia operate, leading to a complex, and often conflicting, matrix of institutional norms to be accommodated

Psychosocial impact of alternative management policies for low-grade cervical abnormalities : results from the TOMBOLA randomised controlled trial

Background: Large numbers of women who participate in cervical screening require follow-up for minor cytological abnormalities. Little is known about the psychological consequences of alternative management policies for these women. We compared, over 30-months, psychosocial outcomes of two policies: cytological surveillance (repeat cervical cytology tests in primary care) and a hospital-based colposcopy examination. Methods: Women attending for a routine cytology test within the UK NHS Cervical Screening Programmes were eligible to participate. 3399 women, aged 20–59 years, with low-grade abnormal cytology, were randomised to cytological surveillance (six-monthly tests; n = 1703) or initial colposcopy with biopsies and/or subsequent treatment based on colposcopic and histological findings (n = 1696). At 12, 18, 24 and 30-months post-recruitment, women completed the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). A subgroup (n = 2354) completed the Impact of Event Scale (IES) six weeks after the colposcopy episode or first surveillance cytology test. Primary outcomes were percentages over the entire follow-up period of significant depression (≥8) and significant anxiety (≥11; “30-month percentages”). Secondary outcomes were point prevalences of significant depression, significant anxiety and procedure-related distress (≥9). Outcomes were compared between arms by calculating fully-adjusted odds ratios (ORs) for initial colposcopy versus cytological surveillance. Results: There was no significant difference in 30-month percentages of significant depression (OR = 0.99, 95% CI 0.80–1.21) or anxiety (OR = 0.97, 95% CI 0.81–1.16) between arms. At the six-week assessment, anxiety and distress, but not depression, were significantly less common in the initial colposcopy arm (anxiety: 7.9% vs 13.4%; OR = 0.55, 95% CI 0.38–0.81; distress: 30.6% vs 39.3%, OR = 0.67 95% CI 0.54–0.84). Neither anxiety nor depression differed between arms at subsequent time-points. Conclusions: There was no difference in the longer-term psychosocial impact of management policies based on cytological surveillance or initial colposcopy. Policy-makers, clinicians, and women themselves can be reassured that neither management policy has a significantly greater psychosocial cost

Biopsy and selective recall compared with immediate large loop excision in management of women with low grade abnormal cervical cytology referred for colposcopy : multicentre randomised controlled trial

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