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Imaging and Assessing Mobile Technology for Development
No full textImaging and assessing mobile technology for development (M4D) means understanding the use of appropriate technologies and services, and how they directly or indirectly address socio-economic challenges. This book adopts various perspectives to identify the obstacles to affordable digital technologies in order to enable, enhance, and effect development.The book plays on the tension between success reports and optimistic projections, on one hand, and empirical evidence of technological belly splash, on the other hand. The areas covered include infusion of service education in computing education, the Rwandan establishment of African Centres of Excellence to promote the development of appropriate technology, the metaverse's realisation in a mobile network-enabled "metaversity", and difficulties detected when evaluating digitisation of distance learning, students' security awareness, dissemination of agricultural information, and mobile payment. The decolonisation of community-based media and attempts to step outside the mobile network and Internet are also covered
Leading successful digital transformations
No full textWhile a brain surgeon’s mastery of the scalpel is key to success in the operating room, it can also be an asset when doing non-medical tasks, such as preparing sashimi for dinner. But scalpel skills offer little advantage when dealing with patient stress or changing tires or diapers. In other words, the usefulness of surgical skills depends on the context in which they are deployed. And the same can be said about some leadership skills, especially in the digital age. So why is context often overlooked when organizations seek a digital transformation leader
Evaluating progress towards implementation of the European HTA Regulation: Insights generated from the European Access Academy's multi-stakeholder survey
No full textObjectives We conducted a multi-stakeholder survey to assess stakeholders' perceptions of the progress made towards the implementation of the European Regulation on Health Technology Assessment (EU HTA R) and to identify and prioritize the remaining challenges for implementation. Methods Using two iterative Delphi cycles, an exploratory, semi-quantitative survey was developed to identify how stakeholders 1) experienced preparatory activities of the Regulation, and 2) prioritized remaining challenges for successful implementation. The survey was distributed among the network of the European Access Academy and via social media to ensure coverage of key stakeholders. Descriptive analyses were performed on quantitative response items, and relative importance was calculated for ranking items. Free-text responses supplemented participants' answers to quantitative questions. Results N = 61 responses were received from N = 15 countries including Global/ EU-wide institutions (Patients and Patients’ representatives: 7; Clinicians’ representatives: 5; Regulators: 3; Health Technology Developers (HTDs): 20; HTA bodies: 10; Payers: 7; Policy Makers: 2; Academic representatives: 7). The majority of respondents were aware of preparatory activities, with 74 % (N = 45) observing the drafting of Guidance Documents and 64 % (N = 39) noting the establishment of the Coordination Group. Respondents ranked the success of preparatory activities neutral with a slight tendency towards a positive ranking. Key challenges were Member States' readiness for Joint Clinical Assessments, HTA capacity/ capability constraints, and the applicability/ feasibility of the methodological framework. Conclusions This study identified the key remaining challenges for the successful establishment of the EU HTA process. Key findings emphasize the readiness of national systems and procedures as pivotal factors. Balancing operational efficiency with strategic objectives, including the development of a European Value Framework, is imperative for harnessing the full potential of the joint HTA process and enhancing patient access to innovative technologies on a pan-European scale. Public interest In January 2022, the European Union (EU) adopted the European Regulation on Health Technology Assessment (HTA). By harmonizing HTA practices and promoting collaboration across Member States, the joint procedure as set out in the regulation aims to improve efficient use of resources and ensure long-term sustainability of EU-wide HTA cooperation. Close to reaching the half-way mark of the preparation phase in mid-2023, we conducted a multi-stakeholder survey to assess perceptions of the progress made towards implementation of a joint procedure and to prioritize remaining challenges. The responses indicated a neutral to positive perception of the preparatory activities (i.e., establishing a coordination group and a stakeholder network, and creating guidance documents). Respondents prioritized challenges related to the readiness of Member States, limitations in HTA capacity and capability, and applicability of the assessment methods. Further research is needed to define targeted strategies for specific stakeholder groups to effectively address the identified challenges.(Pfizer Inc, AbbVie Inc, Sanofi Aventis US LLC, Novartis AG, Bayer AG, F Hoffmann La Roche AG
Illusion of Inclusion: Examining Trickle-Down Effects of the Board Gender Quota Regulation in India
No full textIn this study, I explore the consequences of the board gender quota in India, the first developing country to implement such a policy. Proponents of board gender quotas argue that such policies ought to undo the gendered organization by bolstering up appointments of women in lower ranks, starting with senior executive ranks just below the board (i.e., positive trickle-down effects). Challenging these normative arguments, I argue that deeply rooted gender structures in organizations, coupled with the nature of the board gender quota in India, may hinder such effects. After analyzing 184 of the largest publicly listed firms in India during 2007–2017, I found that the board gender quota led to an increase in the appointment of women to corporate boards, with a smaller positive effect for boards with higher numbers of female directors before the quota. However, firms reduced appointments of women to senior executive ranks below the board after the announcement of the regulation. Hence, it seems that women’s access to board positions through a quota resulted in redoing the gendered organization by reducing female appointments at senior executive levels
A prediction model for ranking branch-and-bound procedures for the resource-constrained project scheduling problem
No full textThe branch-and-bound (B&B) procedure is one of the most widely used techniques to get optimal solutions for the resource-constrained project scheduling problem (RCPSP). Recently, various components from the literature have been assembled by Coelho and Vanhoucke (2018) into a unified search algorithm using the best performing lower bounds, branching schemes, search strategies, and dominance rules. However, due to the high computational time, this procedure is only suitable to solve small to medium-sized problems. Moreover, despite its relatively good performance, not much is known about which components perform best, and how these components should be combined into a procedure to maximize chances to solve the problem. This paper introduces a structured prediction approach to rank various combinations of components (configurations) of the integrated B&B procedure. More specifically, two regression methods are used to map project indicators to a full ranking of configurations. The objective is to provide preference information about the quality of different configurations to obtain the best possible solution. Using such models, the ranking of all configurations can be predicted, and these predictions are then used to get the best possible solution for a new project with known network and resource values. A computational experiment is conducted to verify the performance of this novel approach. Furthermore, the models are tested for 48 different configurations, and their robustness is investigated on datasets with different numbers of activities. The results show that the two models are very competitive, and both can generate significantly better results than any single-best configuration
Proceedings of the European Marketing Academy
No full textSustainability is increasingly an active agenda topic for politicians and businesses. Yet a view on how consumer definitions and awareness are evolving is often missing. In response to this research opportunity, online panel respondents from seven advanced economies (France, UK, Germany, Belgium, Sweden, Netherlands, Australia, N =5620) were surveyed in two cross-sectional waves. Substantially more consumers8 report knowing what sustainability is in 2020 (vs 2019). Factor analytical results show that consumer definitions of sustainability center around three key dimensions: the traditional social (e.g., fair wages) and environmental (e.g., recycling) ones, but also a ‘naturalness’ dimension (e.g., avoiding use of pesticides and GMOs). This observation may offer inspiration to update the traditional two-dimensional (social vs. environmental) structure of sustainability advanced in previous research. We discuss observed country differences and offer theoretical and managerial implications
Year Report 2022 (research in the energy sector)
No full textThe 2022 Year Report for the PhD project between an energy business partner and Vlerick Business School highlights the research activities executed in 2022. The research began with an extensive literature review to explore the role of machine learning in analyzing customer service interactions. Emotion Recognition in Conversations (ERC) was identified as a key area of focus, and concept-based emotion detection frameworks were evaluated. Initial studies highlighted the challenges posed by inconsistent emotion labeling in existing datasets, prompting an investigation into dataset enrichment techniques. Mid-year, experiments were conducted to compare machine learning-based approaches with lexicon-based emotion detection methods. The results demonstrated the advantages of data-driven models for recognizing emotional cues in service conversations. Additionally, the research explored the integration of customer feedback with conversational data to develop predictive models for customer experience metrics. Toward the end of the year, efforts shifted toward establishing an emotion recognition pipeline and refining dataset annotation strategies to improve model accuracy and generalizability. Future research will build upon these foundations to enhance predictive modeling in service interactions
The Routledge Companion to Improvisation in Organizations
No full textIn today's increasingly complex, rapidly changing world, organizations are challenged to not only adapt to VUCA environments but also exploit new market niches. Even so, they continue to be regarded as machine-like and deterministic instead of living, evolving systems. In this chapter, we examine organizations in relation to the tension between determinism and emergence. Using the example of improvisational theater, we introduce different forms in which emergence is enabled in social systems. In contrast to predefined scenes enacted in classical theater, scenes in improvisational theater require other conditions, mindsets, and competences to unfold. From the perspective of those theatrical forms, we investigate managerial concepts and their potential to enable emergence. In closing, we summarize essential aspects of how improvisation can increase the adaptability and innovative capacity of organizations
