Customer-driven innovation within U.S. business services and its impact on firm performance

This thesis examines the innovative performance of 206 U.S. business service firms. Undeniably, a need exists for better comprehension of the service sector of developed economies. This research takes a unique view by applying a synthesis approach to studying innovation and attempts to build under a proposed strategic innovation paradigm. A quantitative method is utilised via questionnaire in which all major types of innovation are under examination including: product and service, organisational, and technology-driven innovations. Essential ideas for this conceptual framework encapsulate a new mode of understanding service innovation. Basically, the structure of this analysis encompasses the likelihood of innovation and determining the extent of innovation, while also attempting to shed light on the factors which determine the impact of innovation on performance among service firms. What differentiates this research is its focus on customer-driven service firms in addition to other external linkages. A synopsis of the findings suggest that external linkages, particularly with customers, suppliers and strategic alliances or joint ventures, significantly affect innovation performance with regard to the introduction of new services. Service firms which incorporate formal and informal R&D experience significant increases in the extent of new-to-market and new-to-firm innovations. Additionally, the results show that customer-driven service firms experience greater productivity and growth. Furthermore, the findings suggest that external linkages assist service firm performance.

Servitization within manufacturing:exploring the provision of advanced services and their impact on vertical integration

Purpose – The debate about services-led competitive strategies continues to grow, with much interest emerging around the differing practices between production and servitized operations. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to this discussion by investigating the vertical integration practice (in particular the micro-vertical integration, otherwise known as the supply chain position) of manufacturers who are successful in their adoption of servitization. Design/methodology/approach – To achieve this the authors have investigated a cross-section of four companies which are successfully delivering advanced services coupled to their products. Findings – Manufacturers who have embraced the servitization trend tend to retain capabilities in design and production, and do so because this benefits their speed, effectiveness and costs of supporting assets on advanced services contracts. Research limitations/implications – These are preliminary findings from a longer term research programme. Practical implications – Through this research note the authors seek to simultaneously contribute to the debate in the research community and offer guidance to practitioners exploring the consequences of servitization. Originality/value – Successful servitization demands that manufacturers adopt new and alternative practices and technologies to those traditionally associated with production operations. A prevailing challenge is to understand these differences and their underpinning rationale. Therefore, in this research note, the authors report on the practices of four case companies, explore the rationale underpinning these, and propose an hypothesis for the impact on vertical integration of successful servitization.

From recession to renewal:the impact of the financial crisis on public services and local government

Book review of From Recession to Renewal: The Impact of the Financial Crisis on Public Services and Local Government, Joanna Richardson (Ed). Bristol, Policy Press, 2010, ISBN 9781847426994

Leadership in high-value services for manufacturers:advanced services and their impact on vertical integration

The debate about services-led competitive strategies continues to grow with much interest emerging around the differing practices between production and servitised operations. This paper contributes to this discussion byinvestigating the vertical integration practice (in particular the micro-vertical integration otherwise known as the supply chain position)of manufacturers who are successful in their adoption of servitization.Although these are preliminary findings from a longer-term research programme, through this technical note we seek to simultaneously contribute to the debate in the research community and offer guidance to practitioners exploring the consequences of servitization. Keyword: Servitization, Product-Service Systems, Through-life Services.

Outsourced services and 'imbalanced' supply markets

In the UK public sector, procurement decisions for outsourced services are usually taken at a local level, for example by a hospital trust or a local government authority. Cumulatively, these fragmented decisions can lead to ‘imbalanced’ supply markets (too few or too many suppliers), to the detriment of both suppliers and purchasers. This paper considers what can be done to manage imbalanced supply markets resulting from the fragmented procurement of outsourced services across a sector, using the case of the English National Health Service. The types and levels of action available within the health sector are explored.

Women’s Entrepreneurship: closing the gender gap in access to financial and other services and in social entrepreneurship

This study explores differences between men and women entrepreneurs and social entrepreneurs. It explores the barriers and discriminatory effects that hinder women’s entrepreneurship, including access to finance in the European Union. The study includes four case studies covering the situation in the Czech Republic, Italy, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.

A joint approach to treating dental phobia:a re-evaluation of a collaboration between community dental services and specialist psychotherapy services ten years on

Objective To audit the records of a group of patients who had previously benefited from cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) for dental phobia.Aim To ascertain if they had returned to the use of intravenous (IV) sedation to facilitate dental treatment. Ten years ago these patients were routinely requiring IV sedation to facilitate dental treatment due to severe dental phobia.Method Sixty patients entered the original pilot project. Of those, 30 were offered CBT and 21 attended. Twenty of those patients (95.2%) were subsequently able to have dental treatment without IV sedation. In this follow-up study the electronic records of 19 of the 20 patients who had originally been successful with CBT were re-audited. Our purpose was to see if there was any record of subsequent IV sedation administration in the intervening ten years.Results Of the 19 successful CBT patients available to follow-up, 100% had not received IV sedation since the study ten years ago. This may suggest the initial benefit of CBT has endured over the ten-year period.Conclusion This study indicates that the use of CBT for patients with dental phobia proves beneficial not only in the initial treatment but that the benefits may endure over time. This results in a significant reduction in health risks to the patient from repeated IV sedation. It may also translate into significant financial savings for dental care providers. Our evidence for CBT as treatment for dental phobia suggests dental services should be implementing this approach now rather than pursuing further research. © 2011 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved.

Shared services and outsourcing : a contemporary outlook:10th Global Sourcing Workshop 2016, Val d'Isère, France, February 16-19, 2016, revised selected papers

This book constitutes the revised selected papers from the 10th Global Sourcing Workshop held in Val d’Isère, France, in February 2016. The 11 papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 47 submissions. The book offers a review of the key topics in outsourcing and offshoring of information technology and business services offering practical frameworks that serve as a tool kit to students and managers. The range of topics covered is wide and diverse, but predominately focused on how to achieve success in shared services and outsourcing. More specifically, the book examines outsourcing decisions and management practices, giving specific attention to shared services that have become one of the dominant sourcing models. The topics discussed combine theoretical and practical insights regarding challenges that industry leaders, policy makers, and professionals face or should be concerned with. Case studies from various organizations, industries and countries such as UK, Italy, The Netherlands, Canada, Australia and Denmark complete the book.

Barriers to capturing the value of advanced services and digitisation in the road transport industry

Servitization and digitization together provide significant opportunities to raise the performance and profitability of the road transport industry. To date these opportunities are only sparsely captured and the potential economic, social and environmental value is forgone. We set out to investigate the barriers to capturing the value of servitization and digitization in the road transport industry.

Optical fibre sensors with applications in gas and biological sensing

This thesis describes the study of various grating based optical fibre sensors for applications in refractive index sensing. The sensitivity of these sensors has been studied and in some cases enhanced using novel techniques. The major areas of development are as follows. The sensitivity of long period gratings (LPGs) to surrounding medium refractive index (SRI) for various periods was investigated. The most sensitive period of LPG was found to be around 160 µm and this was due to the core mode coupling to a single cladding mode but phase matching at two wavelength locations, creating two attenuation peaks, close to the waveguide dispersion turning point. Large angle tilted fibre gratings (TFGs) have similar behaviour to LPGs, in that they couple to the co-propagating cladding modes. The tilted structure of the index modulation within the core of the fibre gives rise to a polarisation dependency, differing the large angle TFG from a LPG. Since the large angle TFG couple to the cladding mode they are SRI sensitive, the sensitivity to SRI can be further increased through cladding etching using HF acid. The thinning of the cladding layer caused a reordering of the cladding modes and shifted to more SRI sensitive cladding modes as the investigation discovered. In a SRI range of 1.36 to 1.40 a sensitivity of 506.9 nm/URI was achieved for the etched large angle TFG, which is greater than the dual resonance LPG. UV inscribed LPGs were coated with sol-gel materials with high RIs. The high RI of the coating caused an increase in cladding mode effective index which in turn caused an increase in the LPG sensitivity to SRI. LPGs of various periods of LPG were coated with sol-gel TiO2 and the optimal thickness was found to vary for each period. By coating of the already highly SRI sensitive 160µm period LPG (which is a dual resonance) with a sol-gel TiO2, the SRI sensitivity was further increased with a peak value of 1458 nm/URI, which was an almost 3 fold increase compared to the uncoated LPG. LPGs were also inscribed using a femtosecond laser which produced a highly focused index change which was no uniform throughout the core of the optical fibre. The inscription technique gave rise to a large polarisation sensitivity and the ability to couple to multiple azimuthal cladding mode sets, not seen with uniform UV inscribed gratings. Through coupling of the core mode to multiple sets of cladding modes, attenuation peaks with opposite wavelength shifts for increasing SRI was observed. Through combining this opposite wavelength shifts, a SRI sensitivity was achieved greater than any single observed attenuations peak. The maximum SRI achieved was 1680 nm/URI for a femtosecond inscribed LPG of period 400 µm. Three different types of surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensors with a multilayer metal top coating were investigated in D shape optical fibre. The sensors could be separated into two types, utilized a pre UV inscribed tilted Bragg grating and the other employed a post UV exposure to generate surface relief grating structure. This surface perturbation aided the out coupling of light from the core but also changed the sensing mechanism from SPR to localised surface plasmon resonance (LSPR). This greatly increased the SRI sensitivity, compared to the SPR sensors; with the gold coated top layer surface relief sensor producing the largest SRI sensitivity of 2111.5nm/URI was achieved. While, the platinum and silver coated top layer surface relief sensors also gave high SRI sensitivities but also the ability to produce resonances in air (not previously seen with the SPR sensors). These properties were employed in two applications. The silver and platinum surface relief devices were used as gas sensors and were shown to be capable of detecting the minute RI change of different gases. The calculated maximum sensitivities produced were 1882.1dB/URI and 1493.5nm/URI for silver and platinum, respectively. Using a DFB laser and power meter a cheap alternative approach was investigated which showed the ability of the sensors to distinguish between different gases and flow rates of those gases. The gold surface relief sensor was coated in a with a bio compound called an aptamer and it was able to detect various concentrations of a biological compound called Thrombin, ranging from 1mM to as low as 10fM. A solution of 2M NaCl was found to give the best stripping results for Thrombin from the aptamer and showed the reusability of the sensor. The association and disassociation constants were calculated to be 1.0638×106Ms-1 and 0.2482s-1, respectively, showing the high affinity of the Aptamer to thrombin. This supports existing working stating that aptamers could be alternative to enzymes for chemical detection and also helps to explain the low detection limit of the gold surface relief sensor.

Open-source mapping and services for Web-based land-cover validation

Monitoring land-cover changes on sites of conservation importance allows environmental problems to be detected, solutions to be developed and the effectiveness of actions to be assessed. However, the remoteness of many sites or a lack of resources means these data are frequently not available. Remote sensing may provide a solution, but large-scale mapping and change detection may not be appropriate, necessitating site-level assessments. These need to be easy to undertake, rapid and cheap. We present an example of a Web-based solution based on free and open-source software and standards (including PostGIS, OpenLayers, Web Map Services, Web Feature Services and GeoServer) to support assessments of land-cover change (and validation of global land-cover maps). Authorised users are provided with means to assess land-cover visually and may optionally provide uncertainty information at various levels: from a general rating of their confidence in an assessment to a quantification of the proportions of land-cover types within a reference area. Versions of this tool have been developed for the TREES-3 initiative (Simonetti, Beuchle and Eva, 2011). This monitors tropical land-cover change through ground-truthing at latitude / longitude degree confluence points, and for monitoring of change within and around Important Bird Areas (IBAs) by Birdlife International and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB). In this paper we present results from the second of these applications. We also present further details on the potential use of the land-cover change assessment tool on sites of recognised conservation importance, in combination with NDVI and other time series data from the eStation (a system for receiving, processing and disseminating environmental data). We show how the tool can be used to increase the usability of earth observation data by local stakeholders and experts, and assist in evaluating the impact of protection regimes on land-cover change.

Public and private hospital services reform:an investigation in Iranian hospitals

This research aimed to present a model of efficiency for selected public and private hospitals of East Azerbaijani province of Iran by making use of DEA approach in order to recognize and suggest the best practice standards. In other words, its aim was to suggest a suitable context to develop efficient hospital systems while maintaining the quality of care at minimum expenditures. It is recommended for inefficient hospitals to make use of the followings: transferring, selling, or renting idle/unused beds; transferring excess doctors and nurses to the efficient hospitals or other health centers; pensioning off, early retirement clinic officers, technicians/technologists, and other technical staff. The saving obtained from the above approaches could be used to improve remuneration for remaining staff and quality of health care services of hospitals, rural and urban health centers, support communities to start or sustain systematic risk and resource pooling and cost sharing mechanisms for protecting beneficiaries against unexpected health care costs, compensate the capital depreciation, increasing investments, and improve diseases prevention services and facilities in the provincial and national levels.