How open is innovation?

This paper is motivated by a desire to clarify the definition of ‘openness’ as currently used in the literature on open innovation, and to re-conceptualize the idea for future research on the topic. We combine bibliographic analysis of all papers on the topic published in Thomson's ISI Web of Knowledge (ISI) with a systematic content analysis of the field to develop a deeper understanding of earlier work. Our review indicates two inbound processes: sourcing and acquiring, and two outbound processes, revealing and selling. We analyze the advantages and disadvantages of these different forms of openness. The paper concludes with implications for theory and practice, charting several promising areas for future research.     

How can we know a self-driving car is safe?

Self-driving cars promise solutions to some of the hazards of human driving but there are important questions about the safety of these new technologies. This paper takes a qualitative social science approach to the question ‘how safe is safe enough?’ Drawing on 50 interviews with people developing and researching self-driving cars, I describe two dominant narratives of safety. The first, safety-in-numbers, sees safety as a self-evident property of the technology and offers metrics in an attempt to reassure the public. The second approach, safety-by-design, starts with the challenge of safety assurance and sees the technology as intrinsically problematic. The first approach is concerned only with performance—what a self-driving system does. The second is also concerned with why systems do what they do and how they should be tested. Using insights from workshops with members of the public, I introduce a further concern that will define trustworthy self-driving cars: the intended and perceived purposes of a system. Engineers’ safety assurances will have their credibility tested in public. ‘How safe is safe enough?’ prompts further questions: ‘safe enough for what?’ and ‘safe enough for whom?’

     

What is novel about the Metaverse?

The Metaverse is not a radical departure. It is an incremental evolution. Previous virtual worlds, like Second Life, have laid the groundwork for the development of the Metaverse by providing valuable insights into virtual environments and social interactions. Studies of these earlier platforms contribute to a more nuanced understanding of what the Metaverse is, and what it is not. Based on studies of virtual worlds and by applying inductive processes of reflection and abstraction, we propose a framework that supports the identification of attributes that help differentiate the Metaverse from previous virtual worlds from a user experience perspective. We demonstrate the value of the framework by comparing the Metaverse to Second Life. Our framework and comparative analysis ground the current discussions about the Metaverse deeper in the established discourse on virtual worlds. They also shed light on the potential impact of the Metaverse, the special role of its immersiveness and help us to identify lessons learned that can inform the Metaverse's further development.     

What is the magnetic permeability of iron?

This paper is a review of the changes brought about in the magnetic properties of “iron” during the period 1870 to 1928 and shows the absurdity of using “iron” as a standard for comparison. The latest (1928) value for the initial permeability (μ₀) of “iron” is given as 1150, its maximum permeability (μ_max) as 61,000, and its hysteresis loss (W_h) as 300 ergs per cubic centimeter per cycle for B = 10,000 gausses. The corresponding values prior to 1900 were: μ₀ = 250 μ_max = 2600, W_h = 3,000.     

How does openness affect the importance of incentives for innovation?

When firms open up to external resources for innovation, do internal incentives still matter? This paper investigates the moderating effect of open innovation on the relationship between incentives and innovation using a survey database of British firms. Whilst both openness and incentives are positively associated with innovation efficiency, a substitution effect is found between openness and incentives. Whilst long-term incentives appear to enhance efficiency to a greater extent than short-term incentives, the substitution effect of openness is stronger regarding long-term incentives.     

Creating the KM mindset: why is it so difficult?

Knowledge Management Research & Practice - The knowledge management (KM) mindset is a precursor to a knowledge-sharing culture. It is often assumed that developing a KM mindset is somewhat...     

How to conduct External Quality Assessment Schemes for the pre-analytical phase?

In laboratory medicine, several studies have described the most frequent errors in the different phases of the total testing process, and a large proportion of these errors occur in the pre-analytical phase. Schemes for registration of errors and subsequent feedback to the participants have been conducted for decades concerning the analytical phase by External Quality Assessment (EQA) organizations operating in most countries. The aim of the paper is to present an overview of different types of EQA schemes for the pre-analytical phase, and give examples of some existing schemes. So far, very few EQA organizations have focused on the pre-analytical phase, and most EQA organizations do not offer pre-analytical EQA schemes (EQAS). It is more difficult to perform and standardize pre-analytical EQAS and also, accreditation bodies do not ask the laboratories for results from such schemes. However, some ongoing EQA programs for the pre-analytical phase do exist, and some examples are given in this paper. The methods used can be divided into three different types; collecting information about pre-analytical laboratory procedures, circulating real samples to collect information about interferences that might affect the measurement procedure, or register actual laboratory errors and relate these to quality indicators. These three types have different focus and different challenges regarding implementation, and a combination of the three is probably necessary to be able to detect and monitor the wide range of errors occurring in the pre-analytical phase.     

How is professionals’ information seeking shaped by workplace procedures? A study of healthcare clinicians

Professional work is often regulated by procedures that shape the information seeking involved in performing a task. Yet, research on professionals’ information seeking tends to bypass procedures and depict information seeking as an informal activity. In this study we analyze two healthcare tasks governed by procedures: triage and timeouts. While information seeking is central to both procedures, we find that the coordinating nurses rarely engage in information seeking when they triage patients. Inversely, the physicians value convening for timeouts to seek information. To explain these findings we distinguish between junior and expert professionals and between uncertain and equivocal tasks. The triage procedure specifies which information to retrieve but expert professionals such as the coordinating nurses tend to perform triage, which is an uncertain task, by holistic pattern recognition rather than information seeking. For timeouts, which target an equivocal task, the procedure facilitates information seeking by creating a space for open-ended collaborative reflection. Both junior and expert physicians temporarily suspend patient treatment in favor of this opportunity to reflect on their actions, though partly for different reasons. We discuss implications for models of professionals’ information seeking.     

What is the future of electrical impedance spectroscopy in flow cytometry?

More than 20 years ago, electrical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) was proposed as a potential characterization method for flow cytometry. As the setup is comparably simple and the method is label-free, EIS has attracted considerable interest from the research community as a potential alternative to standard optical methods, such as fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS). However, until today, FACS remains by and large the laboratory standard with highly developed capabilities and broad use in research and clinical settings. Nevertheless, can EIS still provide a complement or alternative to FACS in specific applications? In this Perspective, we will give an overview of the current state of the art of EIS in terms of technologies and capabilities. We will then describe recent advances in EIS-based flow cytometry, compare the performance to that of FACS methods, and discuss potential prospects of EIS in flow cytometry.