Narrow Results

The purpose of this paper is to describe and discuss challenges and opportunities related to the development of innovative firms' networks. The paper utilises four case studies based on interviews with representatives of young innovative firms and their present and previous network partners. The findings show that while early network partners often play several roles simultaneously, the roles of both the innovative firm and its network partners become increasingly distinct as the innovative firm develops. Such clarification of roles highlights competition between parties. For the innovative firm, the early phases are marked by innovativeness and problems related to growth and financial issues; later phases may include challenges of dependence, competition, exclusion of actors, decreased innovativeness and less innovative freedom.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss and classify the roles of customers in innovations. In literature on innovations, customers have been increasingly emphasised as a source for innovations and also in how they help develop ideas in their early phases. This paper exemplifies various customer roles in innovations through three case studies. These describe the customer as initiator, as co-producer and as inspiration for business development. Through using role theory to discuss customers in innovations, it becomes explicit how customers may play their traditional roles, add roles or transfer to new roles beyond the scope of being a customer. Furthermore, the paper shows that customer roles change during the innovation process from added or transferred towards more traditional ones.

Medical 4.0 is now emerging as the fourth medical revolution. It represents the applications of electronically supported Information Technology, microsystem, high level of automation, personalized therapy, and Artificial Intelligence (AI)-enabled intelligent devices enabled through the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT). In the current scenario, the COVID-19 pandemic has a significant effect on global healthcare, and this impact is also observed in associated fields. There is a requirement for proper telehealth management and remote monitoring systems in healthcare. Medical 4.0, if implemented, can adequately handle the ongoing situation in the medical field as it will provide applications of advanced technologies to take care of the challenges of the COVID-19 outbreak. This paper studies Medical 4.0 exclusively and also in the context of COVID-19. The paper provides a brief of the significant medical revolution that has happened so far and identifies the significant supporting technologies of Medical 4.0. It also discusses the primary capabilities of Medical 4.0 for healthcare during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. The roles of Medical 4.0 in healthcare during the COVID-19 pandemic are studied, and finally, this paper identifies 10 significant applications of Medical 4.0 in healthcare during COVID-19-type pandemics. We observe that the contemporary phase of development and mass-level production of intelligent medical devices has not happened in the same way as it has happened for smart electronic devices and application devices. Engineers will have a prominent role in taking up the healthcare challenges that can reach the common man.

This paper is an attempt to improve the understanding of the role played by professionalism in the implementation of a high-performance work system (HPWS). Based on institution theory, this paper seeks to investigate how professional norms (i.e. the competence and political stature of the actors involved) as an institutional factor affects the efficacy of the relationship interaction between human resources (HR) and line managers when implementing HPWS functions. In other words, investigating the extent to which the partnership and co-ordination between HR and line management exists based on their professional norms. Using a case study involving two Saudi banks, and conducting semistructure interview with 54 managers, results indicated that both HR professionals and unit members' political stature and competencies have significant impacts on building trust and reciprocity. Furthermore, line managers' work-type priorities and interests form another vital factor that has an implication for the level of interaction between the two players.