AN OPERATIONAL PERSPECTIVE OF THE CHANGING PROSTHETICS & ORTHOTICS LANDSCAPE

Leading the growth of a private prosthetic and orthotic (P&O) practice, as clinician and founder, I developed a unique perspective of this rapidly changing profession. Many positive influences from my early career shaped my vison toward an innovative practice model, as well as the need to elevate the standard of care through education and the use of outcome measures. As the practice model expanded, advancements were made in electronic health records (EHR), best-in-class outsource fabrication, and clinical research. To better support clinicians and patients served, an organizational structure with an executive team was built. The practice model achieved operational efficiency through documenting best practices, developing a hiring and onboarding process, and establishing key performance indicators aligned with quality clinical care. As a regional clinical care organization, the practice model seized an opportunity to reach more patients through a partnership that brought the optimal strategic and cultural fit. Bringing our innovative P&O practice model together with expertise in lean facility design, scanning, fabrication, sensor technology, product development and clinical care experience from around the world, we can advance care standards and improve the patient experience in exciting new ways. Article PDF Link: https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/cpoj/article/view/35996/28414 How To Cite: Brandt JM. An operational perspective of the changing prosthetics & orthotics landscape. Canadian Prosthetics & Orthotics Journal. 2021; Volume 4, Issue 2, No.19. https://doi.org/10.33137/cpoj.v4i2.35996 Corresponding Author: Jeffrey M. Brandt, CPOAbility Prosthetics & Orthotics, 660 West Lincoln Highway, Exton, PA 19341, USA.E-Mail: [email protected] ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7377-9516

The role of socio-economic embeddedness in promoting cooperation in the workplace: Evidence from family-owned Italian firms

Workplace relations can be defined as cooperative when actors are satisfied that both their work organization and material concerns are met. However, cooperation is difficult to achieve and especially to maintain over time. A useful point of reference is the work of Bélanger and Edwards, who argue that technology, product markets and institutional regulations are necessary preconditions. Their model is derived mainly from studies of large, publicly-listed enterprises based in particular institutional (Anglo-American) contexts. In the present article the authors examine the case of family-owned, medium-sized manufacturing enterprises in Northeast Italy. Bélanger and Edwards’ model provides some but limited theoretical purchase in explaining the high level of ongoing cooperation witnessed in the case firms. In addition, the firms’ concentrated, financially patient capital and family-ownership together with their local embeddedness increase their commitment to their community and facilitate collaboration and investments in it. The authors term these features firms’ socio-economic embeddedness.

HF/E Practitioners: Shared Experiences from Industry

There are many challenges that researchers face when adapting from academic backgrounds to industry. How do we train newcomers to this field to focus on goals in context of their business’s needs? How do we ensure impact early in their career? How do we learn to look beyond the process, methods, mindset, and story-telling, to delivering on corporations’ anticipated needs? What are the challenges when mandating practitioners’ research to translate to actionable items? How do practitioners drive impact that brings the desired value to their corporations? How does one encourage user experience (UX) as an integral process within corporations’ development plans? This panel of practitioners will share the trials and tribulations they have encountered while successfully navigating their respective Human Factors and Ergonomics (HFE) careers. This panel represents peers with diverse experiences from careers in technology, product design, human-computer interfaces (HCI), medical devices, usability testing, and human factors research.

Improving Business Performance of Getuk Nyimut SMEs in Kudus Regency by Marketing, Capital, Production Technology and Product Diversification

<p>This research used qualitative research method with phenomenological approach. The object of this research was SMEs of getuk nyimut in Kudus Regency. The increasing number of getuk nyimut’s SMEs along the area towards Muria Mountain tourism has made it difficult for SMEs to survive in the market. SMEs which are sold with simple sales locations and maintain original products have not been able to increase sales significantly. This research aimed to analyse the effect of marketing, capital, production technology and product diversification on the competitive advantage of getuk nyimut SMEs in Kudus Regency. The results of the research were obtained from 14 informants consisting of entrepreneurs of getuk nyimut, academics and local governments. The results showed SMEs of getuk nyimut have problems in some aspects such as marketing, capital, production technology and product diversification. To overcome the problems faced by participation from some parties, not only from entrepreneurs but also getuk community and local governments. The result of this research showed that marketing, capital, production technology, product diversification which are well managed can increase competitive advantage of SMEs in Kudus Regency especially getuk nyimut’s entrepreneurs.</p>

A CONCEPTUAL MODEL FOR ORGANIZATIONAL COMPETENCES

Organizational competences are one of the main assets of companies. Models of these competences would allow for systematic reasoning for exploring technological innovations, enabled by combining and transposing organizational competences. Today, the literature linking organizational competencies to engineering design and systems engineering remains limited. In particular, a generic modelling approach for organizational competencies for engineering design and systems engineering seems to be missing, although first frameworks have been proposed for specific purposes. This paper presents a generic conceptual model of organizational competences. The objective is to link technology, product, and systems development with the corresponding organizational competencies and their future evolution in order to allow for a joint design of competencies and technologies, products, or systems. The conceptual model provides the basis for a competence combination framework which allows for modeling competence combinations in an organization. Finally, we validate our conceptual model using a case study from the automotive industry.

Entrepreneurial crowdfunding backer motivations: a latent Dirichlet allocation approach

PurposeThis study furthers one’s understanding of the motivations of the crowdfunding crowd by empirically examining critical factors that influence the crowd's decision to support a crowdfunding project.Design/methodology/approachBacker's comments from a sample of the top 100 most funded technology product projects on KickStarter were collected. A latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) analysis strategy was adopted to investigate critical motivational factors. Three experts mapped those factors to the known theoretical constructs of social exchange theory (SET).FindingsAlthough backers are motivated by value, they are also motivated by far less tangible social factors including trust and a feeling of psychological ownership. Findings suggest that the crowd is far more than a passive group of investors or customers and should be viewed as participatory stakeholders. This study serves as guidance for project owners hoping to motivate the crowd and for future investigators examining backer motivations in other types of crowdsourcing projects.Research limitations/implicationsOnline chatter in the form of user-generated comments is an excellent data source for researchers to mine for value and meaning.Practical implicationsGiven strong feelings of psychological ownership, project owners should actively engage the crowd and solicit the crowd for advice and help in order to motivate them.Originality/valueThe study presents the first empirical exploration of backer motivations using LDA guided by theory and the knowledge of experts. A framework of latent motivational factors is proposed.