The role of organization intermediaries in science-/techno-push versus user-centric approaches in health care innovation

PurposeHealth care ecosystems instantiate different innovation trajectories, driven either by science-/techno-push or user-centric rationales. This article focuses on organization intermediaries (OIs), respectively, active in health care ecosystems driven by science- and techno-push versus user-centric innovation processes; it aims at characterizing their operation and intervention modes. The analysis elaborates on network and content brokerage. Innovation also needs to consider various challenges associated with physical vicinity. The authors check whether territorial anchoring plays a role in brokerage, depending on the innovation model.Design/methodology/approachThe article offers an investigation of eight French organizations matching the definition of OIs and active in different areas of health care-related innovation. It follows a qualitative and abductive research protocol adhering to the precepts of grounded theory.FindingsFirst, the authors show that content and network brokerage specialize in specific activities in each innovation model. On network brokerage, the authors show that OIs foster the development of communities of practice in the science-/techno-push model, while they nurture communities of innovation in the user-centric model. Services materializing content brokerage are typical consequences of activities performed in each model. The second contribution deals with physical vicinity. In the science-/techno-push model, OIs install a physical space (the “internal” dimension) to support the development of communities of practice, while the “external” dimension copes with agglomeration effects. In the user-centric model, OIs deliver services thanks to the “internal” space; communities of innovation create a leverage effect on the physical space to operate their activities that are supported by “external” network effects.Originality/valueThe originality of the article lies in the description of the alternative roles plaid by organization intermediaries in the science-/techno-push versus user-centric approaches of innovation. In these two approaches, (contents and network) brokerage and physical vicinity play different roles.

Improving Emergency Department Throughput: Using a Pull Method of Patient Flow

Practice Problem: Overcrowding in the emergency department (ED) has been shown to increase the length of hospital stay, adversely impact patient outcomes, and reduce patient satisfaction. Problems with overcrowding and throughput are often thought of as an ED-specific inefficiency; however, the issue is indicative of hospital-wide inefficiencies. PICOT: The PICOT question that guided this project was “For ED patients admitted to the medical-surgical unit at an acute medical center, will the implementation of a pull model for patient flow, when compared to the current push model, reduce admission delay and length of stay (LOS) within six weeks of implementation? Evidence: A total of 21 studies were identified in the literature that directly support the implementation of this project. Themes from the literature include delays adversely impact patients, ED throughput is directly affected by throughput of inpatient units, and bed ahead programs can improve throughput. Intervention: The primary intervention for this project was implementing a bed ahead process for the host facility. The nurse hand-off process was also altered to improve efficiency. Outcome: The project resulted in an improvement in the ED delay time. During the project, the mean admission delay time was reduced from 184 minutes to 112 minutes. Conclusion: Using a pull methodology effectively enhances ED throughput by reducing delays in the ED admission process.

Single-Vehicle Transportation Security System of Radioactive Materials Based on Group Relationship to Prevent Loss and Theft

For loss and theft in the transport of radioactive materials by a single vehicle, this article summarizes the characteristics of “illegal movement” and establishes a security system that senses its inter-relationship and responds though the group network relationship. The security system reminds the vehicle crew through on-site response and linkage response. A failure detection method for on-site response is proposed, that is, the push model is used first, and when the measurement results are suspected, the pull model is used to further confirm the failure. The failure detection for linkage response adopts the push model. According to the different security requirements of the basic and enhanced transportation, the principle of setting the timeout threshold in the failure detection algorithm is proposed. In the enhanced type, the value is smaller, otherwise the value is larger. A specific timeout threshold quantification scheme is proposed. Experiments show that the method proposed in this article is effective.

Kayayei: A Consequence of Inadequate Family Support and Government Policy Failure

This paper focuses primarily on the current conditions of girls engaged in the ‘Kaya’ business in commercial markets in urban areas in Ghana. The paperaims at establishing the failure of the family and government in addressing the ‘kayayie’ phenomenon in Ghana. The specific objectives are to find the causes, consequences, and attempts made by government to address the phenomenon, and the way forward. The methodology for writing this paper is essentially that of a desk review of available literature and information from the Ministry of Gender Children and Social Protection (MoGCSP), supplemented with academic materials and personal observations. The paper poses the question: why has the family and government failed to address the ‘kayayei’ phenomenon in Ghana? It is positioned on Everett Lee’s Push and Push Model (1960) which explains migration as having factors that either push or pull individuals to move out of places of origin. A major finding of this paper is that budget challenges affect the government’s capacity to provide funds and sustain projects aimed at improving the welfare of kayayei. The paper does not only recommend that issues relating to ‘Kayayei’ should be prioritised but also that a national data collection exercise be embarked upon to collect accurate figures to enable government take informed decisions, and to enhance monitoring and evaluation.

ABOUT DEVELOPMENT FACTORS OF NATIONAL INNOVATIVE SYSTEMS

Для достижения необходимого уровня конкурентоспособности экономики страны, развития национальной инновационной системы, требуется идентификация и актуализация факторов, оказывающих влияние на национальную инновационную систему, ее успешное функционирование. Из множества факторов, влияющих на инновационное развитие, необходимо выделить основные и второстепенные. В статье рассматриваются основные характеристики инновационного процесса, механизмы взаимодействия субъектов экономики и науки. Рассматриваются модели эндогенного роста и имитационного инновационного развития и интенсивного инновационного роста. При рассмотрении двух подходов к природе зарождения инновации: модель technology – push и модель market-pull, авторами выдвигается и подтверждается гипотеза о том, что фактором развития национальной инновационной системы является, прежде всего, реализация технологических инноваций. Авторами доказывается, что особое внимание необходимо уделить развитию научно-технической инновационной инфраструктуры. Развитие национальных инновационных систем может иметь секторальный характер: применение соответствующей экономической политики, стимулирующей развитие науки, технологий, инноваций в отдельных секторах экономики и кластерах, в которых под влиянием различных факторов сложились наиболее благоприятные условия для развития в сфере технологий. To achieve the required level of competitiveness of the country's economy, the development of a national innovation system, identification and updating of factors that influence the national innovation system and its successful functioning is required. Of the many factors affecting innovative development, it is necessary to distinguish the main and secondary. The article discusses the main characteristics of the innovation process, the mechanisms of interaction between economic entities and science. The models of endogenous growth and imitation innovative development and intensive innovative growth are considered. When considering two approaches to the nature of the origin of innovation: the technology-push model and the market-pull model, the authors put forward and confirm the hypothesis that the factor of development of the national innovation system is, first of all, the implementation of technological innovations. The authors prove that special attention should be paid to the development of scientific and technical innovation infrastructure. The development of national innovation systems can be of a sectoral nature: the application of appropriate economic policies that stimulate the development of science, technology, innovation in individual sectors of the economy and clusters, in which under the influence of various factors the most favorable conditions for development in the field of technology have developed.

Investigación de mercados de un instrumento de análisis articular: un caso práctico

El proceso de lanzamiento de nuevos productos debe estar basado en datos del mercado que permitan realizar una estrategia de entrada y comunicación que permita minimizar al máximo la incertidumbre. El objetivo del trabajo fue realizar una investigación de mercados para establecer una estrategia de ventas y comunicación adecuada para un instrumento de análisis del tobillo. Para ello se administró un cuestionario a 138 deportistas y 130 fisioterapeutas. Los resultados sugieren realizar una estrategia de comunicación centrada en un modelo push y una estrategia de ventas concentrada, sin necesidad de segmentación por disponibilidad de pago por el producto o edad. Por lo que podemos concluir que esta investigación de mercados tuvo el resultado esperado, y ayudó a crear estrategias de marketing centradas en el encaje producto-cliente. The launch of new products process must be based on market data that let make an entrance and communication strategy that will make decrease uncertainty. The main objective of this market research is to establish a suitable sales and communication strategy for an ankle analysis instrument. To reach the objective, a questionnaire was administered to 138 athletes and 130 physiotherapist. The results support a communication strategy based in a push model and a focused sales model, without necessity of segmentation by pay availability or age. We can conclude that this market research had the result expected, and helped to the creation of the right marketing strategies focused on the product-market fit.

Push or Pull? Perishable Products with Freshness-Keeping Effort

With the gradual improvement of living standards, people’s consumption levels and habits are changing. One notable fact is that the demand for fresh products is growing steadily. Accordingly, fresh-product preservation and logistics distribution also require higher standards. Based on the practice of fresh domestic transport and preservation, for which the producer and the distributor are responsible, this paper discusses their optimal decisions taking into account the freshness-keeping effort of the distributor. Our main contributions include the derivations of the optimal decisions of the order quantity and the freshness-keeping effort in both the pull and push models, which are common in practice but have not been studied in the literature. Our analytical models lead to the result that, all other settings being the same, the distributor always puts a greater effort into preserving the product quality in the pull model than in the push model. This phenomenon results in a greater distributor’s order quantity and producer’s shipping quantity in the pull model. We also conduct a comprehensive numerical comparison of the effects of different modulating factors, including the price and the proportion and variation of surviving quantity, in these two settings. We find that the profits of the participants and the supply chain are always larger in the pull model, which indicates that the pull model is a better choice for the supply chain.

Start-Ups as One of the Elements Triggering the Development of Industry 4.0

The study analyses the significance of start-ups in the contemporary economy in the light of the industrial revolution – Industry 4.0. It presents the essence of the fourth industrial revolution and its main components that are aimed at creating intelligent value chains on the basis of dynamic, self-organising and self-optimising sociotechnical systems. Modern information and communication technologies that are increasingly integrated with production processes are used to this end. In this aspect, new digital client access channels are of key significance, as they allow departing from the traditional “push” model (pushing products into the market) and moving towards the “pull” model (production on demand). Start-ups play an important role as regards these relationships, since they operate in an ecosystem tailored to their needs and, as a result, they become more important in creating digital business models. These models, in turn, enable them to gain competitive advantage under volatile market conditions. Competition is an immanent feature of start-ups: operating under in an environment marked by high risk forces them to accept challenges that lead them to achieving market success and stable long-term development. The results of conducted analyses indicate that competition, treated as the main hazard for the operation and development of start-ups, depends on the developmental status of such enterprises and their market lifespan.