Horizontal collaborative purchasing (HCP) has often been cited as a way for hospitals to address the challenges of the rising healthcare costs. However, hospitals do not seem to utilize horizontal collaborative purchasing on any large scale, and recent initiatives have had mixed results. Focusing on …

Literature shows that ‘new ways of learning’ cause a shift in learning settings with a growing attention to facilitating autonomy, interaction and knowledge exploration anytime, anywhere. These trends show evident similarities with developments in office environments known for as ‘new ways of working’. …

The KPN group is a major international telecom and IT company in the Benelux. KPN introduced The New Way of Working (TNWW) in 2008 in its organisation. As a result of TNWW, employees at KPN can be found in different primary office locations, even though they have to work together. To make sure employees …

The ever changing world of Internet has transformed traditional marketing and companies since the start of the World Wide Web. Every day billions of people around the world use the Internet for entertainment, shopping, search, social purposes, and much more. This behaviour is changing the way companies …

We need look no further than the use of email communication, mobile phones and cars to understand that technology has wide-ranging social consequences. What is more, designers are plainly not always aware of the social consequences of technology, despite practicing user-centred design. Email, for instance, …

Companies are on the verge to think about retention of older workers (workers above 50) in their company. Thus organisations, more specifically small and middle-sized enterprises (SMEs), are busy with the development of concepts how to make the time between 50 and retirement age of 65 or 67 for employees …

Outsourcing and offshoring provide companies with ways to achieve their business objectives better or more cost effectively or despite a shortage of specific resources. From a research point of view, outsourcing and offshoring have mostly been studied as something that large companies do, not small and …

Purpose Building services technologies such as home automation systems and remote monitoring are increasingly used to support people in their own homes. In order for these technologies to be fully appreciated by the endusers (mainly older care recipients, informal carers and care professionals), user …

The percentage of sports and leisure shoes sold worldwide is gradually increasing. However, consumers have little or no objective information on the mechanical properties of the shoes. A justified selection protocol of sports and leisure shoes based on static and dynamic shoe properties considering the …

Nokia is a large mobile phone company that is struggling to keep up with other players in the emerging smartphone market. The market is very competitive and the products have a short life cycle. Furthermore, a high level of innovativeness is required. In this report the Finnish mobile phone company has …