Search results for: verbal development
15987 Evaluation of Top-down and Bottom-up Leadership Development Programs in a Finnish Company
Authors: Kati Skarp, Keijo Varis, Juha Kettunen
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The purpose of this paper is to examine and evaluate the top-down and bottom-up leadership development programs focused on human capital that improve the performance of a company. This study reports on the external top-down leadership development program supported by a consulting company and the internal participatory action research of the bottom-up program. The sickness rate and the lost time incident failure rate decreased and the ideas produced for cost savings improved, leading to increased earnings during the top-down program. The estimated cost savings potential of the bottom-up program was 3.8 million euro based on the cost savings of meeting habits, maintenance practices and the way of working in production. The results of this study are useful for those who plan and evaluate leadership development and human capital productivity consultation programs to improve the performance of a company.Keywords: leadership, development, human resources, company, indicators, evaluation
Procedia PDF Downloads 32515986 Comparative Sustainability Assessment as a Gauge of Sustainable Community Development in South Africa
Authors: B. B. van Schalkwyk, C. B. Schoeman, E. J. Cilliers
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High levels of urbanisation and the lingering effects of Apartheid have caused South African municipalities to experience difficulties in planning for sustainability and, more specifically, sustainable community development. Sustainable community development is needed in order to achieve more integrated and sustainable towns and cities with an improved living environment and a higher quality of life. Due to this, sustainable community development is of particular relevance to South Africa. Although policies and legislation exist at international, national and local level, there is a lack of suitable planning instruments to guide sustainable community development. Tlokwe Local Municipality is researched in this paper as study area to test and develop planning instruments for sustainable community development. A comparative assessment matrix of sustainability indicators is linked to Multi-Criteria Analysis (MCA) and applied to identify the themes and sub-themes applicable to sustainability in which intervention is required to improve the sustainability rating of the municipality. The result of the comparative sustainability assessment is that the Tlokwe Local Municipality is considered to be relatively sustainable, performing overall better than the three spheres of government against which it was measured. It is recommended that municipalities use the comparative assessment matrix method to determine its level of sustainability when developing respective sectorial plans (SDFs, ITPs, EMFs and IDPs). Areas in which there is a lack of sustainability are highlighted and can consequently be addressed through intervention strategies. The comparative assessment matrix method is a valuable planning instrument with which to achieve sustainable community development.Keywords: sustainable community development, sustainability indicators, comparative sustainability, urbanisation, development planning, urban management
Procedia PDF Downloads 34515985 Lean Product Development and Sustainability: A Systematic Literature Review
Authors: João P. E. De Souza, Rob Dekkers
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Whereas lean product development aims at maximising customer value whilst optimising product and process design, the question arises whether this approach includes sustainability. A systematic literature review reveals that methods associated with this conceptualisation of product development are suitable for including sustainability, but that the criteria for the triple-bottom line need to be included when using these methods; this is particularly the case for social aspects. Thus, the main finding is that not new methods should be developed, but that existing methods should be more inclusive towards all aspects of sustainability and product life-cycle thinking.Keywords: lean product development, product life-cycle, sustainability, systematic literature review, triple bottom-line
Procedia PDF Downloads 16315984 Economies of Scale of Worker's Continuing Professional Development in Selected Universities in South- South, Nigeria
Authors: Jonathan E. Oghenekohwo
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The return to scale constitutes a significant investment index in the determination of the quantum of resources that is deployed in investment decision on worker’s continuing professional development. Such investment decision is always predicted on the expected outcomes to the individual, institution and the society in context. Several investments in the development of human capacity on the job have been made, but the return to the scale of such seems not to have been correlated positively with the quantum of resources invested in terms of productivity and performance among workers in many universities. This paper thus found out that, despite the commitment and policy instrument to avail workers the right of continuing professional development, the multiplier effects are not evident in diligence, commitment, honesty, dedication, productivity and improved performance on the job among most administrative staff in Nigerian Universities This author, therefore concludes that, given the policy on the right of workers to get trained on-the job, the outcomes of such training must reflect on the overall performance indices, otherwise, institutions should carry out a forensic analysis of the types of continuing professional development programmes that workers participate in, whether or not, they are consistent with the vision and mission of the institutions in terms of economies of scale of workers professional development to the individual, institution and the nation in context.Keywords: continuing, professional development, economies of scale, worker’s education, administrative staff
Procedia PDF Downloads 32415983 A Comprehensive Study on Quality Assurance in Game Development
Authors: Maria Komal, Zaineb Khalil, Mehreen Sirshar
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Due to the recent technological advancements, Games have become one of the most demanding applications. Gaming industry is rapidly growing and the key to success in this industry is the development of good quality games, which is a highly competitive issue. The ultimate goal of game developers is to provide player’s satisfaction by developing high-quality games. This research is the comprehensive survey of techniques followed by game industries to ensure games quality. After analysis of various techniques, it has been found that quality simulation according to ISO standards and play test methods are used to ensure games quality. Because game development requires cross-disciplined team, an increasing trend towards distributed game development has been observed. This paper evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of current methodologies used in game industry and draws a conclusion. We have also proposed quality parameters which can be used as a heuristic framework to identify those attributes which have high testing priorities.Keywords: game development, computer games, video games, gaming industry, quality assurance, playability, user experience
Procedia PDF Downloads 53115982 Observations of Conformity in the Health Professions
Authors: Tanya Beran, Michelle Drefs, Ghazwan Altabbaa, Nouf Al Harbi, Noof Al Baz, Elizabeth Oddone Paolucci
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Although research shows that interprofessional practice has desirable effects on patient care, its implementation can present challenges to its team members. In particular, they may feel pressured to agree with or conform to other members who share information that is contrary to their own understanding. Obtaining evidence of this phenomenon is challenging, as team members may underreport their conformity behaviors due to reasons such as social desirability. In this paper, a series of studies are reviewed in which several approaches to assessing conformity in the health care professions are tested. Simulations, questionnaires, and behavior checklists were developed to measure conformity behaviors. Insights from these studies show that a significant proportion of people conform either in the presence or absence of others, express a variety of verbal and nonverbal behaviors when considering whether to conform to others, may shift between conforming and moments later not conforming (and vice versa), and may not accurately report whether they conformed. A new method of measuring conformity using the implicit bias test is also discussed. People at all levels in the healthcare system are encouraged to develop both formal and informal.Keywords: conformity, decision-making, inter-professional teams, simulation
Procedia PDF Downloads 16715981 Green Hospitality Industry: An Experience Study with Game Theory in China
Authors: Min Wei
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The green hotel provides the products/services consistent with the full utilization of resources, protecting the ecological environment conducive to customers’ requirements and health. In order to better develop the green hospitality industry, this paper applies the game theory to analyze the intrinsic relationship and balanced interests among the stakeholders including government, hotels, and tourists during green hospitality development. Based on the hypothesis in game theory, this paper tries to construct a linkage mechanism in stakeholders, by which a theoretical basis for the interests’ balance can be realized. By using game theory and constructing a game model including tourists, hotels and government, this paper analyzes the relationship of the various stakeholders involved in the green hospitality development, and subsequently proposes the development model of green hospitality industry. On the one hand, this paper applies game theory to construct a green hotel development model and provides a theoretical basis for the interest balance of stakeholders based on theoretical perspective. On the other hand, the current development of green hospitality industry is still in initial phase, and the outcome of this research tries to guide tourists to form a green awareness and to establish the concept of green consumption for hotel development, so that green hotel products/services are provided. In addition, this paper provides a basis for decision making in the relevant government departments so that the interests of all stakeholders are promoted and cooperative game between stakeholders is established, for which the sustainable development of green hotels is achieved. The findings indicate that the process of achieving green hospitality industry development is to maximize the whole interests of stakeholders.Keywords: green hospitality, game theory, stakeholders, development model
Procedia PDF Downloads 13115980 Innovation Policy and Development of Creative Industries: Case Study of Lithuanian Animation Industry
Authors: Tomas Mitkus, Vaida Nedzinskaitė-Mitkė
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The objective of this study is to identify and explore how adequate is modern innovation support mechanism to developed creative industries. We argue that current development and support strategy for creative industries, although acknowledge high correlation between innovation and creativity, do not seek to improve conditions to promote systematic innovation development in the creative sector. Using the Lithuanian animation industry as a case study, this paper will examine innovation contribution to creativity and, for that matter, the competitiveness of animation enterprises. This paper proposes insights that contribute to theoretical and practical discussions on how creative profile companies build national and international competitiveness through innovations. The conclusions suggest that development of creative industries could greatly benefit if policymakers would implement tools that would encourage creative profile enterprises to invest in to development of innovation at a constant rate.Keywords: creative industries, innovation policy, innovation, management
Procedia PDF Downloads 37015979 Promoting Innovation Pedagogy in a Capacity Building Project in Indonesia
Authors: Juha Kettunen
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This study presents a project that tests and adjusts active European learning and teaching methods in Indonesian universities to increase their external impact on enterprises and other organizations; it also assesses the implementation of the Erasmus+ projects funded by the European Union. The project is based on the approach of innovation pedagogy that responds to regional development needs and integrates applied research and development projects into education to create capabilities for students to participate in development work after graduation. The assessment of the Erasmus+ project resulted in many improvements that can be made to achieve higher quality and innovativeness. The results of this study are useful for those who want to improve the applied research and development projects of higher education institutions.Keywords: higher education, innovations, social network, project management
Procedia PDF Downloads 28515978 The Attitudinal Development of Nigerian Children: The Role of Social Studies in the 21st Century
Authors: Agogo Agnes
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An attempt was made in the paper to x-ray the progressive and systematic development of the Nigerian child vis-a-vis the role of social studies as a discipline in the 21st century. An indepth explanation was equally made with regards to the commitment and role of teachers in both cognitive and social modification of the attitude of the Nigerian child.Keywords: social studies, systematic development, social skills, vis-a-vis
Procedia PDF Downloads 41915977 The Development of Communication and Mobile Phones in Iran: The Role of Internet in Smart Mobile Phones in Social and Human Development and Social Mobility of Different Classes of Iranian Women
Authors: Zahra Tork
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Before the spread of the Internet and the use of mobile phones, women were generally far from society and many restrictions were applied to them, but after the spread of the Internet and the cultural and social changes brought about by it, women in society got a new one and many restrictions regarding them disappeared; As we can see today, many women, like men, have a high social base, they earn for themselves, they can travel alone, stay out late at night, take personal and family photos or videos on virtual pages. Publish themselves (while before this, showing or publishing photos of women was considered dishonorable or indecent). In this article, an attempt is made to examine the effect of the internet on mobile phones and virtual social networks in changing beliefs, norms and social values and their relationship with the social mobility of women and the effect of these factors on social and human development be paid. For this reason, social and human development is discussed first, and then the role of the media in development is explained, and finally, the social mobility of women is discussed. Since the purpose of this study is to better understand the social mobility of Iranian women through the development of the Internet in mobile phones, a qualitative study using focus groups has been adopted. The results of this research indicated that the Internet has caused changes in the value and cultural system of the Iranian people, and women have also redefined their roles and identity. In this new definition, many of the past restrictions have disappeared and women have gained the same freedoms as men. Finally, these factors (change in values and norms and redefinition of the role of women) joined hands and caused the social mobility of women in Iran.Keywords: development of communication in Iran, development of mobile phones, development of the Internet, women's social group, social mobility
Procedia PDF Downloads 7315976 Level Of Gross Motor Development And Age Equivalents Of 9-Year-Old Children
Authors: Ahmad Hashim, Masri Baharom
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The purpose of the study is to identify the age group of children 9 who have experienced delays in gross motor development. Instrument used in this study is Test Gross Motor Development / TGMD-2 (Ulrich, 2000) which was adopted at the international level. Gross motor development data were obtained by video recording (Sony (DRC-SR42 with a 40x optical zoom capability, and software Ultimate Studio 14) on locomotor and manipulative skills. A total n = 192 persons, children of 9 years (9.30 ± .431) at Sekolah Kebangsaan Mutiara Perdana, Bayan Lepas, Penang were involved as subjects. Children age 9 years experienced delays AELS (4.61 ± .69), AEMS (5:52 ± .62) and GMDQ (7.26 ± .2.14). The findings based on descriptive rating indicated that the performance of children age 9 years acquired low levels of AELS, MSS, AEMS and very low in LSS and GMDS.Keywords: gross motor development score, locomotor standard score, age equivalent locomotor score, manipulative standard score, age equivalent manipulative score
Procedia PDF Downloads 40815975 Linguistic Codes: Food as a Class Indicator
Authors: Elena Valeryevna Pozhidaeva
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This linguistic case study is based on an interaction between the social position and foodways. In every culture there is a social hierarchical system in which there can be means to express and to identify the social status of a person. Food serves as a class indicator. The British being a verbal nation use the words as a preferred medium for signalling and recognising the social status. The linguistic analysis reflects a symbolic hierarchy determined by social groups in the UK. The linguistic class indicators of a British hierarchical system are detectable directly – in speech acts. They are articulated in every aspect of a national identity’s life from preferences of the food and the choice to call it to the names of the meals. The linguistic class indicators can as well be detected indirectly – through symbolic meaning or via the choice of the mealtime, its class (e.g the classes of tea or marmalade), the place to buy food (the class of the supermarket) and consume it (the places for eating out and the frequency of such practices). Under analysis of this study are not only food items and their names but also such categories as cutlery as a class indicator and the act of eating together as a practice of social significance and a class indicator. Current social changes and economic developments are considered and their influence on the class indicators appearance and transformation.Keywords: linguistic, class, social indicator, English, food class
Procedia PDF Downloads 39915974 Gender and Change of Socio-Cultural Behavior: A Case Study of Sarangkot VDC of Kaski District
Authors: Padam Pandey, Madhu Sudan Dhakal
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As a consequence of being a patrimonial society, most of the Nepalese women work inside the house and take care their children. Men are always regarded to be responsible for managing fund to fulfill the family requirement. Outgoing men of 25-35 for employment in foreign country is a common practice. In the absence of man, women aged of 20-45 have to be active in society. The responsibility of women is not only looking after inside the house but also leading the society. This study analysis gender aspect of household work and involvement in the society. This study shows that women are leading 56% different organizations in the society where 51% women spend more than 54% time in community development work. The involvement of man in the house work has significantly increased. The women leadership has succeeded to show the transparency in all the community development activities. It shows a model of social harmony, solidarity, and unity in the Sarankot Village Development Committee. Social behavior change towards women is a milestone of sustainable community development. This study recommends that the equal participation is essential to sustain community development.Keywords: gender, women leadership, social harmony, unity sustainable development
Procedia PDF Downloads 25715973 Recycling Strategies of Construction Waste in Egypt
Authors: Hanan Anwar
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All systems recycle. The construction industry has not only become a major consumer of natural materials along with a source of pollution. Environmental integrated production, reusing and recycling is of great importance in Egypt nowadays. Governments should ensure that the technical, environmental and economic feasibility of alternative systems is considered and is taken into account before construction starts. Hereby this paper focuses on the recycle of building materials as a way for environment protection and sustainable development. Environmental management integrates the requirements of sustainable development. There are many methods used to reduce waste and increase profits through salvage, reuse, and the recycling of construction waste. Sustainable development as a tool to continual improvement cycle processes innovations to save money.Keywords: environment, management, reuse, recycling, sustainable development
Procedia PDF Downloads 31215972 Evolution of Performance Measurement Methods in Conditions of Uncertainty: The Implementation of Fuzzy Sets in Performance Measurement
Authors: E. A. Tkachenko, E. M. Rogova, V. V. Klimov
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One of the basic issues of development management is connected with performance measurement as a prerequisite for identifying the achievement of development objectives. The aim of our research is to develop an improved model of assessing a company’s development results. The model should take into account the cyclical nature of development and the high degree of uncertainty in dealing with numerous management tasks. Our hypotheses may be formulated as follows: Hypothesis 1. The cycle of a company’s development may be studied from the standpoint of a project cycle. To do that, methods and tools of project analysis are to be used. Hypothesis 2. The problem of the uncertainty when justifying managerial decisions within the framework of a company’s development cycle can be solved through the use of the mathematical apparatus of fuzzy logic. The reasoned justification of the validity of the hypotheses made is given in the suggested article. The fuzzy logic toolkit applies to the case of technology shift within an enterprise. It is proven that some restrictions in performance measurement that are incurred to conventional methods could be eliminated by implementation of the fuzzy logic apparatus in performance measurement models.Keywords: logic, fuzzy sets, performance measurement, project analysis
Procedia PDF Downloads 38115971 The Impact of Illegal Firearms Possession, Limited Security Staff and Porosity of Border on Human Security in Ipokia Local Government Area, Ogun State
Authors: Ogunmefun Folorunsho Muyideen, Aluko Tolulope Evelyn
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One of the trending menaces faced in the world today is centered on the porosity of borders and proliferation of illegal weapons among the state members without the state authorizations. The proliferation of weapons along porous borders remains a germane and unsolvable question among developed and developing nations due to crisis degenerated from the menace (loss of lives, properties, traumatization, civil unrest and retrogressive economic development). A mixed method was adopted while the survey method was used for communities’ selection (Oke-Odan, Ajilete, Illaise, Lanlate) at Ipokia Local Government as a sample frame. Multi-stage sampling was employed to break down the site into wards, streets, and different house numbers before randomizing administration of the questionnaires using face to face method, while purposive sampling was used for collecting verbal information through an in-depth interviews method. The population size for the site is 150.398, while 399 was the sample size derived from the use of Yamane sample size formula. After retrieval of structured questionnaires, 346 were found useful, while 10 percent (399) of the quantitative instruments was summed to 30 participants that were interviewed using the in-depth interviews technique. The result of the first hypothesis shows a composite relationship between the variables tested (independents and dependent). The result indicated that the porosity of the border, illegal possession of guns, and limited security staff jointly predispose insecurity among the residents of the selected study site. The result of the second hypothesis deciphers that the illegal gun possession (independent) variable predict business outcome among the residents of the study site because sporadic gun shoot will regress the business activities in the study area. The result of third result indicated that the independent (porosity of borders) variable predict social bonding network because a high level of insecurity will destroy the level of trust in the communication among the residents of the study area. The last questions give comprehensive meaning to one of the recommendations derived using content systematic analysis, which explains that out of 30 participants interviewed, 18 submitted individual involvement in monitoring communities will solve the problem, 7 out of 30 opines that governmental agents are to be trained for effective combat, 3 participants out 30 submits that the fight is for both government and the citizens while 2 participants out of 30 claimed that there must be an agreement between Nigerian and neighbouring countries on border security. International donors must totally control the sales of weapons to unauthorized personalities. Criminal cases must be treated with deterrence measures and target hardened procedures through decoying and blending, stakeout, and sting tactics.Keywords: human security, illegal weapons, porous borders, development
Procedia PDF Downloads 17715970 Perceived Effectiveness of Academic Leadership Development Program in the Digital Age: The Contribution of Motivational Factors and Peer Interaction
Authors: Dinh Ngoc Bich Khuyen, Chang Zhu
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Due to the radical changes and complexities within academic institutions, leadership development addressed to academic leaders in the digital age has become more important. Unfortunately, studies on outcome assessment of leadership development and its related factors have not been evaluated rigorously. The current study investigated the contribution of peer interaction and two subscales of motivation to the effectiveness of the leadership development programs perceived by learners in a diverse context. Of 73 participants, the majority of workshop attendees were junior and middle-level leaders from both European universities and Chinese universities who participated in the leadership development programs organized under an EU project. PLS-SEM was employed to validate the instrument and answer the research questions, respectively. The finding reveals that self-growth and peer interaction significantly contribute to perceived effectiveness, whereas networking motivator shows non-significant impact. Besides, the new contribution of these findings is to show that peer interaction fully mediates the relationship between self-growth and perceived effectiveness. To this end, the findings highlight the importance of dispositional factors regarding the quality of the leadership development program in HE contexts and the potential of such program to enhance the knowledge and capacities of academic leaders regarding university governance and leadership.Keywords: higher education, leadership development, effectiveness, middle-level leaders, junior-level leaders
Procedia PDF Downloads 18115969 A Balance Sheet On The Value Of Aid Funding And Delivery: Ingo To Ngo Pathways In Nigeria
Authors: Glory Okereke
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Several research on the value of aid funding and delivery have emphasized the importance of partnership and accountability in implementing development projects between INGOs and NGOs. Despite challenges in accessing detailed information on their impact due to the extension of information they are willing to provide, this pathway has been seen as an alternative approach and more beneficial than aid funding and delivery through the state. This paper tends to analyze this relationship using liberal and international relations theories to understand the positive and negative aspects of INGO to NGO pathway as a better alternative to economic development. Looking through a broad spectrum of economic development, the paper focuses on Nigeria and analyzes existing empirical literature of INGOs with local NGOs with a comparative analysis of bilateral aid relations with the Nigerian government.Keywords: NGOS, development, Nigeria, liberal theories, aid
Procedia PDF Downloads 3615968 Training Engineering Students in Sustainable Development
Authors: Hoong C. Chin, Soon H. Chew, Zhaoxia Wang
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Work on sustainable developments and the call for action in education for sustainable development have been ongoing for a number of years. Training engineering students with the relevant competencies, particularly in sustainable development literacy, has been identified as an urgent task in universities. This requires not only a holistic, multi-disciplinary approach to education but also a suitable training environment to develop the needed skills and to inculcate the appropriate attitudes in students towards sustainable development. To demonstrate how this can be done, a module involving an overseas field trip was introduced in 2013 at the National University of Singapore. This paper provides details of the module and describes its training philosophy and methods. Measured against the student learning outcomes, stipulated by the Engineering Accreditation Board, the module scored well on all of them, particularly those related to complex problem solving, environmental and sustainability awareness, multi-disciplinary team work and varied-level communications.Keywords: civil engineering education, socio-economically sustainable infrastructure, student learning outcome, sustainable development
Procedia PDF Downloads 34615967 The Analysis of the Protection of Historical and Cultural Heritage in the Development of Cities: Taking Quzhou Ancient City as an Example
Authors: Zhen Shu
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The historical and cultural heritage demonstrates the wisdom of the entire nation and it has left its own traces in the process of urban construction. It has very important instructional significance for the construction of modern cities and the development of cultural aspects of modern people. The Protection of historical and cultural heritage has become an inevitable choice for the development of modern civilization. This paper discusses the relationship between urban development and historic preservation. And it emphasizes the important value of strengthening the protection of historical and cultural heritage in urban construction, introduces the value of cultural heritage, the process of historic preservation and its problems in Quzhou, Zhejiang Province. In conclusion, we puts forward some Suggestions for strengthening the protection of historical heritage in the process of urban construction.Keywords: cultural heritage, historic preservation, Quzhou ancient city, urban development
Procedia PDF Downloads 27715966 Customer Involvement in the Development of New Sustainable Products: A Review of the Literature
Authors: Natalia Moreira, Trevor Wood-Harper
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The acceptance of sustainable products by the final consumer is still one of the challenges of the industry, which constantly seeks alternative approaches to successfully be accepted in the global market. A large set of methods and approaches have been discussed and analysed throughout the literature. Considering the current need for sustainable development and the current pace of consumption, the need for a combined solution towards the development of new products became clear, forcing researchers in product development to propose alternatives to the previous standard product development models. This paper presents, through a systemic analysis of the literature on product development, eco-design and consumer involvement, a set of alternatives regarding consumer involvement towards the development of sustainable products and how these approaches could help improve the sustainable industry’s establishment in the general market. The initial findings of the research show that the understanding of the benefits of sustainable behaviour lead to a more conscious acquisition and eventually to the implementation of sustainable change in the consumer. Thus this paper is the initial approach towards the development of new sustainable products using the fashion industry as an example of practical implementation and acceptance by the consumers. By comparing the existing literature and critically analysing it this paper concluded that the consumer involvement is strategic to improve the general understanding of sustainability and its features. The use of consumers and communities has been studied since the early 90s in order to exemplify uses and to guarantee a fast comprehension. The analysis done also includes the importance of this approach for the increase of innovation and ground breaking developments, thus requiring further research and practical implementation in order to better understand the implications and limitations of this methodology.Keywords: consumer involvement, products development, sustainability, eco-design
Procedia PDF Downloads 59215965 Conceptual Analysis of the Implications of Black Fathers’ Lifestyles and Their Involvement in their Children’s Early Development
Authors: Chinedu Ifedi Okeke
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The behavioural orientations of fathers, which resonate in the way they relate to members of their families and other community members, appear to have a variety of implications for the early development of children. In this paper, a conceptual map of fathers’ lifestyles is adopted to provide an interconnected network of father lifestyles. Empirical evidence from a qualitative case study of 25 Black fathers, who had been purposively selected from a suburb in one rural Eastern Cape municipality in South Africa, is reported in this paper. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were used to obtain data, which was analysed thematically. Findings identify and provide evidence of father lifestyles that are incongruent with the kind of parental behaviour needed to support the healthy early development of children. Findings suggest that these negative lifestyles appear to incapacitate fathers who fail to make a positive contribution to their children’s early development. To ensure that fathers make the expected contributions to their children’s early development, policies aimed at rehabilitating fathers who are involved in the negative lifestyles reported in this paper should be put in place.Keywords: childhood development, fathering, fathers, intervention strategies, lifestyles, South Africa
Procedia PDF Downloads 13415964 Urban Sustainable Development Based on Habitat Quality Evolution: A Case Study in Chongqing, China
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Over the last decade or so, China's urbanization has shown a rapid development trend. At the same time, it has also had a great negative impact on the habitat quality. Therefore, it is of great significance to study the impact of land use change on the level of habitat quality in mountain cities for sustainable urban development. This paper analyzed the spatial and temporal land use changes in Chongqing from 2010 to 2020 using ArcGIS 10.6, as well as the evolutionary trend of habitat quality during this period based on the InVEST 3.13.0, to obtain the impact of land use changes on habitat quality. The results showed that the habitat quality in the western part of Chongqing decreased significantly between 2010 and 2020, while the northeastern and southeastern parts remained stable. The main reason for this is the continuous expansion of urban construction land in the western area, which leads to serious habitat fragmentation and the continuous decline of habitat quality. while, in the northeast and southeast areas, due to the greater emphasis on ecological priority and urban-rural coordination in the development process, land use change is characterized by a benign transfer, which maintains the urbanization process while maintaining the coordinated development of habitat quality. This study can provide theoretical support for the sustainable development of mountain cities.Keywords: mountain cities, ecological environment, habitat quality, sustainable development
Procedia PDF Downloads 8215963 Structuring Highly Iterative Product Development Projects by Using Agile-Indicators
Authors: Guenther Schuh, Michael Riesener, Frederic Diels
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Nowadays, manufacturing companies are faced with the challenge of meeting heterogeneous customer requirements in short product life cycles with a variety of product functions. So far, some of the functional requirements remain unknown until late stages of the product development. A way to handle these uncertainties is the highly iterative product development (HIP) approach. By structuring the development project as a highly iterative process, this method provides customer oriented and marketable products. There are first approaches for combined, hybrid models comprising deterministic-normative methods like the Stage-Gate process and empirical-adaptive development methods like SCRUM on a project management level. However, almost unconsidered is the question, which development scopes can preferably be realized with either empirical-adaptive or deterministic-normative approaches. In this context, a development scope constitutes a self-contained section of the overall development objective. Therefore, this paper focuses on a methodology that deals with the uncertainty of requirements within the early development stages and the corresponding selection of the most appropriate development approach. For this purpose, internal influencing factors like a company’s technology ability, the prototype manufacturability and the potential solution space as well as external factors like the market accuracy, relevance and volatility will be analyzed and combined into an Agile-Indicator. The Agile-Indicator is derived in three steps. First of all, it is necessary to rate each internal and external factor in terms of the importance for the overall development task. Secondly, each requirement has to be evaluated for every single internal and external factor appropriate to their suitability for empirical-adaptive development. Finally, the total sums of internal and external side are composed in the Agile-Indicator. Thus, the Agile-Indicator constitutes a company-specific and application-related criterion, on which the allocation of empirical-adaptive and deterministic-normative development scopes can be made. In a last step, this indicator will be used for a specific clustering of development scopes by application of the fuzzy c-means (FCM) clustering algorithm. The FCM-method determines sub-clusters within functional clusters based on the empirical-adaptive environmental impact of the Agile-Indicator. By means of the methodology presented in this paper, it is possible to classify requirements, which are uncertainly carried out by the market, into empirical-adaptive or deterministic-normative development scopes.Keywords: agile, highly iterative development, agile-indicator, product development
Procedia PDF Downloads 24615962 Impacts of Filmmaking on Destinations: Perceptions of the Residents of Arcos de Valdevez
Authors: André Rafael Ferreira, Laurentina Vareiro, Raquel Mendes
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This study’s main objective is to explore residents’ perceptions of film-induced tourism and the impacts of filmmaking on the development of a destination. Specifically, the research examines resident´s perceptions of the social, economic, and environmental impacts on a Portuguese municipality (Arcos de Valdevez) given its feature in a popular Portuguese television series. Data is collected by means of an Internet survey, in which resident´s perceptions of the impacts of filmmaking are solicited. Residents generally agree that the recording and exhibition of the television series is important to the municipality, and contributes to the increased number of tourists. Given that residents consider that the positive impacts are more significant than the negative impacts, they supported the recording of another television series in the same municipality. Considering that destination managers and tourism development authorities aim to plan for optimal tourism development, and at the same time wish to minimize the negative impacts of this development on the local communities, monitoring residents’ opinions of perceived impacts is a good way of incorporating their reaction into tourism planning and development. The results of this research may provide useful information in this sense.Keywords: film-induced tourism, residents’ perceptions, tourism development, tourism impacts
Procedia PDF Downloads 45215961 Towards the Prediction of Aesthetic Requirements for Women’s Apparel Product
Authors: Yu Zhao, Min Zhang, Yuanqian Wang, Qiuyu Yu
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The prediction of aesthetics of apparel is helpful for the development of a new type of apparel. This study is to build the quantitative relationship between the aesthetics and its design parameters. In particular, women’s pants have been preliminarily studied. This aforementioned relationship has been carried out by statistical analysis. The contributions of this study include the development of a more personalized apparel design mechanism and the provision of some empirical knowledge for the development of other products in the aspect of aesthetics.Keywords: aesthetics, crease line, cropped straight leg pants, knee width
Procedia PDF Downloads 18415960 Coping Strategies for Stress Used by Adolescent Girls in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Authors: Hafsa Raheel
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Objectives: Secondary school girls, ages 15–19 years old were surveyed to find out the coping strategies they used when stressed. Adolescents, who are affected with stress and depression early in life, suffer from depression throughout their lives, especially if they are utilizing improper ways to cope with it. Methods: A cross-sectional school-based survey among 1028 adolescent girls was conducted among the secondary schools in Riyadh city, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Results: About 25% stated that they cry, 19% listen to music, 15% start eating a lot, 12% sit alone/isolate themselves, 11% pray/read the Quran, 10% get into a verbal argument or a fight. Only a few, 3% exercise, and 2% stated that they find someone to discuss and talk to. Conclusion: The majority of the adolescent girls in our survey rely on emotion-related coping mechanisms rather than problem-solving mechanisms. This can cause long-term implications in these adolescents as there is an increased probability to develop depression later on in life. Policy makers need to implement strategies for early identification of stress and depression. Talking to friends and family can serve as an effective way to cope with stress.Keywords: adolescents, stress, Saudi Arabia, mental health
Procedia PDF Downloads 26415959 Emotional, Behavioural and Social Development: Modality of Hierarchy of Needs in Supporting Parents with Special Needs
Authors: Fadzilah Abdul Rahman
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Emotional development is developed between the parents and their child. Behavioural development is also developed between the parents and their child. Social Development is how parents can help their special needs child to adapt to society and to face challenges. In promoting a lifelong learning mindset, enhancing skill sets and readiness to face challenges, parents would be able to counter balance these challenges during their care giving process and better manage their expectations through understanding the hierarchy of needs modality towards a positive attitude, and in turn, improve their quality of life and participation in society. This paper aims to demonstrate how the hierarchy of needs can be applied in various situations of caregiving for parents with a special needs child.Keywords: hierarchy of needs, parents, special needs, care-giving
Procedia PDF Downloads 38715958 Value in Exchange: The Importance of Users Interaction as the Center of User Experiences
Authors: Ramlan Jantan, Norfadilah Kamaruddin, Shahriman Zainal Abidin
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In this era of technology, the co-creation method has become a new development trend. In this light, most design businesses have currently transformed their development strategy from being goods-dominant into service-dominant where more attention is given to the end-users and their roles in the development process. As a result, the conventional development process has been replaced with a more cooperative one. Consequently, numerous studies have been conducted to explore the extension of co-creation method in the design development process and most studies have focused on issues found during the production process. In the meantime, this study aims to investigate potential values established during the pre-production process, which is also known as the ‘circumstances value creation’. User involvement is questioned and crucially debate at the entry level of pre-production process in value in-exchange jointly spheres; thus user experiences took place. Thus, this paper proposed a potential framework of the co-creation method for Malaysian interactive product development. The framework is formulated from both parties involved: the users and designers. The framework will clearly give an explanation of the value of the co-creation method, and it could assist relevant design industries/companies in developing a blueprint for the design process. This paper further contributes to the literature on the co-creation of value and digital ecosystems.Keywords: co-creation method, co-creation framework, co-creation, co-production
Procedia PDF Downloads 176