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The United Kingdom’s Medicines and Medical Devices Act (MMD Act) 2021 received royal assent on 11 February 2021. In its passage through parliament, as well as in the accompanying Explanatory Notes, the Act was framed by the government as a necessary post-Brexit bill. Yet prior to this, it was widely presumed that existing statutory instruments, enacted in 2019 to address medical devices regulation in anticipation of a ‘No Deal Brexit’, would provide the United Kingdom (UK) with the necessary legal framework through the transition period and beyond. The European Union (EU) exit legislation included provisions aimed at aligning domestic law with the new EU Medical Devices Regulation (EU MDR) and In Vitro Devices Regulation (EU IVDR) (which were initially due to be implemented during the EU exit transition period). However, just over a year later, at the end of 2020, while the 2021 Act was in the final stages of its parliamentary journey, legislation was introduced that reversed the provisions of the domestic medical device regulations concerning alignment for Great Britain (GB: England, Wales, and Scotland). The result is that the UK now has a dual system of regulation, with Northern Ireland (NI) being governed by the new EU MDR and EU IVDR and GB by older pre-Brexit (yet still EU-derived) law. This article is an attempt to analyse the complex situation now in existence regarding the regulation of medical devices in the UK. To this end, we focus on three main issues. First, we examine the difficulties and challenges presented by the dual system of regulation between NI and GB, highlighting the potentially far-reaching consequences of regulatory divergence between different UK jurisdictions. Second, we ask whether, in the rush to new legislation in 2021, opportunities to properly reform the approach to medical devices were missed. Finally, we look to the future, focusing on the recent Medicine and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency Consultation on the future of medical devices regulation in the UK and the challenges and opportunities that remain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper reports on a project following up previous work about patterns of and attitudes to assessment among sociologists. Two forms of data collection were undertaken: an online questionnaire to sociology departments and a series of focus groups with undergraduate students. The results showed that assessment has become a more salient issue than ten years ago, but that most of the innovations in practice had taken place in post-1992 institutions. The focus group findings confirm those from national satisfaction surveys; namely that student dissatisfaction with assessment is profound and that it persists throughout their undergraduate experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The potential for universities to contribute positively to business innovation has received much attention in recent years. While the determinants of university-business cooperation have been examined extensively, less attention has been given to the mediating influence of proximity in this relationship. The analysis in this paper builds on the UK business innovation survey (2002-2005) by incorporating measures of the university research environment for each of the 16,500 businesses surveyed. These measures allow us to look beyond business-level characteristics as determinants of the geography of university cooperation and account for the character of the local university environment. Measures include the distance from each business to its nearest university, the quality of local university research and the density of the university research environment. The findings suggest that significant differences exist between those businesses that cooperate with local universities and those that cooperate with non-local universities. These differences relate to business size, sales profile, location, absorptive capacity and innovation activity. In addition, we also find that if a business is located close to a research excellent university, cooperation tends to remain local, however, the distance between businesses and the nearest university is not a significant determinant of university-business cooperation and further, the higher the concentration of universities in the business locale, the more likely businesses are to cooperate with non-local universities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relationship between organisation structure and innovation performance in a large sample of UK small and medium-sized enterprises. It asks whether there is an optimal structure and whether this differs between different firm environments and between young and older firms. We find that the influences on the ability to innovate differ from those on the commercialisation of innovations. We show that decentralised decision-making, supported by a formal structure and written plans, supports the ability to innovate in most circumstances and is superior to other structures. We also find some evidence that young firms operating in high technology sectors with informal structures have a greater tendency to be innovative. In addition, we find very few differences between young and older firms in terms of their optimal structures in low technology sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper addresses the various trajectories taken in the reception of Japanese creative practice in the United Kingdom -- focusing on a changing dynamic in the presentations of traditional forms at large-scale events in the late 20th and early 21st centuries and the contemporaneous consumption of innovative outputs of Japanese sartorial culture. An introductory section mobilises archival material to document early instances of cultural exchange between the two island nations. The main body of the discussion compares developing emphases on material and popular culture in a series of international festivals with the tactics employed by Japanese fashion designers entering a new market. The analysis highlights the manner in which the discipline has both distanced itself from, and re-inscribed, earlier constructions of Japanese identity -- using 'flagship' stores as 'advertising beacons' in the metropolis, opening 'guerilla' outlets and offering forms of artistic patronage. The conclusion integrates findings from a case-study conducted on a major retrospective exhibition to suggest that in a creative hierarchy the fashion designer now occupies the position of auteur and despite a century having elapsed since an initial cultural collaboration drew an audience of approximately 20% of the population, legacies of Orientalism continue to operate in the consumption of Japanese fashion in the UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that designing collections of 'closed' educational resources (content and technologies) for use by specific student cohorts and collections of open educational resources for use by any 'learner' require different design approaches. Learning design for formal courses has been a research topic for over 10 years as the ever growing range of digital content and technologies has potentially offered new opportunities for constructing effective learning experiences, primarily through greater sharing and re-use of such content and technologies. While progress in adopting learning design by teaching practitioners has appeared slow so far, the advent of open educational resources (OER) has provided a substantive boost to such sharing activity and a subsequent need for employing learning design in practice. Nevertheless there appears to be a paradox in that learning design assumes a reasonably well known and well defined student audience with presumed learning needs and mediating technologies while OER are exposed to a multitude of potential learners, both formal and informal, with unknown learning needs and using diverse technologies. It can be argued that innovative designs for formal courses involve creating structured pathways through a mixture of existing and new content and activities using a mixture of media and technologies in the process. This type of 'configurational' design that blends together given items to meet a particular need, rather than designing something fully de novo is typical in many areas of work and not just teaching. Such designs work very well when there is a small set of users of the innovation or their use of the innovation is narrow. However many innovations in information, communication and computing technologies often have multiple types of users and many more layers of complexity. In these cases, rather than heavily pre-define an innovative solution just to meet certain user requirements, it is necessary to design for greater flexibility so as to allow the users to adapt their use of the innovative solution for their own requirements once it has been deployed. The use of such an 'innofusion' approach for OER is highlighted using the case study of OpenLearn (www.open.ac.uk/openlearn). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the two-way relationship between R&D and export activity. In particular, we concern ourselves with the question whether R&D stimulates exports and, perhaps more importantly, whether export activity leads to increasing innovative activity in terms of R&D (learning-by-exporting). We use two unique firm level databases for Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland and compare the results for these two countries. We find that previous exporting experience enhances the innovative capability of Irish firms. Conversely, no strong learning-by-exporting effects are found for British firms. Arguably part of the differences between Ireland and Britain are attributable to different, cross-country exporting patterns where Irish firms have a greater interface with OECD markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marked differences exist between the institutional and social context for innovation in the UK and Germany. The question addressed here is how these different contexts affect the objectives and organisation of innovation in UK and German manufacturing. In particular, the paper examines the extent to which UK and German plants engage in inter-plant collaboration and cooperation and multifunctional working as part of their innovative activity, and explores the reasons for differences in these patterns of involvement. The investigation is based on a large-scale, comparative survey of manufacturing plants in the two countries. In Germany, institutional and social norms are found to encourage collaborative inter-plant innovation, but aspects of the German skills training and industrial relations systems make the adoption of more flexible internal systems more difficult. In the UK, by contrast, the more adversarial nature of inter-firm relations makes it more difficult to establish external collaborations based on mutual trust, but less restrictive labour market structures make it easier for UK plants to adopt multifunctional working. This is linked to differences in attitudes to the property rights and transaction cost problems inherent in innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While there may be an important, but transitory, cyclical component in the poor performance of the past decade, we will emphasise the secular forces: the impact of demographic structure and innovation. We draw on the empirical and theoretical work reported in Aksoy, Basso, Smith and Grasl (2015), ABSG, about the impact of changes in demographic structure on macroeconomic outcomes. This suggests that changes in age profile not only have significant implications for savings, investment, real interest rates and growth but also for innovation. The size of the effects seems plausible. For instance, if in 2015 the UK had the 1970 age structure, it would have added 0.68 percentage points to the long-run annual growth rate. The model suggests that the population ageing predicted for the next decades will tend to reduce output growth and real interest rates across OECD countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The UK National Health Service (NHS) is ideally placed to undertake research. The UK Government recently launched its vision of research within the NHS to improve research culture and activity amongst its staff. Currently, little is known about the research interest, capacity and culture of staff in one Health Board in South East Scotland and how their attitudes to research may have changed as a result of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Methods: We used the validated Research Capacity and Culture tool in an online survey of staff working in one Health Board in South East Scotland to explore attitudes to research at the organisation, team and individual level together with involvement in, barriers to and motivators to engage in research. Questions included changes in attitude to research as a result of the pandemic. Staff were identified by professional group: nurses/midwives, medical/dental, allied health professionals (AHP), other therapeutic and administrative roles. Median scores and interquartile ranges were reported and differences between groups assessed using the Chi-square and Kruskal-Wallis tests with P < 0.05 accepted as statistical significance. Free-text entries were analysed using content analysis. Results: Replies were received from 503/9145 potential respondents (5.5% response), of these 278 (3.0% response) completed all sections of the questionnaire. Differences between groups were noted in the proportions of those with research as part of their role (P = 0.012) and in being research-active (P < 0.001). Respondents reported high scores for promoting evidence-based practice and for finding and critically reviewing literature. Low scores were returned for preparing reports and securing grants. Overall, medical and other therapeutic staff reported higher levels of practical skills compared with other groups. Principal barriers to research were pressure of clinical work and lack of time, backfill and funds. 171/503 (34%) had changed their attitude to research as a result of the pandemic with 92% of 205 respondents more likely to volunteer for a study themselves. Conclusion: We found a positive change in attitude to research arising from the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Research engagement may increase after addressing the barriers cited. The present results provide a baseline against which future initiatives introduced to increase research capability and capacity may be assessed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic generated a series of profound and unprecedented challenges for health and social care systems and those frontline clinicians responsible for delivering services including nurses. One consequence has been the rapid and widespread introduction of a range of digital tools, solutions, and initiatives. In the United Kingdom, this has required clinical leadership to drive implementation and adoption of digital innovations across the system, ranging from those in senior executive board level positions to those on the frontline. Findings: This commentary presents a framework highlighting the breadth of digital transformations which emerged as a consequence of the U.K. health and social care systems' response to the COVID-19 crisis. The framework outlines the different levels of digital transformation, ranging from what we have termed "ceremonial adoption" to isolated automation, organizational integration, and full systems integration. We reflect on the nursing leadership practices that need to be in place to support these changes. Conclusion: Whilst acknowledging the extraordinary results achieved by the COVID-19 driven tsunami of digital transformation, we reflect on the essential steps required to translate these nascent, isolated efforts into fully integrated, long-term solutions. We also offer recommendations for clinical digital leaders and suggest steps that will be crucial to translate the temporary and/or limited interventions into effective, permanent features of our health and social care systems, while also providing a platform on which to build future digital capabilities. We will inevitably continue to see an increase in the use of technology in everyday clinical practice, and nurses are well positioned to take a lead in its widespread adoption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For many years the gender gap has been a complex reality having economic implications and social decisiveness. No matter the percentage recently decreased, we still confront with social discriminations. In this paper we focused on the UK labour market so we developed a case study for a logistics company, using classification of the employees in different pay bands. Based on this study we created a state of the art human resource tool that can be applied worldwide and that help firms to analyse the root causes and to reduce the gender gap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public engagement is recognised as having an increasingly important role in the changing landscape of higher education in the United Kingdom (UK), and is promoted as a 'pathway to impact' by many higher education funding bodies. However, there is limited evidence to support the outreach and impact gained by higher education institutes that undertake international public engagement activities. Similarly, little is known about higher education staff and student's experiences of participating in such public engagement activities. This study focusses on a Global Festival of Learning (GFoL) in delivering public engagement on an international stage through an integrated approach involving the fusion of education, research, and professional practice, and the perceived impact on staff and students. This paper proposes an adaptive model for public engagement founded on five strategic public engagement areas that can be transferred to other higher education institutes with an interest in developing their international outreach and impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

External partnerships play an important role in firms' acquisition of the knowledge inputs to innovation. Such knowledge acquisition may be interactive - involving exploration and mutual learning - or non-interactive - involving exploitative activity and learning by only one party. Here, we consider how firms' innovation objectives influence their choice of interactive and/or non-interactive knowledge search. We conduct a comparative analysis for Spain and the UK, which have contrasting innovation eco-systems and regulation burdens. Three empirical results emerge. First, we find strong support for complementarity between non-interactive and interactive knowledge search. Second, we find that where firms have innovation objectives relating to product or service improvement, they are more likely to establish non-interactive search strategies. Third, the innovation objective of reducing environmental impact is significantly related to both, interactive and non-interactive knowledge acquisition strategies. This is likely related to the increasing awareness of the need to promote an agenda based on sustainable growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The exponential rise of information available means we can now, in theory, access knowledge on almost any question we ask. However, as the amount of unverified information increases, so too does the challenge in deciding which information to trust. Farmers, when learning about agricultural innovations, have historically relied on in-person advice from traditional 'experts', such as agricultural advisers, to inform farm management. As more farmers go online for information, it is not clear whether they are now using digital information to corroborate in-person advice from traditional 'experts', or if they are foregoing 'expert' advice in preference for peer-generated information. To fill this knowledge gap, we sought to understand how farmers in two contrasting European countries (Hungary and the UK) learnt about sustainable soil innovations and who influenced them to innovate. Through interviews with 82 respondents, we found farmers in both countries regularly used online sources to access soil information; some were prompted to change their soil management by farmer social media 'influencers'. However, online information and interactions were not usually the main factor influencing farmers to change their practices. Farmers placed most trust in other farmers to learn about new soil practices and were less trusting of traditional 'experts', particularly agricultural researchers from academic and government institutions, who they believed were not empathetic towards farmers' needs. We suggest that some farmers may indeed have had enough of traditional 'experts', instead relying more on their own peer networks to learn and innovate. We discuss ways to improve trustworthy knowledge exchange between agricultural stakeholders to increase uptake of sustainable soil management practices, while acknowledging the value of peer influence and online interactions for innovation and trust building. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the IRIS and MIT comparative study of the two oil capitals in Europe: Aberdeen and Stavanger, in order to analyze two successful oil and gas clusters. The Norwegian innovation system would be presented in detail. The article also examines the intrinsic role between the universities and the industrial context in the regional innovation system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stem cell science is an emerging global industry in which nation states compete fiercely for economic advantage. Currently, the USA dominates this international competition but critics have argued that it lacks an innovation strategy to maintain its position. Strong international competition and internal policy problems may pose significant challenges to the future of US stem cell science. At the same time, the governments of the UK, China, India, Australia and Singapore are developing strategies to enhance their competitive edge within the global stem cell economy. How should the US government respond to these developments? Is a federal strategy necessary to protect the advantages of the US stem cell industries or can it be assumed that the present innovation infrastructure is sufficiently flexible and dynamic to cope with the global challenge? In this paper we address these questions through an examination of the US stem cell innovation system from the perspectives of science, society and the market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study compares the short-term behaviour of finance directors the UK and in Japan, in the context of their corporate governance systems, using the funding, structure and evaluation of Research and Development (R&D) projects as indicators. The empirical part of the study consists of two questionnaire studies carried out in the UK and Japan. A number of personal interviews were also carried out with UK and Japanese senior finance managers. The results of the study indicate different management behaviour with respect to short-termism in the UK and Japan. There is a statistically significant difference in perceptions between the finance directors of two countries. Managers in both countries appreciate and would like to use long term performance criteria to assess and manage R&D projects. In practice however, Japanese finance directors are much better protected from short-term pressures than their UK counterparts in dealing with most aspects of their management R&D. These differences in behaviour are identified and possible reasons for them are offered in the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although much has been made of the trend towards knowledge and technology outsourcing by firms and organisations, few studies have attempted to analyse the specific factors associated with the decision to use external technological knowledge sources in the innovation process. This paper outlines some key results from a study of the practices of a number of UK firms and organisations and the development of a Decision Support Framework (DSF) model, to aid understanding of the decision-making process surrounding the external sourcing of technological knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article advances knowledge on the diversity and heterogeneity of women-led small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the United Kingdom by analysing how gender intersects with ethnicity and place to influence their engagement in innovation. We adopt an intersectional perspective, and base our analyses on the Longitudinal Small Business Survey (LSBS) data of 29,257 SMEs over the period 2015–2018. Our findings suggest that despite their limited number, as well as firm size and industry sector constraints, women-led SMEs are actively engaged in innovation activities. In addition, our results on the effects of intersecting categories of gender, ethnicity and place on innovation, further emphasise the heterogeneity of women-led SMEs, both with regard to their likelihood to engage in innovation, as well as the place where innovation is most likely to occur. Implications for policy and practice are highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Undertaking innovation involves a range of different activities from ideation to the commercialisation of innovations. Each activity may have very different resources and organisational requirements, however, most prior studies treat innovation as a single un-differentiated activity. Here, using new survey data for professional service firms (PSFs) in the UK, we are able to examine separately how a range of organisational work practices influence success in ideation and commercialisation. In particular, we use principal component analysis (PCA) to identify and compare the benefits of four groups of organisational work practices relating to strategy & information sharing, recruitment & training, work flexibility & discretion and culture & leadership. Strong contrasts emerge between those work practices that are important for success in ideation and commercialisation. Work practices linked to culture & leadership are important for ideation activities, while strategy &information sharing practices are more strongly associated with commercialisation success. The results suggest clear managerial implications depending on the priority [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Carers of people with eating disorders (EDs) are known to experience a lack of support, high levels of unmet needs and resulting distress. Specific support and interventions for carers may benefit both the carer, and their loved one with an ED. Individuals with co-occurring autism and EDs may present with additional needs and difficulties relating to their Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC) that impact their carers. However, there is a lack of research exploring whether carers of people with ASC and EDs have specific support needs, and what kinds of support may be most beneficial for this population. Methods: This study used a qualitative interview design, utilising peer interviews. Eleven carers participated in interviews about their experiences as a carer, and their views on existing support systems and potential improvements. As the study took place during the initial UK coronavirus lockdown, the impact of the lockdown also emerged as a topic during the interviews. Interviews were transcribed and analysed using thematic analysis. Results: Five themes were identified: challenges associated with co-occurring Autism and EDs, a lack of existing support for carers from healthcare services, the personal impact of caring for someone with both ASC and EDs, ideas for how carers can be best supported, and the impact of the coronavirus on carers. Conclusions: Carers of loved ones with both ASC and EDs described the experience as having a significant personal impact on their lives, but also experienced a lack of support from healthcare services. There was a perception that caring for someone with both an ASC and EDs presents additional challenges compared to caring for someone with an ED only, and that this population therefore requires specialised support. Recommendations for possible support options, and for further research, are outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A systematic review of international evidence on housing retrofit supply chains was undertaken for the UK government: a Rapid Evidence Assessment (REA) summarised the most relevant research from outside the UK; key emerging themes were examined via analysis of 10 expert interviews with European and UK stakeholders, selected for the depth and breadth of their experience in developing retrofit business models. Market development requires concerted efforts from industry and policy, including the regulation of minimum standards. Conservatism in the industry means that opportunities for retrofit will be ignored in preference for the less risky, more familiar repair, maintenance and improvement (RMI) market. Successful retrofit involves customer engagement and after-care, which is outside customary practice. Financing mechanisms are important for firms' cashflow and for customer acceptance. Skills governance needs to take account of national vocational education systems, and is more complex than simply providing a few new courses. Local partnerships are needed to mobilise and organise the supply chain, whether through local government involvement or new business models enshrining collaborative quality assurance. More formal quality assurance implies some consolidation of supply chains. All these elements must be integrated into a service package, whose overall purpose is to minimise the risks of retrofit for supply chains and customers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivation: The dynamic development of innovation in the financial market and the process of globalisation were at the heart of creating a new financial technology sector, called FinTech. In order to allow for a safe and intensive development of innovations and create opportunities for all entities, including start-ups, state supervisors and regulators create dedicated market environments -- regulatory sandboxes. Aim: (1) to define the concept of a regulatory sandbox; (2) to identify the forms of support for innovative solutions in the financial market; (3) to identify the outcomes of a regulatory sandbox in the case of the United Kingdom. Results: Regulatory sandboxes are a new supervisory tool which, despite only a few years of history, has gained recognition of financial market participants. Research has shown that a regulatory sandbox has many benefits not only for the companies joining it but also for the supervisory institution. Sandboxes allow participants to receive continuous substantive support, obtain licences faster and resolve legal doubts. Participation in a regulatory sandbox is also a form of promotion and facilitates raising investment capital. On the other hand, regulatory sandboxes are still in the early stages of development, and the support they provide is limited. Some companies also experience problems in dealing with the long and complicated process of applying for admission and the limited number of participants. The latter obstacle may result in unequal competition on the market and failure to fully exploit the development potential of FinTech. The most important benefit for a supervisor is that through its engagement in a regulatory sandbox, it gains additional knowledge of new technologies and new business models, and its employees develop important competences. The dialogue conducted with professional financial market participants allows for a better assessment of the risks associated with new technologies. The first outcomes of participation in a regulatory sandbox are encouraging for new innovative players and supervisory authorities. It is recommended that this initiative be extended in order to enable more market players to conduct testing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Achieving a competitive economy and a competitive market generally proceeds from the desire to meet economic and social objectives and it ensures a growing level of social welfare. The objectives of our research are to determine and highlight the bidirectional linear correlations among competitiveness, well-being and innovation and to analyze the main factors that influence these relations. Our research includes the EU member states and the UK using these countries' specific indicators from the databases of EUROSTAT, the World Economic Forum and the United Nations from 2016-2018. We used Canonical Correlation Analysis to determine a set of canonical variates which represent linear combinations of the variables from each set. The contributions of our research show a direct and strong link among the three pillars of competitiveness, innovation and well-being. This analysis allowed us to identify and analyze the influence of innovation on the economic development and competitiveness of each EU country and on the well-being of its population. Governments and organizations that invest more in research in terms of innovation to increase the competitiveness of their products and services have shown a growing GDP and a higher level of population well-being. This research is representative at the European level and may influence the decisions of national governments and other institutions to encourage innovation through drivers such as R&D expenditures and human resources as the main factors generating economic growth and competitiveness, thus with a direct effect on GDP and on well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How did the great financial crisis (GFC) of 2008–2010 impact on R&D and innovation in the United Kingdom and internationally? What can we learn about the likely innovation effects of the COVID-19 crisis on small and medium enterprises (SME) innovation? Numerous international studies suggest the strong procyclicality of R&D and innovation investments in firms: investment rises in recovery and falls sharply in times of crisis. This procyclicality is driven in firms by both internal financial resources or slack and varying market incentives for innovation. Cash constraints, in particular, may impact most strongly on R&D and innovation investments by smaller firms. In the United Kingdom, the proportion of innovating firms fell by around a third during the GFC and took around four to six years to recover. Recovery was also uneven – notably weaker in some sectors and regions. The COVID-19 crisis seems likely to leave many firms financially weaker, with the most significant impacts on the willingness or ability of SMEs to sustain R&D and innovation. Where firms are able to sustain these investments, however, the evidence from the GFC suggests that they will lead to better survival chances, stronger growth and higher profitability. Some additional financial support for innovation has been announced by the UK government. Whether this will be sufficient to sustain SME levels of innovative activity, however, remains to be seen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Open banking has recently been advanced as a measure to foster competition and innovation in the retail banking sector. Since its introduction in the UK, a number of banks have created new digital business models (BMs) that offer individuals and businesses access to more personalized financial services. Yet, it is still unclear what new entrants (smaller and newer banks) have done to potentially disrupt incumbents (larger and well-established banks). To shed light on the innovations in BMs that have been initiated by digital banks to move away from traditional retail banking BM, seven digital BMs operating in the UK financial sector were examined using the BM innovation analysis framework. Our findings suggest that innovation in the new digital BMs has been achieved by building on the existing retail banking activities, developing new digitally enabled activities, and leveraging open innovation activities. Implications of our findings for researchers, managers and policy makers will be outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Patients are increasingly recognized as playing important roles in improving health services. Little is known about the mechanisms by which patients develop and diffuse local innovations in a complex health‐care system. Objective: To ascertain how diffusion of an innovation, My Medication Passport, occurred and roles played by patients in it. Design: Case study: quantitative mapping of innovation's diffusion and analysis of the routes and occupations of those through whom the innovation spread; documentary analysis; reflective assessment of patient's roles. Setting and participants: NHS Trusts, third sector organizations, patients and health‐care professionals. Interventions studied: Co‐produced action to raise awareness and influence use of the innovation; order database which enabled ease of access to the innovation. Main outcome measures: Geographical spread of innovation; occupations of individuals; types of organizations using the innovation. Results: The innovation spread from initial development and use in Northwest London across the UK and beyond. Key roles played by patients were as follows: co‐producer; advocate; relationship builder; relationship broker; planner; presenter; awareness raiser; trainer; networker. Patients identified and introduced potential audiences and users to MMP, using social, organizational, sectoral, lay and professional networks to do so. They organized a range of awareness‐raising and communication activities, monitored feedback, evaluated the impact and responded to new interest. Discussion and conclusions: The roles of patients in diffusing innovations are under‐recognized. Collaborative working between patients, carers and health‐care professionals in planning and progressing the use and supporting diffusion of the innovation was important. Principles described in this study are relevant to progressing other patient‐led ideas for innovative changes relating to health service development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article the author presents an account of the development of support for teacher leadership in Egypt based on the non-positional approach promoted by the HertsCam Network in the UK. The article is informed by a doctoral study recently undertaken by the author, Amina Eltemamy, in which she used an action-based methodology to amplify the voices from her collaborators - teachers from private schools in Egypt. The discussion examines the highly socially stratified context for development, one which requires transformational educational reform. The article explicates a programme which is contributing to this reform. Key issues such as the role of senior leadership teams in creating conditions that enable teacher leadership to flourish are addressed. Current plans to develop the programme's international links and to extend the approach to state schools are also explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing upon data from the fifth UK Innovation Survey, this article sheds light on how management choices on the nature of appropriation relate to management choices on the degree of openness within small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). To this end, our findings indicate a threshold effect of both informal and formal appropriation mechanisms on the likelihood of engaging in both coupled and inbound open innovation. That is, an emphasis on appropriation appears to be important in shifting firms from a closed to an open strategy. There is, however, little evidence that either approach to appropriation increases the extent of open innovation. In this, only informal intellectual property (IP) protection mechanisms associate with an increasing extent of inbound open innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brexit creates challenges and opportunities for UK and EU climate policy. Without replacement policies for existing EU policies, the UK may not meet its domestic carbon budgets. Membership of the EU ETS, application of energy efficiency directives and renewables targets, and the maintenance of innovation funding are the key issues at stake for the UK. Brexit may also impact the ambition and shape of EU climate policy and the direction of future climate agreements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on international differences in retail productivity has highlighted formidable environmental barriers to the 'industrialisation' of mass retailing as a driver of declining British interwar productivity growth in this sector (and in services more generally). We examine evidence for such barriers, using a case study of a firm that built its interwar expansion strategy on 'American' retail methods -- Marks & Spencer (M&S). We find that, rather than facing barriers to the adoption of American mass retail practices, M&S reaped major productivity gains from this process. This adds further evidence to an emerging literature rejecting the barriers to industrialisation thesis for retailing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: A range of evidence informs healthcare decision-making, from formal research findings to 'soft intelligence' or local data, as well as practical experience or tacit knowledge. However, cultural and organisational factors often prevent the translation of such evidence into practice. Using a multi-level framework, this project will analyse how interactions between the evidence available and processes at the micro (individual/group) and meso (organisational/system) levels influence decisions to introduce or diffuse innovations in acute and primary care within the National Health Service in the UK.Methods/design: This study will use a mixed methods design, combining qualitative and quantitative methods, and involves four interdependent work streams: (1) rapid evidence synthesis of relevant literature with stakeholder feedback; (2) in-depth case studies of 'real-world' decision-making in acute and primary care; (3) a national survey and discrete choice experiment; and (4) development of guidance for decision-makers and evaluators to support the use of evidence in decision-making.Discussion: This study will enhance the understanding of decision-makers' use of diverse forms of evidence. The findings will provide insights into how and why some evidence does inform decisions to introduce healthcare innovations, and why barriers persist in other cases. It will also quantify decision-makers' preferences, including the 'tipping point' of evidence needed to shift stakeholders' views. Practical guidance will be shared with healthcare decision-makers and evaluators on uses of evidence to enable the introduction and diffusion of innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the research that investigates the expectations of patients and family members of new clinical methodologies in Great Britain. The topics discussed include the varied range of clinical innovative specialization showcased by the organization the Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and the importance of the perspectives of patients and their families in health care evaluation.

This essay undertakes a comparative review of radical innovation in the early Cold War, when UK jet propulsion development far outpaced any US efforts. British ingenuity created a series of jet engines which Americans adopted. One among these, which captures contrasting organisational formats for handling complexity and innovation, was the Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire, a tough, reliable propulsion system. The USAF's licence assigned production to Curtiss-Wright, which had made piston engines for decades and which spectacularly botched the project, wasting millions. Eventually, the Pentagon shifted the J-65 American Sapphire to GM's Buick division, which finally fabricated adequate but obsolete engines in the mid-1950s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explore factors affecting workplace survival and growth using nationally representative panel data for the British private sector. We address five policy-relevant questions. First, are young workplaces more vulnerable to closure and low growth than older ‘like’ workplaces? Second, are stand-alone workplaces more vulnerable than those belonging to multi-site firms? Third, do firms’ human capital investments enhance survival and growth prospects? Fourth, do those who innovate go on to be more successful? Fifth, is there any evidence of creative job destruction? We discuss the implications for policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the influence of innovation on the relationship between corporate strategy and social issues. Specifically, we employ firm-level data for a large sample of U.K. companies drawn from a diverse range of industrial sectors to investigate, given innovation, the determinants of both the probability that the innovation brings reduced environmental impacts and/or improved health and safety, and the strength of this effect. In this connection, we find evidence of a dichotomy between product and process innovations, and roles for firm size, industrial sector, a foreign market presence, access to various information sources (e.g. universities and government research organisations) and the extent to which activities are constrained by regulation. Furthermore, we find a tendency for the influences of many of these factors to vary between older and newer firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article sets out to demonstrate how regulation, markets and technology can be intertwined. It argues that the introduction of technology in a regulated market, such as that of international telecommunications, must be seen in terms of its impact on economic and political alliances in that regulatory market. It presents a case study of the first transatlantic telephone cable, TAT1 - a joint project between the US company, American Telephone & Telegraph (AT&T), the British Post Office (GPO) and Canada's Overseas Telephone Corporation - and a coaxial cable proposed by another US company, International Telephone and Telegraph (ITT). Both cables became part of a British attempt to alter existing British and US domestic regulation of international telegraph transmission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – An oral history to examine the evolution of the empowered consumer and brand consciousness from 1918 to 1965 as a critical analysis of mass consumer culture in Britain. Design/methodology/approach – The authors trace the changing experience of consumer empowerment and importantly show oral testimony (oral history) as a method able to reveal the complexities of this experience. Findings – Women locate increased choice and responsibility within changing marketing and retailing systems (including self-service, branding and the media). The authors show how increased choice and responsibility was often experienced (at least initially) as challenging or confusing. Originality/value – The study identifies that empowerment is a complex or paradoxical process. It provides empirical support for a growing number of claims that have challenged the linear benefit assumptions given to increased choice arising from classic economic theory and outline a model of the paradox of the evolution of the empowered consumer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Private Finance Initiative (PFI) is a specific example of health care privatization within the British National Health Service. In this essay, I critically assess the ways in which various Private Finance Initiatives have increased health care efficiency and effectiveness, as well as encouraged medical innovation. Indeed, as the analysis will demonstrate, significant empirical evidence supports the conclusion that Private Finance Initiatives are a driving force of innovation within the British Health Care System. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article uses Ordinary Least Squares estimation techniques on data from a large-scale survey to examine the effect of firms' innovation activities on their growth performance. In the article the authors use four measures of growth, namely, growth in employment, growth in turnover; growth in productivity and, change in the profit margin. These measures of growth are analyzed separately for manufacturing and service sector firms. The data that has been analyzed was collected as part of a wide-ranging survey of enterprise in Northern Great Britain.

The Association for Human Pharmacology in the Pharmaceutical Industry (AHPPI) annual meeting focused on impending change, innovation, and future challenges facing early phase drug development as we move into the second decade of the 21th century. The meeting opened with discussion around the technical revolution in pharmaceutical medicine over the 4 decades since the AHPPI was founded and how transformative technologies have accompanied the introduction of processes such as physiologically based pharmacokinetic modeling. During the meeting examples were presented of how in terms of the development of new therapies, the classic phases of clinical drug development are becoming a thing of the past and the lines between the phases have begun to blur, particularly in the field of oncology. The contribution that monoclonal antibodies have made to medicine and the next chapter in their design and use was also discussed. A representative of the UK's Medicine and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency discussed the increasing numbers of requests to approve complex innovative design trials, how novel trial designs are impacting on the traditional linear "phase" approach to drug development and the common pitfalls associated with them. Guidance was provided from a regulator's viewpoint on what was meant by the term "novel design" and how to submit successful trial applications for such complex trials. In an Oxford-style debate, the audience discussed the motion that "there is no longer a need to include placebo subjects in early clinical trials." The keynote speaker focused on delivering change in complex environments such as the field of drug development. The afternoon session included presentations on the challenges associated with drug product design, the complexities within non-oral dosage forms and proposed new methods of formulations for drug delivery. Presentations were also given on advances in mechanistic and computational pharmacokinetic modeling and how they have proved to be valuable tools to rationalize and facilitate the process of drug development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The introduction of regional secure units into the NHS was studied as one example of the diffusion of patient care innovations. As well as the general history of secure units events in four Regions were studied in detail for the period from 1974 up to mid-1983. It is concluded that secure units became gradually more acceptable over time as (i) the need for such units was recognized, (ii) the climat, of opinion changed in psychiatric hospitals from seeing secure units as a retrograde step, following the acceptance of more open door policies, to seeing secure units as a prestige development which might safeguard the future of a particular hospital, (iii) government loosened the definitions of what secure units should be and how they should operate so that there was more room for different regions to assess their own needs. Regions which were able to move relatively fast on secure unit development were those where there-was already a 'product champion' present to promote the ideas, usually a forensic psychiatrist, and where there was also managerial support and designated responsibility for secure unit development at local and regional level. It is concluded that while public reaction was a hindrance it did not slow down secure unit development as much as might have been expected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Schwartz Center Rounds® (henceforce Rounds) were developed in the United States (US) in 1995 to provide a regular, structured time and safe place for staff to meet to share the emotional, psychological and social challenges of working in healthcare. Rounds were adopted in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2009 and have been subsequently implemented in over 180 healthcare organisations. Using Rounds as a case study, we aim to inform current debates around maintaining fidelity when an intervention developed in one country is transferred and implemented in another.Methods: Interpretive design using nine qualitative interviews (UK = 3, US = 6) and four focus groups (UK: Focus group 1 (4 participants), Focus group 2 (5 participants; US: focus group 1 (5 participants) focus group 2 (2 participants) with participants involved in Rounds design and implementation, for example, programme architects, senior leaders, mentors and trainers. We also conducted non-participant observations of Rounds (UK = 42: USA = 2) and training days (UK = 2). Data were analysed using thematic analysis.Results: We identified four core and seven sub-core Rounds components, based upon the US design, and seven peripheral components, based on our US and UK fieldwork. We found high core component fidelity and examples of UK adaptations. We identified six strategies used to maintain high fidelity during Rounds transfer and implementation from the US to UK settings: i) having a legal contract between the two national bodies overseeing implementation, ii) requiring adopting UK healthcare organisations to sign a contract with the national body, iii) piloting the intervention in the UK context, iv) emphasising the credibility of the intervention, v) promoting and evaluating Rounds, and vi) providing implementation support and infrastructure.Conclusions: This study identifies how fidelity to the core components of a particular intervention was maintained during transfer from one country to another by identifying six strategies which participants argued had enhanced fidelity during transfer of Rounds to a different country, with contractual agreements and legitimacy of intervention sources key. Potential disadvantages include limitations to further innovation and adaptation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Workforce planning in the British healthcare system (NHS) is associated with significant costs of agency staff employment. The introduction of a novel software (ABG) as a 'people to people economy' (P2PE) platform for temporary staff recruitment offers a potential solution to this problem. Consequently, the focus of this study was twofold - primarily to explore the locum doctor landscape, and secondarily to evaluate the implementation of P2PE in the healthcare industry.Methods: Documentary analysis was conducted alongside thirteen semi structured interviews across five informant groups: two industry experts, two healthcare consultants, an executive director, two speciality managers and six doctors.Results: We found that locum doctors are indispensable to covering workforce shortages, yet existing planning and recruitment practices were found to be inefficient, inconsistent and lacking transparency. Contrarily, mobile-first solutions such as ABG seem to secure higher convenience, better transparency, cost and time efficiency. We also identified factors facilitating the successful diffusion of ABG; these were in line with classically cited characteristics of innovation such as trialability, observability, and scope for local reinvention. Drawing upon the concept of value-based healthcare coupled with the analysis of our findings led to the development of Information Exchange System (IES) model, a comprehensive framework allowing a thorough comparison of recruitment practices in healthcare.Conclusion: IES was used to evaluate ABG and its diffusion against other recruitment methods and ABG was found to outperform its alternatives, thus suggesting its potential to solve the staffing and cost crisis at the chosen hospital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]