The Unfolding Transdisciplinary Intersection Between Narrative, Experience, and Design-Based Education

In many investment banks and major fund-management companies, automated "robot" trading systems now do work that 20 years ago would have required large numbers of human traders to perform: the rise of robot traders is a major success-story for artificial intelligence (AI) research. Although the technical details of currently profitable automated trading systems are closely guarded commercial secrets, the rise of robot trading can be traced back to a sequence of key AI research papers. Each of these key papers relied on minimal abstract simulation models of real financial markets: the simulators provide test-beds for trials in which the performance of different trading strategies could be evaluated and compared. Recent studies have revisited these seminal results, using more realistic simulations of contemporary financial markets, and have cast major doubts on core conclusions drawn in the original publications. Therefore, it seems reasonable to argue that present-day simulation methods are exposing significant problems in past research on automated trading. This position paper presents no new empirical results but instead presents a review of key past papers and an argument, a manifesto, for establishing a shared market-simulator test-bed that adequately reflects current real-world financial markets, for use in future evaluation and comparison of trading strategies.

Information vs. inspiration: Evaluating the effectiveness of mental illness stigma-reduction messages

This thesis investigates an Indigenous community’s traditional justice model called Xitl’ix, as well as the Lytton Restorative Justice Prevention and Education Program that is currently being utilized by members of the Lytton Indian Band. This qualitative study uses Indigenous Storywork Methodology and Narrative Inquiry, to explore the participants’ experiences with Xitl’ix and the Lytton Restorative Justice program. Due to the global pandemic, several video conference interviews, which the researcher refers to as virtual sharing circles, were held with eight participants. Six participants are from the Lytton Indian Band, one participant is a non-Status Indian and former director of the Lytton Restorative Justice Prevention and Education Program, and the last participant is a settler person who is a former high school principal. Each participant provided their perspective about Xitl’ix (Nlaka’pamux Court), the Lytton Restorative Justice Prevention and Education Program and/or Restorative Justice programs and services. The themes that emerged from the virtual sharing circles include Nlaka’pamux Knowledge, Indigenous healing, and ultimately provided a stronger foundation of understanding of the Xitl’ix teachings and the Lytton Restorative Justice Prevention and Education Program. During one of the virtual sharing circles and unexpected finding was revealed that described another Nlaka’pamux justice system, which has not been memorialized or described in past research about the Nlaka’pamux people.,

Improving patient compliance inorthodontic practice

Urban trees are both an asset and a cost to municipalities. Past research has focused largely on the asset—quantifying and valuing the social, economic, and environmental benefits provided by trees in urban areas. Relatively fewer studies have focused on defining the appropriate level of tree care (costs or inputs) for efficiently maintaining tree health and structural integrity, and potential resulting liabilities. On 18–20 March 2015, the International Society of Arboriculture assembled a panel of research and industry experts for a research symposium and summit titled, The Costs of Not Maintaining Trees. In the weeks leading up to the summit, the Delphi technique was initiated to help build consensus on key research questions related to the economics of trees and their care. After three iterations of questions and discussion, the panel identified 14 research topics that were deemed “very important” or “important” by at least 12 of the 14 expert panelists (80% being a commonly used threshold for consensus). Results of this work are intended to help focus future research and funding efforts in arboriculture and urban forestry.

Seeking a Universal Definition for Severe Maternal Morbidity.

Past research on organizational capabilities has mainly focused on the impact of individual capabilities (e.g., marketing, RD (2) how external boundary conditions (market munificence and complexity) influence the interactive effects (complementarity vs. substitution) of these capabilities. The results suggest that R&D (operations) capabilities positively (negatively) reinforce the effects of marketing capabilities on firm growth and that such effects vary across different market conditions. Researchers and managers can gain insights from this study regarding how to manage and deploy multiple resources and capabilities simultaneously under different market conditions to drive firm growth.

Due to the complexity of services, service failures are inevitable events for service organisations and can make customers dissatisfied and willing to switch. When these events occur, organisations often attempt service recovery. Notwithstanding, recovery efforts do not always reduce customer discontentment and restore repatronage intentions. This is attributed to other factors outside the firm’s control, including how customers cope with service failures. Some customers cope with equanimity, whilst others vent their frustration and anger by complaining and generating negative word-of-mouth. Service failures are stressful and emotion-laden events, which trigger coping processes; thus, understanding these processes is vital for service organisations. However, evidence in this research area is rather sparse. This study investigates the role of individual characteristics and situational factors in shaping customer coping with service failures. In particular, the study examines how self-efficacy and failure severity, and their interaction, influence customer coping mechanisms in the context of failed health services. In the healthcare sector, patient safety is a priority for health service providers. Yet, ensuring patient safety is challenging. Medical errors occur frequently, with serious consequences for patient health and the finances of health service providers. The healthcare sector, therefore, provides a timely and relevant context for examining customer coping. The study employed a scenario-based experiment. For data collection, a self-administered questionnaire was designed embedding a scenario of a customer experience of service failure with a private US healthcare service provider. Two versions of the same questionnaire were designed based on the manipulation of failure severity set at two levels, high and low. Prior to the main study, a pilot test was conducted (n = 30) in order to establish the ecological and internal validity of findings. In the main study, respondents included a convenience sample of US consumers using a private healthcare service provider (n = 113). For data analysis, linear and moderated regression analyses were conducted. The study’s findings reveal that individuals high in self-efficacy are inclined to use their individual capabilities to actively attempt to find a solution, especially when health service failures are low in severity. When failures are severe, on the other hand, customers foresee the lack of capability to resolve the failure, thereby engaging less in active coping. Further, results show that customers high in self-efficacy rarely engage in denial coping, thereby avoiding that the service failure even happened. The study makes two important theoretical contributions. First, it investigates customer coping in the private healthcare service context, which has been largely overlooked in past research. Second, it demonstrates how self-efficacy differentially impacts customer coping strategies depending on the level of failure severity. From a managerial perspective, the study’s findings indicate that some customers are keen to be actively involved in the recovery process, especially in the context of high involvement health services. Service providers could identify efficacious customers and engage them in co-created service recovery. Further, employees could be trained to deal with different types of customer coping behaviour.

In the experience marketing era, focus on consumer experience and the creation of an unforgettable experience for consumers have become the key to successful marketing. Story, as an ancient form of communication and thought management, is an important tool for preserving memories, sharing experience and communicating emotions. Nowadays story has become one of the most effective tools in marketing, and using story marketing to develop marketing strategy is progressively more important. However, the use of story marketing in creating and enhancing consumer experience and how story marketing can improve consumer experience have not received much attention and in-depth study in past research. Therefore, we explore these issues from a perspective of consumer experience. We propose a different perspective of story marketing serving as a psychological mechanism improving the experience of utilizing goods and services, through reviewing the existing literature that defines the constituent elements of narrative and the relationship between consumer experience and storytelling. Finally, we discuss how the contributions of our study apply to both theoretical and practical managerial implications and future research directions. The concept of story belongs to narrative research. In 1975, Mitroff and Kilmann first introduced story concept to the field of organizational management. As stories became more and more prevalent in organizations, they were packaged together with products and services and became brand marketing tools. In our present discourse on story marketing, it is necessary to have a definitive meaning of the concept of story”. Although past scholars have proposed many definitions of the word story, they have not defined stories from the perspective of experience. We define story as not only a tool for storytellers but also the experience of partaking in the story itself as an audience. Story marketing refers to the experience that products, services or brands provide through storytelling making for a much more perceptually concrete experience. In summation, story is a multi-dimensional concept which can both refer to the content of the story itself and can also be used as a practical tool. What are the elements of story? Based on the story elements that Konig et al. （2016） presented, we consider that as a marketing tool, there are three main elements of story which are important for creating stories. These three elements are story plot, story character and story style. On the basis of mediating existing types of story with their marketing role in storytelling, we categorize stories according to their central role as proposed by Tena （2015）, making it more in line with story for consumer experience marketing. We propose three story types: （1） brand identity and behavior story, including the development course of brands, involving the origins and development of brand products, services and related aspects; （2） brand products or service information as well as interactive elements of experience concerning consumers such as brand spokespersons, users and the public; （3） brand archetypal story, which refers to that stories are not only used to convey knowledge and information on products, but also to spread the values of the parent enterprises. We believe that narrative transportation theory and archetype theory effectively describe how the psychological mechanism of story marketing works to enhance the consumer experience. In narrative transportation theory, the mental state of absorption elevates consumers’ sense of pleasure in the imagined reality. To maintain this focused mental state, consumers lower their cognitive resources for analytical thinking. And, the identification of characters in stories can serve to meet needs of self-identity and social belonging of the audiences. Furthermore, strong emotional responses to stories can satisfy an individual’s need for novel experiences and improve the subjective appraisal of past life experiences. In archetype theory, stories allow consumers to consciously or unconsciously experience the archetypes in stories. Archetypes in stories have deep evolutionary roots. And the archetypal experience can encourage individuals to consciously pursue happiness. From the perspective of consumer experience, we propose our strategy of story marketing. First, archetypes are utilized to find a suitable theme. Second, it is important to take advantage of the strength of the chosen medium to create a unique consumer experience. Thirdly, it is necessary to provide consumers with a platform for communication and telling their own stories. Now that we are in the experience economy era, story marketing has become a topic with great interest in the creation and enhancement of consumer experience as for practitioners and researchers. However, research is still at its initial stage, and many issues need to be further discussed. We believe that further study in story marketing can be done along the following three lines. Firstly, from the perspective of consumer experience, the connotation of story marketing should be further discussed. Secondly, we can further explore the psychological mechanism of story marketing to improve the consumer experience. Thirdly, the outcome variables of story marketing need to be further studied from the perspective of consumer experience.

Researching the learning experiences of postgraduate students requires a different type of qualitative research to enable access to areas of their lives which may well remain hidden with more conventional methods of research. Narrative inquiry as both method and methodology allows such access. In this article, I focus on the use, appropriateness, philosophical underpinnings, discovered complexities and implications for my own teaching practice of the use of narrative inquiry in my current doctoral research. Focusing on Latin Americans, as the literature is surprisingly silent concerning such students' experiences in a UK context, I want to gain a deeper insight into what it is really like to have previously been a professional and to now be a postgraduate international student in the UK. My hope, therefore, is to gain a more comprehensive understanding of these students through their experiences to allow their voices to be heard. It is also expected that these experiences will shed light on how this understanding can be used in my syllabus and approach to teaching (see Dewey 1938/1997). As a practitioner researcher using narrative inquiry, reflexivity is key: when researchers are in the field, “they are never there as disembodied recorders of someone else's experience. They too are having an experience, the experience of the inquiry that entails the experience they set out to explore” (Clandinin and Connelly 2000: 81).

The intelligent agent paradigm has generated such a remarkable interest in many application domains over the last two decades. It is growing to be a continuously evolving and expanding area. Agents, Software Agents or Intelligent Agents are intelligent in the sense that they are adaptive, independent, and possess reasoning capability. They can plan and execute tasks in cooperation with other agents in order to satisfy their goals. A MultiAgent System (MAS) is defined as a loosely coupled network of problem solvers that work together to solve problems that are beyond the individual capabilities or knowledge of each problem solver (Agent). The increasing interest in MAS research is due to significant advantages inherent in such systems, including their ability to solve problems that may be too large for a centralized single agent, provide enhanced speed and reliability, and tolerate uncertain data and knowledge. Some of the key research issues related to problem-solving activities of agents in a multi-agent system MAS are in the areas of coordination, negotiation, and communication. With advances in Web technologies, collaborative applications are now server based and the user interface is typically a Web browser. Thus, a collaborative application can be a Webbased solution that runs on a local server that allows people communicate and work together, share information and documents, and talk in real-time over the Internet. Recently, much research has been conducted in distributed artificial intelligence and collaborative applications. Several interesting methodologies and systems have been developed in areas such as distributed multi-agent systems for decision support, web search and information retrieval, information systems modeling, and supply chain management. This chapter considers applying different data mining techniques for the decision making process in a Multi-Agent System for Collaborative E-learning (MASCE). The dynamism in elearning can be made more powerful with the help of intelligent agents. Intelligent agents – the so called e-assistants or helper programs can reside inside a computer and make the learning in e-learning occur dynamically to suit the need of the user. They can track the user’s likes and dislikes in different areas, the level of knowledge and the learning style and accordingly recommend the best matching helpers for collaboration. A previous research outlined the development and the implementation processes of a MultiAgent System for Collaborative E-learning (MASCE) which is designed to be used to assist

PurposeThis paper seeks to examine the insights that the individual agency perspective offers to the study of public‐private partnerships (P3s). It extends prior research, which has primarily adopted an economic and structural perspective, by considering the ways by which individual actors involved in these complex arrangements can shape their evolutionary path.Design/methodology/approachThis conceptual paper identifies the key research issues and questions in the P3 literature and highlights how these concerns can be further illuminated by the insights offered through the individual agency perspective.FindingsThe paper identifies four key issues in the P3 literature questions as the antecedents of P3s, pre‐formation processes, governance models and mechanisms, and evolution and adaptation. Introduction of the individual agency perspective to these research concerns highlights additional potentially explanatory factors for P3 formation and successful adaptation. The paper demonstrates that considering this perspective alongside current explanations can extend our current thinking and usefully add depth, breadth and linkage to P3 research.Practical implicationsThis research challenges the current conceptions of P3 governance as one of choosing the appropriate structural option. It offers agency considerations at each stage in the sequence of P3 process and argues that individual capability and action can influence the success and effectiveness of these arrangements.Originality/valueThis research introduces a managerial perspective to the study of P3s and reframes the current thinking around governance of these forms. This contrasts with the more economic and structural agendas of public policy research.

This chapter introduces the background, context, key research questions, and objectives of the study from which this book emerged. It discusses both the open-ended fluid narrative inquiry methodology employed as well as the participants involved in the study. The chapter explains why newcomer students from certain Arab countries were selected as key participants and provides an overview of Arab-Canadian immigration trends that underpin the background and context for this narrative inquiry into Arab newcomer students’ cross-cultural school experience in Canada. It reveals that the central purpose of the book is to provide insights for a foundational understanding of the complexities of Arab newcomer students’ cross-cultural schooling in transition, with a goal of bridging gaps in communicating cultural and educational values between Western school communities and Arab immigrants.

Objective Resource Facilitation is a lesser-known service line within the field of brain injury rehabilitation and has been described as similar to case management, care coordination, and neuronavigation. The purpose of this project was to evaluate current Resource Facilitation programs and provide a comprehensive summary of program characteristics to work toward a common definition of Resource Facilitation services and inform future program development and evaluation frameworks. Materials and Methods An online survey was sent to all known Resource Facilitation programs in the US (N = 70). Data Collection Completed through Survey Monkey including information related to program history, structure, population served, and outcomes measurement. StatisticalAnalysis Descriptive statistical analyses were applied. Results Twenty-four of the 70 programs completed the survey, resulting in a 34% completion rate. This snapshot of the current definitions and activities demonstrated high variability across programs regarding structure, funding, eligibility, and data collection. Only 33% of programs reported having a program evaluation system. Conclusions This project provided a comprehensive summary of Resource Facilitation program characteristics and associated outcome metrics. The findings may be used to begin the formulation of a common definition of Resource Facilitation services, a program evaluation framework, and aid in establishing a common data set across programs.

The focus on costs that characterised organisations in the 1980s and early 1990s is now being replaced by an interest in the concept of value. In assessing value, it is the “intangible assets” of an organisation that are likely to be worth considerably more than the measured tangible ones. Traditional accounting systems find themselves challenged as a result. These intangible assets need to be understood and identified. People form a very critical part of them, and indeed the “human capital” can be logically argued to be the ultimate driver of all value growth. The contribution of human capital to current and future value for stakeholders is examined. The key conditions for such growth are suggested as individual capability, individual motivation, leadership, the organisational climate, and workgroup effectiveness. Each of these is examined in some detail together with options for quantifiable measures. Employee development, including the continuing generation and exchange of knowledge and experience, is concluded to be the key driver of value growth in any kind of organisation.