bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Estimating the value of the US multicultural shopper in the independent retail channel: An In-Culture™ analysis
Authors: Valdés M. Isabel , Beniflah Jake
Published: July 2024

The purpose of this study was two-fold: (1) to estimate the economic contribution of the multicultural population (ie Hispanic, African American and Asian) in the independent retail grocery channel; and (2) to conduct an In-Culture™ analysis of 2012 National Grocers Association data to uncover key shopper insights and purchasing patterns among multicultural consumers. This paper publishes key findings across three units of analysis (national, state and city). The main finding is that US Hispanics spent an estimated US$22.9bn, African Americans US$14.8bn, Asians US$6.7bn and non- Hispanic Whites US$86.9bn in the US independent retail grocery channel in 2012. This study is considered the first to estimate the economic contribution of the US multicultural population among independent retail grocers, but acknowledges that more research is needed to estimate the full economic value of this population in this channel. Because the US multicultural spend in the independent retail grocery channel is poorly measured by leading syndicated research companies, this study will help improve ROI estimates for leading corporations, which consider multicultural shoppers important growth segments — today and in the future.
Impact of chronic disease integration strategies on healthcare outcomes and costs in Canada: A scoping review
Authors: Liu Grace , Tsasis Peter , Morr Christo El
Published: July 2024

There has been a growing body of evidence suggesting that chronic care integration strategies can improve healthcare outcomes and decrease costs. In fact, according to the World Health Organization (2002), there is an opportunity to improve health care for chronic conditions and to curtail the growth in healthcare expenditures through integration and coordination. The purpose of this scoping review is to evaluate the impact of chronic disease integration strategies on healthcare outcomes and costs in Canada. For the purpose of this study, the words chronic disease, healthcare costs, integration and Canada were searched for in five peer-reviewed databases. The inclusion criteria included papers published from 2006 to 2020 in English. The results showed 37 papers that met the inclusion criteria, 51 per cent of which were published from 2006 to 2015 and 49 per cent from 2016 to 2020. The papers were critically appraised for quality (5 per cent strong, 11 per cent moderate, 16 per cent weak and 68 per cent not applicable); 35 per cent, however, were protocols and did not provide evidence. Only two papers demonstrated improved healthcare outcomes and decreased utilisation. Although there was insufficient evidence, this review contributes by highlighting the need to further implement chronic disease integration strategies to demonstrate healthcare outcomes and costs. This review identifies research gaps and provides directions for researchers and implications for healthcare managers and policymakers.
Analytics: Turning data into management gold
Authors: Even Alon
Published: July 2024

In today’s competitive business landscape, both business-to-business and business-to-consumer marketers are seeking insights from their marketing initiatives to see what is working and what is not. The faster these insights are acted upon, the faster companies can gain a competitive edge. Companies are also delving into the customer journey in order to optimise the user experience. Those yet to do so must start implementing the type of marketing analytics that will take them and their business to the next level. They need to be provided with the actionable insights that will empower them to make business decisions seamlessly. This paper analyses how the emergence of artificial intelligence and machine learning in the marketing sphere is sure to give marketing management the necessary power to shine.
Machine-made mineral fibres: Their use, benefits and risks
Authors: Rushton Trevor
Published: July 2024

According to the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work, machine-made mineral fibres (MMMF) are one of the top ten emerging health risks for workers within the EU. Worries over the possible health effects of MMMF are not new, although studies have generally failed to establish a link between cancer in humans and MMMF insulation other than in the case of refractory ceramic fibres and special purpose fibres that tend to be of smaller diameter than the materials commonly used within buildings. However, the picture is clouded owing to the use of different additives aimed at reducing biopersistence, which, in turn, makes the collection of reliable data from epidemiological studies difficult and sometimes unreliable. Given the move to greater insulation levels and reduced air leakage from buildings, more attention needs to be paid to indoor air quality and the possible contribution that insulation materials may play in this. MMMF, if used correctly, has a valuable role to play, but only with proper consideration of moisture management in a building. While MMMF uses a high proportion of recycled material in its manufacture, the opportunities for recycling used materials are less certain and may be problematic. Provided suitable measures are taken to reduce dust and prevent skin contact during installation and disposal operations, there are no significant risks to occupiers of buildings insulated with MMMF. Sensible precautions are however essential to limit the inhalation of respirable fibres.
Readying the open banking system for success
Authors: Wadsworth Jim
Published: July 2024

Open banking is now the accepted norm across Europe and beyond thanks to mandated legislation. For financial institutions, however, it is no longer deemed the compliance exercise it once was. Many have realised that it offers an opportunity to innovate and, importantly, compete; open banking is the architecture that allows them to rethink audiences and transform product portfolios accordingly. The potential for open banking to revolutionise the financial well-being of millions of individuals and small businesses across Europe is beginning to unfurl. But to reach its true potential, there are still challenges to be overcome within the open banking ecosystem and its architecture. This paper addresses some of those issues, such as Application Programming Interface (API) multiple standards, which are causing unwanted layers of complexity, confusion and expense for both third-party providers (TPPs) and banks; trust and security problems posed by the validation of TPPs — particularly in cross-border transactions; and also the complexity of dispute resolution where no central records or consistent formats exist. Additionally, readers will learn whether the topic ‘open banking’ itself really matters to the success of open banking-enabled products and whether FinTechs, banks and financial institutions are wasting their energies marketing the underlying technology. Readers can expect to get a clear picture of how all of these challenges — interoperability and standards, secure transactions, clear means of resolving disputes and marketing — can be overcome to create an efficiently functioning architecture that allows powerful open banking-enabled practical tools and solutions to be transformational for both people and businesses.
Safety in numbers: Criteria for the mass digitisation of obsolete videotape recordings
Authors: Fairall Charles
Published: July 2024

A key aim of preservation is to retain the essence and goodness of the original creation. In the case of videotape, however, this covers a vast and constantly evolving technological landscape. This paper discusses the substantial challenges faced by audiovisual archivists, who must effectively reinvent their collections of videotape recordings in data form to save them from impending format and carrier obsolescence. This paper describes such challenges as the lack of both skills and parts, and the paramount importance of quality assurance.
Protecting the brand in the era of fake news: Why brands need advertisement verification tools
Authors: Marvin Ginny , Meisel Seth
Published: July 2024

The digital display advertising ecosystem – advertisers, agencies, publishers, adtech vendors – experienced a trust crisis that peaked in March 2017 as fake news, misinformation, conspiracy theories and extremist content proliferated in the wake of the US presidential election cycle of 2016. Brand safety has become a buzzword of choice as advertisers reevaluate how they are buying digital display advertising, the controls they have in place to ensure their advertising appears alongside content that is in keeping with their brands, and how to balance reach with control. This paper examines how: (1) brands have been forced to adapt to a changing landscape; (2) to evaluate the adtech options available to brands for monitoring and blocking the placement of advertisements; (3) Google, Facebook and adtech vendors have responded to advertiser calls for more controls and (4) brand managers can implement a brand safety plan of their own.
Lift maintenance for building managers and surveyors
Authors: Rushe Colm
Published: July 2024

Lifts are a complex form of transport employed throughout the world today. Their use is highly regulated by both local and European regulations. In some cases, these regulations form part of a suite of regulations dealing with various aspects of building operations. It is very important that persons in control of lift equipment understand their obligations and execute them. Failure to do so can have a significant impact upon the life cycle of lift equipment or lead to accidents.
The state of the creator economy
Authors: Schram Ryan
Published: July 2024

The `State of the Creator Economy’ research initiative provides an in-depth view of how the maturation of social media and other industry-relevant changes have affected consumers, marketers and creators. This marks the eighth year of the study, which aims to provide ongoing measurement of and insight into how influencer marketing (IM) and content marketing are both perceived and used. It offers information necessary to better understand the shifting trends in marketing strategies, consumer behaviours and creator habits. The study, commissioned by IZEA Worldwide, was conducted in partnership with Research Now, The Right Brain Consumer Consulting and Lightspeed GMI. It leads the charge for the industry, providing an independent lens through which readers can view the current marketing landscape -- content marketing and IM in particular -- from the viewpoint of consumers, marketers and creators. Researchers surveyed 606 client marketers from Research Now’s B-to-B National Panel, 242 IM and content marketing creators from the IZEA database of partners and 1,000 consumers sourced from Lightspeed GMI’s Domestic U.S. Panel.
Shifting the ticketing paradigm: The role of open standards
Authors: Cremer Laurent
Published: July 2024

This paper discusses the transit ticketing industry and the challenges it faces to evolve current systems. Providing an overview of the key pressures facing public transport operators, the piece will investigate how single-vendor fare collection systems are increasingly problematic and how the adoption of an open standard can bring new opportunities. The paper investigates how developments in internet of things (IoT), urban mobility and increasingly ‘smart cities’ are forcing transit ticketing to look beyond public transport. The need to develop multi-application solutions and collaborate with adjacent ecosystems, including access control and payments, is crucial. Moreover, it will consider how host card emulation (HCE) technology will be central to effecting this change. This consumer-centric approach will facilitate consumer demand for greater functionality and ease of use, and allow public transport operators to tap into new revenue streams at low initial cost. Readers will learn how open standards are vital for the future of fare collection and the only way to truly realise the full benefits of adopting HCE in transport. The paper will discuss the OSPT Alliance’s market-leading standard, CIPURSE, and its ability to both meet the challenges facing transport operators in the short term and provide scope for future developments and scalable long-term deployments.
Closing the North–South divide, for good
Authors: Murison Henri
Published: July 2024

Productivity is key to the regional inequalities in the UK. Following work published last year by Metro Dynamics1 on Greater Manchester, this paper seeks to understand productivity trends in neighbouring regions which have also managed to start to close the productivity gap in the decade to 2020. The paper also unpacks the differences in productivity trends within the North of England’s various economic sub-regions.
Preservation metadata for DPX files: A case study
Authors: Steeman Marjolein , Schuurman Josefien
Published: July 2024

To preserve digital objects for the long term, repositories must maintain metadata about those objects. Unfortunately, it is not possible to know precisely what metadata will be needed to protect against any loss in the future. Standards such as Open Archival Information System (OAIS) and PREservation Metadata: Implementation Strategies (PREMIS) offer guidelines for categorising and specifying metadata. How can these guidelines be put into practice? What sort of customisation is needed, if any? What recommendations may be expected from their implementation? The Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision is developing working standards for the metadata associated with the digital artefacts in its repository. It has put the guidelines into practice by developing a customised preservation metadata dictionary. To illustrate the practical issues that can arise when implementing these standards, this paper presents the example of how Digital Moving-Picture Exchange (DPX) files exist in an archive in the context of preservation. It starts by defining requirements for DPX preservation metadata. A gap analysis is then performed to compare the requirements and the actual available metadata about the DPX files. Preservation metadata are found in various forms and locations. The preservation metadata dictionary is a useful tool to promote awareness of this in order to establish preservation metadata and meet preservation goals.
Evolving metrics in a changing corporate real estate landscape
Authors: Moeder Andie
Published: July 2024

In today’s world of the ‘hybrid office’, the role of the ‘office’ has changed. The focus has evolved from efficiency, individual space and support space to new considerations for group engagement and an engagement/hospitality focus. Solutions for both technology and collaboration spaces have shifted to be more inclusive of remote participants and considerations. Today’s metrics in corporate real estate (CRE) organisations need to realign to capture and monitor new drivers. Concurrently, companies are facing new headwinds with a vastly different business climate from that of the past few years. Federal rate hikes and inflation increases have raised concern for a potential recession and have created a financial environment where cash is king. Organisations are hyper-diligent for CapEx and OpEx spend. Finally, the war for talent is still a market driver, with the US at near historic lows with unemployment at 3.6 per cent in June 2023. This has created a huge focus for leadership with human capital — even with the tech industry layoffs in spring 2023. As CRE pivots to support their organisation’s objectives, metrics are evolving with new considerations. This paper explores areas of impact that could evolve out of this progression.
Building an effective US-UK sanctions compliance programme: What are the key components?
Authors: Mitchell Rita D. , Mortlock David , Osborn-King Simon
Published: July 2024

Economic and trade sanctions are political tools used to further government objectives, typically to seek to change or modify the behaviour of the target country’s regimes, or particular individuals or groups, based on foreign policy and national security goals. In recent years, we have observed a dramatic increase in the use of sanctions by the European Union (EU) (and by extension the United Kingdom) as well as the United States, indicating a foreign policy shift that continues to create challenges for businesses subject to EU, UK and US sanctions regimes. In the United Kingdom, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) expects regulated entities to tailor their systems and controls to mitigate the risk of financial sanctions violations. In the United States, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) encourages a risk-based approach to sanctions compliance. There is no one-size-fits-all approach. Nevertheless, on the basis of a review of the applicable legislation, regulations, guidance from the authorities, policy statements, and observations from recent enforcement actions as well as our own advisory work in this area, there are certain key components that every sanctions compliance programme should contain. This paper will briefly set out why having an effective sanctions compliance programme is necessary. We will then discuss expectations by regulators and enforcement authorities as to what constitutes an effective sanctions compliance programme, and, finally, explore how companies can seek to meet and manage these expectations from a cross-border perspective.
Void property: The hidden pitfalls of arranging insurance cover and adhering to terms and conditions
Authors: Palmer Trevor M.
Published: July 2024

When a property becomes void, all interested parties and insurance brokers must work together to adhere to the additional conditions that are likely be imposed by insurers. There are many pitfalls to be avoided to ensure a full indemnity is obtained from the policy should disaster strike. Failure to identify and implement vacant property insurance conditions can result in uninsured losses adding further to the burden of costs a void property already had on a portfolio.
Improving measurement with Big Data: Variety-seeking and survival
Authors: Nastasoiu Mihaela Alina , Bendle Neil , Vandenbosch Mark
Published: July 2024

Big Data can be used to make sense of highly unstructured consumer data, and improve both the reliability and validity of measures that have historically required manual coding. Furthermore, using available secondary data allows for much faster coding. This research proposes a new and more robust way to measure the degree of variety-seeking exhibited by consumers. It employs the Million Song Dataset, a database of consumergenerated tags describing musical styles, to create measures of musical variety with minimal manual coding. Using a sample of 10,511 SiriusXM subscribers, the research compares this novel method of measuring variety-seeking behaviours with a more simple model, and finds that the novel method is a more accurate predictor of churn.
Firefighting in heritage buildings
Authors: Emery Steve
Published: July 2024

This paper takes a close look at the mechanism of fire spread, highlights some of the fire safety challenges posed by heritage buildings and gives some practical advice on limiting the spread of fire while respecting the historic fabric.
Engaging digital audiences
Authors: Prince Alison
Published: July 2024

The rise of the social web has been transformative for organisations seeking to engage digital audiences. The number of channels for consuming digital content has exploded and the term ‘produser’ has been coined to describe the new wave of digital consumers who are also contributors and editors of content. This, combined with the fact that audiences can now use social media to interact more directly, publicly and instantly with organisations than ever before, has meant a drastic rethink of traditional communications and engagement techniques. It is easy just to jump in at the deep end with digital. Digital communications channels certainly have fewer barriers to entry than many others in terms of time, cost and set-up. This can be a valid way to get the ball rolling, but long-term success with engaging digital audiences requires planning, knowledge of how engagement works, a thorough understanding of the intended audience and how they behave, the right set of skills to produce and deliver content journeys and a willingness to monitor and respond to interactions on an ongoing basis. It is not easy but the opportunities for those willing to put in the time have never been greater.
From fundraising to resource raising: One foundation’s journey
Authors: Desanto Virginia
Published: July 2024

Many public university foundations have found that the way in which they support their university has grown and changed over the years. While the primary focus is still on fundraising and endowment management, many foundations have been asked to develop and manage a variety of new revenue-generating activities: real estate development, technology transfer, alumni associations, research, venture investment, etc. As operations have diversified, foundations are faced with more complex questions around risk, public and donor perception, governance, expertise and peer comparison, to name a few. Arizona State University Foundation for A New American University (foundation) is one such organisation. Its evolution has brought an array of revenue-producing activity far from traditional fundraising in support of Arizona State University (ASU). In response, the foundation’s board of directors redesigned the foundation’s operations and created a nonprofit parent company to hold and support the diversified activities, which included the traditional fundraising work of the foundation. This paper describes the unique creation and organisation of the ASU Foundation’s transformation into Enterprise Partners.
Bridging the strategy-execution gap: Strategic planning in times of change
Authors: Hassert Björn
Published: July 2024

This paper analyses the strategy-execution gap, which occurs when strategy design and strategy execution are disconnected. Increased competition and digital disruption are just some of the indicators that point towards an industry facing major and constant change. The paper discusses a number of intrinsic weaknesses in strategy design, which can reduce an organszation’s capability to successfully manage change. Conventional strategy design produces static strategies, which capture the organisation’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, but only to the extent visibility on these exists at the time of strategy design. The organisation, however, will be exposed to far more potential disruptors than its leadership team can oversee. These evolve, and new and different ones will arise over time. This paper also discusses potential weaknesses in strategy execution. Traditional strategic planning processes produce top-down strategies, which may prevent the bottom-up engagement of the wider organisation and its ecosystem of customers, business partners and other key stakeholders. Without this feedback loop, an organisation may struggle to calibrate its strategy against real-time dynamics and to effectively respond to change. If strategy design and execution become disconnected, change can outpace strategy and business continuity may be at risk. Therefore this strategy-execution gap should be understood and managed. The paper discusses a more dynamic approach to strategic planning. Dynamic strategies reflect ongoing dialogue, an organisation’s unique competitive differentiator, certain fundamental choices and, above all, flexibility. By enabling the organisation to effectively respond to real-time disruptors, while keeping it on course to achieve its long-term strategic objectives, strategic planning can bridge the strategy-execution gap.
Surfing social-media waves to propel a brand’s momentum: What wave, and when and how to ride it to perfection
Authors: Vanhonacker Wilfried R.
Published: July 2024

Viral waves in social-media space provide cost-effective opportunities for real-time marketing. This paper provides some guidelines on wave judgment, timing, and how to ride a viral wave in order to transform wave momentum into brand momentum and enhance a brand’s standing in the digital era.
Cavity walls — retro-injected insulation — kill or cure?
Authors: Davies Tim
Published: July 2024

There are in excess of 17 million homes in the UK of cavity wall construction — almost 70 per cent of all domestic dwellings. Government sources suggest that almost 12 million homes now either have built-in cavity wall insulation, or have been subject to retro-fit injection, which has seen a considerable increase in use over recent years in response to carbon reduction/energy conservation measures required by the Climate Change and Sustainable Energy Act 2006. Retro CWI has been funded, via the government, from the main energy providers. In turn, private companies have been paid to insulate properties, often at no cost to the home owner. Retro CWI has received both good and bad press in the media and the industry is not yet subject to any form of formal government regulation, though a Code of Practice has been produced by the National Insulation Association. Any valuers/surveyors inspecting a property should be mindful of the problems incorrectly installed CWI can cause. If they fail to identify and report retro CWI and future problems arise, they could be facing a PI claim from an aggrieved homeowner discovering unexpected damp/mould growth appearing shortly after they have moved into their recently-purchased home.
Digital asset management at Lands’ End, Inc.: Past experiences, present challenges and future opportunities
Authors: Swaziek Richard
Published: July 2024

Lands’ End, Inc. is a leading uni-channel retailer of casual clothing, accessories, footwear and home products. Products are offered online, on third-party online marketplaces, and through retail locations. Lands’ End is a classic lifestyle brand with a passion for quality, legendary service and real value, and seeks to deliver timeless style for men, women, kids and the home. To remain highly competitive in the global retail marketplace, the company’s leadership recognised that a major enterprise digital asset management system upgrade was necessary to continue to service the company’s valued customers and enable ongoing and expanding business opportunities. This paper summarises the journey of experiences, challenges and change management tactics required to implement a new enterprise system, and how the new system is laying a foundation for future opportunities and successes.
Empirical measurement of marketing analytics orientation: Quantifying the factors that create highly analytical marketing practices
Authors: Branda Anthony F. , Weber Mark , Lucio Eduardo
Published: July 2024

Marketing analytics involves use of data tools to quantify and monitor marketing performance (MP) to both optimise investments in marketing programmes and maximise customer interaction. Built on market orientation (MO) theories, this study establishes a construct and measure of marketing analytics orientation (MAO) to assess factors that predict MAO. A novel measure that provides empirical evidence of MAO and its relationship to MP is presented using data collected from a survey of company leadership and marketing analytics professionals in real-world businesses. The results demonstrate that people effectiveness and analytic skill sets mediate the relationship between MAO and MP. These findings describe a new tool that may help data scientists and business owners better understand the drivers of marketing analytics maturity, including the importance of professional analytics skills, top management support, data governance, the credibility of the analytics organisation, and the adoption of analytics within corporate culture.
Wells Cathedral West Front pilot study : Setting the tone for appraisal and repair strategies
Authors: Humphreys Berenice
Published: July 2024

Simon Jenkins placed Wells Cathedral at the top of his list of Top Ten Cathedrals of England and it is easy to see why when the sun dances across the West Front. Adorned with 300-plus sculptures dating from the 13th century, the pattern of decay is somewhat to be expected, but it is perhaps the historic interventions that make the building of such interest to conservators and architects alike. This paper addresses the recent works carried out on the West Front between May and August 2021, which were put together as a pilot scheme of repairs, from which a much larger repair programme could be specified. On a building as significant as Wells Cathedral, repair programmes are proposed as centuries-only events, rather than five-year plans, the impact of a full scaffold being placed across the façade being both technically challenging and disruptive to a small city relying very much on the tourist and filming trade. The repair works carried out and proposed for the future include replacement of severely decayed stonework, ‘plastic’ repairs in lime mortar, removal of detritus and pigeon guano, and comprehensive recording to understand both the patterns of decay of the stone itself and any repair programme’s longevity.
The changing face of real estate and how it leverages technology
Authors: Rosen Oren
Published: July 2024

This paper identifies some of the challenges that the world of real estate faces today. The business world is changing at an ever increasing pace, and real estate companies are no exception. The challenges being faced today have a profound impact on the very survival of real estate organisations. Being able to identify risks in order to mitigate their impact, as well as finding opportunities that would be advantageous and profitable to any real estate company, are critical to its success. Many of the external challenges are beyond the control of the organisation such as government regulation, socio-political events and general market conditions. However, many of the challenges such as the quality and timeliness of information and the streamlining of business processes can be controlled and resolved by resources within the real estate organisation. Besides the commonly known challenges, new risks are emerging that are beginning to exert their influence on real estate companies and will continue to exert pressure on them in the future. As a result real estate companies are being prompted to look to technology as part of the solution to improve internal efficiencies and effectiveness. Technological solutions have become an essential part of a real estate company's toolset in order to keep pace with rapidly evolving conditions and stay ahead of competitors. Finally a new technological vision of the real estate company is presented. Some of the capabilities and functionality that real estate companies require to meet the challenges of today and the future are identified.
Participatory and empowerment evaluation tools for regeneration
Authors: Brooks Zoe
Published: July 2024

This paper looks at the experience of a public-sector regeneration partnership — East Oxford Action (EOA) — of using participatory evaluation methods, especially 'empowerment evaluation', as a tool within regeneration programmes. It is based on the practitioner's need for the evaluation to be of use, and to move the regeneration practice forward. In particular, the paper looks at the role that participatory evaluation has in addressing power and empowerment issues around evaluation and programmes generally. Importantly, in participatory and empowerment evaluations at least equal status is given to staff and beneficiary communities as to funders and programme partners. Empowerment evaluation is delivered through a workshop, broken down into five stages — establishing the aim, agreeing success criteria, scoring current performance, discussion and, finally, identifying future action. It is argued that empowerment evaluation has particular value where it can inform future action, either as part of a longitudinal evaluation or as part of the planning for a future programme. In addition, it has particular value in building capacity and ownership within those involved and thus has a role in supporting post-funding sustainability.
Operational resilience towards a global alignment
Authors: Bida Alda , Nathoo Rupesh
Published: July 2024

Operational resilience lies between operational risk and business continuity. This paper provides a view on the implementation of the operational resilience framework, and its relationship with operational risk and business continuity. It analyses the similarities and differences between these exercises and how management information from these exercises can be leveraged and aligned. The paper also provides answers to three important questions: (1) What pushed the international regulators to add additional oversight? (2) What benefits and challenges are brought by operational resilience? (3) Why is it important to harmonise operational resilience within the international regulatory landscape?
Building a new ecosystem: A bank’s journey through sustaining digital transformation, understanding AI and managing the galaxy of continuous change
Authors: Nikum Nidhi
Published: July 2024

In October 2019, I delivered the keynote address to a room full of banking and financial services professionals on what to expect on a journey towards digital transformation (DT). At the outset I asked my audience if their business was in any of the following three categories — advanced stage of DT, somewhere in between or warming up to it. There was only one show of hand for ‘somewhere in between’, while the majority identified themselves as being at the starting stage. It did surprise me. Since then, however, the evolution towards DT has been rapid. Digital disruption has created a level-playing field for various ecosystems, with its own subsidaries offering services and generating real business value. If your business is an early adopter of digital disruption, then you already know the value, but if you are among the early majority, the conservative or even the sceptic willing to cross the chasm, I really hope that you can find at least one useful takeaway from this conversation. I am bringing the spotlight back to ‘where to start’, ‘why digital principles are required’ and ‘understanding and building your own strategy for data, platforms and machine learning’ to rebuild your organisation by facilitating the use of agile methods by important players across your organisation. Find your ‘why’ to connect customers, business and technology seamlessly through an opportunity well guided by data and machine learning.
The three billion new middle-class opportunity: The successes and technical challenges of mobile financial services in emerging markets
Authors: Schulze Ludwig
Published: July 2024

Since its launch seven years ago, mobile money in Kenya now transmits more than 43 per cent of Kenyan GDP each year. With an expected three billion new middle class in the emerging markets by 2030, the mobile phone is being used to leapfrog traditional retail banking and payment approaches, much as it has done for telecommunications. This paper reviews the opportunities for retail banking and payments in the emerging markets, gives examples of mobile phone-based financial offerings and focuses on the practical matter of how institutions can reach users with mobile phones. Lastly, the author examines who will benefit from this fundamental industry shift. Readers are introduced to the subject of mobile financial services in the emerging markets with particular value for retail banking and payments practitioners interested in expanding their businesses through the mobile phone, but frustrated by the limitations of mobile operator partners and noise from vendors.
A corporate treasurer toolkit to ensure fund delivery in disaster zones
Authors: Parandeh Sassan Cyrus
Published: July 2024

In a disaster situation, the corporate treasury department of an organisation is also responsible for ensuring business continuity. The treasury department’s key role would be to ensure that vendors, suppliers and employees are adequately remunerated and that operations do not seize due to a lack of working capital. Treasury practitioners concerned with business continuity have traditionally focused on three mainstay aspects of the initiative: (1) creating virtual or remote treasury offices; (2) training key backup staff on emergency procedures; (3) maintaining power and telecommunication connectivity with their cash concentration bank to guarantee treasury is able to transmit funding instructions to them. This paper aims to take business continuity measures for corporate treasury departments to a higher level of preparedness by asking one critical question: ‘What will happen if the cash concentration bank or the entire banking system of a country in which a company has operations collapses?’ Rarely have treasury professionals contemplated such a cataclysmic scenario. This paper aims to (1) validate that banking system failures are common, (2) rationalise why treasury practitioners need to devise contingency funding strategies outside of the banking system and (3) offer some viable alternatives to commercial banks. In this regard the author will draw from the experience of international non-governmental organisations that routinely respond to and operate in cataclysmic emergencies.
The deep brand: Designs for a new chapter in marketing?
Authors: Jenkinson Angus
Published: July 2024

No brand model has been generally accepted across the industry as adequate, nor is there a comprehensive, theoretically grounded solution to its design, population and use. While creativity and innovation are desirable, this gap diminishes company and marketing coordination, strategies and customer-focused alignment. It has adverse effects on leadership decisions, employee and team morale, projects and processes, corporate health and investor wealth, communication and customer experience. A proper solution will meet real needs, including a full set of identity dimensions, in accord with how companies conserve organisational unity of identity while enabling due diversity of practice.1 A suggested approach to both theory and practice are outlined with their supporting scientific and business logic. ‘Deep brand’ is not confined to ‘marketing’, but includes all identity aspects, including culture and business model. It connotes a way to coherent unity in action. There is special potential for marketers to play an instrumental role in orchestrating and leveraging its management. A case study of application as the IBM Brand System concludes a critical examination of brand practice and presentation of a deeply researched and tested alternative transdisciplinary methodology and its brand laws. Proposed logic and methods draw on insights that transformed and underpin the design industry. The open source novel but proven toolset is called Virtuoso.
Achieving food equity: Access to good local food for all
Authors: Dobson Julian
Published: July 2024

The increasing use of emergency food aid in UK communities has highlighted growing social inequalities, exemplified by a rise in the use of food banks, while food waste remains a persistent challenge. Meanwhile the policy debate on food security remains focused on international trade and global risks. This paper examines the rise in community-based and place-based responses to questions of food justice and security, focusing on Incredible Edible Todmorden in the UK and the network of food projects that share the ‘incredible edible’ ethos and approach. Drawing on the experience of Todmorden, the author asks whether community-based food schemes should be given greater prominence in questions of resilience and ‘place-keeping’.
In search of a sweet spot for wealth management digitisation: Human versus technology, provider versus customer perspective
Authors: Golba Bartosz
Published: July 2024

The wealth management and private banking industry has been slow to get on board the digital revolution that has swept across the financial services industry. The industry’s initial attempts at ‘going digital’ were limited. Because most retail banks launched mobile applications, wealth managers did the same, without considering what these tools can actually be used for and which client pain-points they could resolve. This paper discusses the expectations of current and future private banking clients, and the role that technology and digitisation will play in addressing these. To succeed in the long term, wealth management organisations have to be smart in combining the strengths of their personnel with the capabilities offered by technology.
Moving to a perpetual KYC model: The benefits and the challenges
Authors: Isherwood Neil
Published: July 2024

Financial services firms have been looking for many years to improve efficiency in the Anti Money Laundering/Know Your Customer (AML/KYC) onboarding process, looking towards a data led approach and automation to reduce costs. In many firms this has been a slow process with many other programmes taking priority in terms of development resource. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted that processes which involve large work forces, offshore resources and manual labour, are particularly vulnerable to disruption, resulting in institutions being unable to accept new customers due to lack of resources. This has placed a renewed focus on automation and in turn also turned attention to perpetual KYC as a method for maintaining client files, without the need for a full manual periodic review. This paper looks at the benefits of this type of approach and the challenges that organisations face to adopt it.
alt.cmd: Everyday innovation for London’s future
Authors: Pitkeathley Simon
Published: July 2024

Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) have a vital role to play in seeking to offer solutions for a new model of governance that will embrace innovation while ensuring inclusive, sustainable growth. While the UK regulatory environment often stifles the innovative potential of start-ups and small businesses, governance sandboxes provide a space that enables innovation and diversity of activity. Much of the analysis surrounding the UK’s productivity problem points to the lack of investment by UK companies in new technology, which has a negative impact on the wider economy. The benefits of the rapid innovation surrounding us have therefore not filtered down to a civic or neighbourhood level. BIDs can help redress this balance by using non-traditional avenues and applying the BID framework. Camden Town Unlimited (CTU), a London BID, has previously pioneered new models of inclusive growth through Camden Collective and the Camden Highline; a governance sandbox — ‘alt.cmd’ — is CTU’s latest venture intended to give people the freedom to create a more democratic and inclusive future. Ultimately, innovation can only be inclusive with the support of the local community. For that reason, alt.cmd brought individuals and business leaders in the community together to propose radically innovative ideas to tackle everyday problems. This ‘ideas lab’ focused on four areas: finance, data, governance and economy, resulting in four key initiatives which alt.cmd is now taking forward: a ‘Smart Covenant’, which captures the value increase to private property resulting from public projects to create new potential funding models for public infrastructure projects; an ‘Improve my Street’ participatory crowdfunding model to help people organise, ensure fair contributions, and deliver a shared vision for the community; ‘Smart Noise Licensing’ for temporary events to improve the way noise is measured, managed and mitigated; and ‘Rooftop Planning Rights’ — data-driven planning permission that aims to unlock work and living space on top of existing buildings. Communities already have the tools they need to harness the creative potential of businesses and entrepreneurs. Doing so could not only help to address low productivity, but could do so in a sustainable and affordable manner — partnering with the private sector for the benefit of local communities.
Issues to consider relating to information governance and artificial intelligence
Authors: Brett Mark
Published: July 2024

Information governance and policy guidance will be essential for effectively deploying artificial intelligence (AI) in the business world. This paper considers some of the aspects relating to AI which need to be considered. The paper highlights some of the current work being conducted in UK local government. It will look at the UK government strategy for AI and consider some of the issues relating to AI policy and governance. The paper offers an approach for organisations and other researchers to develop their own AI assurance and governance framework. The future work section explores some of the areas in which there is a need for future work and research.
Robotic process automation and the power of automation in the workplace
Authors: Samra Raj
Published: July 2024

Robotic process automation (RPA) is a powerful tool for performing manual, time-consuming, rules-based office activities more effectively by reducing cycle time and at lower costs than other automation solutions. RPA can have a major effect on a company’s operations and strategic positioning and serves as a base for machine learning (ML), artificial intelligence (AI) and the creation of a more autonomous sector. This paper discusses how two of RPA’s most significant advantages — ease of deployment and improved speed and agility — are often overlooked. The paper advises business leaders to concentrate on automating as much as possible, focusing on front-end processes, optimising efficiency and striving for auditability.
Analysing blockchain/distributed ledger technology in capital markets and know your customer process
Authors: Eduardo Demarco André
Published: July 2024

Distributed ledger technology (DLT) is attracting the attention of the financial sector, both owing to its use in transactions with cryptoassets and to the proliferation of initiatives that have the potential to increase the efficiency, transparency, speed and resilience of processes underlying financial transactions, such as the know your customer (KYC) process. This paper aims to introduce this technology by describing a series of basic issues surrounding it and attempting to identify the possible value proposition in using this technology. Additionally, it addresses possible applications in the financial sector and outlines some of the main challenges to capital markets, where trust and collaboration are the key of success.
The Mammoth: A new mascot for Amherst College
Authors: López Amanda Rivera , Nartowicz Carly
Published: July 2024

This paper analyses how and why Amherst College changed its historic, unofficial institutional symbol — the scope and pitfalls of the process; the highly controversial nature of the undertaking; the diligent work of alumni, students, faculty and staff and the ultimate success of the project. It begins with Lord Jeffery Amherst (1717–1797), a commander in the French and Indian War for whom the town of Amherst, Massachusetts, is named. Amherst College, founded in 1821, was christened after the town. Although never officially adopted by the college, the unofficial use of Lord Jeffery Amherst — ‘Lord Jeff ’ — as the college’s mascot began in the 1920s. As scholars started to raise new questions about the American colonial past, some of Lord Jeffery Amherst’s actions at the time of the French and Indian War gained new attention, and critics of his mascot status at the college began to emerge. Over time, the Amherst community became divided on this issue. In January 2016, the chair of Amherst’s board of trustees announced that the college would no longer use Lord Jeff in an official capacity and suggested an alumni/student committee to consider next steps. This paper details how that committee was formed; how it was managed by Amherst’s Office of Alumni and Parent Programs and the ultimate development, implementation and successful conclusion of Amherst’s mascot selection process.