Problem-solving Perspective Research Articles

The Listening Public in Public Diplomacy: How Did the Public Respond to President Zelensky on Twitter?

This exploratory study focuses on the public as a listening ensemble that takes part in public diplomacy on Twitter. Here, listening is considered as the receiving component of communication, and responsive behavior as its visible product. The focus is on public communication that followed Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. A total of 4,392 quote tweets (citing the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky’s tweets mentioning Ukraine’s possible membership in the European Union) were analyzed using the taxonomy of verbal response modes. Two major modes were identified: responses to the situation by sharing information and persuasion, and responses to Zelensky, Ukrainians, and the public by disclosing feelings and opinions. Interestingly, the different social roles of the public were associated with how much interaction was elicited. The listening public contributes to global deliberativeness; not strictly from an issue-oriented problem-solving perspective, but in the sense that they weave together analytical and social aspects of deliberative reflection.

Penerapan Teknologi Biopori Sebagai Upaya Mengurangi Genangan Air di Dusun Baroeh Gampong Jantho Aceh Besar

Gampong Jantho is one of the villages that has frequent waterlogging problems. The village is located below a hill range. The southern area of the village, named Dusun Baroeh, is lower than other ones. Additionally, Dusun Baroeh is also isolated from waterways by a road made of concrete and pavement. When rain occurs, Dusun Baroeh always faces waterlogging. Rainwater seepage also transports organic waste and deposits, together with waterlogging. Therefore, one effort to overcome this problem is to create a biopore infiltration hole by utilizing a polymer pipe and organic waste. The implementation of this technology results from a problem-solving perspective through the public opinion pull of villagers, field observations, problem formulation, planning of appropriate technology, and the implementation of biopores. The biopore infiltration holes were placed in six different sites that have frequent waterlogging: three sites in the residents' yards, one site on the footpath, and two sites in the residents' gardens. These biopores work by opening and expanding the water flow from stagnant surfaces to porous soil. This technology is expected to accelerate water infiltration, improve groundwater quality, and reduce stagnant water, which can spread disease.

Gender Diversity on Commissioner Board and Decision Making: Evidence Using Capital Raised Through IPOs

This study aims to analyze the influence of the presence of women in the board of commissioners’ structure on the funds allocating decisions to finance various company investment opportunities sourced from corporate actions, such as an initial public offering (IPO). Service companies, especially the financial sector became a vast field for a woman, therefore, the financial sector that has conducted IPOs on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) for the past 21 years was selected as a research sample. The analytical tool used is multiple linear regression with OLS method which examines cross-sectionally the effect of the presence of women in 53 companies. This result shows that the presence of women on the board of commissioners affects the decision-making process on the amount of funding allocation for the company's investment opportunities. Their existence minimizes the allocation of IPO funds to finance various company investment opportunities in the future. Thus, gender studies in IPO corporate actions, especially in developing countries, are still very rarely studied. Women are known to have a short-term problem-solving perspective and are less confident than men, but they are more careful when making decisions. Despite the dominating nature of prudence, women can reduce the potential for financial distress due to risky investment decisions by choosing the decision to hoard funds in the form of cash to strengthen working capital.

Tailoring of Health-Promotion Video Messaging for Reproductive-Aged Women at Risk for Developing Cardiometabolic Disease: Qualitative Focus-Groups Study.

Targeting reproductive-aged women at high risk for type 2 diabetes (T2D) provides an opportunity for prevention earlier in the life course. A woman's experiences during her reproductive years may have a large impact on her future risk of T2D. Her risk is 7 to 10 times higher if she has had gestational diabetes (GDM). Despite these risks, T2D is preventable. Evidence-based programs, such as the National Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP), can reduce the risk of developing T2D by nearly 60%. However, only 0.4% of adults with prediabetes have participated in the DPP to date and reproductive-aged women are 50% less likely to participate than older women. In prior work, our team developed a mobile 360° video to address diabetes risk awareness and promote DPP enrollment among at-risk adults; this video was not designed, however, for reproductive-aged women. This study aims to obtain feedback from reproductive-aged women with cardiometabolic disease risk about a 360° video designed to promote enrollment in the DPP, and to gather suggestions about tailoring video messages to reproductive-aged women. Focus groups and a qualitative descriptive approach were used. Women with at least 1 previous pregnancy, aged 18 to 40 years, participated in one of three focus groups stratified by the following health risks: (1) a history of GDM or a hypertensive disorder of pregnancy, (2) a diagnosis of prediabetes, or (3) a BMI classified as obese. Focus-group questions addressed several topics; this report shared findings regarding video feedback. The 3 focus-group discussions were conducted via Zoom and were recorded and transcribed for analysis. Deductive codes were used to identify concepts related to the research question and inductive codes were created for novel insights shared by participants. The codes were then organized into categories and themes. The main themes identified were positive feedback, negative feedback, centering motherhood, and the importance of storytelling. While some participants said the video produced a sense of urgency for health-behavior change, all participants agreed that design changes could improve the video's motivating effect on health-behavior change in reproductive-aged women. Participants felt a tailored video should recognize the complexities of being a mother and how these dynamics contribute to women's difficulty engaging in healthy behaviors without stirring feelings of guilt. Women desired a video with a positive, problem-solving perspective, and recommended live links as clickable resources for practical solutions promoting health behavior change. Women suggested using storytelling, both to describe how complications experienced during pregnancy impact long-term health and to motivate health behavior change. Reproductive-aged women require tailored lifestyle-change messaging that addresses barriers commonly encountered by this population (eg, parenting or work responsibilities). Moreover, messaging should prioritize a positive tone that harnesses storytelling and human connection while offering realistic solutions.

문화적 도시경쟁력 강화를 위한 문화정책 연구

This study focused on examining recent trends and solutions for urban revitalization through cultural means, responding to the heightened concerns and growing interests of many cities in augmenting the value and competitiveness of city. Accordingly,a case study of the Gongju Cultural City Center was conducted as a model to address the enhancement of urban competitiveness through cultural means, focusing on aspects such as facility expansion, population growth, and the activation of economic activities from a problem-solving perspective. Gongju City was designated as a cultural city by the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism(2021). Leveraging preliminary investigations and specialized textual studies, it has spearheaded specific projects focusing on future cultural heritage domains. As a core project, efforts were made to enhance the competitiveness of the region and the city through initiatives such as the Gongju Art Shop Street and the Gallery Weekly Project. Analytical results revealed significant achievements across all aspects related to urban competitiveness, including the expansion of cultural facilities, population growth and development, and the activation of economic activities. To enhance the role and sustainability of the Cultural City Center, it is considered essential to facilitate diverse collaboration among various stakeholders and engage in multifaceted consultations with administrative bodies from the planning to the execution stages of a broader spectrum of initiatives. This study is considered valuable not only for establishing theoretical frameworks but also as foundational data that can be utilized in the field for deriving future directions and advancements in the Cultural City project.

Operationalizing a corporate sustainability transformation in a fast-moving-consumer goods company

Recent research shows the need to address sustainability from a problem-solving perspective. Taking the case of an international company, which is advanced in that matter, the purpose of this article is to document the key success factors to operationalize a sustainability transformation, as well as a step-by-step process for its deployment. Adopting a qualitative approach, the methodology relies on in-depth interviews with semi-structured questions, collecting the return of experience of 32 employees. The findings highlight three challenges: the implementation of sustainability indicators, organizational silos, and the shift towards a sustainable business model. As a result, it was possible to identify these key success factors: systematize the culture of measuring, introduce a transversal eco-governance, and conceptualize the transformation at scale with a progressive deployment.

A Computational Tool to Track Sewage Flow Discharge into Rivers Based on Coupled HEC-RAS and DREAM

Worldwide abatement of untreated sewage discharge into surface water is a challenging task. Sewage discharging into surface waters has a detrimental impact on water quality. This paper presents a MATLAB (R2018b) framework designed to identify sewage flow discharges into rivers from an inverse problem-solving perspective. The computational tool integrates a hydrodynamic model using the Hydrologic Engineering Center’s River Analysis System (HEC-RAS 5.0.0) and an open-source toolbox for Differential Evolution Adaptive Metropolis (DREAM) as the inverse problem method. The proposed framework can effectively infer discharge sources in scenarios of highly transient flow based on hydraulic data at pre-set monitoring sites. To validate its capabilities, one hypothetical case and two real cases of sewage flow discharges entering a river were used to test the developed modeling framework. The results based on three performance metrics showed that this mathematical tool can be extended to simulate complex hydrodynamic flow patterns. This accomplishment underscores its potential as a valuable asset for environmental monitoring and water quality restoration efforts.

School Health Services and Health Education Curricula in Greece: Scoping Review and Policy Plan.

The new generation's health and wellbeing is of paramount importance: it constitutes United Nations' priority, complies with Children's Rights and responds to the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations. In this perspective, school health and health education, as facets of the public health domain targeted at young people, deserve further attention after the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic crisis in order to revise policies. The key objectives of this article are (a) to review the evidence generated over a span of two decades (2003-2023), identifying the main policy gaps by taking Greece as a case study, and (b) to provide a concrete and integrated policy plan. Following the qualitative research paradigm, a scoping review is used to identify policy gaps in school health services (SHS) and school health education curricula (SHEC). Data are extracted from four databases: Scopus, PubMed, Web of Science and Google Scholar, while the findings are categorized into the following themes following specific inclusion and exclusion criteria: school health services, school health education curricula, school nursing, all with reference to Greece. A corpus of 162 out 282 documents in English and Greek initially accumulated, is finally used. The 162 documents consisted of seven doctoral theses, four legislative texts, 27 conference proceedings, 117 publications in journals and seven syllabuses. Out of the 162 documents, only 17 correspond to the set of research questions. The findings suggest that school health services are not school-based but a function of the primary health care system, whereas health education retains a constantly changing position in school curricula, and several deficiencies in schoolteachers' training, coordination and leadership impede the implementation. Regarding the second objective of this article, a set of policy measures is provided in terms of a problem-solving perspective, towards the reform and integration of school health with health education.

Studying Problematizations: The Value of Carol Bacchi’s ‘What’s the Problem Represented to be?’ (WPR) Methodology for IR

Critical approaches to IR have often been criticized for lacking methodological rigour. Especially, authors informed by the works of Michel Foucault have faced challenges to justify their methodology, given that Foucault did not provide scholars with a methodological blueprint. This article argues that Carol Bacchi’s ‘What’s the problem represented to be?’ (WPR) approach provides a robust critical methodology for policy analysis. WPR is a method that facilitates the critical examination of public policies to analyse ‘how the “problem” is represented within them and to subject this problem representation to critical scrutiny’ (Bacchi, 2012b). This way of questioning differs from other forms of policy analysis in that it shifts the focus of analysis from policy as a ‘problem-solving’ exercise towards seeing policy as an act which is constructive of ‘problems’. Policies are therefore not analysed from a problem-solving perspective, but from a problem-questioning perspective. By making the ‘problem’ itself the focus of analysis, it becomes possible to uncover the political, epistemological and historical contexts which are constitutive of the problem representation. I demonstrate the value of this approach by subjecting the Cure Violence Global NGO to a WPR analysis.

Service breadth or depth? A customer perspective

Purpose To enhance the value of servitization in customers’ problem-solving, this study aims to examine and compare the effects of manufacturers’ service breadth and depth strategies on their customer-based performance. It also explores how these effects are influenced by technological turbulence and a manufacturer’s supply chain position. Design/methodology/approach Based on data collected from 208 Chinese manufacturers, this study uses a three-stage least square approach to test the hypotheses focusing on the effects of manufacturers’ service strategies on customer-based performance and the moderating roles of technological turbulence and supply chain position. Findings The study reveals that manufacturers’ service depth has a significant positive effect on their customer-based performance. However, service breadth has an insignificant effect on the performance. Furthermore, technological turbulence positively moderates the effects of both service breadth and depth, and supply chain position only positively moderates the effect of service depth. Practical implications Manufacturers should focus on increasing service depth to improve their customer-based performance. Manufacturers in technically turbulent environments can attain ample benefits from both service breadth and depth, and those located downstream in a supply chain can benefit more from service depth. Originality/value By bringing a problem-solving perspective into the servitization literature, this study adds empirical insights to the impact of manufacturers’ service breadth and depth strategies on customer outcomes. The study also answers calls for insights into the environmental and structural contingencies of servitization.

Ten Tips for Successful Creation of Contextualized Problems for Secondary School Students with Maple

Students at all levels of schooling in all countries of the world need to practice mathematical problem solving to develop competencies that they will apply in real-life scenarios. On the other hand, concerning solving, problem posing refers to both the generation of new problems and the re-formulation of given problems. Teaching mathematics from a problem posing and problem-solving perspective entails more than solving non-routine problems or typical textbook types of problems. It is a way for students to exercise all aspects of problem solving: exploring, conjecturing, examining, testing, and generalizing. Tasks should be accessible and extend students’ knowledge. Even students should formulate problems from given situations and create new problems by modifying the conditions of a given problem. The quality of problems submitted to students is an issue that needs to be carefully considered. This work presents different ways to apply good practices when designing a problem-solving activity with students. It is based on the experience of Digital Math Training, a project whose aim is to develop and strengthen Mathematics and Computer Science skills through problem solving activities using the Advanced Computing Environment (ACE) Maple. After initial training in the laboratories of the schools, 3 students per class - the most skilled or motivated ones - participate in online training. They are asked to solve a problem every 10 days and to submit their solution. Meanwhile, students can participate in weekly synchronous tutoring on the use of Maple and collaborate with their colleagues through forum discussions. Students are selected in an intermediate competition and a final one. In this setting it is important to carefully plan and present the activity to the students, the text of the problem should be clear, and concise, with little storytelling to enter the setting of the problem. The problems should not be too theoretical, although they may inspect specific aspects of the related theory. They need to be solved by starting with simpler requests until the most difficult ones, close to the edge of students' knowledge, are reached. The solutions can make use of a calculator, in our case the ACE Maple. Precise design principles are based on both the adoption of suitable practice and the use of Maple. These principles can be adapted to different situations. The paper describes all these features with examples, according to the literature.

Underrated Innovators: Reactive Search of Incumbent Firms under Disruptive Innovation Shocks

How do incumbent firms choose appropriate response strategies in the face of disruptive shocks from new entrants? Based on the problem-solving perspective, we conducted a multiple-case study of three incumbent firms in China’s home appliance industry successfully responding to new entrants. The results show that (1) under the disruptive shocks, incumbents mainly face the problems of incremental or radical innovation in the technological dimension and existing or new demand in the market dimension. (2) In the face of heterogeneous problems, incumbents’ reactive timing (fast vs. slow) and search behavior (heuristic search vs. trial-and-error search) are different. (3) Through various action combinations, they can choose reinforcing, challenging, or adapting strategies to deal with the shocks. Overall, a key contribution of this paper is to provide a new conceptual framework for incumbents to respond to disruptive shocks, outlining their reactive search actions and processes. This framework responds to previous studies’ underestimation of incumbents and deepens the understanding of corporate strategic renewal activities in the era of change.

Origin of Value Creation: The Role of a Cognitive Shift in Entrepreneurial Problem Framing

Highly successful entrepreneurial ventures and innovation often result from finding and solving problems that have not been solved before (i.e., entrepreneurial problems). The challenge in solving such problems is that value creators—individuals who intend to create value and solve entrepreneurial problems—often have incomplete information about the problems. The problem-solving perspective and entrepreneurship literature indicate that value creators benefit from relying on intuition or gut feeling to develop new problem frames or theories on the domains of problems. Novel problem frames are new, untested theories on the domains of problems. The frames provide the foundational assumptions about the problems so that problem-solvers can think of potential causes and solutions. Intuition is valuable given incomplete information and knowledge to form rational, analytic judgments and decisions. However, scholars caution that intuition often results in the exploitation of familiar experiences and mental models, which are rarely appropriate for entrepreneurial problems that often have unique traits and characteristics that differentiate them from previously solved problems. What can value creators do then to more effectively generate novel frames of entrepreneurial problems? This dissertation draws on Cognitive-Experiential Self-Theory (CEST) to propose that a cognitive shift from rational, analytic thinking to intuition is likely to generate novel frames for entrepreneurial problems. Evidence from an archival study and a randomized field experiment with samples of entrepreneurs provide support for the value of the proposed cognitive shift.

Explaining business model innovation processes: A problem formulation and problem solving perspective

This study explains the business model innovation processes in industrial firms. Drawing on three case studies of leading business-to-business firms shifting from product-based to service-based business models, it introduces problems as a theoretical concept to explain business model innovation processes. We show how formulating and solving problems guide the search for a viable business model and why some problem formulation and solving activities lead firms to shift between backward-looking and forward-looking searches. The decision to shift to a forward-looking search is triggered by the perception of failure to continue with an established way of working, while the shift to a backward-looking search is based on the perception of high alternative costs. We contribute to the business model innovation and servitization literature by theorizing the process of business model innovation and providing implications for managers.

A question worth a million: The expert, the crowd, or myself? An investigation of problem solving

• Develops individual framework that compares forms of problem solving. • Compares internal vs external solving, as well as aggregated crowds vs individual experts (direct or open call). • Uses empirical setting of a game show to analyze 4556 (exogenous) problems. • Finds impact of problem complexity and social norms on decision if and how to seek external solutions. • Reveals nuanced interaction between problem complexity and social norms of open exchange. In an era of rapid technological advances, individuals have access to a plethora of open and closed forms of problem solving. We introduce and test a framework that compares different forms of problem solving and determines how individuals make choices among them. Our analyses of 4,556 problems solved by 398 individuals reveal that high problem complexity and strong implicit social norms of open exchange increase the probability that individuals will seek external solutions rather than solve the problems themselves. Our analysis also shows that they prefer individual experts (contacted directly or via open call) over aggregated crowd knowledge. We also find that strong implicit social norms of open exchange weakened the positive impact of complexity on the probability of solving problems externally. Interestingly, this effect is more subtle when the use of aggregated crowds is compared with individual experts: while strong implicit social norms strengthen the positive impact of problem complexity when experts are contacted directly, they otherwise weaken the use of open call experts. We discuss and examine the nuanced effects between problem complexity and social norms of open exchange. The study contributes to a stream of the open innovation literature that uses a problem solving perspective to better understand under what circumstances certain forms of problem solving are utilized, and it then combines it with a novel empirical setting based on real-life experimental data.

Developing Computational Thinking Competencies through Constructivist Argumentation Learning: A Problem-Solving Perspective

Argumentation is a scientific literacy practice focused on developing scientific thinking skills associated with problem-solving. As computing has become an integral part of our world, computational thinking skills are requisite for successful problem-solving. The significant effect of computational thinking applications on the efficacy of scientific literacy practices is increasingly acknowledged. In this article, we propose a framework that conceptualizes the constructivist argumentation as a context for problem-solving by applying five computational thinking dimensions, viz. algorithmic design, decomposition, abstraction, evaluation, and generalization. The framework emphasizes two aspects, students’ problem-solving capability and quality of argumentation. Drawing from the literature on scientific argumentation and problem-solving, we argue that the application of computational thinking dimensions in science learning is currently overlooked in the instructional environment. To nurture higher order thinking skills and to engage effective problem-solvers, our framework incorporates four Computational Thinking-Argumentation design principles to support instructional innovation in the teaching and learning of science at the secondary school level, viz. 1) developing problem-solving competencies and building capability in solving uncertainties throughout scientific inquiry; 2) developing creative thinking and cooperativity through negotiation and evaluation; 3) developing algorithmic thinking in talking and writing; 4) developing critical thinking in the processes of abstraction and generalization.

Does supplier involvement enhance financial performance? The encapsulation effects of product modularity and smartness

PurposeThis study aims to explore the conditional relationships between supplier involvement and financial performance. From a problem-solving perspective, this study takes the focal firm as a problem-solving system. It is postulated that supplier involvement enhances financial performance by helping solve complex problems of new product development. Furthermore, product modularity and smartness are considered contingent factors to clarify the boundary conditions.Design/methodology/approachThe ordinary least squares regression was conducted to test the hypotheses based on survey data from 136 high-tech firms in China.FindingsSupplier involvement is positively related to financial performance. Product modularity weakens the impact of supplier involvement on financial performance. Furthermore, product smartness strengthens the negative influence of product modularity on the relationship between supplier involvement and financial performance.Originality/valueThis study combines supplier involvement with product attributes. It takes a problem-solving perspective to rethink suppliers’ roles in new product development as problem-solvers rather than resource holders. Furthermore, this study advances the encapsulation effects of product modularity and smartness to influence the supplier involvement–financial performance link.

What problem-solving knowledge is required in mathematical teaching? A curricular approach

This study explores the knowledge required for teachers to teach problem solving (PS) from a Primary Mathematics Curriculum Guidelines perspective. It analyzes six countries’ curricular guidelines for primary education using the Mathematical Problem-Solving Knowledge for Teaching model. To identify the PS knowledge required in each education system, the country guidelines were selected based on the country’s results in the 2012 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) survey. Data analysis revealed that PS-related knowledge included in the curricula is broad and challenging for teachers. Further, it is not always coherent and research-based. More specifically, the findings show that curricular guidelines emphasize problem classification and solving processes. Our analysis supports the conclusion that particularities in teachers’ knowledge become visible when we view it from the perspective of PS rather than of mathematical concepts.

Culture and Leadership: a Lewinian Perspective of Organizational Problem Solving

AbstractLeadership is inherently social. Being grounded in the Lewinian framework of field theory, I am instancing the diverse understanding of social leadership: Uncertainty reduction, making choices, assuming responsibility, and contributing to an orchestral interplay between followers are important functions of social leadership. But this is not sufficient. Organizations are built by concrete agents with concrete needs and overreaching goals. These needs and goals structure the environment (personal culture) of various employees including the leader. Drawing on an empirical case from a bakery as well as on Lewinian cases from the past, I am showing how group atmosphere alone is not able to cover the full range of the follower’s reactions: Here, we need to rely on basic concepts of culture: Employees live and work in their related life spaces. Complexity arises in organizations if the goal pursuit between followers themselves is contradictory, thus if their life spaces are a barrier for each other. The leader needs to realize here that this is not a disadvantage; his role is neither to solve these contradictions nor to present a potential solution. The leader needs to emphasize the interdependence of his followers; s/he can do so by letting them experience the issues and difficulties of the social other encountered in their respective life spaces. Here, followers are getting a glimpse into the life space (personal culture) of a colleague. Such border experiences play a key role for the following democratic exchange of how two previously contradictory life spaces are turned into conciliatory ones.

Solution-Dominant Logic: Viewing Marketing Exchanges from the Problem-Solving Perspective

Solution-Dominant Logic: Viewing Marketing Exchanges from the Problem-Solving Perspective