Research

Led by Prof Parr, supported by Associate Prof Min Hane Aung, Dr Ben Milner, Dr Yusuf Tukur, and Dr Gokcen Yilmaz

We recognise that technology testbeds exist at three levels:

• (L0) research,
• (L1) state-of-the-art
• (L2) state-of-the-practice

Led by Profs Maull and Vorley, supported by Dr Tzameret Rubin and Dr Jeremy Zwiegalaar

WP2 aims to engage with Large Established Organisations (LEOs) to examine the organisations’ business models’ effectiveness and enlighten the digital transformation processes so that they can identify the areas of opportunities and finalise their existing and potentially new business models.

Specifically, how digital technologies can change the relationship with their customers – new or existing ones; their revenue model; or how using their resources (human, data, networks) can change their business models.

We therefore aim to identify the motivation for an existing or a new business model, whether it is creating a value proposition; increasing trust of work with all stakeholders; or reducing risk by identifying the desirable business model vs. the feasible and viable one.

We start with the conceptualisation of new potential ways of doing business, through motivation for a change, to the outcome of generating post-intervention outputs, that can assist LEOs in shaping their digital transformation strategy.

A second phase of work is on how organisations exchange data in a secure environment, e.g. extended supply chains. This builds on our report for the Food Standards Agency and will continue with a focus on the food industry.

Led by Prof White, supported by Dr Dimitris Batolas

In this work package, we will consider how digital technologies transform:

• Business Process Design
  Adopting digital technology often calls for fundamental process re-design and this work package will produce a methodology for how that should be structured.
• Organisational Structures and reporting
  We will develop the work of Birkenshaw to build a proforma and question set around alternative organisational systems and match them to the business processes and test them on our user sites.
• Organisational Working Practices
  Evidence is increasing that traditional command and control practices are often too rigid for working in a digital world and that ways of interacting between organisational members, suppliers, customers and even competitors need to quickly adapt. These changes challenge existing values, attitudes and behaviours, requiring careful analysis. We will develop use cases on best practices for adoption.
• Organisational Trust
  We want to understand how digital technologies affect trust, and test mechanisms to retain or build trust during digital transformation.

Led by Dr Plans, Prof Hartley and supported by Dr Aung, Dr Jonathan Bird, Dr Hugh Williamson

Our approach to employee wellbeing involves a quantitative analytic approach and a qualitative employee engagement part led by David. The quantitative study considers the impact of job strain (characterised by a combination of high demands and low levels of control regarding one’s job) and an individual’s resilience to that strain. Stress can be measured through changes to an individual’s Heart Rate Variability over time (HRVt). Our team will collect data from individuals to identify disruptions to HRVt and monitor how resilient a person is to these disruptions over a six-month period. From the HRVt data we will use machine intelligence techniques to build predictive models that can detect when employees are in danger of experiencing burnout. The qualitative study explores wellbeing from the bottom-up. Through psychometric/biometric real-time data capture methods, we will investigate employee experiences with, wearables, mobile apps, and BYO devices and compare this subjective and objective data collected from the wearable device to explore the relationship between stress and wellbeing.

The responsible innovation component of this work package, led by Prof Hartley and Dr Hugh Williamson, will draw on qualitative methods to examine digital transformation and wellbeing in the animal agricultural sector.

Led by Prof Ahmed-Kristensen, supported by Dr Beth Kewell, Dr Boyeun Lee, Prof Mark Thompson