DORA

DORA (De Montfort Open Research Archive) is De Montfort University's research repository. It forms the primary public and institutional record of DMU research outputs. The breadth of research at DMU means that these outputs include articles, conference papers, books, book chapters, and other material available in a digital form. The record for each item contains descriptive information as well as, where possible, a version of the final research output. DORA also provides access to DMU PhD theses. This includes most PhD produced from 2009 onwards.

 

Recent Submissions

ItemOpen Access
Unravelling the Role of Digital Partnering in Successful Construction Digitalisation – An Empirical Investigation
(Sciendo, 2025-01-10) Zapata Montalvo, Luis Fernando; Aghimien, Douglas; Aigbavboa, C.; Oke, A.
This study explores the concept of digital partnering among construction organisations, focusing on the essential factors that contribute to successful partnerships and their impact on achieving digital transformation. To gather quantitative data, a survey was conducted with construction professionals engaged in projects throughout South Africa. The data analysis employed a comprehensive six-step methodology, including mean item scoring, Kruskal- Wallis H-Test, exploratory factor analysis (EFA), and multiple linear regression (MLR). The findings from the EFA indicated that the effectiveness of digital partnering hinges on three critical elements: a supportive partnering environment, trust and mutual understanding, and management support. The MLR analysis further validated these factors as crucial for attaining digitally transformed construction organisations. Given the competitive and often adversarial nature of the construction industry in developing countries like South Africa, the study recommends that organisations pursue collaborative partnerships both within and outside the industry to facilitate digital transformation. This can be achieved by fostering an environment that nurtures trust, understanding, and strong management support for developing digital capabilities through collaboration. The study offers empirical insights into the key factors necessary for successful digital partnering, an area that has been largely overlooked in discussions surrounding construction digitalisation.
Item
Application of Design of Experiment for development of orally disintegrating tablets
(British Journal of Pharmacy, 2023-12-30) Ermolina, I.; Hackl, E.
The current work presents the formulation development methodology for Orally Disintegrating Tablets (ODTs) using Design of Experiment (DoE). The statistical software JMP was used to design the experiments and analyse the data for producing sodium Ibuprofen freeze-dried ODTs. In the first stage, several pure excipients (polymers, amino acids, and polyols) were freeze-dried and the quality attributes of the cakes were evaluated. Four critical quality attributes (CQAs) were determined based on the target profile: disintegration time, mechanical strength, moisture uptake, appearance. In the second stage, the placebo tablets comprising sodium alginate, alanine, and mannitol (working as a matrix shape-former and lyo-/cryo-protectors), were designed using Mixture DoE, freeze-dried and characterized to identify the optimal combination of the excipients. In the third stage, the ODTs containing sodium Ibuprofen were designed within a reduced design space to optimize the formulation. The wettability and dissolution of the ODTs were studied. The proposed methodology enabled the estimation of working design space and facilitated the production of freeze-dried ODTs with the required quality attributes. Sodium alginate was identified as the key excipient in the formulation, affecting all CQAs. The optimal combination of sodium alginate, alanine and mannitol corresponding to the desirable target profile was found (30%:40%:30%).
ItemOpen Access
How managers ‘make meaning’ of business tournament rituals
(Elsevier, 2025-01-23) Sarpong, David; Asante, Shadrack; Siaw, Christopher Agyapong; O’Regan, Nicholas; Boakye, Derrick
In this paper, we examine how managers ‘make meaning’ of business tournament rituals (BTRs)— recognition-based contests in which participating firms get social endorsements and winners receive prestigious awards. In exploring two UK BTRs, we found that managerial orienting systems, made up of beliefs about the identity of their firm, competitors, and customers, and what it takes to compete in their environments, drive managers to compete in BTRs. Their interpretive view of BTRs as sources of strategic capabilities and hard market power, we argue, is constructed, and projected to the viewing public through a set of four distinct but ‘durationally indivisible’ temporal frames: validating identity and values, competence signalling, product/service differentiation, and market and industry visibility; these may operate in combination or serially account for the observed managerial preoccupation with BTRs. We discuss the implications of our findings for theory, practice, and future research.
ItemEmbargo
Intragenerational occupational mobility: the effect of crisis and overeducation on career mobility in a segmented labour market
(Public Sector Economic, 2025-03-01) Luong, Tuan Anh; Kitsoleris, Georgios
This paper explores occupational and employment mobility over the previous decade in Greece and contributes to a better understanding of the consequences of the crisis. Our findings suggest that downward mobility was the common trend in intra-generational occupational mobility during the first period of the crisis. Significant changes occurred between 2011-2015. The recovery is apparent during the third bailout program with higher upward occupational and employment movements. However, polarization in the middle-paid professions was noticed. In addition, this paper highlights the role of education in career mobility and the problem of overeducation. The empirical results reveal that tertiary graduates were more likely to move downward during the first period of the crisis even though overeducated workers had more possibilities to experience upward mobility. Overeducation in Greece seems to be the result of the increasing number of tertiary graduates, low proportion of high-skilled job positions and high levels of unemployment.
ItemEmbargo
An Ethical Framework for Emerging Technologies: the TEAeM Approach
(Journal of Ethics and Emerging Technologies, 2025) Bhalla, Nitika; Brooks, Laurence; Richardson, Kathleen; Cannizzaro, Sara
The inherent nature of uncertainty and the indefinite time horizon of emerging technologies means that their effective ethical governance is not sufficiently addressed by industry and hence society. This paper explores an approach to enhance existing ethical frameworks that can be useful and relevant to new and emerging technologies. We begin with the analysis of literature exploring some of the technical features of each framework and its potential applicability to emerging technologies. Following this, a detailed outline of a broad ethical framework has been proposed using a combination of existing ethical frameworks, namely Anticipatory Technology Ethics plus (ATE+), Ethical Impact Assessment (EIA) and a Futures Studies approach, including empirical insights and stakeholder consultation from an EC funded project called TechEthos. The results of the synthesis of the existing ethical frameworks have led to the development of an enhanced framework called ‘TEAeM’ (TechEthos Anticipatory Ethics Model), which builds on existing tools (rather than replace them) to support the ethical considerations of new and emerging technologies. The usefulness of this framework extends across industry, researchers and policy makers.