Change has become continuous, and innovation is a primary approach for hospitality, i.e., hotel companies, to become or remain economically viable and sustainable. An increasing number of management researchers are paying more attention to workplace rather than technological innovation. This study investigates workplace innovation in the Dutch hotel industry, in three- and four-star hotels in the Netherlands, by comparing them to other industries. Two samples were questioned using the Workplace Innovation survey created by the Dutch Network of Social Innovation (NSI). The first was conducted in the hospitality industry, and these data were compared with data collected in a sample of other industries. Results suggest that greater strategic orientation on workplace innovation and talent development has a positive influence on four factors of organizational performance. Greater internal rates of change, the ability to self-organize, and investment in knowledge also had positive influences on three of the factors—growth in revenue, sustainability, and absenteeism. Results also suggest that the hospitality industry has lower workplace innovation than other industries. However, no recent research has assessed to what degree the hospitality industry fosters workplace innovation, especially in the Netherlands. Next to that, only few studies have examined management in the Dutch hotel industry, how workplace innovation is used there, and whether it improves practices.
Dit onderzoek maakt deel uit van het project Arbeidsmarktonderzoek Provincie Limburg uitgevoerd door Matchcare in samenwerking met Zuyd Hogeschool en Vista College. Het totale project bestaat uit een regionale inventarisatie, analyse en organisatie van het huidige en toekomstige arbeidsaanbod, vraag naar arbeid en opleidingsaanbod. De onderzoeksresultaten moeten uiteindelijk leiden tot een verbetering van de uitvoering van het arbeidsmarktbeleid in de deelnemende arbeidsmarktregio’s in Limburg. In dit kwalitatieve onderzoek, uitgevoerd door het Lectoraat Employability Zuyd Hogeschool, is middels literatuurstudie, focusgroepen en diepte-interviews getracht een beeld te geven van de impact die digitale ontwikkelingen hebben op de gevraagde vaardigheden, talenten en digitale kennis en skills. Hierbij is gefocust op de beroepskolom mbo-hbo in de sectoren HR, Finance, IT en onderwijs. Meer kennis van de gevraagde vaardigheden maakt het mogelijk om onderwijs- en trainingsprogramma’s af te stemmen op de vraag naar arbeid, die als gevolg van technologische ontwikkelingen aan het veranderen is (Fareri et al., 2020)
Designing cities that are socially sustainable has been a significant challenge until today. Lately, European Commission’s research agenda of Industy 5.0 has prioritised a sustainable, human-centric and resilient development over merely pursuing efficiency and productivity in societal transitions. The focus has been on searching for sustainable solutions to societal challenges, engaging part of the design industry. In architecture and urban design, whose common goal is to create a condition for human life, much effort was put into elevating the engineering process of physical space, making it more efficient. However, the natural process of social evolution has not been given priority in urban and architectural research on sustainable design. STEPS stems from the common interest of the project partners in accessible, diverse, and progressive public spaces, which is vital to socially sustainable urban development. The primary challenge lies in how to synthesise the standardised sustainable design techniques with unique social values of public space, propelling a transition from technical sustainability to social sustainability. Although a large number of social-oriented studies in urban design have been published in the academic domain, principles and guidelines that can be applied to practice are large missing. How can we generate operative principles guiding public space analysis and design to explore and achieve the social condition of sustainability, developing transferable ways of utilising research knowledge in design? STEPS will develop a design catalogue with operative principles guiding public space analysis and design. This will help designers apply cross-domain knowledge of social sustainability in practice.
The production of denim makes a significant contribution to the environmental impact of the textile industry. The use of mechanically recycled fibers is proven to lower this environmental impact. MUD jeans produce denim using a mixture of virgin and mechanically recycled fibers and has the goal to produce denim with 100% post-consumer textile by 2020. However, denim fabric with 100% mechanically recycled fibers has insufficient mechanical properties. The goal of this project is to investigate the possibilities to increase the content of recycled post-consumer textile fibers in denim products using innovative recycling process technologies.
Recycling of plastics plays an important role to reach a climate neutral industry. To come to a sustainable circular use of materials, it is important that recycled plastics can be used for comparable (or ugraded) applications as their original use. QuinLyte innovated a material that can reach this goal. SmartAgain® is a material that is obtained by recycling of high-barrier multilayer films and which maintains its properties after mechanical recycling. It opens the door for many applications, of which the production of a scoliosis brace is a typical example from the medical field. Scoliosis is a sideways curvature of the spine and wearing an orthopedic brace is the common non-invasive treatment to reduce the likelihood of spinal fusion surgery later. The traditional way to make such brace is inaccurate, messy, time- and money-consuming. Because of its nearly unlimited design freedom, 3D FDM-printing is regarded as the ultimate sustainable technique for producing such brace. From a materials point of view, SmartAgain® has the good fit with the mechanical property requirements of scoliosis braces. However, its fast crystallization rate often plays against the FDM-printing process, for example can cause poor layer-layer adhesion. Only when this problem is solved, a reliable brace which is strong, tough, and light weight could be printed via FDM-printing. Zuyd University of Applied Science has, in close collaboration with Maastricht University, built thorough knowledge on tuning crystallization kinetics with the temperature development during printing, resulting in printed products with improved layer-layer adhesion. Because of this knowledge and experience on developing materials for 3D printing, QuinLyte contacted Zuyd to develop a strategy for printing a wearable scoliosis brace of SmartAgain®. In the future a range of other tailor-made products can be envisioned. Thus, the project is in line with the GoChem-themes: raw materials from recycling, 3D printing and upcycling.
