Efficiency of city logistics activities suffers due to conflicting personal preferences and distributed decision making by multiple city logistics stakeholders. This is exacerbated by interdependency of city logistics activities, decision making with limited information and stakeholders’ preference for personal objectives over system efficiency. Accordingly, the key to understanding the causes of inefficiency in the city logistics domain is understanding the interaction between heterogeneous stakeholders of the system. With the capabilities of representing a system in a natural and flexible way, agent based modelling (ABM) is a promising alternative for the city logistics domain. This research focuses on developing a framework for the successful implementation of the ABM approach for the city logistics domain. The framework includes various elements – a multi-perspective semantic data model (i.e. ontology) and its validation, the development of an agent base model using this ontology, and a validation approach for the agent-based model. Conclusively, the framework shows that a rigorous course can be taken to successfully implement agent based modelling approach for the city logistics domain.
Abstract Aim Evaluate the impact of LS@H project participation on stakeholders. Background As populations age and workforces decline, care technology in nursing is becoming increasingly commonplace. Collaboration between nurse academia, education and practice can result in practice-based research and meaningful learning for nursing students and staff. However, little is known about the factors influencing effective collaboration. Based on the knowledge that narratives can be an effective vehicle for healthcare practice change, a Dutch school of nursing and its practice partners collaborated on the Living Longer and Safe at Home! (LS@H) project. This project aimed to explore a more person-centred approach to the use of technology in nursing care. Having gathered data from multiple sources to construct case narratives on the use of technology in older persons care, students nurses were able to contribute to practice development as their narratives were fed back to local and regional teams. Design To evaluate the impact of the LS@H project, we employed the same methodology used in the project: mixed data gathering methods to construct a case narrative. LS@H project students, supervisors, mentors and higher management shared their experiences and the research team constructed the case narrative. Methods Qualitative data were gathered via individual, duo and group interviews and supplemented with a survey among students. Transcription and thematic analysis followed, with multiple rounds of critical peer review before the thematic framework was agreed, survey results integrated and the case narrative constructed. Results According to stakeholder participants, the LS@H project led to an unfreezing of the status quo in both education and practice. The approach was new and guidelines with community support was needed to allay fears. The project design enabled a sense of shared ownership, across individuals and organisations for improving practice. Perspectives on the use of technology and older persons nursing were transformed. Critically dialoguing case narratives encouraged purposeful action to improve practice and fostered reflective practice among students and teams. Conclusions Collaborative practice-based research can be a valuable learning experience for student nurses, positively influencing their view of nursing practice as well as enabling them to actively contribute to practice development. Adequate preparation, supervision and practice mentorship is vital, alongside practice (leader) commitment to ensure continued student assignments with subsequent critical dialogue of the multi-stakeholder case narratives produced.
Inter-organizational arrangements that aim to address social and environmental “grand challenges” often take the form of multi-stakeholder initiatives (MSIs) (also cross-sector partnerships or collaborations). Grand challenges -- problems characterized by knowledge uncertainty, dynamic complexity and value conflict -- require diverse organizations to join forces to resolve them. MSIs are complex and dynamic arrangements due to the constant change occurring in the external environment and in the dynamics of the collaboration, as each participating organization may have very different frames of reference and interests that impede action and continuity. Scholars have long recognized the tensions of conflicting logics that are inherent in MSIs and the challenges that MSIs face in reconciling incongruent organizational identities, goals or shared visions. Accordingly, MSIs need facilitators (i.e., ‘orchestrators’) to navigate the persistent and pervasive challenges of both reconciling conflicting logics and using complementary logics in such a way that the collaboration achieves collective goals. Our study examines how MSI orchestrators work to meet this challenge by shaping and shifting cognitive frames in the context of a mature organizational field. We investigate the mechanisms used to enable cognitive shifts in logic and highlight the role of orchestration in enacting frame shifts. Empirically, we examine an MSI in the apparel industry that aims to guide retailers and fashion brands in the implementation of recommerce and rental business models, thereby pushing the textile and apparel industry from linear to regenerative and circular use of textile resources. We identify several frames from the perspective of diverse stakeholders and uncover the four mechanisms that orchestrators use to influence frame shifts. We also see from our findings that orchestrators efforts to influence and navigate frame shifting is both emergent and planned as they attempt to navigate and manage the tensions and complexity that arise in multi-stakeholder initiatives focused on sustainability challenges.
The denim industry faces many complex sustainability challenges and has been especially criticized for its polluting and hazardous production practices. Reducing resource use of water, chemicals and energy and changing denim production practices calls for collaboration between various stakeholders, including competing denim brands. There is great benefit in combining denim brands’ resources and knowledge so that commonly defined standards and benchmarks are developed and realized on a scale that matters. Collaboration however, and especially between competitors, is highly complex and prone to fail. This project brings leading denim brands together to collectively take initial steps towards improving the ecological sustainability impact of denim production, particularly by establishing measurements, benchmarks and standards for resource use (e.g. chemicals, water, energy) and creating best practices for effective collaboration. The central research question of our project is: How do denim brands effectively collaborate together to create common, industry standards on resource use and benchmarks for improved ecological sustainability in denim production? To answer this question, we will use a mixed-method, action research approach. The project’s research setting is the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area (MRA), which has a strong denim cluster and is home to many international denim brands and start-ups.
Dit onderzoek richt zich op de relatie tussen ‘collaborative foresight’, ‘anticipatory governance’ en stakeholderprocessen. Dit binnen de context van Sociaal Ecologische Systemen (SES) en met name Nationaal Park Alde Feanen, dat zich wil (door)ontwikkelen tot een zgn. 'Nationaal Park Nieuwe Stijl' in lijn met het recente nationale beleidsprogramma 'Nationale Parken 2024-2030'. Het overkoepelende doel van deze PD is: te identificeren hoe gezamenlijke foresight-praktijken effectief moeten worden ingericht en opgevolgd, zodat hiermee de governance van natuurtoeristische bestemmingen, zoals het Nationaal Park Alde Feanen, wordt versterkt. Hierbij rekening houdend met complexe multi-stakeholder processen waarin dit plaatsvindt. Deze PD sluit aan bij een aantal grote transitie vraagstukken waar landelijke gebieden in Nederland mee te maken hebben rondom natuur, water, landbouw, energie, wonen en het evenwichtig gebruik van schaars beschikbare ruimte. De opgaven vragen om een integrale en gezamenlijke aanpak naar de toekomst. Het Leisure, Tourism en Hospitality (LTH) domein kan hierin een sleutelrol spelen als overkoepelende drager voor ruimtelijke transities, zo ook binnen het ‘Nationaal Park Alde Feanen Nieuwe Stijl’. Door middel van een kwalitatieve onderzoeksaanpak zal deze PD de voorwaarden, belemmeringen en kansen identificeren om toekomstvisies om te zetten in collectieve actie richting de toekomst van het Nationaal Park. Ook wil deze PD een prototype ontwerp ontwikkelen voor een zgn. 'Anticipatory Futures Stakeholder Lab'. Een soort ‘infrastructuur’ gericht op continue en gezamenlijke anticiperende activiteiten, om opvolging en invulling te geven aan de trajecten naar de toekomst. De onderzoeksuitkomsten kunnen actoren in het LTH-domein ondersteunen in deze transitieprocessen, specifiek in het (omliggende) Alde Feanen gebied. Het sluit aan bij hun ambities om als voorbeeld te dienen voor andere Nederlandse nationale parken. Theoretisch wil het onderzoek bijdragen aan innovatie van bestaande foresight methoden en aan het huidige academische discours over hoe ‘Foresight’ en ‘Anticipation’ samenhangen met 'Good Governance' van sociaal-ecologische systemen.
Een vraagarticulatieproces met projectmanagers en -leiders uit private en Triple-Helix organisaties laat zien dat zij behoefte hebben aan tools voor: 1. Het bepalen van de juiste incentives om stakeholders actief te betrekken in multi-sector collaboratieve innovatieprojecten (verder verwezen als innovatieprojecten), en 2. Het concreet, transparant en op één lijn te krijgen van de belangen van de partners. Vandaar dat dit project betreft het doorontwikkelen van het Degrees of Engagement diagram (DoE-diagram), een tool voor het managen van stakeholder engagement in innovatieprojecten voor het behalen van de maatschappelijke opgaven. Hiermee sluit het project aan bij de programmalijn ‘rollen, belangen en coördinatie’ van de Kennis en Innovatieagenda van de missie Maatschappelijke Verdienvermogen- thema’s Klimaat & Energie en Circulaire economie. Het consortium bestaat uit de Hogeschool van Amsterdam (HvA), KplusV en Amsterdam Smart City (ASC). De HvA ontwikkelde het DoE-diagram. Voor het identificeren van stakeholders bevat het DoE-diagram attributen op project- en organisatieniveau. In dit project wordt het DoE doorontwikkeld door onderzoek te doen naar: 1. De attributen op individuniveau en potentiele nieuwe attributen op project- en organisatieniveau, 2. De mate waarin deze attributen invloed hebben op het bepalen van de passende incentives, de concretisering van de partnerbelangen en al dan niet succesvolle verloop van innovatieprojecten, 3. Een verkenning van een digitale versie van het DoE voor het managen van in- en uitstappen van partners. Hiermee beoogt het project twee doelen: 1. Inzicht verkrijgen in stakeholderconfiguraties voor het ondersteunen van beslissingen met betrekking tot stakeholder-engagement, 2. Bouwen van een consortium van partijen die vervolg aan het project gaan geven door longitudinaal onderzoek te doen naar de inzet van de uitbreiding van het DoE-diagram en het maken van een werkend prototype en testen van de digitale versie ervan.
