Zoekresultaten

Practical guidelines for designing recycling, collaborative, and scalable business models: A case study of reusing textile fibers into biocomposite products

Our current take-make-dispose economic model faces a vital challenge as it extracts resources from the natural environment at faster rates than that the natural environment can replenish. A circular economy where businesses lower their negative impact on the natural environment by transitioning towards recycling business models (RBMs), one of the four principles of circularity, is suggested as a promising solution. For a RBM to become viable, collaboration among several stakeholders and across several industries is required. In addition, the RBM should be scalable to make a positive impact. Hence, developing RBMs is complex as organizations need to consider multiple principles imposed by the recycling, collaborative, and scalability dimensions of these business models (BMs). In addition, these principles often remain general and not actionable to the practitioners. Therefore, in this study, we researched the practical guidelines for viable RBMs that are also collaborative and scalable. The empirical setting is the reuse of textile fibers to develop biocomposite products. We studied three cases using a research-through-design approach. We contribute to the literature on RBMs by showing the six minimum practical guidelines for recyclability, collaboration, and scalability. We draw implications for within sector collaborations and advance the thought that lease constructs challenge the scalability of RBM.

Sustainability, higher margin opportunities & economic crisis: lessons from the global study of premium products

Role of corporate leadership and innovation claims on consumer perception of premium products

Premium by design: how to understand, design and market high end products

Why do consumers buy socially responsible products

This paper describes a study into consumers' reasons for buying socially responsible (SR) products, such as Fair Trade products and organic meat. As opposed to other studies, we use a qualitative approach based on 25 in-depth interviews and include several different products in the research. This leads to several new results, such as: (1) buying SR products is perceived as an imperfect moral duty; (2) low quality of SR products is a dissatisfier, but high quality not a satisfier; (3) the attitude towards SR products is related to the reputation of charitable funds; (4) the demand for SR products is negatively related to the frequency of purchasing SR products; (5) reflection on SR products raises the demand for SR products; (6) consumers that have witnessed the social problems that SR products aim to alleviate purchase more SR products. Finally, we find that the demand for different SR products is correlated: if a consumer buys one SR product, it is more likely that (s)he purchases other SR products as well.

Decoding consumer perceptions of premium products with rule-developing experimentation

Purpose: This paper aims to summarize the results of an empirical project to understand the perceptions of consumers of the future high end products in the USA. This project was a precursor of a larger global project on the topic. Design/methodology/approach: The approach utilizes the consumer insights-driven process, rule-developing experimentation (RDE), introduced by the senior authors and developed in cooperation with Wharton School of Business (University of Pennsylvania). The empirical part was conducted with qualified US consumers (middle- and upper-middle class respondents). Based on a series of in-depth qualitative interviews with global leaders of luxury and premium companies, star designers and thought leaders, five dimensions of high end offering were identified, with each dimension having a unique set of four factors (elements). The second part included a quantitative survey based on RDE (modified conjoint analysis) conducted in the USA with 373 qualified middle- and upper-middle class respondents to discover the driving forces behind their perceptions of high end. Findings: There are four distinct consumer mindsets towards future high end products. The segmentation is based on a disciplined experimentation afforded by RDE and produces a more targeted understanding of the consumer mind. Practical implications: The paper provides insights of what might drive the consumer perception of high end products in the near future. The pattern-based consumer mind-set segmentation creates actionable directions for corporations in answering today's big question "How can brands migrate from being cost-driven commodities to higher margins and profits?" The answer is in the high end. Originality/value: The approach offered here could help designers and brand managers to efficiently create better products that consumers like and perceive as high end. This will result in higher margins and help marketers to differentiate their respective products from the competition.