Cut, cooled, packed, transported and traded all over the world, flowers represent a showcase of a worldwide integrated trade-logistics system. As one of the most perishable, vulnerable and time-critical products, speed is everything in harvesting, moving and trading of flowers. In the international trade of flowers and logistics of florticulture products, the Netherlands is the largest center of trade and logistics of flowers, taking a share of more than 40% in global cut flower export volume. When COVID-19 hit the world, this ever-moving system came to a full stop. What did this mean for the trade and logistics system? Which players were hit most? Did the crises change the system, just interrupt it or has it set the stage for developments already under way to strengthen and accelerate? This chapter presents and discusses the international position of the Dutch trade-logistics system as the most dynamic part of a worldwide flower industry. It sketches key trends in the industry over the last decade and draws a line towards possible post-COVID-19 scenarios for the worldwide flower industry and the international position of the Netherlands. The Dutch flower industry has shown incredible resilience to the external shock of COVID-19, but the crisis also has uncovered some weaknesses of the international flower industry. However, the chapter concludes that it is unlikely that these weaknesses will change the direction of developments in the sector, some of which already started to take shape in the 1970s. The chapter is based on pre-COVID-19 research and literature on the trade-logistics hub of the Netherlands, an analysis of trade and logistics data from around 2000 up to the first months of 2021, and existing economic scenarios for the flower industry and world trade.
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Background: Revealing tacit knowledge often is seen as very valuable for organizations, although it is usually challenging to enunciate and share this type of knowledge. Methods: This study uses a participatory design and the application of a board gaming simulation as instruments to extract tacit knowledge. To illustrate this application, the gaming simulation is played with entrepreneurs from horticulture. Horticulture represents a complex social system where tacit knowledge plays a major role in the trade process. A participatory design process is used to explore whether the design and play of gaming simulations enable participants to explicate their tacit knowledge. Participants’ participation in designing the gaming simulation explicated that reconstructing reality was a prerequisite for their commitment. Results: The results from playing simulation sessions show that participants were able to: (1) narrow down the anecdotic behaviour to a few factors; (2) to structure these factors; (3) explore how these factors relate to trade barriers and (4) to explain which tactics are applied to foster trade. Conclusion: The educational value of this study is that it helped entrepreneurs in understanding complex real-life situations.
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From the article: "This article evaluates the application of blockchain technology to improve organic or fair-trade food traceability from “Farm to Fork” in light of European regulations. This study aims to shed light on the challenges in the organic food chain to overcome, the drivers for blockchain technology, and the challenges in current projects."
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Limited data is available on the size of urban goods movement and its impact on numerous aspects with respect to livability such as emissions and spatial impact. The latter becomes more important in densifying cities. This makes it challenging to implement effective measures that aim to reduce the negative impact of urban good movement and to monitor their impact. Furthermore, urban goods movement is diverse and because of this a tailored approach is required to take effective measures. Minimizing the negative impact of a heavy truck in construction logistics requires a different approach than a parcel delivery van. Partly due to a lack of accurate data, this diversity is often not considered when taking measures. This study describes an approach how to use available data on urban traffic, and how to enrich these with other sources, which is used to gain insight into the decomposition (number of trips and kilometers per segment and vehicle type). The usefulness of having this insight is shown for different applications by two case studies: one to estimate the effect of a zero-emission zone in the city of Utrecht and another to estimate the logistics requirements in a car-free area development.
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This study proposes a systematic value chain approach to helping businesses identify and eliminate inefficiencies. The authors have developed a robust framework, which food-sector entrepreneurs can use to increase profitability of an existing business or to create new profitable opportunities. The value chain approach provides win-win opportunities for players within the value chain. To test the robustness of the framework, the authors use food waste as an example of a critical inefficiency and apply it to two different food sector business cases, each operating in diverse conditions. Because the suggested framework addresses the core elements and parameters for the existence and competitiveness of a business, the model can be adapted to other sectors.
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In our in-depth case study on two circular business models we found important roles for material scouts and networks. These key partners are essential for establishing circular business models and circular flow of materials. Besides, we diagnose that companies are having difficulties to develop viable value propositions and circular strategies. The paper was presented at NBM Nijmegen 2020 and will be published at a later date
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This chapter presents the currently not established and identifies design requirements for new systems to address this challenge and provide directions for possible improvement. As a result, this chapter introduces the concept of SamenMarkt®, a participatory system in which multi-agent system technology enables distributed price negotiation, distribution and communication between producers, retailers and consumers.
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The aim of this project & work package is to develop a European action plan on mental health at work. A major and essential ingredient for this is the involvement of the relevant stakeholders and sharing experiences among them on the national and member state level. The Dutch Ministries of Health and Social Affairs and Employment have decided to participate in this “joint action on the promotion of mental health and well-being” with a specific focus on the work package directed at establishing a framework for action to promote taking action on mental health and well-being at workplaces at national level as well.
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Phd Thesis Higher professional education aims to prepare graduates for the complexity of professional practices. The development of conceptual understanding is important to deal adequately with this complexity, especially in an unstructured professional domain such as international business. The aim of this dissertation is to investigate the concept conceptual understanding in this professional domain, how it can be measured, what it looks like, how it changes, and in what ways it differs between students. The dissertation comprises five empirical studies for which data collection took place at a university of applied sciences in the Netherlands.
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Urban areas provide a promising context for upcycling due to the concentration of consumers and existence of bulky waste resources. Hence, upcycling initiatives emerge across European cities, but little is known about their manifestations. Building on interviews with twenty-four stakeholders from the urban upcycling ecosystem and three focus groups sessions, a morphological model was created with internal and external business model characteristics to analyse a database of 172 collected Dutch urban upcycling initiatives in the furniture and interior sector. The morphological analysis led to eleven urban upcycling manifestations with distinct business model characteristics that make up five generic categories and a landscape of urban upcycling which facilitate future research into the topic. A research agenda to study quantitative implications, regional differences, collaborative experimentation and scaling strategies of urban upcycling is proposed. Practically, the typology may facilitate policy makers and practitioners to create, scale or accelerate urban upcycling initiatives.
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