Current leisure mobility patterns are not sustainable. Because energy efficiency measures appear insufficient to accommodate predicted future volume growth, changes in transportation modes and volume are needed. Short-haul should be the preferred distance, public transportation the preferred mode and length of stay should increase rather than trip frequency. However, tourists are unwilling to adopt these changes. This paper proposes a new conceptual "three-gear model" demonstrating how happiness, travel motivations and perception of distance set barriers for desirable behavioral change. The model improves understanding of the gap between awareness of, and attitudes to, tourism mobility and the gap between environmentally friendly everyday behaviors and unsustainable vacation behaviors. The paper shows that happiness is integral to all stages of the tourist experience. Understanding happiness enhances the understanding of tourist behavior, and how it drives, via the speed-distance-demand loop, the three-stage model presented here. Key practical implications include the need for effective policies to break the speed-distance-demand loop, changes to transport infrastructure policies, and recognition of the role of happiness in sustainable tourism strategies. Theoretical contributions include a synthesis of theories to interrogate key behavioral gaps and a theoretical basis for future empirical studies.
LINK
The relation between IT and value is a complex and disputed one. Many studies are not decisive in their results. This paper presents an overview of approaches to the quest for value and identifies the qualities of and issues with each approach. It adds several new insights, including whats missing from most approaches: taking into account the nature of the investment. From this notion a conceptual model to select the most appropriate valuation approach is developed.
Despite the efforts of governments and firms, the construction industry is trailing other industries in labour productivity. Construction companies are interested in increasing their labour productivity, particularly when demand grows and construction firms cope with labour shortages. Off-site construction has proved to be a favourable policy to increase labour productivity. However, a complete understanding of the factors affecting construction labour productivity is lacking, and it is unclear which factors are influenced by off-site construction. This study developed a conceptual model describing how 15 factors influence the construction process and make a difference in labour productivity between off-site and on-site construction. The conceptual model shows that all 15 factors affect labour productivity in three ways: through direct effects, indirect effects and causal loops. The model is a starting point for further research to determine the impact of off-site construction on labour productivity.
MULTIFILE
In order to achieve much-needed transitions in energy and health, systemic changes are required that are firmly based on the principles of regard for others and community values, while at the same time operating in market conditions. Social entrepreneurship and community entrepreneurship (SCE) hold the promise to catalyze such transitions, as they combine bottom-up social initiatives with a focus on financially viable business models. SCE requires a facilitating ecosystem in order to be able to fully realize its potential. As yet it is unclear in which way the entrepreneurial ecosystem for social and community entrepreneurship facilitates or hinders the flourishing and scaling of such entrepreneurship. It is also unclear how exactly entrepreneurs and stakeholders influence their ecosystem to become more facilitative. This research programme addresses these questions. Conceptually it integrates entrepreneurial ecosystem frameworks with upcoming theories on civic wealth creation, collaborative governance, participative learning and collective action frameworks.This multidisciplinary research project capitalizes on a unique consortium: the Dutch City Deal ‘Impact Ondernemen’. In this collaborative research, we enhance and expand current data collection efforts and adopt a living-lab setting centered on nine local and regional cases for collaborative learning through experimenting with innovative financial and business models. We develop meaningful, participatory design and evaluation methods and state-of-the-art digital tools to increase the effectiveness of impact measurement and management. Educational modules for professionals are developed to boost the abovementioned transition. The project’s learnings on mechanisms and processes can easily be adapted and translated to a broad range of impact areas.
INEDIT creates an open innovation European DIT ecosystem for sustainable furniture co-creation. It channels the creativity of consumers, shapes it through designers' professional skills, and makes it viable by leveraging on the expertise of production specialists in order to deliver sustainable, smart and personalized new products in a shorter time to market. INEDIT intends to demonstrate the capacity to turn the well-known 'Do It Yourself' (DIY) approach applied by individuals within FabLabs into a professional approach named 'Do It Together' (DIT).The DIT approach will be applied by customers and professional producers, especially SMEs, for conveying higher customer satisfaction through customer-driven production. DIT is a novel approach capitalizing on the knowledge, creativity and ideas of design and engineering conceptualized by interdisciplinary stakeholders and sometimes even new actors. It is powered by existing European innovation ecosystems shaping new products across EU countries.INEDIT demonstrates the approach through four cross use cases with high societal impact: sustainable wood panels manufacturing and 3D-printing of wood, 3D printing of recycled plastic and 'smartification'.Sustainability and consideration of individual preferences, especially of women and men, will be our guiding thread. INEDIT addresses societal challenges such as contribution to reduce the amount of produced CO2 in focusing on European-wide production, creation and maintenance of EU-wide job opportunities. This will lead to new business opportunities supported by business model innovation.Moreover, these innovative networked local manufacturing competences and production facilities across the EU will solve ethical concerns within the manufacturing network. INEDIT intends to demonstrate, through its twin - digital and physical - platform, the potential innovation around social manufacturing within the circular economy in designing globally while producing locally.
The question we have chosen – and been invited – to answer is “What is Europe: Past, Present, and Future.” This sits within the resilient societies theme of the NWA call. The reason for our choice of the ‘resilience’ theme is based on the many disciplines working on the project, which stretch beyond the historic (living history theme) into the societal.It has a deeper conceptual basis, however. It springs from an assumption that a shared sense of belonging and inclusion is one foundation for and aspect of resilience – just as a rope braided together from many strands is stronger than one where the strands are fraying apart. Positive and inclusive expressions of belonging and affiliation are present in education, sports, and music – highly visible sites of representation that have profound reach and impact in society. Racialisation, othering, and selective or stereotypical representations, however, work against resilience. They are circulated widely and generate exclusion and hurt. In these linked work packages, then, we take up the question’s invitation to expand and disrupt, what the NWA’s call itself defines as a normative prior understanding of Europe. In the words of the question, this definition emphasizes Europe’s nature as white, Christian-secular, bounded by the geographic limits of Western Europe, shaped by Greco-Roman heritage and tradition, democratic, and home of the enlightenment. Our consortium seeks to analyze this representation, research and present more expansive and accurate ones in consultative reflective and co-creative processes. Through the process, the new knowledge, and our highly participatory research and dissemination models we will change societal understandings of the bounds of Dutch, and European identities. This will forge a greater sense of belonging across all of the communities, including academia, involved in our project.This project is vital for building resilience through tackling sources of fragmentation and alienation in past and present. It is much needed as we look forward to an increasingly diverse and mixed demographic future.