With growing environmental concerns, upcycling has become an important theme in literature and practice. Upcycling can help slow and close resource cycles through product life-extension. Cities offer opportunities for upcycling initiatives and seek to tackle challenges in urban solid waste management by encouraging entrepreneurs to create value from local waste streams in urban resource centres and circular crafts centres. However, little is known about what drives urban upcycling and which barriers and drivers occur. This study explores urban upcycling in the context of the Dutch furniture industry, since The Netherlands positions itself as a ‘circular economy hotspot’ and furniture offers promising opportunities and best practices for upcycling. The analysis of 29 semi-structured interviews with experts engaged in urban upcycling reveals personal motives, drivers and barriers. Personal motives include (1) a personal purpose to ‘do good’, (2) an urge to challenge the status quo and (3) learning and inspiring by doing. Key drivers entail opportunities to (1) engage in collaborative experimentation, (2) participate in cross-sectoral local networks, (3) develop resource-based adaptive competences, (4) respond to increasing demand for upcycled products and (5) make social business activities financially viable. Key barriers perceived by upcycling experts include (1) limitations in resource availability, (2) increasing capacity requirements, (3) negative public quality perception, (4) limited marketing competences and (5) an unequal playing field. This study contributes with a comprehensive definition of urban upcycling and a structured overview of key factors that drive and constrain urban upcycling.
Local online retail platforms (LORPs) are gaining popularity as digital channels that can increase physical retail agglomerations’ attractiveness and viability by stimulating online sales and consumer footfall. However, insights are needed to enrich academic understanding and guide practitioners in their decision-making process regarding use and optimization of these platforms for boosting retail agglomeration vitality. Drawing on uses and gratifications theory, an online survey of 442 Dutch consumers revealed that positive attitudes toward browsing LORPs induced both online purchase and offline visit intentions. Interestingly, despite LORPs' local focus, non-place-specific motives more substantially impacted positive browsing-related attitudes toward LORPs than place-specific ones.
This study empirically examines individual and organizational factors that influence expatriates’ cross-cultural adjustment and job performance. The study was a quantitative research from 117 Thai expatriates who work in Thai multinational companies (MNC) located in Indonesia. The results of the study indicated that financial perceived organizational support influence positively towards Thai expatriates’ overall cross-cultural adjustment in Indonesia. This study found that cross-cultural training influenced positively towards Thai expatriates’ adjustment. A causal relationship between the predicting variables of crosscultural adjustment and Thai expatriates’ job performance was not found. Results suggest important consequences for management strategies providing support to Thai expatriate employees increasing their adjustment in Indonesia. Keywords: Cross-Cultural Adjustment; Job
Crowdfunding campaigns have empowered countless innovative projects and made funding accessible to a large pool of makers and citizens. Recently, traditional funding bodies such as foundations, provinces and municipalities have acknowledged the potential of crowdfunding to approximate institutional decision-making to citizens, by engaging with the “crowd’s” preferences and further stimulating public and private funding through matchfunding. Matchfunding – the financial contribution of traditional funding bodies to crowdfunding campaigns – is an emerging form of co-funding that has the potential to foster a more inclusive and democratic society. Yet, given its novelty, little is known about how matchfunding works, and how it can be transformed into an efficacious tool that supports project creators and policymakers to develop impactful projects. Looking at the creative industries, one of the most prolific fields in crowdfunding, this project aims to provide this knowledge by: (1) gaining insight into the democratizing potential and best-practices of matchfunding in the creative industries by comparing analysing the extensive databases of crowdfunding and matchfunding pioneer voordekunst and matchfunding partners Kunstloc Brabant and Gemeente Rotterdam, and by conducting interviews with matchfunding parners to gain insight into their challenges and experiences; (2) deepening and sharing findings in Impact-Driven Workshops, which serve to exchange knowledge with and between matchfunding partners, and gain further insights into their motives and best practices. Based on the outcomes of (1) and (2), we develop (3) an online Matchfunding Toolkit, geared towards matchfunding partners, as well as to creators, freelancers and SMEs (potentially) using matchfunding for their projects. Finally, (4) we will disseminate this knowledge to other funding bodies and organisations within and outside of the creative industries by connecting partners and stakeholders in a Dissemination Event. This results in a lasting knowledge hub and network geared to supporting creators, SMEs and freelancers in search of funding.
