The belief in progress, and with it the short sustainability of contentment has colonized the world and forms a powerful revenue model behind (technological) innovation. Under the heading of Life-Long-Learning, it got another boost in education. In this article it is argued that letting people become discontented with what they used to be content has become the engine of our liberal economic revenue model. However, there is a lot to be discontent with, like with the fact that technology development is happening so fast that it places too much strain on our planet. Discontentment with the fact that it was already UK Overshoot Day on May 19 (on that day all the resources that the planet can produce in a year would have been consumed, if all the people in the world lived like the UK. Earth Overshoot Day always falls earlier each year, from December 29, 1970. Also discontent with the fact that everyone around me continues to claim that we are getting more and more sustainable technology, while in my view we are clearly mopping with the tap open. Time for a change that SDG and especially IDG offer.
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Pressure on natural resources, unsustainable production and consumption, inequality and a growing global population lie at the base of the big challenges that people face. This chapter investigates how businesses can take responsibility in dealing with these challenges by means of frugal business model innovation. The notion of ‘frugal innovation’ was first introduced in the context of emerging markets, giving non-affluent customers opportunities to consume affordable products and services suited to their needs. Business modelling with a frugal mindset opens up a path that provides significant value while minimizing the use of resources such as energy, capital and time. Business models require intentional design if they are to deliver aspired sustainability impacts. Diminish or simplify resources can be described as the means to remove or reduce features, resources, required activities and/or waste streams. Decompose can be described as the removal of resources from the commercial value proposition and replacing them with resources the user/consumer already can access or uses. This is an Accepted Manuscript of a book chapter published by Routledge/CRC Press in Circular Economy : Challenges and Opportunities for Ethical and Sustainable Business on 2021, available online: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780367816650
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The viability of novel network-level circular business models (CBMs) is debated heavily. Many companies are hesitant to implement CBMs in their daily practice, because of the various roles, stakes and opinions and the resulting uncertainties. Testing novel CBMs prior to implementation is needed. Some scholars have used digital simulation models to test elements of business models, but this this has not yet been done systematically for CBMs. To address this knowledge gap, this paper presents a systematic iterative method to explore and improve CBMs prior to actual implementation by means of agent-based modelling and simulation. An agent-based model (ABM) was co-created with case study participants in three Industrial Symbiosis networks. The ABM was used to simulate and explore the viability effects of two CBMs in different scenarios. The simulation results show which CBM in combination with which scenario led to the highest network survival rate and highest value captured. In addition, we were able to explore the influence of design options and establish a design that is correlated to the highest CBM viability. Based on these findings, concrete proposals were made to further improve the CBM design, from company level to network level. This study thus contributes to the development of systematic CBM experimentation methods. The novel approach provided in this work shows that agent-based modelling and simulation is a powerful method to study and improve circular business models prior to implementation.
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The Dutch hospitality sector is the 8th largest contributor to GDP, employing over 500,000 people, yet it remains heavily reliant on manual processes and human labor for service delivery. Structural staff shortages, rising labor costs, and increasing operational demands are pushing the industry to its limits. Hotels and restaurants, the backbone of this sector, are struggling with operational inefficiencies, high staff turnover, and the growing difficulty of maintaining high service standards. An overhaul of the traditional hospitality model is necessary to unlock sustainable growth. This Embrace IT project provides a structured, collaborative approach to solving these pressing challenges. Focusing on three critical areas—housekeeping services, food services, and reception services—the project will co-create concrete, tech-driven solutions together with hospitality businesses, technology providers, and knowledge institutions. These areas represent key operational cost drivers and are vital to revenue generation, making them priorities for industry leaders. By developing technology that complements human labor, the project ensures that operational efficiency improves while leveraging worker well-being and hospitality experience. Over four years, Embrace IT will establish a sustainable innovation ecosystem within the hospitality sector. Through iterative co-creation and field testing of automation, AI, and immersive technologies, the project will equip businesses with the tools and structures to shift from short-term, reactive strategies to long-term, sustainable digital transformation. Moving beyond the current "sensing" phase, where businesses recognize technological trends but are hesitant to act, Embrace IT will deliver concrete and scalable solutions that foster industry-wide adoption. Embrace IT aligns with key sector policy documents such as the 2024 Digital Destinations strategy from the Netherlands Board of Tourism & Conventions (NBTC), ensuring direct support of the broader vision for digital transformation of Dutch hospitality. This project will increase productivity of the sector while improving working conditions and leveraging hospitality experience – to ensure lasting societal impact.
The purpose of this project was to create a roadmap with selected mechanisms to assist destination management organisations to optimize the benefits generated by tourism for their destination communities and ensure that it is shared equitably. By providing tools to identify and address inequality in terms of access to the benefits and value tourism generates, it is envisaged that a more equitable tourism model can be implemented leading to the fair distribution of benefits in destination communities, potentially increasing the value for previously excluded or underserved groups. To produce the roadmap, the study team will explore the range of challenges that hinder the equitable distribution of tourism-induced benefits in destinations as well as the enabling factors that influence the extent to which this is achieved. The central question the research team has set out to answer is the following: What does an equitable tourism model look like for destination communities?Societal issueHowever, while those directly involved in tourism will gain the most, the burden of hosting visitors is widely felt by local communities. This imbalance has, unsurprisingly, sparked civil mobilisations and protests in destinations around the world. It’s clear that placemaking and benefit-sharing must be part of the future of destination management to maintain public support. This project addressed issues around equity (environmental, economic, spatial, cultural and tourism experience). In line with the intentions set out in the CELTH Agenda Conscious Destinations.Benefit to societyBased on 25 case studies around 40 mechanisms were identified that can grow or better distribute the value from tourism, so that more people in destination communities benefit. These mechanisms are real-world practices already in use. DMOs and NTOs can consider introducing the mechanisms that best fit their destination context, pulling levers such as: taxes and revenue sharing, business incubation and training, licencing and zoning, community enterprises and volunteering, and product development..This report also outlines a pathway to an Equity-Driven Management (EDM) approach, which is grounded in participatory decision-making principles and aims to create a more equitable tourism system by strengthening the hand of destination governance and retaining control of local resources.Collaborative partnersNBTC, the Travel Foundation, Destination Think, CELTH, ETFI, HZ.
Last year, in the aftermath of the pandemic, Effenaar invited sixteen musicians to explore the hybrid world during the first edition of Hybrid Music Vibes - made possible by Innovation Lab (an arrangement of Creative Industries Fund NL and ClickNL) and Stichting Cultuur Eindhoven. In this first edition, talent from the region could learn about the use of new technologies, experiment with various techniques, and the artists were also given the opportunity to realize their own concept. With the aim of providing the artist with new possibilities for expression, and thus the creation of a new relationship with the public, and thus possible revenue models. The program consists of four meetings, each of which starts with a knowledge session followed by a workshop. In the knowledge session, leading speakers (including Raynor de Groot and Tim van der Zalm) will inform the participating artists about the opportunities offered by the use of new technologies, for example in relation to 'fan engagement'. In the workshop, the artists are then challenged to apply this in their own work, working towards a concept. After the program has ended, the artists will pitch this concept and a number of artists will be selected together with the program partners and the public to realize their concept.Societal issueMusic inclusion. Help the music industry and beginning artists to make use of new immersive media technologies to create new music experiences and reach new audiences. To not be left out and only the big companies have the knowledge and means to use it.Benifit to societyNew insights how immersive technologies can create new audience connections and means for artisits to express themselves and be included in society.
