Open Access Journals at Aalborg University
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Behind the Stars: Consumer Personality and Review Composition for New and Refurbished Products
Full text linkThe rapid growth of e-commerce and technological advancements has amplified the production of electronic waste (E-waste). Refurbished products offer a sustainable alternative by extending product lifecycles, yet consumer behavior toward these products remains underexplored in many regions, including India. This study investigates key product attributes and psychological characteristics of consumers, analyzing 2,189 refurbished and 4,967 new product reviews using text mining and linguistic analysis tools. The findings highlight significant differences in consumer preferences, with refurbished product consumers prioritizing Battery health, Service-related aspects, packaging, and hygiene, while new product buyers emphasize features and aesthetic factors. Psychological differences are evident as refurbished product consumers exhibit a more positive tone and goal-driven reasoning while the new product consumers show more structured analytical evaluation. Using Constructive Decision-Making Theory (CDMT), the study explains how consumers of refurbished products construct satisfaction by reinforcing their choices post-purchase. The findings offer insights for refurbishers, policymakers, and marketers to foster trust and adoption of refurbished products through marketing strategy, standardized practices, and certifications while aligning with consumers’ decision-making process
Treat and Clean: A pilot study in stain removal and mending of substandard thrift store donations
Full text linkThe growing prevalence of textile waste, largely driven by the fast-fashion model, necessitates a shift towards a circular economy that prioritises the reuse of materials. In Canada, the textile donation landscape is primarily managed by charities and for-profit organisations, which often rely on public donations to generate revenue. Despite high donation rates, many items received by thrift stores are unsuitable for resale, creating challenges for organisations dependent on volunteer labour. This paper discusses the Treat & Clean pilot study, part of a larger investigation into the quality and type of clothing donations received in Canadian thrift stores. The project aimed to assess the feasibility of rejuvenating so-called "substandard" clothing through cleaning and repair techniques, allowing these items to be resold. In total 4946 textile items donated to two large non-profit thrift organisations at nine separate store locations within Alberta and Saskatchewan were sorted. A significant portion of the donations were deemed unfit for immediate resale. A subset of sorted items (N=2271) was analysed off-site and considered for the Treat & Clean pilot. The effectiveness of the pilot was evaluated by analysing the success of treatments (e.g., stain removal) and tracking the resale of treated items. Results indicate that enhancing the quality of donations through simple cleaning and repair methods can increase the likelihood of their sale, thereby promoting sustainability in local communities. This study highlights the importance of increasing consumer awareness regarding donation quality
Impact of Robotic Circular Wood Processing: Lessons from the “One Plank” Challenge – using the AUAS Circular Wood KPI Framework
Full text linkWood is an increasingly demanded renewable resource and an important raw material for construction and materials. Demands are rising, with a growing attention for re-use and upcycling, opening up opportunities for new business models, empowered by the use of digital design and technologies. A KPI framework was developed to evaluate the environmental, social, and economic aspects of using recycled wood in robotic manufacturing. This paper explores the use of this framework, focusing on a case study: the "One Plank" Challenge. The study reveals that environmental gains from using waste wood are comparable to production burdens, with significant variation depending on wood type. Production time, encompassing both human and robotic aspects, significantly impacts cost-effectiveness. The findings underscore the importance of considering lifecycle impacts in promoting sustainable robotic manufacturing practices
One man’s trash is another man’s treasure: Actor constellations to prolong the life of ‘new waste’ resources
Full text linkThe overconsumption of finite resources and the growing climate crisis necessitate innovative manufacturing waste management approaches. This study investigates the untapped potential of redesigning waste materials—specifically, pre-consumer waste or "new waste"—to create value while mitigating environmental impact. Unlike recycling or disposal, this approach leverages the inherent qualities of discarded manufacturing materials derived from virgin resources, aligning with the European Union's waste hierarchy principles. Using a multiple case study methodology, we analysed eight collaborations between manufacturing companies and industrial designers. The actor-resources-activities model was employed to understand how these partnerships foster redesign and prolong material lifespans. Our findings reveal that strategic actor roles and interactions are crucial in activating redesign potential, enabling the transformation of waste materials into new products. The crucial actor roles consist of an industrial designer, a waste owner, a waste processor, and a sales & distribution actor. The results highlight significant business and environmental opportunities, including cost reductions and waste diversion from landfills. However, realising this potential requires targeted interventions to facilitate cross-disciplinary collaborations and align objectives among stakeholders. By illustrating successful constellations of actors and processes, this research provides actionable insights into unlocking new avenues for circular economy practices in manufacturing
No Product Lifetime! Why products fails pre-consumer
Full text linkApproximately 40% of new product introduction fail when entering the market. Thus valuable resources are spent producing products that never achieve a product lifetime with any users. Companies tend to remove products from their portfolio because of poor sales figures or because they are no longer representing the company’s strategies, but they do so without reflecting on why these exact products failed. This tendency might lead to products repeating the same mistakes that are destined to fail. The purpose of this paper is to investigate failed products from small Danish design companies in order to learn from these mistakes and prevent them from happening again. Factors leading to product failure have been studied by analyzing 35 specific products from two small Danish design companies. By examining the companies’ own reasons for discontinuing these products, the study identifies key contributing factors, including portfolio management, product insecurities, and reliance on existing product success
A Systems Thinking Approach to Student-supervisor Interactions and their Effect on Psychological Safety: A Case for Student Learning Labs
Full text linkThe increasing trend of anxiety among students is closely linked to psychological safety, which refers to an environment where individuals feel comfortable expressing their thoughts without fear of negative consequences. Conversely, environments lacking psychological safety can heighten anxiety. This report examines the impact of transitioning from group work to solo projects on master-level students at Aalborg University. The shift to solo projects, with only a supervisor for support, may affect students’ psychological safety.
This study investigates the psychological safety of students during this transition, identifying factors that influence their sense of security and confidence when working independently. By understanding these factors, the study aims to provide insights for educators to better support students in solo projects and mitigate the entrenchment of group-work learning styles while retaining the benefits. Strategies to enhance psychological safety, such as forming learning labs, are explored to break the feedback loop leading to poor solo work experiences and reinforce positive learning outcomes
The Role of Operational Capabilities and Design Decisions in Collaborative Pay-per-outcome Business Models: The Case of the Finnish Indoor Environment Quality Equipment Industry
Full text linkPurpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore how the operational capabilities for pay-per-outcome business model are deployed in the context of indoor environment. In the past decade, product–service systems have attracted interest from various industries as firms seek new ways to create competitive advantage. The transition towards more advanced services in product–service systems require novel operational capabilities. However, the operational capabilities that have a significant impact on the successful implementation of pay-per-outcome business models have not been studied comprehensively hitherto.
Design/Methodology/Approach: To address this gap, we deployed a single case study design involving four firms as embedded units of analysis. The goal of the firms was to provide a range of integrated technologies and equipment designed to monitor, control, and enhance indoor environment by utilizing collaborative pay-per-outcome business models.
Findings: The findings indicated that different key design decisions impact ordinary capabilities. The decision to transfer ownership while retaining operational responsibility creates a hybrid model where control over the performance remains with the firms, but financial and legal ownership lies with the customer. Due to these key decisions, three novel operational capabilities were needed: ‘contracting capabilities towards third parties’, ‘capability to train the usage of pay-per-outcome business models’ and ‘remote support capability’.
Originality/Value: This research contributes to business model literature by empirically identifying the operational capabilities required to implement collaborativ
Business Model Innovation for Strong Sustainability: Conceptualizing Degrowth Value Creation in the Dutch Fashion Industry
Full text linkPurpose: Overconsumption and overproduction in the fashion industry have detrimental impacts on the environment and society. A radical transition of the industry is required to eliminate the impact generated by years of exploiting the Earth’s finite resources while ignoring planetary boundaries. A degrowth transition entails an equitable downscaling of production and consumption in the Global North to increase human well-being and enhance environmental conditions. This article aims to generate an empirical understanding of conceptualizing degrowth in business models, with an emphasis on how value is created in the examined companies and to bridge the gap between two research fields: degrowth and business model innovation for strong sustainability.
Design/Methodology/Approach: Our qualitative study investigates how 12 selected companies in the Dutch fashion industry conceptualize degrowth in their business models to create value.
Findings: Our results reveal that profit distribution is de-emphasized and that prioritizing social, ecological, and economic value while promoting growth in size and revenue allows these companies to outperform unsustainable competition. Consequently, we found that the examined companies create degrowth value through quality growth. Value maintaining is achieved by reducing resource use and output within production, combined with designing for durability, repairability, and longevity in clothing. The examined companies also share value by collaborating in the exchange of physical resources, knowledge, and skills to facilitate a sustainability transition in the industry. In terms of value unlocking, the companies operationalize degrowth while operating as sustainability influencers and demonstrating transparency regarding the sustainability of their operations and products.
Originality/Value: Our study contributes to a practical understanding of sustainable business models that support degrowth-oriented value creation in for-profit fashion companies. Conceptually, the findings highlight key degrowth principles employed by these businesses—such as leveraging sustainability influencers, maintaining transparency about the sustainability of operations and products, assuming responsibility for post-consumer product management, and ensuring fair value distribution. These principles are then linked to value functions that drive sustainable value creation. Finally, this study enriches the existing literature by offering empirical insights into how degrowth principles are implemented at the organizational level
Existing barriers to consumer repair of small household appliances from a product design approach: A scoping review
Full text linkSmall Household Appliances (SHA) and their associated electric and electronic waste are a major concern for the EU, which is tackling this problem with an emphasis in repair as a key strategy to prolong product lifetime. The field of product design plays a fundamental role in the configuration of products to enable their future repair. Therefore, this study explores the main barriers that consumers face when trying to repair their household appliances through a literature scoping review focused on small household appliances, from the product design and the repair ecosystem aspects. This study proposes a novel classification at product system level and product-service system level barriers. The first level relates to the physical product and its repairability, while the second relates to the entire system surrounding the product and the repair experience. According to the literature, most relevant repair barriers from the product system level were ‘Understanding of product operation’ (specially ‘Product complexity’), ‘Product accessibility’ (specially ‘Difficult disassembly and reassembly’), ‘Impossibility to repair’, ‘Obsolescence’ and ‘Safety concerns’. From the product-service system level, the most relevant were ‘Economic factors’, ‘Consumer factors’ (specially ‘Lack of time’), ‘Access to information’ and ‘Lack of support by OEM’. The discussion section points out that some of these barriers may be downplayed by shifting the mindset of the SHA industry, currently focused on cost reduction, towards quality and repairability. Finally, least mentioned barriers in the literature are worth of attention and shouldn’t be forgotten, as they point to possible research gaps