Open Access Journals at Aalborg University
Not a member yet
6616 research outputs found
Sort by
Business Model Activities in C2C eCommerce
Full text linkPurpose: Business models aiming to extend product lifecycles are recognized as a market opportunity in retailing. While many retailers are evaluating their ambition to participate in the secondary market, prior C2C literature is showing only scarce attention to exploring it from the business perspective. The purpose of this explorative study is to identify and analyze business model value-creating activities in the context of C2C ecommerce.
Design/methodology/approach: This multiple case study focuses on firms that instead of having pre-existence in traditional markets were established in the online environment from the offset. Each of the 18 case examples serve multisided C2C ecommerce markets (i.e., unstructured consumer markets), enabling supply and demand of used goods. The data includes descriptions of 362 identified actions systematically performed by the firms analyzed through qualitative research methods (formal content analysis, categorization, and comparison).
Findings: The findings are presented inductively to help understand the current design of C2C ecommerce BMs, and also to generate a broader view of how traditional retailing can be challenged in the future. The findings identify the content of activity systems used in various business model types in secondary markets and compare the impacts of the choices between activity system structure, actors roles and burden of governance allocation.
Originality/value: This study is among the first attempts to adopt a business perspective to previously consumer centric C2C ecommerce research. By doing this, the paper builds on the foundation of activity systems, lowering the level of abstraction in existing conceptual business model literature and providing tools to compare linear- and/or network-based business models. Furthermore, the findings provide new insights for firms that pursue, participate or refuse to enter the online-based secondary market
Identifying Systemic Leverage Points for Effective Sustainable Business Model Development
Full text linkPurpose: This paper aims to apply a systems thinking perspective, specifically the system leverage point framework, to enhance the understanding for the effectiveness of sustainable business models in achieving systems change towards sustainability.
Design/Methodology/Approach: Conceptual paper, using an integrative research approach.
Findings: The conceptual analysis shows that the sustainable business model archetypes largely target shallow system leverage points, which are unlikely to achieve wide-ranging systems change. Therefore, a research agenda is developed around the deep leverage points for system change, to guide future research efforts in developing truly sustainable business models.
Practical Implications: The findings offer insights for both managers and policymakers on the effectiveness of different types of sustainable business models and how they can be improved to drive broader systems change.
Research Implications: The research agenda put forward focuses on the systemic root-causes of unsustainability and can guide scholarly efforts toward adopting a broader systems perspective on sustainable business model development as a potential solution.
Originality/Value: This paper provides insights into the ability of sustainable business models to generate sustainability outcomes through systems change, serving as a stepping stone for more effective sustainable business model development efforts
Kortlægning af luftkvalitet og befolkningseksponering langs statsvejene i Danmark
Full text linkDenne artikel beskriver resultaterne af en kortlægning af luftkvaliteten i 2019 langs statsvejene i hele Danmark. Kortlægningen er gennemført med en forbedret version af OML-Highway modellen, og anvendte metoder og datagrundlag er beskrevet. I luftkvalitetskortlægningen beregnes på alle adresser årsmiddelværdien af NO2, PM2,5 og PM10, som er udvalgte luftforurenende stoffer relateret til helbredseffekter. Antallet af berørte boliger og mennesker langs vejnettet er estimeret for at beskrive befolkningens eksponering for luftforurening. Luftkvaliteten er sammenlignet med EU’s grænseværdier fra 2008 og de reviderede grænseværdier foreslået i 2022 og vedtaget i 2024 samt WHO’s retningslinjer for luftkvalitet fra 2021. Kortlægningen viser, at der i en afstand af 1.000 m fra statsvejnettet bor omkring 1,5 million mennesker i omkring ¾ million boligenheder fordelt på omkring en halv million adresser. Alle mennesker langs statsvejnettet bor på adresser, som er under grænseværdien for NO2. Kun godt 500 personer (0,04 %) bor på adresser, hvor den reviderede EU-grænseværdi gældende i 2030 overskrides. Til gengæld bor omkring 49 % på adresser, som overskrider WHO-retningslinjer. For PM2,5 bor alle på adresser, som er under grænseværdien, men omkring 49 % bor på adresser med PM2,5-koncentrationer, som overskrider den reviderede EU-grænseværdi gældende i 2030, og alle adresser overskrider WHO-retningslinjer fra 2021. For PM10 bor alle mennesker på adresser under grænseværdien, men omkring 2 % bor på adresser med PM10-koncentrationer, som overskrider den reviderede EU-grænseværdi gældende i 2030, og omkring 97 % bor på adresser, som overskrider WHO-retningslinjer fra 2021. Luftkvalitetsniveauerne og befolkningseksponering langs statsvejene er en kombination af baggrundsbidraget og statsvejenes bidrag.This article describes the results of a mapping of air quality in 2019 along state roads throughout Denmark. The mapping has been carried out with an improved version of the OML-Highway model, and the methods and data used have been described. In the air quality mapping, the annual mean values of NO2, PM2.5 and PM10, which are health related pollutants, are calculated at all addresses. The number of affected homes and people along the road network is estimated to describe the exposure of the population to air pollution. Air quality is compared with current and proposed EU limit values and WHO air quality guidelines from 2021. The mapping shows that at a distance of 1,000 m from the state road network, approx. 1.5 million people live in approx. 3/4 million housing units distributed over approx. half a million addresses. All people along the state road network live at addresses that are below the limit value for NO2. Only approx. 500 people (0.04%) live at addresses where the proposed EU limit value is exceeded. On the other hand, approx. 49% live at addresses that exceed WHO guidelines from 2021. For PM2.5, everyone lives at addresses that are below the limit value, but approx. 49% live at addresses with concentrations of PM2.5 that exceed the proposed EU limit value, and all addresses exceed WHO guidelines. For PM10, all people live at addresses below the limit value, but approx. 2% live at addresses with PM10 concentrations exceeding the proposed EU limit value, and approx. 97% live at addresses exceeding WHO guidelines from 2021. Air quality levels and population exposure along state roads are a combination of the background contribution and the contribution from the state roads
Gendered threads: Policy barriers to sustainable textiles lifecycles
Full text linkThis research into global and Australian policy in textile circularity focusses on Queensland as a case study. Queensland is still lacking a comprehensive roadmap to textile circularity and does not have a strategy for used clothing collection. These activities are left to charities, which benefit from tax breaks, and industry, which is heavily subsidized with public money, ignoring the reality of an industry that is made of micro and small businesses and is predominantly female. Policies that are not scrutinized through a gender lens could continue to create gender disparities, inequalities and systemic barriers, leaving behind women who want to enter the formal repair economy
The influence of age, gender and income on Australians’ expectations of clothing lifespan
Full text linkExtending clothing lifespans is a crucial step in advancing the transition to a circular economy. Past studies have highlighted the need to distinguish between social and technical lifespans of clothing (Laitala et al., 2018), as well as how/when to measure lifespan, whether in number of wears or number of years (Klepp et al., 2020). While research has been conducted on clothing lifespans in European contexts (WRAP 2019) and in Europe, Asia and the USA (Laitala & Klepp, 2020), this area remains underexplored in Australia, which presents a unique cultural and economic landscape. This paper investigates the expected lifespans of clothing in Australian households. Factors such as age, gender, and income can significantly impact how long consumers expect their clothing to last. By examining these variables, this research can provide insights into consumer behaviour and preferences, which can inform targeted interventions and educational campaigns to promote sustainable clothing practices
CircularMAT: Materials Advisor Tool to promote circular material selection in fashion design
Full text linkDiscussing fashion entails revisiting history through both individual and collective expressions. However, the narrower meaning traditionally associated with the term has, for centuries, referred to the replacement of the old with the new — something that better reflects the Zeitgeist. By embracing the spirit of the time, fashion has evolved in response to today’s uncertain future and precarious environmental conditions, moving beyond impulsive opulence toward sustainability. The sector may now be prepared to adopt a new definition of fashion as something not transient, but rather enduring. Durability is a cornerstone of the circular economy model, which seeks to keep materials and products in regenerative production cycles for as long as possible. In this context, the present paper introduces CircularMAT, a practical material advisory tool developed to support fashion designers in selecting materials that promote durability and enable circular design strategies. CircularMAT offers a structured system for material exploration, providing comprehensive information on traditional, preferred, and emerging materials. It links material characteristics to core principles of circular fashion and maps them against design strategies intended to extend product lifecycles and reduce environmental impact. The tool is designed to integrate seamlessly into the designer’s workflow, fostering conscious and informed material selection decisions during the early stages of the creative process. By emphasizing the relationship between material properties, durability, and circularity, CircularMAT supports the adoption of more sustainable design practices — without compromising creativity
Digital Degrowth: From Rebound to Regeneration
Full text linkDigitalisation plays a central role in the transition to more sustainable futures. However, it also has negative impacts, such as rebound effects, significantly undermining digitalisation's efficiency gains. Digital degrowth is a relatively new concept in discourses on sustainable digitalisation. Building forth on the concept of degrowth, first proposed in 1972 and gaining strength in the past 20 years, digital degrowth refers to realigning digital technologies to become regenerative; ecological sound and socially just, while simultaneously contributing to resource efficiency in digitalisation efforts. This exploratory paper reflects on digital degrowth and the rebound effects of digitalisation
Communicating Circular Design: A ReSuit case study of embedding knowledge of circularity from design to wholesale to shop assistant
Full text linkThis paper explores how garments, which have had circular design embedded within them, can be communicated in industry from the design department to wholesale, shop managers/assistants and lastly the consumer. The research was situated within the ReSuit project as a case study and was a collaboration between design researchers at Kolding School of Design, anthropologists at Behave Green and industry partner Bestseller. The research was conducted in two parts. Firstly, it investigated, through interviews, how designers communicate circular/sustainable design to wholesale. Secondly, a parallel study used interviews to investigate the communication from shop assistants to customers. The findings show that designers find it complex to communicate sustainability and circularity embedded within designs to wholesale, and the information regarding these topics gets diluted as the overall information burden is seen as too overwhelming. It was also found that shop floor staff were not equipped to guide customers towards sustainable/circular choices and that the customers knowledge, though interested, is lacking. However, it also demonstrates a range of methods that brands could draw on to aid communication, namely overview presentations supplemented with physical visuals, diagrams, first-hand experience or changing the presentation location. Furthermore, aids were suggested, such as mini guides, QR codes and websites. This paper proposes that, to communicate outwardly, brands should first look inward, to educate/upskill their sales teams (Business-to-Business and Business-to-Customer) with fundamental sustainable/circular knowledge. The paper concludes that salespeople have the potential to play a pivotal role in the transition to a circular economy.