1,720,993 research outputs found
Omnichannelling: Key to establishing circularity in the fashion industry
No full textOmnichannelling – Key to establishing circularity in fashion retail
There is consensus in the fashion industry that a circular approach will lead to greater sustainability
and that retail has a critical role in mainstreaming sustainability (Bostrom & Micheletti, 2016; Lehner
2015). This approach aims to be good for business, society and the environment. Circularity for the
fashion industry has been described as the continuous cycling of products, including waste reduction,
efficient use of resources, and helping customers do so too. For retailers, this highlights a shift from
being product suppliers to service providers; for customers, a change from ownership to access
through product-service systems and therefore increased interaction with retailers (CE100, 2018;
Overdeik et al., 2020).
Since the rise of ecommerce, customers have increasingly interacted with retailers through a variety
of channels becoming cocreators of the retail service. These digital customers expect flexibility to
find and buy the product or service they want from any location supported by a seamless shopping
experience through integrated channels to enhance their total shopping experience (Saghiri, et al.
2017; Blumenstein et al., 2020; Quartier & Vanrie, 2017). This has given rise to what is known
today as the ‘liquid customer’ (Maccan, 2016). In recent years, technology has empowered liquid
customers to make retailers more accountable, customers have begun pushing them to be more
transparent about their sustainability efforts. With clothing becoming the most purchased product
online the sustainability challenges surrounding this sector have also gained momentum.
Retailers have responded to increasing digital adoption by taking on the customer centric approaches
including omnichannelling which allows customers to move seamlessly across all available channels
on the purchase journey whilst continually cocreating with retailers in a dynamic retailing market
(Blumenstein et al., 2020; Quartier & Vanrie, 2017). Similarly, the service economy relies on
technology to gain insights on customers and inventory in real-time in a constant feedback loop.
Technology is increasingly supporting interaction between customers and retailers, customers and
products to create holistic customer experiences and services. Customers are empowered through
their ability for greater customisation and therefore, personalisation of the retail servicescape.
Thus, there is potential for omnichannelling to drive circularity, therefore the synergies between
omnichannelling and circularity need to be explored. Both omnichannelling and the service economy
are reliant on technology to gain insights on customers and inventory in real-time, in a constant
feedback loop. For these reasons, a circular approach for the fashion industry needs to be supported
by the dynamic capabilities of omnichannelling to respond to increased interactions between
customers and retailers during and after use phase of products. In a circular approach, there are
more engagements between retailers and customers in the use phase of products through
sharing/renting and maintaining/repairing/upgrading and in the post use phase through recycling,
reselling or donating (CE100, 2018). To date, studies relating to omnichannelling have not addressed
circularity or sustainability, whilst studies about circularity in retail do not sufficiently address their
dependence on channels and how various touchpoints can drive circularity adoption amongst
customers.
In terms of circularity, the main barriers to mainstreaming it in the fashion industry have been
identified in both the retailer and customer domain. Retailers are averse to the complex web of
logistics required to scale circularity. Customers, although generally favouring fashion retailers
moving towards sustainability, still have negative connotations to words such as recycled, upcycled,
repaired and refurbished as well as the effort associated with these activities (BOF & McKinsey &
Company, 2020; CE100, 2018). The paper therefore will elaborate on:
What do retailers need to consider in their Omnichannel framework to support customer adoption of
circularity?
This paper aims to develop a framework to visualise the connections between omnichannelling and
circularity. The paper will build on two important frameworks: the three-dimensional framework for
omnichannel systems developed by Saghiri et al. (2017) which highlights what omnichannelling
consists of ie. channel stage, channel type and channel agent and developments to this framework
in, the sensing framework by Blumstein et al. (2020) which highlights how retailers can develop
omnichannelling capabilities by developing dynamic sensing capabilities that enable responsiveness
to dynamic market changes inherent in retailing operations. The first phase of the study will
investigate the applicability of the aforementioned seminal research for fashion retailing and
consolidate this into a proposed omnichannelling framework for fashion retailing. The second phase
will develop the consolidated framework to identify and highlight connections between
omnichannelling and circularity, emphasising those connections that can support customer adoption
of circularity.
The article will be built on a literature review to reveal themes to validate the frameworks and
highlight the critical connections between omnichannelling and circularity that fashion retailers
should focus on to engage customers in circularity.
The study will contribute to the development of literature on omnichannel systems that support
circularity in fashion retailing. It may also suggest new ways retailers should engage with customers
in an increasingly digitised society in a constant state of flux and needing to respond to sustainability
challenges. Finding synergies between omnichannelling and circularity ultimately assists retailers to
engage with circular thinking, find new ways of generating value through product systems services
and reduce resource costs.
Keywords: Omni channel, circularity, customer experienc
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Landscape of meaning and memory in Marabastad
Get PDFDissertation (ML(Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2010.This research dissertation explores how the symbolic space of public space, and therefore memory and meaning attached to a place, could inspire the process of the design for a landscape intervention. The research argues that community identity of a neighbourhood can be enhanced through the landscape and, more specifically, through the memory that a landscape holds. Furthermore, it suggests that relationships can be fostered within a community through the use of urban public space. Public space is a platform for the initiation of events which in turn provides the opportunity for interaction and therefore the conception of relationships.The area of study is Marabastad in South Africa, which underwent a number of forced evictions during the Apartheid regime. This community was uprooted and forced to live in racially demarcated areas. The development plans for Marabastad suggest that previous residents have the opportunity to return to their land. Adding to this, a new residential component is proposed for the area. This suggests that a new community would be present. It would consist of people who do not know one another as well as a combination of people who do and do not have knowledge of the area’s past. In order to initiate the interactions between these community members the author proposed a landscape intervention in the form of urban public space for Marabastad. The physical landscape intervention was conceived through recognising the memory that the site holds. The memory of certain events was revealed while at the same time the opportunity for new memories and associations to the landscape was created. In this way the traumatic past that Marabastad has experienced is overlaid with new and inspiring memories.Architectureunrestricte
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
Awakening the landscape
Get PDFMini Dissertation ML(Prof)--University of Pretoria, 2018.South Africa is one of the leading countries globally when it comes to mining and extracting minerals from the Landscape. Mining companies in South Africa are not satisfying their legal responsibilities by effectively “closing down” mines. Derelict mine sites occur all over the country and are not rehabilitated or reused
at all. These mines leave behind a trail of idle landscapes, influencing the environmental and social structure of its context. This dissertation investigates the role of the landscape architect in the revival of an abandoned dumping site on the Johannesburg mining belt, in the south of the city, within the proposed
Corridors of Freedom Framework. It seeks ways of transforming derelict mining spaces into spaces for opportunity as proposed by the Johannesburg
Spatial Development Framework and the Urban Framework for Turffontein. The two main issues caused by the derelict mining sites in Turffontein
are that of unemployment and environmental pollution.
The hypothesis states that landscape design can respond to the site’s socio-environmental issues through a: didactic landscape intervention that creates awareness of the unemployment and environmental pollution; and a programme that focuses on skills development, material generation and rehabilitation. In order to test the hypothesis, research was done on key contextual and site-specific issues through on site mapping and available desktop information. Existing urban frameworks and Spatial Development Frameworks regarding the
future plans of the Turffontein precinct were consulted, along with a literature review and precedent study in order to identify made use of informal interviews to solutions and opportunities at a wide range of scales. The author gather
insight on the site and context related matters. In conclusion, it is argued that a didactic landscape intervention, focused on skills development, remediation, and material generation can address the key social and environmental issues of the
Turffontein area. The design programme directly responds to the contextual needs, while the experience of the site design is educational. By
respecting the genius loci of the place, didactic moments are created along a route in the landscape to create awareness with the users of the socio-environmental constraints challenges of the site and context. The aim is to allow future generations to experience and learn through the design intervention that confronts them with the immediate challenges and creates opportunity for
growth and change.ArchitectureML(Prof)Unrestricte
- …
