1,683 research outputs found
American unions and the future of worker representation
No full text"November 1990."Includes bibliographical references.Thomas A. Kochan and Kirsten R. Wever
X-ray structures of the native and peroxide form of the vanadium-containing enzyme chloroperoxidase from the fungus Curvularia inaequalis
No full textProduct Innovation in Sustainability-Oriented New Ventures: A Process Perspective
No full textDespite the recognition that new ventures are potential candidates of creating innovations necessary for sustainability, little is know on how they actually engage in this journey. Sustainability-oriented new ventures are confronted with high levels of uncertainty that stem from the liabilities of being new and small, as well as demonstrating and justifying sustainability benefits of new products to customers and stakeholders. Consequently, they are often not able to identify a promising product-market combination at the outset of the product innovation process, and instead progressively define their business idea. The objective of this exploratory study is to gain a profound understanding of this process: (1) How can the product innovation process in new ventures be described? (2) What explains the similarities and differences among the product innovation processes of new ventures? (3) How does the sustainability motivation of the entrepreneurs influence the product innovation process? To fully understand how new ventures translate sustainable product ideas into new businesses, a process-oriented case study research approach is adopted with a focus on the relationships between key concepts identified in innovation and entrepreneurship literature. The main contributions of this study include: (1) a descriptive model to describe the product innovation process in new ventures, (2) a conceptual model to explain the similarities and differences among the product innovation process in new ventures, and (3) insights into how sustainability motivation of entrepreneurs influences the product innovation process. This study provides entrepreneurs, particularly novices, design practitioners and students who are considering starting a new venture based on a sustainable product idea with relevant new insights. In particular, they concern understanding the different type of decision-making logics and their implications for the product development process. Insights into this process can support firms in using different approaches simultaneously and interchangeably, both during the innovation process over time and under different conditions of uncertainty. This enables them to engage in different actions, such as design experiments and stakeholder interactions, with different purposes more effectively. Finally, this study recommends new ventures to combine their strong vision for sustainability with affordable small steps in order to create room for experimentation and increase learning effects in relation to sustainability.Design EngineeringIndustrial Design Engineerin
Beyond (eco)design: Current approaches to sustainable packaging design
No full textPackaging has always received a lot of attention within the field of design for sustainability. The classical approach has been to mainly focus on reducing the impact of the packaging. This approach stems from the ill-informed position that packaging is superfluous, or at best there only for marketing reasons. This is a rather guild-based approach that, if taken to extremes, would lead to complete elimination of packaging, or at most a quintessential brown paper bag. In industry reality though, the packaging design is seen as a way to differentiate, to stand out from the competition. That view is at odds with the sustainability view. Also, through fulfilling its other functions, such as protection of the packed product, packaging contributes to sustainability. This paper discusses several other approaches, such as circular economy as an alternative perspective on sustainability, prevention of food waste as an alternative design priority, and the eco-cost value ratio as an alternative assessment method. Subsequently, the alternative assessment method, the so-called eco-costs/value ratio, or EVR, is elaborated upon. By comparing the eco-burden of a packaging with the value created, it allows aligning sustainability and marketing performance. Hence, it shows an approach to design for sustainability that is more in line with business reality. In this paper several packaging examples are used, but this method is applicable for all sorts of designs, such as furniture design and service design, as will be briefly discussed as well.Design EngineeringIndustrial Design Engineerin
Editorial: Design Research for Sustainable Behaviour
No full textFor better or worse, products contribute to shaping the behaviour of their users. Hence, designers have the opportunity, or if you are so inclined the responsibility, to take those potential behaviour changes into account in their design process. Through thoughtful design, they may aim to change user behaviour for the better and make it, for instance, more sustainable. Such design, aimed at enabling, inducing or even forcing users to behave in a more sustainable manner, is the topic of this special issue. It deals with the intersection between the disciplines of design, behaviour and sustainability. This intersection constitutes a research area that has grown considerably in recent years especially amongst design researchers (e.g., Lilley, 2009, Lockton et al., 2008, 2010). Although aspects of it have been covered in the extant literature earlier, the specific combination of the three aspects design, sustainability and behaviour, in combination with the researchers coming from a design background, is relatively new. This special issue is based on papers presented in a special session during the 14th European Roundtable on Sustainable Consumption and Production (ERSCP) Conference, which was held in Delft, the Netherlands, in October 2010. In this editorial, these papers will be put in a wider context to illustrate how they relate to each other, as well as to other recent publications in this emerging field of research.Design EngineeringIndustrial Design Engineerin
Influence of packaging design on littering behavior
No full textLitter is an environmental and social problem that is closely related to packaging. Many attempts have been made to reduce litter. So far these attempts have mainly focused on influencing littering behavior either through general campaigns or through manipulating the environment. The latter might be done through strategic placement of prompts and litter bins and through cleaning up any previous litter. So far, little or no attention has been paid to the influence of the littered object itself. This paper proposes that the design of a packaging influences the changes of it being littered. Two empirical studied will be presented that support this proposition. Both studies were performed in a university cafeteria. The first study looks at placing anti-litter labels on packaging, comparable to health warnings on cigarettes. This study was performed using single-use coffee cups. The presence of the label reduced litter significantly. The second study looked at the influence of reclosability of soft-drink packaging. The study compared a PET bottle with a carton packaging with a tear-off closure. The PET bottle resulted in significantly less litter.Industrial Design Engineerin
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