Internal report cluster 1: Urban freight innovations and solutions for sustainable deliveries (1/4)

Technical report about sustainable urban freight solutions, part 1 of

Internal report cluster 1: Urban freight innovations and solutions for sustainable deliveries (3/4)

Technical report about sustainable urban freight solutions, part 3 of

Where The Sidewalk Ends: The Governance Of Waterfront Toronto\u27s Sidewalk Labs Deal

In May 2020 Sidewalk Labs, the Google-affiliated ‘urban innovation’ company, announced that it was abandoning its ambition to build a ‘smart city’ on Toronto’s waterfront and thus ending its three-year relationship with Waterfront Toronto. This is thus a good time to look back and examine the whole process, with a view to drawing lessons both for the future of Canadian smart city projects and the future of public sector agencies with appointed boards. This article leaves to one side the gadgets and sensors that drew much attention to the proposed project, and instead focuses on the governance aspects, especially the role of the public ‘partner’ in the contemplated public-private partnership. We find that the multi-government agency, Waterfront Toronto, had transparency and accountability deficiencies, and failed to consistently defend the public interest from the beginning (the Request for Proposals issued in May of 2017). Because the public partner in the proposed ‘deal’ was not, as is usually the case in smart city projects, a municipal corporation, our research allows us to address an important question in administrative law, namely: what powers should administrative bodies outside of government have in crafting smart city policies

Fast fashion: the dynamic capabilities underlying project management in the UK fashion industry SMEs

A thesis submitted to the University of Bedfordshire, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.The UK Fashion Industry (FI) is both volatile and fast-changing. Notably, the clothing and jewellery industry contributes £16 billion annually to the UK’s revenues. However, small and medium-sized (SMEs) fashion companies are stressed to survive the harsh global competition. The companies have to manage their routine projects, thinking constantly about keeping their market position and how to develop further in their industry. Thus, the FI requires an in-depth understanding of the success factors to survive in this competitive marketplace. A detailed literature review has been conducted to discover the background of the FI and also to understand the basic requirements of daily operations and strategies used for development and growth. As there is not much empirical study available in the area of FI, a qualitative exploratory study has been chosen as the research methodology for this particular research. A multiple case studies approach was chosen to cover eight case studies located in Leicester, Luton and London. The study is interpretative and social constructionism is its philosophical approach; and hence, the context of the study has to be interpreted in its own ethnographical setting, why and how participants construct the meaning of project management (PM). This data triangulation provided the study qualitative credibility of the findings. The data analysis found four main themes, comprising fifteen sub-themes. ‘PM capabilities’ is the most important theme for completing the daily routine operations; these are also highly utilised in the UK FI SMEs. ‘Sensing new opportunities’ is the second important theme for advancing further; these are utilised by SMEs to remain up-to-date with the market environment. ‘Manufacturing capabilities’ is the third theme found helping SMEs with their routine manufacturing base in the UK: how they extended their trade through manufacturing. ‘Jewellery industry (JI) capabilities’ is the fourth theme helping the JI to outsource and deal with trust and relations in their trade. The study contributes to the UK FI SMEs by suggesting Dynamic Project Management (DPM) approaches specific to each industry, namely, the clothing, jewellery and designer industries. Research findings also suggest that new dynamic strategies need to be sensed, adopted and learned for the development and survival of these SMEs. The benchmarking tool, provided through status categories, will guide any company in the FI to compare its progress and take steps for further development. PM tools and techniques suggested for use by these FI SMEs will also help them with further improvement in project operations

The impact of just-in-time manufacturing on the transportation sector

The Just-in-time philosophy has become more and more the focus of interest when companies define their strategies to be successful in future competition. JIT was introduced by Toyota in the early seventies and rapidly adopted by many other Japanese firms. In the eighties, American and European companies were compelled to consider this new manufacturing approach in their own strategies if they wanted to hold their position as world class manufacturers and keep pace with the international competition. Since then, an increasing number of companies have been planning or implementing JIT principles in their production process. [Continues.

Trade And Structural Adjustment Policies In Selected Developing Countries

The experience of the five examined industries (agro-food in Chile, cut flowers in Kenya,garment in Lesotho and in Mauritius and seafood in Thailand) demonstrates that non-traditional industries can emerge and achieved strong growth rates in very diverse settings in terms of geography and initial economic and social conditions. In most of these cases, the government adopted a relatively export-oriented, business- friendly attitude and adapted its policies as the industries developed. Hence, a key factor for successful structural adjustment has been the pro-active role of government in establishing an enabling economic and policy environment that allows local firms to operate on a level-playing field and strengthen their competitive edge in international markets. This highlights the importance of implementing trade policies in the framework of comprehensive development strategies and establishing a consultative national policy-making process for ensuring a coherent approach to trade and structural adjustment. The case studies also underscore that countries (government and industry) are compelled to constantly adapt in light of new sources of competition, growing wage levels, environmental constraints, technological advances and demanding product and process standards. Policy-makers in most countries under review are aware of this challenge. As a consequence, some of them have taken the initiative to set up specific mechanisms or programmes for further enhancing the competitiveness of existing export sectors and/or promoting emerging non-traditional export industries.Trade and structural adjustment, export diversification, trade capacity building