PSS Users and Harley Davidson Riders: : The importance of consumer identity in the diffusion of sustainable consumption solutions

This is the peer-reviewed version of the following article: Catulli, M., Cook, M. and Potter, S. (2016), ‘Product Service Systems Users and Harley Davidson Riders: The Importance of Consumer Identity in the Diffusion of Sustainable Consumption Solutions’, Journal of Industrial Ecology, which has been published in final form at 10.1111/jiec.12518. Under embargo. Embargo end date: 2 December 2018. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving. © 2016 by Yale UniversityThis paper sets out an approach to researching socio-cultural aspects of Product Service Systems (PSS) consumption in consumer markets. PSS are relevant to Industrial Ecology as they may form part of the mix of innovations that move society toward more sustainable material and energy flows. The paper uses two contrasting case studies drawing on ethnographic analysis, Harley Davidson motorcycles and Zip Car Car Club. The analysis draws on Consumer Culture Theory to explicate the socio-cultural, experiential, symbolic and ideological aspects of these case studies, focusing on product ownership. The paper shows that ownership of Harley Davidson motorcycles enables riders to identify with a brand community and to define themselves. Owners appropriate their motorcycles through customization. In contrast, Zip Car users resist the company’s attempts to involve them in a brand community, see use of car sharing as a temporary fix and even fear contamination from shared use of cars. We conclude that iconic products such as Harley Davidson motorcycles create emotional attachment and can challenge PSS propositions. But we also suggest that somewhat standardized products may present similar difficulties. Knowing more about socio-cultural aspects of PSS may help designers overcome these difficulties.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Product Service Systems Users and Harley Davidson Riders: the importance of consumer identity in the diffusion of sustainable consumption solutions

This paper sets out an approach to researching socio-cultural aspects of Product Service Systems (PSS) consumption in consumer markets. PSS are relevant to Industrial Ecology as they may form part of the mix of innovations that move society toward more sustainable material and energy flows. The paper uses two contrasting case studies drawing on ethnographic analysis, Harley Davidson motorcycles and Zip Car Car Club, one a case of consumption involving ownership, the other without. The analysis draws on Consumer Culture Theory to explicate the socio-cultural, experiential, symbolic and ideological aspects of these case studies, focusing on product ownership. The paper shows that ownership of Harley Davidson motorcycles enables riders to identify with a brand community and to define themselves. Owners appropriate their motorcycles through customization. In contrast, Zip Car users resist the company’s attempts to involve them in a brand community, see use of car sharing as a temporary fix and even fear contamination from shared use of cars. We conclude that iconic products such as Harley Davidson motorcycles create emotional attachment and can challenge PSS propositions. But we also suggest that somewhat standardized products may present similar difficulties. Knowing more about socio-cultural aspects of PSS may help designers overcome these difficulties

Interactive product catalogue with user preference tracking

In the context of m-commerce, small screen size poses serious difficulty for users to browse effectively through a product catalogue, given the limited number of products that may be presented on-screen. Despite the availability of search engines, filters and recommender systems to aid users, these techniques focus on a narrow segment of product offering. The users are thus denied the opportunity to do a more expansive exploration of the products available. This paper describes a novel approach to overcome the constraints of small screen size. Through integration of a product catalogue with a recommender system, an adaptive system has been created that guides users through the process of product browsing. An original technique has been developed to cluster similar positive examples together to identify areas of interest of a user. The performance of this technique has been evaluated and the results proved to be promising

Enforcement in Dynamic Spectrum Access Systems

The spectrum access rights granted by the Federal government to spectrum users come with the expectation of protection from harmful interference. As a consequence of the growth of wireless demand and services of all types, technical progress enabling smart agile radio networks, and on-going spectrum management reform, there is both a need and opportunity to use and share spectrum more intensively and dynamically. A key element of any framework for managing harmful interference is the mechanism for enforcement of those rights. Since the rights to use spectrum and to protection from harmful interference vary by band (licensed/unlicensed, legacy/newly reformed) and type of use/users (primary/secondary, overlay/underlay), it is reasonable to expect that the enforcement mechanisms may need to vary as well.\ud \ud In this paper, we present a taxonomy for evaluating alternative mechanisms for enforcing interference protection for spectrum usage rights, with special attention to the potential changes that may be expected from wider deployment of Dynamic Spectrum Access (DSA) systems. Our exploration of how the design of the enforcement regime interacts with and influences the incentives of radio operators under different rights regimes and market scenarios is intended to assist in refining thinking about appropriate access rights regimes and how best to incentivize investment and growth in more efficient and valuable uses of the radio frequency spectrum

Marketing Approaches to Pop Up Stores: An Exploration of Social Networking

Internet and mobile technologies are redefining how retailers promote themselves to consumers. For instance, over recent years, the high street has witnessed the phenomenon of ‘pop up stores’, which rely on social network sites (SNS) and text messaging to inform consumers of their presence. In essence, they are retail stores that open up at empty retail locations for a temporary period of time and then disappear. The purpose of this paper is to describe this trend in terms of which retailers are doing it, why, where and how are they doing it? In addition, the paper is theoretically underpinned by an examination of literature drawn from entrepreneurial marketing in order to explore how retailers have exploited internet and mobile technologies in order to create marketing and branding opportunities. Finally, the paper offers directions for future research

Exploring hybridity in food supply chains

In recent years, a number of dynamic aspects of food supply chains have attracted great interest among social scientists investigating rural restructuring and change. These include: the expansion of organic agriculture; the development of new value added enterprises at farm level and the revitalisation of traditional and new-old artisanal production practices; the expansion from a low base of the market share of alternative short supply chains, such as farmers markets; and the so-called quality turn, riding on the heels of another turn in rural social research - the consumption turn. All of these changes come together in a vision of alternative agro food networks (AAFNs) that has been built around empirical and theoretical work from a number of predominantly European social researchers, centred on Wageningen, but conducted in a number of countries in Europe. These and other associated changes in the composition of farm-based economic activity are seen to be constitutive of a new paradigm of rural development comprising an alternative network of producers, consumers and other actors in relation to the mainstream agro-food system (Van der Ploeg et al. 2000; Van der Ploeg and Renting 2004; Renting et al. 2003). The theorisation surrounding this work on AAFNs has been sharply criticised by Goodman (2004). He challenges the vision of certain European social scientists of an alternative food sector rising like a phoenix from the ashes of the commodity-based food system to constitute a new paradigm of rural development. He notes their view of AAFNs as: innovative precursors of paradigm change, of a more endogenous, territorialized and ecologically embedded successor to the allegedly crisis-ridden modernisation model of conventional industrialised agriculture. (Goodman 2004:6) In particular, he challenges the binary categorisation into alternative and mainstream and is deeply sceptical as to the existence of a new paradigm while, at the same time, highly cognisant of dynamic changes within the agro-food sector. This paper is motivated by a desire to explore the extent to which different theories can help interpret and explain some of the most dynamic areas of agro-food systems that belong neither in the mainstream food supply chains and networks, nor in the alternative food supply networks. We review two areas where we argue that hybridity is evident in food supply chains and networks, and draw conclusions as to the research needs in a field where too often dualistic interpretations have prevailed.Agribusiness,

Rethinking business models for innovation

One of the major challenges confronted by those in charge of technological innovation involves anticipating the value creation model sufficiently early on,in a highly uncertain context both as far as the technology itself is concerned and the potential market. Today, in many industrial sectors, the innovation boundaries have moved towards projects that are more and more exploratory and fuzzy. The simple optimisation of linear processes of the "stage-gate" type is no longer sufficient to build sustainable competitive advantages. The notion of Business Models, when applied to innovation, enables us to describe how a company creates value through innovation, generally within a business ecosystem, and how the value will be distributed between the actors involved. The authors of this book believe that the notions of Business Modelling and value creation are key to all the dimensions of successful innovation, whether technology, marketing, organisational or economically based. Rethinking Business Models for Innovation: this title describes the relationship between thinking, modelling, and also field-testing. The book is based on a series of nine recent cases of innovation involving company managers, often assisted by researchers (the co-authors of each chapter), and how they built and formalised their Business Models and then tested their strategies. After having discovered the variety of the cases, the reader will understand that every innovation situation generates specific questions about Business Models. However, we feel that we can identify three key issues that arise, more or less, in each of these projects. The chapters in this book build on these issues: the identification of sources of value and revenue models (the notion of value creation), the position of the company in the value-network or ecosystem (the sharing of value) and finally the evolution of Business MoDdels over time (the sustainability and the competitiveness of the company). The last chapter goes over all the contributions, exploring the notion of value in the Business Model approach.business model ; innovation ; value ; entrepreneurial project

The Opportunistic House for Tehran: A Design Prototype

This article is an advocacy research for Tehran, promoting an implication of architectural design as a tool for citizen empowerment and positive environmental change. In the article, I am offering a fresh look at Tehran's housing problems by speculating an "opportunistic house” typology as a residential style that would serve much more than just shelter. I am making a case for a new house prototype that applies socially-equitable solutions in design. My study finds applications and significance beyond plain housing design and, mainly, onto the design of ad hoc urban public realm spaces. This is in accord with my overarching mission of supporting new way of thinking about, and ultimately offering, welcoming, safe, and energized places for Tehran's citizens. These will additionally have important implications for inhospitable public spaces worldwide. This research is grounded in my prior, multidisciplinary doctoral studies. The article itself is an initial step in my ongoing research design, of helping to build and revitalize a wide range of urban communities by nurturing their relationship to their built and natural environments. The article is a discussion around the following questions. How can housing design inventions empower citizens? In what manner can design offer progressive living place options whose services go beyond shelter needs? Particularly, in what ways can domestic spaces be designed to also embody other-than-living capacities, for example, for new kinds of public spaces? And eventually, what could a prototype of the opportunistic house look like in the context of a city like Tehran? The article is structured to first present a brief survey of how Tehran house forms and functions have developed historically, with more emphasis on their current state. It will then offer examples of opportunistic uses of domestic spaces in Tehran. This notion is communicated through narrative analysis and photographic vignettes from a few Iranian films. Through the selection, I show, for example, how and where informal economies are shaping inside Tehran apartments. Next, the article will identify possibilities and spaces in current houses that are and have the potentials to be used in resourceful ways. Based on the steps indicated, analyzing people needs and artifact interpretations, I will conclude with a design proposal of a new infill apartment house. The final proposal will include theoretical statements about possible design interventions and a visual prototypical elaboration through imageries and conceptual renderings. The resultant prototype becomes one example of possible houses that could serve as catalysts for informative, inspiring, and state- of-the-art practices, a precedent in Tehran for others to build upon

Exploring metropolitan borderscapes. Social bridges in public spaces of transnational urban conglomerates

This article deals with the interaction of three different elements: public space, cross-border metropolitan conglomerates and the concept of exploration (Pentland, 2014), profoundly linked to the idea of unfamiliarity comprehensively described by van der Velde et al. (2020). First, the idea of borderscapes is defined, and the social and spatial opportunities of the border are considered. Then, the concepts of idea-flow, exploration and unfamiliarity are described and considered from a sociological point of view- with the assistance of social physics and quantitative big-data studies. The action of exploration outside our daily spatial scope brings a series of benefits, both social and economic. These possible advantages are more relevant for the citizens with the lowest income, who generally do not get access to profit from them. The particular case of borderscapes within transnational urban conglomerates is presented as a paradigmatic example (and magnifying glass) to understand the dynamics of exploring unfamiliarity in cities. From a spatial planning perspective, the possibilities of public areas within borderscapes is investigated as a field to get in contact with the unfamiliar. In order to enhance exploration rates in lower income groups, the necessary urban conditions are examined. These inform urban planners about spatial design practices that allow these vulnerable groups to improve socially.Este artículo aborda la interacción de tres situaciones urbanas diferentes: el espacio público, los conglomerados metropolitanos transfronterizos y el concepto de exploración (Pentland, 2014), profundamente vinculado a la idea de afamiliaridad (“unfamiliarity”) descrita exhaustivamente por van der Velde et al. (2020). En primer lugar, se define la idea de paisaje fronterizo y se consideran las oportunidades sociales y espaciales de la frontera. A continuación, se describen y analizan los conceptos de flujo de ideas, exploración y afamiliaridad desde un punto de vista sociológico, con la ayuda de la física social y el análisis cuantitativo de datos. La acción de explorar fuera de nuestro ámbito espacial cotidiano conlleva una serie de beneficios, tanto sociales como económicos. Estas posibles ventajas son más relevantes para los ciudadanos con rentas más bajas, que generalmente no acceden a beneficiarse de ellas. El caso particular de los paisajes fronterizos dentro de los conglomerados urbanos transnacionales se presenta como ejemplo paradigmático (y efecto lupa) para comprender la dinámica de exploración de lo desconocido en las ciudades. Desde la perspectiva de la ordenación del territorio, se investigan las posibilidades de los espacios públicos dentro de los paisajes fronterizos como campo para entrar en contacto con lo desconocido. Para mejorar los índices de exploración en los grupos de renta más baja, se examinan las condiciones urbanas necesarias. Éstas guían a los planificadores urbanos sobre las prácticas de diseño espacial que permiten a estos grupos vulnerables mejorar socialmente