What value do consumers really expect from Product Service Systems? : Reflections on how a different conception of value could facilitate the implementation of PSS in consumer markets

Purpose – This paper explores how PSS may create value in consumer markets in urban environment and how consumers value PSS beyond a narrow focus on functionality. Design/ methodology/approach – Within a case study of a use orientated PSS based on baby products, we conducted ten ethnographic interviews of current users of the scheme. Findings – Our data gives evidence that some of these products are important possessions for consumers’ identity construction. In contrast with highly visible products such as push-chairs, however, baby cots and car seats are seen by consumers from a more utilitarian perspective. Practical implications – The design of a PSS provision around products which are highly symbolic is problematic because of a need to fully understand the complex symbolism and hedonic value consumers attribute to these products. Originality /value – We fill a gap in PSS research by adopting a constructivist perspective to explore the multidimensional value consumers co-create around a baby products PSS.Non peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

An Analysis of the Service Provider’s Legal Duty to Make Reasonable Adjustments: The Little Mix Saga

The recent dispute between a mother and organisers of a Little Mix concert is a controversial issue for the entertainment industry. Although the Supreme Court decision in Paulley v FirstGroup plc 2017 UKSC 4 has attempted to clarify this duty placed on service providers, the law still remains unclear whether this duty involves access to an experience enjoyed by non-disabled individuals. It is argued that this is partly due to the legal uncertainty of the reasonable adjustment duty contained in the Equality Act 2010 . This intervention will discuss the dispute in detail as it leaves service providers unclear as to what is, and is not, a reasonable adjustment for the purposes of discharging their legal duty to make reasonable adjustments under the Equality Act 2010 . Any ruling in this case might clarify the nature of the duty and the extent to which an organiser is required to make reasonable adjustments for disabled individuals where the core service is an ‘experience’. How far this duty extends remains uncertain. The author will consider how the failure to make reasonable adjustments may in some cases exclude disabled service users from mainstream activities enjoyed by non-disabled individuals. Theoretical models used to explain disability will also be explored to assist in understanding the duty owed by a service provider

Data Mining Techniques of XML Data Warehouse

In this paper we will try to answer to some questions referring to hypertext. In the same time our purpose is to explain what we mean by a query in the context of XQL, and to present a simple model, which will serve as a framework for the future research.techniques, XML, XQL, query, data mining

Guidelines for the Definition of Innovative Industrial Product-service Systems (PSS) Business Models for Remanufacturing

AbstractRemanufacturing represents a well-suited approach for sustainable development in environmental, economic and social dimensions. Product-service systems (PSS) are among the most important enabler for remanufacturing. Companies that remain owner of a product have an intrinsic motivation to design goods for longer lifecycles considering the possibility of remanufacturing the product or its parts after each use phase. In addition, as the end customer only uses the goods without having its ownership, the acceptance – and consequently the demand – for remanufactured goods is significantly improved. This paper presents guidelines for the definition of innovative business models for remanufacturing, utilizing both remanufacturing and PSS characteristics, and permitting the dissemination of knowledge needed for successful implementation within a company strategy and operations model. Focusing on industrial PSS, an illustrative application of the guidelines is demonstrated

The social aspect of open space in rehabilitation gardens and parks

In the research process the landscape space of Latvian rehabilitation centers was inspected and analyzed within the social context. The centers were singled out not only by their aesthetical quality, but also by their functional landscape values contained. Rehabilitation gardens and parks are spaces, where people do more than receive medical treatment, they can relax surrounded by nature, engage in physical activities and rest without taking into account ones social status, age, gender, nationality, political views and religion. The goal is to summarize how Latvian rehabilitation gardens and parks promote patients’ physical activities in open space and analyze the functional quality of landscape of Latvian rehabilitation gardens and parks. Considering the quality of rehabilitation center environment, it is important to evaluated their accessibility and usability by possibly greater user spectrum that is characterized as a universal design. In Latvia a conceptual direction of design like this is relatively new, but already positively accepted and applied by specialists. Open space designs of rehabilitation center landscaping directly influence how a person feels and lives in the landscape. They sculpt not only the material quality of the environment, but also improve people’s communication facility and attitude towards one another. It is important for the environment of Latvian rehabilitation institutions to be friendly, because they are created for the use by all social groups and individuals by applying universal standard principles for open space improvement. Article in English. Reabilitacijos centrų sodų ir parkų atvirųjų erdvių socialinis aspektas Santrauka Tiriant Latvijos reabilitacijos centrų sodų ir parkų erdves, pagrindinis dėmesys buvo skiriamas socialiniam aspektui, gilinantis ne tik į estetines savybes, bet ir į funkcines kraštovaizdžio vertes. Reabilitacijos centrų sodų ir parkų erdvėse žmonės ne tik mediciniškai gydomi, bet ir turi galimybę atsipalaiduoti gamtoje, užsiimti fizine veikla ir ilsėtis nepaisant asmens socialinio statuso, amžiaus, lyties, tautybės, politinių pažiūrų ar religijos. Straipsnio tikslas – apibendrinti, kaip Latvijos reabilitacijos centrų sodai ir parkai skatina pacientų fizinę veiklą atvirame ore analizuojant reabilitacijos centrų sodų ir parkų kraštovaizdžio funkcinę kokybę. Kalbant apie reabilitacijos centrų aplinkos kokybę, būtina pabrėžti jų prieinamumą ir naudojimą galimam platesniam veiklos spektrui, įvardijamam projekto universalumu. Latvijoje ši konceptuali projektavimo kryptis yra reliatyviai nauja, bet jau pripažinta ir palankiai vertinama specialistų. Reabilitacijos centrų sodų ir parkų erdvės daro tiesioginę įtaką žmogus savijautai kraštovaizdyje. Jos formuoja ne tik materialią aplinkos kokybę, bet kartu lengvina žmonių gebėjimą bendrauti ir tarpusavio nusistatymą. Svarbu, kad Latvijos reabilitacijos centrų institucijos kurtų palankias sąlygas naudoti jų sodų ir parkų erdves bet kuriai socialinei grupei ar asmeniui pagal universalius standartinius atvirųjų erdvių tobulinimo principus. Reikšminiai žodžiai: reabilitacijos centrų sodai ir parkai, universalus projektavimas, kraštovaizdžio panauda, prieinamumas, socialinis aspektas

The role of the non-human in relations of care: baby things

In this paper we argue that the non-human plays a vital role within networks of care. We do this through a consideration of the forms of work done by baby things in the giving and receiving of young-child care. We extend existing understandings of human-nonhuman relations by arguing that beyond the work of warming babies’ bodies and providing comfort, baby things function within care assemblages as both a means and a metric of parental care. Within the consumption literature, the work of home provisioning (typically undertaken by mothers) has been cast as an expression of love for others. We build on this by exploring the forms of participation and “caring capacities” of matter itself – objects such as blankets, soft-toys and pacifiers- in the caring-for of babies and young children. We attend to the flows and stoppages of baby things across networks of early childhood caregiving to consider what these patterns of movement suggest about how such artefacts participate within relations of care, and how they are used as a means to reflect on the care practices of others. Analysis is based on 30 interviews with mothers and ethnographic and survey work at 14 children’s clothing exchanges in different parts of England and Scotland. Drawing on scholarship from the New Materialism as well as Mary Douglas’s conceptual work on dirt and cleanliness,1 we advance conceptual work within and beyond Cultural Geography by arguing that analytical attention to the role of the more than human leads to richer and more nuanced understandings of how care relations work

Dwelling in discordant spaces: Material and emotional geographies of parenting in apartments

In recent decades, many cities in the industrialised west have witnessed unprecedented residential densification. The scale and pace of development is largely driven by population growth and speculative real-estate investment, enabled by strategies of urban consolidation, and manifest materially within planner’s visions for future cities shaped by notions of order and control, standardisation and homogeneity. What remains opaque is the lived experience of diversity within this seemingly more ordered, consolidating landscape. To what extent are apartments produced to accommodate diverse needs and evolving senses of home and belonging? This thesis seeks to answer this question through examination of Australian parents’ experiences raising children in apartments. Despite being framed as the domain of singles, childless couples and empty nesters, increasing numbers of families with children are living in apartments. This presents a pronounced departure from hegemonic discourses that position a detached house as the ideal home for families with children, especially in the Australian context. When such families live in apartments, they are at risk of being seen as out-of-place, their needs poorly accommodated. Urban researchers have begun to document the challenges families with children face in higherdensity residential settings, but as yet, researchers have seldom explored the material negotiations and emotional work of parenting and making home in apartments. With planning agendas prioritising the expansion of higher-density living within a narrow format of apartment buildings, our cities are being reshaped in ways that may fail to support a diversity of needs across the life-course. This thesis responds by examining the everyday experiences of parents living with children in apartments in Sydney, Australia’s most populous city. Qualitative methods and feminist and cultural geographic insights on housing and home foreground narratives that reveal connections between material, cultural and emotional dimensions of apartment life. Positioned as a contribution to the interdisciplinary field of housing studies, I bring together urban planning discourses and cultural norms (as they affect apartment design, materials and regulations), with the lived and embodied experiences of families who dwell in this setting. A mixed-method approach incorporating interviews, floor plan sketches and home tours, allowed insight into eighteen families’ everyday practices and emotions, the materiality of their dwellings and accompanying interactions. Spending up to four and a half hours with families over repeat visits provided in-depth understanding of homemaking processes. From this empirical base, I adopt a narrative format throughout the thesis to privilege the voices of parents and support readers’ insight into the complexity, emotion and depth of their accounts

Product-service system business model archetypes and sustainability

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Elsevier via the DOI in this record The existing literature has largely discussed the sustainability potentials of product-service systems (PSS) business models, but most of them do not distinguish the sustainability of different PSS archetypes. This paper aims to investigate how different PSS archetypes may affect firms’ sustainability performance differently, and to identify the main reasons for the differences. We studied three manufacturing firms, each of which has co-existence of various archetypes of PSS. We analyzed the sustainable value generated by each archetype, and observed that, firstly, different archetypes of PSS do create differences in the sustainable value delivered; secondly, the main reason for the difference is the integration level of product maker, owner and user; thirdly, result-oriented PSS is shown to have significant potential to deliver environmental and economic benefits through enhanced resource efficiency in production and consumption; and fourthly, PSS alone does not have significant social sustainability effects. We then proposed a framework of PSS business model archetypes and sustainability based on the literature study and empirical evidence. The proposed framework is novel and provides a comprehensive analysis of the economic, environmental and social sustainable value creation of known PSS business model archetypes. The findings can be applied in manufacturing firms to explore sustainable value sources when developing different archetypes of PSS business models.Europe-China High Value Engineering Networ