Assessing the opportunities of landfill mining

Long-term estimates make clear that the amount of solid waste to be processed at landfills in the Netherlands will sharply decline in coming years. Major reasons can be found in the availability of improved technologies for waste recycling and government regulations aiming at waste reduction. Consequently, market size for companies operating landfills shrinks. Among the companies facing the problem is the Dutch company Essent. Given the expected market conditions, it looks for alternative business opportunities. Landfill mining, i.e., the recycling of existing landfills, is considered one of them. Proceeds of landfill mining are related to, for example, recycled materials available for re-use, regained land, and possibilities for a more efficient operation of a landfill. The market for landfill mining is of a considerable size – there are about 3800 landfills located in the Netherlands. Given market size Essent faces the dilemma of how to explore this market, i.e., select the most profitable landfills in a fast and efficient way. No existing methods or tools could be found to do so. Therefore, to answer to the problem posed, we propose a step-wise research method for market exploration. The basic idea behind the method is to provide an adequate, cost-saving and timely answer by relying on a series of quick scans. The method has been tested for its practical use in a pilot study. The pilot study addressed 147 landfills located in the Dutch Province of Noord-Brabant. The study made clear how method application resulted in the selection of a limited number of high potential landfills in a few weeks, involving minimal research costs.

Understanding dyadic promoter-stakeholder relations in complex projects

In this study, we propose a Bilateral Double Motive framework of stakeholder cooperation in complex projects. The framework analyses and explains dyadic promoter-stakeholder relationships at a micro level by acknowledging both transactional and relational motives. We demonstrate the framework’s usefulness by illustrating its explanatory power in two instances of cooperation and two of non-cooperation within two health information technology projects. The study contributes to project management theory through its combined focus on transactional and relational motives. Further, the study contributes to practice by providing a tool for planning and evaluating cooperation in health Information Technology projects and similar complex multi-stakeholder environments

An instrument for stakeholder identification:phasing roles of involvement

The starting point of the paper is that stakeholders fulfill an important role to stimulate sustainable innovation. The question is “who are those stakeholders and what should be their role?” This paper describes an instrument, which enables identifying stakeholders and designating specific roles to those stakeholders. The instrument focuses on two key points, i.e. roles of involvement and phasing this involvement within an innovation process

Ingested water equilibrates isotopically with the body water pool of a shorebird with unrivaled water fluxes

We investigated the applicability of H-2 to measure the amount of body water (TBW) and water fluxes in relation to diet type and level of food intake in a mollusk-eating shorebird, the Red Knot (Calidris canutus). Six birds were exposed to eight experimental indoor conditions. Average fractional H-2 turnover rates ranged between 0.182 day(-1) (SD = 0.0219) for fasting birds and 7.759 day(-1) (SD = 0.4535) for birds feeding on cockles (Cerastoderma edule). Average TBW estimates obtained with the plateau method were within the narrow range of 75.9-85.4 g (or between 64.6 and 70.1% of the body mass). Those obtained with the extrapolation method showed strong day-to-day variations (range 55.7-83.7 g, or between 49.7 and 65.5%). Average difference between the two calculation methods ranged between 0.6% and 36.3%, and this difference was strongly negatively correlated with water flux rate. Average water influx rates ranged between 15.5 g/day (fasting) and 624.5 g/day (feeding on cockles). The latter value is at 26.6 times the allometrically predicted value and is the highest reported to date. Differences in H-2 concentrations between the blood and feces (i.e., biological fractionation) were small but significant (-3.4% when fed a pellet diet, and -1.1% for all the other diets), and did not relate to the rate of water flux (chi (2)(1) = 0.058, P &lt;0.81). We conclude that the ingested water equilibrated rapidly with the body water pool even in an avian species that shows record water flux rates when living on ingested marine bivalves.</p

Applying lead user theory to young adults

Dieser Beitrag ist mit Zustimmung des Rechteinhabers aufgrund einer (DFG geförderten) Allianz- bzw. Nationallizenz frei zugänglich.This publication is with permission of the rights owner freely accessible due to an Alliance licence and a national licence (funded by the DFG, German Research Foundation) respectively.Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify lead users within social networks of young adults between 14 and 17 years of age. Design/methodology/approach – A questionnaire and the SAGS-method were used to collect data within seven high schools in the north of The Netherlands. These data were used to empirically test five hypotheses using the variables which could enable the identification of lead users. A multiple regression analysis was used to test the predictive value of the variables. The analysis was complemented with a qualitative analysis of the collected data. Findings – The main characteristics which identify lead users among adults can also be used with young adults. Those young adults who are more likely to be a lead user, are more ahead of a trend and have a higher amount of expected benefit. They also display more expertise than other young adults. Research limitations/implications – The variable of perceived information benefits could complement the variables used for identifying lead users among young adults, but further research is necessary. Because the focus is on only one specific product, the generalizability of the results from this research is limited. Further research should include different products or services in different domains of interest. The variables of perceived information benefits and efficiency did not have a significant positive relation with lead userness, but further research is needed. Practical implications – The identification of lead users could be valuable to organizations that focus on young adults in the age range 14 to 17 years and could lead to significant commercial benefits. Young adults are a large potential market and the identification of lead users within this target group could help organizations Originality/value – Research on lead user theory ismainly focused on adults or organizations. This article tries to fill this research gap by focusing on young adults. It is an extension of the research of Kratzer and Lettl, Kunst and Kratzer and Molenmaker et al. who focused on children from 8 to 12 years old

Understanding dyadic promoter-stakeholder relations in complex projects

In this study, we propose a Bilateral Double Motive framework of stakeholder cooperation in complex projects. The framework analyses and explains dyadic promoter-stakeholder relationships at a micro level by acknowledging both transactional and relational motives. We demonstrate the framework’s usefulness by illustrating its explanatory power in two instances of cooperation and two of non-cooperation within two health information technology projects. The study contributes to project management theory through its combined focus on transactional and relational motives. Further, the study contributes to practice by providing a tool for planning and evaluating cooperation in health Information Technology projects and similar complex multi-stakeholder environments