Product Service System Innovation in the Smart City

Product service systems (PSS) may usefully form part of the mix of innovations necessary to move society toward more sustainable futures. However, despite such potential, PSS implementation is highly uneven and limited. Drawing on an alternate socio-technical perspective of innovation, this paper provides fresh insights, on among other things the role of context in PSS innovation, to address this issue. Case study research is presented focusing on a use orientated PSS in an urban environment: the Copenhagen city bike scheme. The paper shows that PSS innovation is a situated complex process, shaped by actors and knowledge from other locales. It argues that further research is needed to investigate how actors interests shape PSS innovation. It recommends that institutional spaces should be provided in governance landscapes associated with urban environments to enable legitimate PSS concepts to co-evolve in light of locally articulated sustainability principles and priorities

Intermediaries and innovation support in the design for sustainability field : cases from the Netherlands, Turkey and the United Kingdom

Companies face challenges and need support when applying specific knowledge to their innovation processes, such as design for sustainability. The providers of innovation support in innovation systems are intermediaries. While the literature on intermediaries focuses on various roles and approaches, the way in which intermediaries function in specific fields such as design for sustainability remains underexplored. This paper investigates how intermediaries provide innovation support in the design for sustainability field today, with a focus on the services and support they offer, the approaches and drivers that shape them, as well as the challenges of the intermediation process, particularly concerning sustainability and design. To do this, 14 intermediaries from the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Turkey were investigated through case studies. The role of design in support processes, especially during implementation, the importance and types of collaborations among various actors of innovation systems, and the emergence of a new type of intermediary that promises radical innovation in sustainability are among the findings. In addition, based on the empirical data, we suggest a framework for describing the roles and attributes of a group of five intermediaries that meets the needs of all types of companies engaged in design for sustainability. Finally we offer suggestions for Turkey on how to raise the capacity of its intermediaries operating in the design for sustainability field, which might be applicable to other similar contexts as well. This study contributes to the theory and practice of innovation support in the sustainability field, from which all innovation system's actors, especially intermediaries and governmental institutions, might benefit in designing support programs

Safety challenges of medical equipment in nurse anaesthetist training in Haiti

Safety challenges related to the use of medical equipment were investigated during the training of nurse anaesthetists in Haiti, using a systems approach to Human Factors and Ergonomics (HFE). The Observable Performance Obstacles tool, based on the Systems Engineering Initiative for Patient Safety (SEIPS) model, was used in combination with exploratory observations during 13 surgical procedures, to identify performance obstacles created by the systemic interrelationships of medical equipment. The identification of performance obstacles is an effective way to study the accumulation of latent factors and risk hazards, and understand its implications in practice and behaviour of healthcare practitioners. In total, 123 performance obstacles were identified, of which the majority was related to environmental and organizational aspects. These findings show how the performance of nurse anaesthetists and their relation to medical equipment is continuously affected by more than user-related aspects. The contribution of systemic performance obstacles and coping strategies to enrich system design interventions and improve healthcare system is highlighted. In addition, methodological challenges of HFE research in low-resource settings related to professional culture and habits, and the potential of community ergonomics as a problem-managing approach are described. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd and The Ergonomics Society. All rights reserved

Sustainable Product-Service System (S.PSS)

A key contemporary query is the following: within the current social, environmental and economic crisis, which are the opportunities for innovate towards sustainability? Do we know any offer/business model capable of creating (new) value, decoupling it from material and energy consumption? In other words, is there any alternative to significantly reduce the environmental impact of traditional production/consumption systems?.Design for Sustainabilit