Cultivating healthy food ventures: the business model perspective

This research has explored the business model and business model innovation in the context of the healthy food venture (HFV). The HFV is defined as an organised initiative that aims to improve people’s health by encouraging healthy food consumption. This research has grown out of the need to find new ways of tackling the public health issues that stem from the way food is currently produced and consumed. Scholars increasingly suggest that business model innovation helps business practitioners to achieve specific value outcomes. Thought leaders increasingly call for new business models to solve the health problems stemming from the food system. However, the literature fails to offer theory and practical guidance about how to design and manage the business models of HFVs. The research seeks to answer two research questions: 1) what are the challenges faced by HFVs? and 2) how do HFVs innovate their business models? The purpose of this research is to help HFVs create multiple (both social and economic) value outcomes. One objective of the research is to contribute to the knowledge about healthy food intervention and more specifically, healthy food intervention through business models. Another objective of the research is to contribute to practice and offer practitioners tools that help them to operate successful HFVs. The research questions and objectives aligned with a qualitative approach. The researcher answered the research questions by studying a sample of HFVs using action research, autoethnography and traditional case study methodologies. The research has produced specific insights and tools that can help HFV practitioners and scholars. The insights highlight the multiplicity of value that is embedded within food. Its value richness creates both opportunities and challenges for HFVs. The research has developed a context-specific business model framework—the Business Model Blossom (BMB), and has also led to the development of a business model innovation language that complements the Business Model Blossom—the Negative Value Diagnostics (NVDs). Besides these specific insights and tools, the research has challenged the current business model literature as to the precision of the business model and business model innovation concepts. It has created future research opportunities for implementing and refining the Business Model Blossom and Negative Value Diagnostics with HFV practitioners, as well as practitioners from other industries

Digital Transformation’s Impact on Open Innovation Challenges: A case study of Alice Waters’ Open Innovation Ecosystem

A large proportion of sustainability issues are linked to our food systems. There are a range of innovators who are addressing these issues and promote more sustainable solutions. One innovator in particular, Alice Waters, has been at the forefront of this development for almost 50 years and has developed an open innovation ecosystem approach for food systems. This innovation ecosystem offers a prime context in which to study the impact of the digital transformation on open innovation. In this case study, we explore the young Chez Panisse and the current Edible Schoolyard through the lens of 24 open innovation challenges developed from Chesbrough and Appleyard (2007) and Van de Vrande et al. (2009). Our research illustrates the impact of digital transformation on a selection of the open innovation challenges and indicates avenues in which digital transformation can support the development and successful implementation of open innovation ecosystems. Thus, it can provide guidance to managers and entrepreneurs and lead to solutions to overcome open innovation challenges

Kenai Fjords National Park: Exit Glacier Area: Summer Transportation Feasibility Study

VXU7A1/SE293VXU7A1/SE294The purpose of the Exit Glacier Area summer transportation feasibility study for Kenai Fjords National Park (KEFJ) is to understand the current transportation conditions at the Exit Glacier Area and evaluate the feasibility of a range of potential actions to improve transportation conditions. This study is not a plan and will not result in a decision or project without further planning and community engagement. However, this study will provide KEFJ and the National Park Service (NPS) Alaska Region (AKR) with information and analysis to better understand the current state of transportation access to the Exit Glacier Area and the feasibility of potential enhanced access. NPS and KEFJ are not considering an NPS-owned or operated transit system to provide park access, and are instead interested in identifying options for the park to support business opportunities for private entities. The specific goals of this study are to understand current conditions and demand for transit service to the Exit Glacier Area; identify short-term strategies to improve transportation access for visitors; and consider visitation and transportation trends and anticipate future needs

Electoral Dioramas: On the Problem of Representation in Voting Advice Applications

Voting Advice Applications (VAAs) are online tools designed to help citizens decide how to vote. They typically offer their users a representation of what is at stake in an election by matching user preferences on issues with those of parties or candidates. While the use of VAAs has boomed in recent years in both established and new democracies, this new phenomenon in the electoral landscape has received little attention from political theorists. The current academic debate is focused on epistemic aspects of the question how a VAA can adequately represent electoral politics. We argue that conceptual and normative presuppositions at play in the background of the tool are at least as important. Even a well-developed VAA does not simply reflect what is at stake in the election by neutrally passing along information. Rather, it structures political information in a way that is informed by the developers’ presuppositions. Yet, these presuppositions remain hidden if we interpret the tool as a mirror that offers the user a reflection of him/herself situated within the political landscape. VAAs should therefore be understood as electoral dioramas, staged according to a contestable picture of politics