From Here to Net Zero: Entrepreneurial Opportunities in Sustainable Transportation

Internet publication / Online URL : https://eiexchange.com/content/from-here-to-net-zero-entrepreneurial-opportunities-in-sustainabThe transportation industry, and the shift to renewable energy, is ripe with opportunities for entrepreneurs and innovators who yearn to help shape a more sustainable future and boost their own fortunes. In late 2023, more than 200 countries met in Dubai for the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28). They made commitments to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and triple capacity in renewable energy by 2030, with the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 43% and achieving net-zero emissions by 2050. Despite this monumental worldwide commitment and a growing political will to let go of fossil fuels, significant and complex challenges stand in the way. In this article we outline the opportunities for visionary entrepreneurs and innovators who can find ways to get past those challenges. In particular, we focus on the transportation industry, a significant contributor to CO2 emissions, heavily dependent on fossil fuels

Is the sharing economy over?

The unprecedented pandemic of the coronavirus has turned the world upside down, affecting individuals, societies, countries and economies across the globe. Both the human and the economic toll of Covid19 continues to rise. The sharing economy is one of the sectors that has been profoundly disrupted by the measures taken to slow down and overcome the pandemic.Will the sharing economy, just recently the darling of all unicorn watchers, survive the coronavirus pandemic

Micro Entry Theory: Understanding the Drivers and Effects of the Entry of Micro Players in the Context of Digital Platforms

Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Digital platforms have facilitated the entry into the market of micro players, a subcategory of specialists formed by individuals offering products and services on a very small scale. This study builds on previous research on micro players' entry, to formalize, validate, and expand a theory of micro entry that helps to explain the market dynamics when micro players use digital platforms to enter the market. We (1) examine how macro-economic conditions influence the entry of micro players and specialists and (2) investigate the differential effects of the entry of micro players and specialists on the generalists' performance. Our setting is the accommodation industry in Spain, in which generalists are represented by dominant hotels and micro players and specialists by occasional and regular operators who entered the market through Airbnb. We find that the entry of micro players into the market through digital platforms is driven by high unemployment rates and platform legitimacy, factors that do not similarly influence the entry of specialists. Additionally, the results show that the entry of specialists decreases generalists' performance, while micro players' entry is complementary.Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación. Grant Number: PID2019-111422GB-I00

Clarifying the Sharing Economy: Conceptualization, Typology, Antecedents, and Effects

In the last decade, we have seen a spectacular rise of companies that are often described by the common term “the sharing economy.” The emerging academic research on the topic reflects the importance and the far-reaching implications of this phenomenon but also demonstrates a lack of conceptual clarity about what the sharing economy represents. By addressing the main conceptual tensions that exist in this field, our paper integrates the body of knowledge on the sharing economy, clarifies the concept, and develops a typology of sharing-economy organizations. We map out the antecedents and effects of the sharing economy, identifying empirical research that has been done at the consumer, provider, and platform levels of analysis and develop avenues for future research.The Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitivenes

Enhanced Thermal Object Imaging by Photon Addition or Subtraction

Long-baseline interferometry (LBI) is used to reconstruct the image of faint thermal objects. The image quality, for a given exposure time, is in general limited by a low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). We show theoretically that a significant increase of the SNR, in a LBI, is possible by adding or subtracting photons to the thermal beam. At low photon counts, photon addition-subtraction technology strongly enhances the image quality. We have experimentally realized a nondeterministic physical protocol for photon subtraction. Our theoretical predictions are supported by experimental results.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

The effect of the timing of exposure to Campylobacter jejuni on the gut microbiome and inflammatory responses of broiler chickens

Background Campylobacters are an unwelcome member of the poultry gut microbiota in terms of food safety. The objective of this study was to compare the microbiota, inflammatory responses, and zootechnical parameters of broiler chickens not exposed to Campylobacter jejuni with those exposed either early at 6 days old or at the age commercial broiler chicken flocks are frequently observed to become colonized at 20 days old. Results Birds infected with Campylobacter at 20 days became cecal colonized within 2 days of exposure, whereas birds infected at 6 days of age did not show complete colonization of the sample cohort until 9 days post-infection. All birds sampled thereafter were colonized until the end of the study at 35 days (mean 6.1 log10 CFU per g of cecal contents). The cecal microbiota of birds infected with Campylobacter were significantly different to age-matched non-infected controls at 2 days post-infection but generally the composition of the cecal microbiota were more affected by bird age as the time post infection increased. The effects of Campylobacter colonization on the cecal microbiota were associated with reductions in the relative abundance of OTUs within the taxonomic family Lactobacillaceae and the Clostridium cluster XIVa. Specific members of the Lachnospiraceae and Ruminococcaceae families exhibit transient shifts in microbial community populations dependent upon the age at which the birds become colonized by C. jejuni. Analysis of ileal and cecal chemokine/cytokine gene expression revealed increases in IL-6, IL-17A and Il-17F consistent with a Th17 response but the persistence of the response was dependent on the stage/time of C. jejuni colonization that coincide with significant reductions in the abundance of Clostridium cluster XIVa. Conclusions This study combines microbiome data, cytokine/chemokine gene expression with intestinal villus and crypt measurements to compare chickens colonized early or late in the rearing cycle to provide insights into the process and outcomes of Campylobacter colonization. Early colonization results in a transient growth rate reduction and pro-inflammatory response but persistent modification of the cecal microbiota. Late colonization produces pro-inflammatory responses with changes in the cecal microbiota that will endure in market ready chickens

The Covid-19 Pandemic and the Accommodation Sharing Sector: Effects and Prospects for Recovery

The Covid-19 pandemic has spread like wildfire across the globe. The hospitality industry, including the accommodation sharing sector, has been one of the hardest hit. Renting an Airbnb property, sharing a room via Couchsurfing and exchanging homes via LoveHomeSwap became almost impossible under the new restrictions. This paper analyses the effects of the Covid-19 crisis on the accommodation sharing sector and conceptually uncovers the underlying reasons for its disruption. We submit that the main strengths of the accommodation sharing sector, which originally drove its rise, became its weaknesses during the pandemic. An asset-light business model, the intermediation of physical transactions via online platforms, a reliance on individually owned and underused properties, and the popularization of access over ownership propelled the initial expansion of this sector. However, these all backfired during the pandemic. The paper outlines potential avenues for the post-pandemic recovery of accommodation sharing and presents future directions for research

Corporate brand and hotel performance: A resource-based perspective

Grounded in resource-based theory (RBT), our study analyzes the conditions that drive the effect of corporate brand on firm performance. Using a five-year panel of Spanish hotels, our results confirm that hotels with a corporate brand have greater profitability. Consistent with RBT, this effect is stronger when the corporate brand is more valuable to customers (e.g., in the lower-quality segment), when it is more difficult to imitate (e.g., older brands), and when it is exploited through specific organizational governance mechanisms (e.g., vertical integration). Contrary to RBT, we found that the effect of corporate brand on hotel's profitability is stronger when the use of corporate brand is less rare (e.g., when more hotels located in close proximity use corporate brands). Thus, the results provide general support for RBT, but also make an important qualification regarding the effect of resource rarity in industries where there may be agglomeration effects

Entry of Providers onto a Sharing Economy Platform: Macro-level Factors and Social Interaction

ORCID iD: Oksana Gerwe https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8814-7485.The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article