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- Schoonover, Heather A., et al.
(author)
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Creating space, aligning motivations, and building trust: a practical framework for stakeholder engagement based on experience in 12 ecosystem services case studies
- 2019
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In: Ecology and Society. - 1708-3087. ; 24:1
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Ecosystem services inherently involve people, whose values help define the benefits of nature's services. It is thus important for researchers to involve stakeholders in ecosystem services research. However, a simple and practicable framework to guide such engagement, and in particular to help researchers anticipate and consider key issues and challenges, has not been well explored. Here, we use experience from the 12 case studies in the European Operational Potential of Ecosystem Research Applications (OPERAs) project to propose a stakeholder engagement framework comprising three key elements: creating space, aligning motivations, and building trust. We argue that involving stakeholders in research demands thoughtful reflection from the researchers about what kind of space they want to create, including if and how they want to bring different interests together, how much space they want to allow for critical discussion, and whether there is a role for particular stakeholders to serve as conduits between others. In addition, understanding their own motivations—including values, knowledge, goals, and desired benefits—will help researchers decide when and how to involve stakeholders, identify areas of common ground and potential disagreement, frame the project appropriately, set expectations, and ensure each party is able to see benefits of engaging with each other. Finally, building relationships with stakeholders can be difficult but considering the roles of existing relationships, time, approach, reputation, and belonging can help build mutual trust. Although the three key elements and the paths between them can play out differently depending on the particular research project, we suggest that a research design that considers how to create the space in which researchers and stakeholders will meet, align motivations between researchers and stakeholders, and build mutual trust will help foster productive researcher–stakeholder relationships.
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| 2. |
- Schoonover, Heather A., et al.
(author)
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Communicating access-based business models : Company framings of home furnishings rental
- 2022
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In: Cleaner and Responsible Consumption. - : Elsevier BV. - 2666-7843. ; 4
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Although access-based business models such as product rental hold promise for contributing to sustainable production and consumption, their diffusion is hindered by a lack of consumer acceptance. In order for rental models to resonate with consumers, they must be designed and communicated in a way that aligns with consumers’ needs. While many studies have addressed business model design, few have looked at how rental business models are communicated to consumers. Our study addresses this gap by exploring how rental companies frame their offers to consumers, and how this aligns with consumer drivers to engage in rental previously found in literature. Through a qualitative content analysis of websites of companies in the growing sector of home furnishings rental, we find that, contrary to studies that suggest emphasising sustainability aspects, sustainability is not widely communicated. In addition, while messaging does reflect broad categories of drivers for a variety of consumer goods – including economic benefits, freedom from burdens of ownership, convenience, and novelty – home furnishings rental companies represent these drivers somewhat differently. This includes appealing to more intangible ideas such as aspiration, self-expression and homeliness, as well as citing aspects specific to home furnishings such as the literal burdens of transporting furniture when relocating. Our study raises important questions about the role of sustainability in communications and provides insights from companies actively engaged in rental that can potentially help ensure that company messaging, and in turn rental models themselves, resonate with consumers. We also contribute empirical findings on home furnishings rental, which has seen increasing engagement by practitioners but has received little consideration in academic literature.
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| 3. |
- Schoonover, Heather A., et al.
(author)
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Exploring barriers to implementing product-service systems for home furnishings
- 2021
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In: Journal of Cleaner Production. - : Elsevier BV. - 0959-6526. ; 295
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The home furnishings sector faces substantial sustainability challenges resulting from increasing consumption and premature disposal. Innovative business models that provide access rather than ownership hold promise for addressing these challenges, but past research has found that such models face many barriers to success. As the environmental benefits of these business models can only be realised if the models are successfully implemented, it is important to understand what these barriers are and how to overcome them. Our study seeks to understand these barriers in the case of home furnishings leasing, which has seen increasing engagement by both companies and consumers but has not been well explored in academic literature. Through semi-structured interviews with experts from the four firms known to offer home furnishings leasing in Sweden, we identify a number of barriers, including financial and economic concerns, product design, capabilities, relationships, end-users, and policy. We conclude that while some of these barriers are common to leasing of other consumer goods, home furnishings do present some unique challenges due to their bulky nature, wide range of products, and consumers’ unfamiliarity with the concept of home furnishings leasing. At the same time, the interviewed companies’ experiences provide lessons regarding strategies to overcome these barriers. For example, emphasising added benefits, streamlining the choice of products available to lease, and partnering with other actors to acquire capabilities are some of the ways the companies have addressed the barriers they have encountered. Better understanding the barriers and identifying opportunities to overcome them can help increase the likelihood of successfully implementing leasing business models and thus help reduce the negative environmental impacts of home furnishings consumption.
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