Natural test sites are resource-intensive and often limited to single industries or technologies. Drawing upon two strands of research into technology development and innovation strategies, the research question in this paper investigates how converging test sites may provide opportunities for multiple industries and regions. The paper analyzes multi-industrial test sites regarding, (i) the requirements of the social and physical environment, logistic requirements, as well as technical requirements, (ii) the added value for technology developers, as well as, (iii) the absorptive capacity of the region. Qualitative and quantitative research designs were adopted to analyze multi-industrial test sites. The results indicate that the suitability of multi-industrial test sites depends on the market and research fit of the test target, the quality of the benchmark data, as well as logistical, organizational, legal, social, and ecological factors. The study shows that multi-industrial test sites increase and strengthen the absorptive capacity of regions. Additionally, the study discusses managerial and political implications of multi-industrial test sites. Until now corporate and public test site practices have received only scant recognition in technology management literature, a gap closed by this paper.
Freshwater ecosystems and their biodiversity provide fundamental services to humans such as nutritional resources production, water provisioning, water purification, recreation, and more globally climate regulation. Impacts due to anthropogenic drivers on freshwater ecosystems and their biodiversity, are already strong and several will face higher risk of impacts in the near future. These anthropogenic drivers are widely known and include in particular, climate change, habitat shrinking and/or modification due to land-use (e.g. water abstraction for human and agricultural consumption, urbanization), habitat fragmentation and homogenization in stream flow dynamics due to the damming of rivers, introduction of non-native species, dumping of nutrient or organic loadings increasing eutrophication processes, and biodiversity over-exploitation. Here, I review the current and future effects of these anthropogenic drivers on freshwater ecosystems and their biodiversity and provide some few examples of existing cost-effective solutions, either technological, nature-based or policy-based, that could be applied globally to halt and/or minimize their negative consequences. However, success will require systemic changes across public policy and a sufficient political will to do so.
Research on smart cities has illustrated the use of data analytics, open data, smart sensors and other data-intensive applications that have significant potential to transform urban environments. As the complexity and intensity of these projects has increased, there is a need to understand smart city data ecosystems as an integrated view of data applications by the various city entities that operate within an institutional environment. This paper examines how authorities involved in such ecosystems coordinate data initiatives from an orchestration perspective. A case study of London's city data initiatives highlights the challenges faced in complex city data environments and the importance of an integrated view. Three elements of orchestration in smart city data ecosystems – namely openness, diffusion and shared vision– are identified as the main enablers of city data initiatives within London's local government authorities. The study contributes to our theoretical understanding of orchestration within data ecosystems, as well as the social and technological impacts of city data.
The paper surveys economic aspects of sustainability and the use of complex ecological systems. In a first step, an economist's view of the concept of sustainability is presented. Then, a simple model of the economic use of a dynamic ecological system is discussed. It is shown how economically optimal trajectories look like, in which circumstances it may be optimal to destroy the ecosystem, and which problems arise if this ecosystem is a common-property resource. Extensions of the model that add complexity and uncertainty are referred to briefly. Finally, some economic concepts to determine the value of ecosystems are presented.
One of the most profound changes in the industrial landscape in the last decade has been the growth of business ecosystems—groups of connected firms, drawing on (digital) platforms that leverage their complementors and lock in their customers, exploiting the "bottlenecks" that emerge in new industry architectures. This has created new asymmetries of power, where the "field" of competition is not the relevant product market, as is usually the case in competition law, but rather the ecosystem of various complementary products and associated complementor firms. These dynamics raise novel concerns over competition. After examining the foundational elements of the ecosystem concept, we review how ecosystems are addressed within the current scope of competition law and identify the gap in the existing framework of conventional competition law. We then move to a critical review of current efforts and proposals in the European Union for providing regulatory remedies for ex ante and ex post resolution of problems, focusing on the current (2020) proposals of the Digital Market Act on ex ante regulation, with its particular focus on "gatekeepers." We also review recent regulatory initiatives in European countries that focus on ex post regulation and on the role of business models and ecosystem architectures in regulation before providing a deep dive into proposed Greek legislation that explicitly focuses on ecosystem regulation. We conclude with our observations on the challenges in instituting and implementing a regulatory framework for ecosystems, drawing on research and our own engagement in the regulatory process.
Abstract. This paper defines governance factors and mechanisms for complex, federated digital platform ecosystems, characterized by a variety of interaction models among various stakeholders that have different motivations and incentives to participate in an ecosystem. The proposed governance framework is compared with the recent research in platform ecosystem governance design, and further structured into five areas to allow for a coherent policy acquisition and modelling across the platform consortium. The proposed governance framework addresses both data- and service-driven policy mechanisms, including emerging mechanisms caused by the recent changes of public policies created to balance ethical frameworks of platform companies, transparency reporting, fairness and algorithm transparency, responsibility, etc. Furthermore, a holistic federated governance architecture to be implemented for the enforcement of major governance mechanisms is presented in the paper. The motivation to explore the governance mechanisms for federated digital platform ecosystems, relates to the design and implementation of an innovative, federated industrial platform ecosystem currently developed in the European H2020 Research and Innovation Programme. ; Pre-print. Conference had to be postponed due to COVID-19. Upload in compliance with contractual obligation for free access to EU research results.
The publication of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Ecosystems (RLE) standards is an important development that has received broad acceptance globally. More than 100 countries across the globe including South Africa and Myanmar have adopted the IUCN RLE standards as their national framework for assessing the risk of ecosystem collapse. The strongest motivations for the alignment include: (i) elimination of confusion and reducing the administrative burden for maintaining multiple lists of threatened ecosystems, (ii) increased legitimacy of the ecosystem threat status assessment by basing them on a body of sound scientific literature, (iii) comparable assessments across different environments and countries across the globe, (iv) for the threatened national ecosystems to be recorded under the IUCN RLE registry. Furthermore, the IUCN Red List makes it easier for countries to secure funding from international donors to achieve national biodiversity conservation objectives, and address knowledge and data gaps through focused research. The IUCN RLE standards only became available after many countries including South Africa and Australia each independently tailor-developed national indicators or standards for assessing threats to ecosystems. The Ecosystem Threat statuses (ETS) standards are developed to aid biodiversity monitoring efforts, and many have progressed into the legislated national list of the threatened ecosystems. In South Africa, the gazetted list of threatened ecosystems is ratified to inform policy development and land-use planning tools that mainstream biodiversity considerations into economic development activities. Considering the strong links between the gazetted list of threatened ecosystems and many of the policy and spatial planning tools, the change and/or update to the IUCN RLE standards may disrupt conservation and land-use plans. In addition, South Africa has limited data on ecosystem integrity with to apply the full range of the IUCN RLE functional criteria which may lead to the risk of ecosystem collapse being underestimated. However, the country has comprehensive data on threatened plant species which in many cases contain detailed information on drivers of environmental degradation and biotic disruptions. In addition, extensive efforts have been made to link threatened species and the ecosystem types in which they occur. Such efforts enable the country to look at degradation through species lenses to better understand the degree of underestimation of ecosystem risk. Nonetheless, there is a need to interrogate and holistically understand the implications that may emanate from this shift, hence the importance of this study. This thesis was focused on assessing the origins and history of the IUCN and South Africa's approach to assessing threats to ecosystems. In chapter 1, I reviewed the key concepts including the scientific basis and criteria to understand the purpose and philosophy of the South Africa (SA) ETS and IUCN RLE frameworks. In Chapter 2, I compared and contrasted the SA ETS and IUCN RLE assessment outcomes of ecosystems susceptible to only spatial threats. Finally, in Chapter 3, I tested whether the IUCN RLE is a good proxy for the distribution of threatened species in South Africa. The results revealed that the IUCN RLE and SA ETS standards have overarching similarities (e.g. spatial and functional criteria) as they both share the common ancestry (IUCN Red List of Threatened Species). Equally, there are key differences (e.g. decision thresholds) that explain the misalignments in the ecosystem threat status between the two systems. Meanwhile, the quantitative results alluded that the proportions of matching assessment outcomes are high when the risk categories (Critically Endangered: CR and Endangered: EN versus Vulnerable: VU and Least Concern: LC) are split in accordance with their policy uptake (i.e. National Environmental Management Act (NEMA) EIA regulations) but relatively low per individual risk category. Furthermore, the results suggest that not all ecosystem types undergoing spatial declines entirely reflect the status of threatened plant species they contain. Many of these threatened plant species overlap with ecosystems at immediate risk of collapse (CR and EN). Such species will indirectly benefit from broad-scale conservation interventions that are informed by the list of threatened ecosystems. However, the majority of plant species threatened by either habitat loss and/or land degradation occur within the least threatened ecosystems. These species will not benefit from conservation responses informed by the gazetted national list of threatened because spatial declines within these ecosystems are considered to either be minimal or stable to trigger conservation response. Encouragingly, there are existing legal conservation tools such as stewardship programmes, Key Biodiversity Areas, and Critical Biodiversity Areas that allow threatened and unprotected ecological features including species to be strategically targeted for conservation responses. However, there is a need for South Africa to intensify efforts that ensure that these legal tools are implemented correctly and successfully to maximise conservation impacts and arrest biodiversity loss.
Purpose of the article: This article analyses cluster emergence in post-authoritarian countries with immature socio-economic context by adapting the approach of industrial clusters as industrial ecosystems and analysing cluster emergence cases. Methodology/methods: review of scientific literature, case analysis. Scientific aim: This article presents the different scenarios of cluster emergence based on cases of industrial clusters in a Lithuanian context and provides solutions for cluster emergence in post-authoritarian countries. Findings: The analysis of scientific literature revealed the following solutions of cluster emergence in post-authoritarian contexts: 1) Large firm(s) acting as anchors for attracting smaller companies into cluster; 2) Cluster emergence as a means to serve the needs of large customer outside the cluster; 3) Cluster emergence via professional associations; 4) Cluster emergence via local business entrepreneurs; 5) Cluster emergence via local science representatives; 6) Cluster emergence through community mobilising; 7) Government as the main agent for change. The analysis of industrial clusters emergence in Lithuania revealed four different combinations of planned/unplanned non-equilibrium phenomena and the first explicit/inexplicit initiatives toward the emergence of self-organising industrial systems by analysing the cases of cluster emergence in Lithuanian context. These cases highlighted the importance of leaders-initiators that were local large or simply very experienced enterprises, groups of managers of small and medium sized enterprises, mediators-communication facilitators from non-business enterprises. These actors helped to cope with unplanned and planned non-equilibrium phenomena. Conclusions: Since the empirical analysis concentrated only in the first stage of cluster emergence of post-authoritarian context, a further research is needed to take a deeper look at the development of industrial clusters as industrial ecosystems in post-authoritarian contexts and thus evaluate the aspects of emergence emphasised in the theoretical part of the article.
Verifiable credentials, coupled with decentralized ledger technologies, have been potential providers of trustworthy digital identity for individuals, organizations, and other entities, and thus, potential enablers of trustful digital interactions. The rapid development of this technology—called self-sovereign identity (SSI)—and the ecosystems built around it have been fostered even more by the societal needs stemming from the current pandemic crisis, when governments, non-profit organizations, businesses, and individuals are working together on different aspects of SSI to enable mainstream adoption. In this study, we build on rich qualitative data gathered from SSI practitioners to give a fresh overview of the perceived benefits and challenges of SSI. The paper advances research on the domain of SSI adoption and provides valuable insights into the feasibility of SSI for practitioners both in the private and public sectors ; peerReviewed
Forest degradations including deforestation and desertification are problematic globally as well as expand rapidly. This is true particularly in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Deforestation is also a serious problem to the tropical forest in Southeast Asian regions. Slash and burn, and shifting cultivation are most critical causes for destroying the tropical forests. Similar degradation was observed in Northeast Asian regions: desertification in China and Mongolia, and deforestation in Democratic People's Republic of Korea and Far East Russia. An understanding of causes or issues in degraded forest ecosystems is essential to start structural/functional restoration activities. This special journal issue is a compilation of nine papers presented in a seminar on "Restoration Research of Degraded Forest Ecosystem" that was held at Seoul National University (SNU), Seoul, Korea during 13–14 April 200 by the auspices of Korea Science and Engineering Foundation (KOSEF), and by the support of Yuhan-Kimberly (Y-K), Korea Forest Research Institute (KFRI), Korean Forest Society (KFS) and Northeast Asian Forest Forum (NEAFF). It focused on their theme in a broad sense and encompassed practical rehabilitation, socio-economic and/or applied aspects and restoration strategies in Asia and Latin America.
A Smart City is a high-performance urban context, where citizens live independently and are more aware of the surrounding opportunities, thanks to forward-looking development of economy politics, governance, mobility and environment. ICT infrastructures play a key-role in this new research field being also a mean for society to allow new ideas to prosper and new, more efficient approaches to be developed. The aim of this work is to research and develop novel solutions, here called smart services, in order to solve several upcoming problems and known issues in urban areas and more in general in the modern society context. A specific focus is posed on smart governance and on privacy issues which have been arisen in the cellular age.
Biologically diverse ecosystems in countries served by the World Bank provide an array of valuable economic services. While the benefits of conserving ecosystems frequently outweigh the costs, conversion of these ecosystems to other uses occurs anyway, because many ecosystem benefits are of a public good nature, without markets that would reflect their real value. The objective of this paper was defined at a Concept review meeting held on December 2009 and is to increase the understanding on how biodiversity is incorporated in a development agency such as the World Bank Group (WBG) and how the WBG can enhance its role in biodiversity and ecosystems protection and management as a key ingredient to reach development sustainability. In order to define a reasonable strategy to prepare this paper, two approaches were used: the first was to carry out background and analytical studies, and the second was to consult with a wide range of stakeholders including Bank staff, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), and indigenous groups. Biodiversity provides many instrumental benefits, from food and fuel to recreation. But even where biodiversity is not immediately instrumental, it represents global public goods that must be protected, if only for their potential value in the future. The Global Environment Facility (GEF) has been the mainstay of grants implemented by the Bank ($1.4 billion) for biodiversity conservation and management, but the Bank has itself committed $2 billion in loans and has leveraged $2.9 billion in co-financing.
Environmental legislation in countries around the world has led to notable recent declines in the atmospheric deposition of nitrogen (N), although most decreases relate to oxidized N, with reduced N increasing in many areas [.]
Fishing is one of the oldest anthropogenic disturbances in the ocean, differing from other impacts in its direct removal of biomass from the ecosystem. Despite the centuries of fishing activities, there is much we still do not understand regarding the effects of fish removal on the benthic community. I use an interdisciplinary approach to investigate the affect of human disturbance, primarily the alteration of fish communities, on major functional groups of coral reefs, over extended temporal and spatial scales. In Chapter 2, historical analyses reveal that relatively small human populations and simple fishing technologies can negatively impact reef fish communities. Significant declines are evident in Pre Columbian times and by the mid 19th C. Declines were exacerbated by simple innovations of gear, such as chicken wire, and government subsidies, which expanded degradation to offshore and deeper reefs. In Chapter 3, I identify six major ecological guilds of common Caribbean coral species and show that changes in the abundance of these guilds from the Pleistocene to the present day can be understood in terms of recent human disturbance events. Formerly advantageous life history strategies no longer apply. Instead, guilds with the ability to withstand physical disturbance from storms, sedimentation, and pollution remain present on reefs, while strategies for high recruitment and rapid space colonization increase the relative abundance of another guild. Overall, no guild successfully competes with macroalgae for space and all corals have declined. In Chapter 4, I show that benthic and fish communities across the northwestern Caribbean are largely homogenized as a result of human disturbance. The exception is fish communities in large, no-take marine reserves, which resemble relatively healthy communities of low-impacted reefs in the Pacific. A negative correlation between fish and algal biomass indicate that reserves may facilitate coral recovery, although corals have not yet increased. Chapter 5 describes a novel method for calculating the wet and dry animal tissue mass per unit area of corals. Chapter 6 integrates these findings and demonstrates the importance of increased temporal, spatial, and ecosystem scale in effective research and management of degraded Caribbean coral reefs
Purpose – Entrepreneurship education has moved from an elitist view focussing on a start-up and picking-the-winners philosophy towards a broader enterprising behaviour approach; recognising entrepreneurship as an activity of relevance for everybody. The purpose of this paper is to extend this development and identify how university entrepreneurial ecosystems can be expanded to support communities that are under-represented in entrepreneurship. Design/methodology/approach – Based on an integrative literature review (Torraco, 2005), this paper draws together and synthesises literature from the field of entrepreneurship, higher education studies and under-represented communities in an integrated fashion, leading to the development of a new conceptual model. Findings – This paper challenges the traditional role of universities in supporting entrepreneurship as focussing mainly on economic growth and new venture creation, and identifies how universities are also positioned to provide greater civic support to entrepreneurial learning amongst under-represented communities. Through a critical analysis of the literature, the conceptual model proposed identifies six key considerations in the expansion of university entrepreneurial ecosystems for under-represented communities. Practical implications – There are currently 96.6m people at risk of poverty and social exclusion in the EU (OECD, 2017) and an estimated 43.1m Americans (US Census Bureau, 2017). This paper explores how university entrepreneurial ecosystems can be expanded to support minority and disadvantaged communities who are under-represented in terms of entrepreneurial activity. Originality/value – Given that there is little research regarding how universities might activate inclusive entrepreneurship initiatives amongst under-represented communities, this paper expands existing knowledge as it identifies the key considerations encompassing university-led community collaborative enterprise support.
