Demand-side Change Research Articles

Changing entrepreneurial attitudes for mitigating the global pandemic\u2019s social drama

This paper investigates international experiences and perspectives on how entrepreneurs can improve management practices while minimizing the COVID-19 pandemic’s social drama. The paper probes how companies deal with the myriad challenges they face amid the unfolding pandemic and how these processes’ economic and cultural dimensions may exert an enduring effect. A novel dataset analyses how entrepreneurs manage the change of management processes in a sample of ten countries. Three economic impacts on entrepreneurs caused by the pandemic were observed: (1) a deficit as a result of social distancing reduced due to the growth of Internet retailing; (2) a deficit resulting from a fall in demand decreased due to innovations that mitigate this demand-side change; (3) a social crisis in the labour market due to social distance and relocating many employees to remote working practices. In countries with the most considerable number of cases of COVID-19, it is recommended that attitudes towards entrepreneurial risk be raised. In countries with the vastest number of fatal cases per 100,000 people, implications for change management in entrepreneurship are an increase in Internet retailing level, a reduction in entrepreneurial fear of failure, and an increase in entrepreneurial risk awareness. Besides, an anonymous sociological survey among companies’ directors and managers in Russia on management initiatives taken on between late 2020–early 2021 shows that companies maintain a 60.21% readiness for such systemic challenges while their readiness for change increased under the influence of the pandemic. The contribution to the literature of this article lies in rethinking the COVID-19 crisis from the standpoint of social drama, which made it possible to clarify the cause-and-effect relationships of change management in entrepreneurship. For the first time, the paper proposes systemic—socio-economic recommendations for improving the practice of change management against the background of such a social drama.

Diffusion of demand-side low-carbon innovations and socio-technical energy system change

Diffusion of demand-side low-carbon innovations and socio-technical energy system change

Towards net zero nutrition: The contribution of demand-side change to mitigating UK food emissions

The UK has committed to achieving net zero emissions by 2050, and the food system is increasingly recognised as a critical part of realising this scale of mitigation. Food-related emissions are ultimately driven by demand. We therefore present a scenario analysis of the mitigation potential from transformative demand-side interventions in the UK food system. We construct a hybrid physical input-output food system model, evaluating the effect on emissions of moderating calorific intake to that in the UK Government Dietary Recommendations, modal shifts in diets towards plant-derived proteins, and of reducing consumer food waste. We conclude that the UK could reduce absolute annual territorial Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions by 52% (from 2017 to 2050) in the most ambitious scenario, where dietary transitions are the single most effective measure with reductions of 22–44%. Demand-side mitigation is also well positioned to address the UK’s consumption-based food emissions, which are approximately 52% higher than current territorial emissions emitted in the UK. Well-designed and equitable policy is required to realise the full mitigation potential of these options, and to navigate multiple structural issues including food poverty and carbon leakage. However, the current culture of acceptability around pro-environmental dietary change in the UK has arguably created greater space for policy intervention on the demand-side. Novelties of the analysis include modelling a range of demand-side options using territorial and consumption-based emissions accounting, designing scenarios of dietary change which reflect recent trends towards sustainable consumption, and proposing up-to-date policy interventions. The implications of the analysis are highly transferable to other developed nations. A demand-side mitigation approach could feasibly implement the identified emissions savings whilst working towards a more environmentally, socially and economically sustainable food system.

Advancing understandings of housing supply constraints: housing market recovery and institutional transitions in British speculative housebuilding

The vicissitudes and volatilities of recent housing market cyclicality have restructured, reconfigured and reorganized housing systems and their supply demand characteristics. Surprisingly, little attention has been paid to (re)examining supply side outcomes, much less the influencing effect of supply behaviour in response to demand-side change and their interactions. Indeed, one of the biggest unanswered questions in housing studies today is how supply side characteristics, specifically those of speculative housebuilders, have been affected by the turbulent, transitionary context presented by the global financial crisis. Addressing the gap, this paper presents a novel analysis of how Britain’s biggest housebuilders respond to significant institutional shock in their operating environment and considers how this enables and constrains housing supply outcomes in the post-recession context.

Capability Interactions and Adaptation to Demand-Side Change

Research summary. We examine how interactions among a firm’s capabilities influence the extent and direction of firm adaptation under conditions of demand-side change. Our empirical context is the U.S. defense industry, within which we study firms receiving defense-related Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) awards around September 11, 2001, an event which constituted an exogenous demand-side shock in which technology-related preferences of customers were reshuffled. We find that under demand-side change, pre-existing customer relationships have a double-edged effect: they facilitate “extension-based” adaptation when interacted with technology capabilities experiencing a decline in customer preferences, and they hinder “novelty-based” adaptation when interacted with technology capabilities experiencing an increase in such preferences. We also find that both types of technological capabilities together facilitate adaptation along the extension and novelty paths. Managerial summary. Demand-side change, in which customer preferences for particular technologies are reshuffled, occurs in many industry settings. A deeper understanding of the factors shaping firm adaptation under this form of change can influence managers’ decisions to implement strategies to plan for and react to such change. Using a sample of firms receiving defense-related Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) awards around September 11, 2001, we show that the customer relationships a firm develops prior to demand-side change can have a double-edged effect on firm adaptation. Such relationships facilitate “extension-based” adaptation when combined with technology capabilities declining in customer preferences and hinder “novelty-based” adaptation when combined with technology capabilities increasing in customer preferences. In addition, the combination of the two technological capability types facilitates adaptation along both paths.

Demand Side Change, Rurality, and Gender in the United States Veterinarian Market, 1990–2010

ABSTRACTLittle is known about how animal input sectors have been impacted by far‐reaching changes in global animal agriculture over recent decades. This paper explores the forces determining U.S. veterinarian practice location and how location choices have evolved over the past two decades. We provide a theoretical model of veterinarian market supply and demand with particular emphasis on rurality, gender, and demand side change. We also estimate bivariate Tobit models of location choice for 1990, 2000, and 2010. Results suggest that female veterinarians are less responsive to the presence of food animals than their male counterparts. For both genders, veterinarians are more responsive to animals of higher value. Using animal caretakers as a proxy for companion animals, we find that female veterinarians have become more responsive to this indicator over the 20 years. All else equal, female and male veterinarians tend not to locate in rural areas. Aversion to rural areas has remained fixed over time among males but has strengthened among females. [EconLit citations: J16, J43, Q13].

Operationalizing holistic urban concepts

Several holistic urban concepts point to the importance of taking an integrated resources approach in the city. The reason for this is obvious: resource flows are highly interconnected. Think for instance of the high water, energy, and land input for most of our food production, or the vast energy input in water desalination processes. In addition, taking a single-resource approach to cities, mostly done for energy, often leads to negative feedbacks on other resource flows. Carbon-neutral cities do not usually account for higher material in- and output for insulation, efficient appliances, or renewable energy systems, and most often do not even account for the embodied energy of these extra material flows. If, on top of that, carbon offsetting is allowed, one should definitely question if the claimed carbon neutrality weighs against all the externalities of realizing this claim. Therefore, on a conceptual basis, an integrated approach towards resources makes a lot of sense. It is, however, in the translation from theory to practice that such concepts often get stuck. One of the obvious obstacles with respect to hindering progress in implementation is the difficulty to realize cooperation between institutions, experts, and bureaucrats that are neatly organized in a sectorial way, the famous silo effect. Other challenges that are often mentioned are short-termism, lack of mandate and financing of local governments and corruption (WFC 2014). While these are well-known obstacles, I will discuss some often missed elements that are crucial for a successful implementation of holistic urban concepts aiming at sustainable cities and regions. These elements are: transformative change, transdisciplinarity, performance measurability, and demand-side change.

Climate change and cars in the EU: the roles of auto firms, consumers, and policy in responding to global environmental change

Car design, ownership and usage are major determinants of the degree of carbon emissions produced from personal transport. We assess factors influencing environmental innovation in the automotive sector and behavioural changes of transport consumers in response to climate change and related policies. This analysis highlights the vital role of policy drivers in both supply-side innovation and demand-side change and considers the efficacy of recent European Union policy measures. We argue that the limited progress towards low-carbon transport suggests a need for more interdisciplinary analyses of mobility and greater attention to psychological, cultural and infrastructural factors affecting demand.

Explaining Economic Restructuring: An input-output analysis of organisational change in the European Union

This article investigates the extent to which the European economy (as a whole) has entered a period of restructuring from 1970 to the present, and assesses whether different theories of restructuring can explain the processes involved.Three political economy perspectives on restructuring are presented: flexible specialisation, neo-Schumpeterian/long wave, and Regulation. The extent of organisational restructuring is identified using an input-output methodology that separates supply-side and demand-side change. Supplyside output change indicates the importance of vertical externalisation, which all restructuring theories identify as important. This empirical methodology is applied using EU wide input-output tables for 1970, 1975, 1980, 1985 and 1991. Considerable restructuring is indicated as having occurred, particularly in European manufacturing industry. But this restructuring seems not to be consistent with any single perspective; rather all three are relevant in different circumstances. Finally, an attempt is made to sketch a theory of the firm consistent with the evidence presented.