Love Trust Research Articles

Cultivating Design Thinking for Sustainable Business Transformation in a VUCA World: Insights from a German Case Study

Companies around the world are facing global challenges, such as internationally interwoven crisis situations and conflicts, climate change, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and technological disruptions. While the UN has developed a global agenda (namely, the SDGs) to drive sustainability, at a political and economic level, global players seem to have a rather heterogeneous understanding of the situation. How can companies successfully adapt to the resulting turbulent market environments? Design Thinking, a method for finding answers to complex and wicked problems, is experiencing a renaissance wherein it is being used not only as a tool for product innovation but also for organizational and strategic transformation. By incorporating the principles of Industry 5.0 into company visions and integrating Design Thinking and ecodesign at the level product innovation, Design Thinking can help strengthen the adaptability of companies and create sustainable innovations in these VUCA environments. However, the factors that are necessary to realize the full potential of Design Thinking for sustainable business transformation remain unclear in science. This paper presents a case study that shares key factors, including a company DNA that consists of a targeted orchestration of diversity and the company’s Love–Trust–Do mantra that, in combination, work transnationally in the company organization and can utilize the full potential of Design Thinking to foster sustainable innovation and thus strengthen the company’s resiliency in times of VUCA.

Economic Approaches to Understanding Nonmarital Fertility

This book chapter presents a strategy for modeling nonmarital fertility and marriage as separate decisions by gender. The growth of nonmarital fertility in the US and the differences by race and socioeconomic status are explained in a model by Willis (1995) on the labor market experiences of men and women. Nonmarital childbearing can be explained by the balance between mens ability to take advantage of womens willingness and ability to raise their children and mens low or zero economic costs of child support. The net impact of womens income and price effects could result in having no children or fewer children because the child costs are greater than what she may be willing to pay from her own full income. Public goods theory implies that allocations of joint incomes of both father and mother could increase the utility of both parents. But if the mother cares more than the father about the well-being of the children the greater will be the expenditures particularly from the mother because of free-riding associated with the provision of public goods. An efficient allocation of resources for child support is not expected in a noncooperative bargaining model (a Stackelberg model) between a single custodial mother and a noncustodial father. As the mother increases her income and is able to support the child at a more adequate level from her own resources the fathers optimum transfer of income tends to decrease and even reach zero. Marriage and a binding contract that includes provisions in a potential divorce settlement solves collective goods problems. Weiss and Willis argue that deadbeat dads may withdraw generous support that occurred within marriage when love trust and mutual altruism between husband and wife disappear in divorce. Argys and Peters argument is that cooperative agreements about shared resources are possible among parents not living together but these parents face many difficulties. Policy can directly raise the cost of nonmarital fertility to men.