0000000000298092
AUTHOR
Taneli Vaskelainen
Hypes and the birth of new sustainable market categories – a socio-cultural perspective on the emergence of the meat substitute category in Finland
Hypes can be a significant contributor in the mainstreaming of sustainable products. Former research on hypes has been supplier oriented, and thus little is known of their effect on new market formation. Our paper contributes to this research gap by examining the establishment of the ‘meat substitute’ category in Finland using press articles, retailer interviews and consumer panel data. We show how the emergence and legitimation of the meat substitute category depended heavily on the hype arising around a single product, called Pulled Oats (PO). This hype was anchored in its association with trendy and socio-culturally relevant values and practices. We further discover that the hype had pos…
Sustainable Business Models - The Case of Car Sharing
Replacing actual ownership of a commodity with a service that allows for temporary customer use of the commodity has been shown to be a good way to make industries more sustainable while retaining or even improving customer experience. However these kinds of services are often unsuccessful, because breaking the existing regimes requires systemic change involving enabling technologies, favourable governmental regulation, a successful market adoption strategy and a profitable business model. This study examines sustainable business models using the case of car sharing services. Using public sources a descriptive study is conducted on the business models of leading car sharing services in Euro…
Exploring problems associated with the sharing economy
As the sharing economy has become more popular, its problems are discussed increasingly. However, these discussions are often confusing because there are multiple definitions for the sharing economy, and the discourse does not usually specify which definition it is based on. Therefore, the actors may be wrongfully accused of problems that do not concern them, only because they are perceived as belonging to the sharing economy. We aim to clarify this discussion by creating a framework that maps specific problem discourses to specific actors and stakeholder groups. We create a framework based on a review of the academic literature in which the sharing economy is delineated into smaller market…