The COVID-19 pandemic proved to be an existential public health and economic crisis for the airport system. An interview study was conducted using Amsterdam Airport Schiphol as a use case to prepare for future public health disruptions. The study aimed to uncover key experiences and lessons learned by an airport system during the COVID-19 pandemic by interviewing 16 experts from airport operators, airlines, public health agencies, security services, and the government. After thematic analysis, four themes emerged. The first theme addressed the limited readiness of the airport system; the COVID-19 pandemic seemed unimaginable regardless of prior experiences with infectious diseases or weak signals. The second theme depicts an airport system running behind the facts, one that had difficulties implementing operational interventions and had to deal with extensive reorganisations. The third theme illustrated the complex relational dynamics within the airport system, such as the hesitancy of public health stakeholders towards aviation stakeholders and the government utilising a top-down approach. Finally, theme four provides lessons learned for the future whereby actively fostering a systemic approach, sensemaking capabilities, and informal relations are recommended. Current constructions like Crisis Management Teams and the Airport Operations Centre support these learnings. Further reflection and operationalisation of the study's findings are critical to proactively supporting the airport system's transition from a potential pandemic liability to a strategic asset in mitigating public health disruptions.@en

Future mobility systems will likely incorporate more multimodal journeys. These multimodal journeys integrate multiple modes of transport, and their higher future prevalence highlights the importance of paying attention to the modality transfers within journeys. To carefully facilitate these transfers, we advocate the creation of passenger-oriented Multimodal Transport Hubs (MTHs), which integrate both infrastructure and services of multiple travel modalities to ensure high-quality transfers between the different modes of transport. This study is part of a research project investigating how Airport Hubs can transform into MTHs and aims to learn in practice how the case study FlyHub deals with new travel modalities and how FlyHub integrates these into its ecosystem. Through the presence of an embedded researcher in the case study context, performing the explorative pre-step of the Action Research approach, the study builds an understanding of the context and the rationale for possible succeeding cycles of action and research. Accordingly, we identified five themes that either stimulate or thwart the transition of FlyHub into an MTH. The five themes are 1) recognition of the importance of innovation and long-term outlook, 2) limited exploration possibilities, 3) the MTH concept being (too) abstract, 4) multi-system transition going slow, and 5) changes and transitions being a struggle for power.@en

Purpose: This paper explores how a B2B technology-driven industrial manufacturer of capital goods can organise a service exploration process to create value for customers and end-users downstream of its value supply chain.
Design/Methodology/Approach: We employed the action research (AR) methodology to design and implement interventions, build new knowledge on strategic exploration and organise a design process for designing service value propositions in a B2B domain.
Findings: Based on the design roadmapping approach, we designed an intervention framework of a strategic service exploration process that addresses the needs and behaviour of customers and end-users in their future living context.
Originality/Value: This paper contributes new knowledge about organising end-user-focused product-service design capabilities and applying strategic design@en

The aviation industry is one of the sectors that has been heavily impacted by the pandemic. While the major body of literature has focused on passenger experience and behaviour, this study focuses on airport employees instead—their experiences, perceptions, and preferences following the emergence of COVID-19. More than 1000 participants from 4 major airports—Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, Singapore Changi Airport, Taipei Taoyuan Airport, and Zurich Airport—representing over 10 different occupations, have provided a variety of sentiments about the airport as an employment ecosystem in the wake of COVID-19. Quantitatively and qualitatively surveying four different airports enabled a cross-border analysis of the results to identify interesting geographic contrasts, as well as global themes, among the responses. Regional differences regarding, the feeling of preparedness, confidence in measures, and optimism are presented. A significant difference in confidence in non-pharmaceutical measures between employees from Asian and European airports is shown. Wants and needs such as better physical/IT workplace infrastructure and more flexibility regarding job scope and hours are pointed out. The results of this research provide insights for future airport employee experience research by outlining areas to study in greater detail. Furthermore, practical implications for airport stakeholders and companies arising from the challenges experienced by the workforce are laid out to provide guidance to prepare for similar circumstances in the future and navigate the aftermath of and recovery from the pandemic.

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The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the existential public health and economic fragilities of the civil aviation industry. To prevent future public health disruptions, the civil aviation industry is gaining interest in becoming more “resilient” but rarely elaborates on its meaning, hampering decision-making and strategy development. When looking into the academic literature it seems that a proliferation of resilience-related concepts occurred. Although enriching resilience, it also dilutes its meaning and reduces its use for practice. This paper aims to create concept clarity regarding resilience by proposing a categorization of resilience. Based upon a scoping review, this categorization dissects resilience into four reoccurring aspects: fragility, robustness, adaptation, and transformation. This categorization is expected to support sensemaking in disruptive times while assisting decision-making and strategy development on resilience. When applying this categorization in the civil aviation and public health context, the transformative aspect seems underused. Further research will focus on maturing the categorization of resilience and its use as a sensemaking tool.@en

Developments in sustainability and digitisation outline a future of mobility, with multimodal transport becoming the new normal. Travel modalities will no longer be the focal point of mobility, but passenger experiences and the services that provide these will. In a mobility landscape where the passenger experience is key, and multi-leg trips are the norm, Multimodal Transport Hubs are essential players as they can facilitate high-quality intermodal transfers. However, this advanced application of Multimodal Transport Hubs does not yet exist in practice. By employing a scoping review, this research aims to investigate the position of airport hubs as Multimodal Transport Hubs in the future of mobility, as airport hubs physically unite several transport infrastructures but only offer transfers with high-quality services within air traffic and not – to, from and between other modalities. To become future-proof, airport hubs should transform into truly Multimodal Transport Hubs that provide transfers with high-quality services from at least ultra-long to long and medium-range modalities. However, airport hubs have features such as a complex stakeholder landscape, long development times, reliance on transport operators and uncertainty about the added value of integrating new travel modalities that make modality innovation at airport hubs a systemic design challenge. This research identified a lack of theoretical knowledge regarding harnessing and integrating alternative and new modalities at airport hubs to transform them into fully integrated Multimodal Transport Hubs. In particular, how to assess and select new and alternative modalities, how to determine the appropriate level of engagement in different stages, and how to integrate new modalities at airport hubs should be investigated in future research.@en

The outbreak of COVID-19 demonstrated the fragility of the transportation system and its Multimodal Transport Hubs (MTHs). Global travel reduced dramatically, leading to an existential crisis in MTHs. To cope with the pandemic, MTHs implemented multiple resilient measurements including social distancing, rapid testing regimes, and infrared cameras. Although these measurements are valuable tools, this research advocates to transcend resilient measures and move towards antifragility by applying a systems thinking approach. As Nassim Taleb (2013) defines: “Antifragility is beyond resilience or robustness. The resilient resists shocks and stays the same; the antifragile gets better.” Our goal is to contribute to a long-term future of the transportation system by transforming MTHs into a tool to effectuate antifragility during the management of health disruptions.@en

This paper summarises servitization research concerning product-service system design processes in the manufacturing industry, considering the overarching value chain. We used a methodological scoping framework to create a systematic overview of scientific papers in the context of the B2B manufacturing industry. We identified five main topics: business models, organisational aspects, value creation, collaborative networks, and servitization strategies. Moreover, servitization research appeared to be concentrated in Europe, in particular in the United Kingdom and Nordic countries. We found only one paper that met all our selection criteria: service design and business model design within technology-intensive manufacturing firms, collaborating in networks and addressing end-customer needs. This research gap provides a direction for a further deep dive in what we call overarching Servitization; we will focus on designing product-service systems throughout customer supply networks.@en

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop an approach to measuring the performance of motor vehicle manufacturers (MVMs) from economic and environmental (E&E) perspectives. Design/methodology/approach: Eight measures are identified for benchmarking the performance from E&E perspectives. A new company performance index I_MVM is constructed to quantitatively generate the historical data of MVMs’ company performance. Autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) models are built to generate the forecast data of the I_MVM. The minimum Akaike information criteria value is used to identify the model of the best fit. Forecast accuracy of the ARIMA models is tested by the mean absolute percentage error. Findings: The construction of the index I_MVM is benchmarked against three frameworks by six benchmark metrics. The I_MVM satisfies all of its applicable metrics while the three frameworks are incapable to satisfy their applicable metrics. Out of 15, 4 MVMs are excluded for benchmarking future performance due to their non-stationary time series data. Based on the forecast I_MVM data, GM is the best performer among the 15 samples in the FY2018. Originality/value: This research highlights the environmental perspective during vehicles’ production. The development of this approach is based on publicly available data and transparent about the methods it used. The data out of the approach can benefit stakeholders with insights by benchmarking the historical performance of MVMs as well as their future performance.

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Purpose: The objective of this study is to explore PSS design approaches for product-service innovation in the B2B manufacturing industry. This paper builds on current research within the Delft University of Technology, researching the role of design as a driver for change and servitization. Design/Methods/Approach: We studied 13 product-service design cases of ten weeks, carried out by students industrial design engineering. We collected the case data, observed their process and analysed the outcome of the project. We mapped the product-service proposals and built frameworks categorising levels of innovation and the applied strategic design elements and methods. Findings: Taking an overarching innovation approach, creating a broader perspective on the value chain, exploring new business contexts without being hindered by conventions and limitations and using state-of-art design methods, increase the innovation level of product-service propositions. Originality/Value: This study draws attention to the importance of strategic design processes in PSS innovation.@en

Purpose: Current literature presents limited measurement methods of quantifying manufacturers' performance with environmental concerns. The purpose of this paper is to construct a company performance index for benchmarking motor vehicle manufacturers (MVMs) with environmental concerns. Design/methodology/approach: Methods of constructing the index include regression analysis, a modified linear method for normalizing variables and a geometric mean for aggregating variables into a single index I_MVM (index for MVMs). A case study is conducted in 12 MVMs from 2008 to 2017. A sensitivity analysis with the simple additive weighting method is performed to analyze how different aggregation methods affect the final value. The index I_MVM is assessed through a benchmark with three existing indices. Findings: Three realistic considerations are identified from MVMs, based on which proper and transparent methods are chosen to construct the I_MVM. The construction of the index I_MVM has been assessed through a benchmark against the methodologies of three other indices. The results indicate that the new measurement is feasible and effective for MVMs to measure their company performance from an environmental perspective. Practical implications: The construction of the index I_MVM can support policymakers with accurate statistics for decision-making. As a response to current imperative climate policies, this paper raises awareness of CO₂ emissions in vehicles' production. For statistical organizations and stakeholders in the investment world, this paper provides available and reliable statistics for trend analysis of different MVMs. Originality/value: A new method is designed for constructing a company performance index for MVMs. Three environmental variables are identified based on literature, their environmental impact as well as their data availability from public documents. A ranking by manufacturer with environmental concerns is generated. This index can contribute with available statistics and useful insights toward decision-making.

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Composite indicators (CIs) are needed for decision makers to effectively benchmark holistic company performance. Composite indicators at macro levels are inappropriate to be implemented at the company level. By a literature survey, this article identified 29 individual methods for constructing CIs, 17 specific business sectors where CIs have been utilized in practice, and the motor vehicle manufacturing sector as the most studied sector. This article identified nine problems and provided four recommendations for future research.

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To build and sustain the legitimacy of design as an approach to service innovation, we need an improved understanding of how and why service organizations fail to implement design-led service concepts. As service innovation implementation requires the synchronous interplay of service operators, customers and indirect stakeholders, challenges exceed the dichotomous relationship between design and production that informs much of the existing knowledge. In this study, we aim to diagnose what
organizational conditions function as barriers to innovation implementation in the context of a large service organization. We present findings from a 14-month action research study. The first author immersed himself in a large airline and engaged with employees from different levels of the organization to conduct actions as part of reflective, collaborative research cycles and to perform formal and conversational interviews. We find that implementation requires collaboration between three instead of two
organizational units: (1) an exploration hub; (2) a support partner and; (3) an operational unit. We reveal how conflicting organizational logics between these units obstructs implementation, not at a specific hand-over moment, but throughout the innovation process. Misalignment between units regarding what constitutes a legitimate priority, design approach and project scope results from these conflicts. This misalignment informs a not-invented-here response from units whose resources are required for implementation. We suggest that managing misalignments between organizational units requires institutional work in various layers of the
organization and that organizations take a risk when they leave the challenge of managing these conflicts completely to individual champions.@en

This paper discusses visual thinking in academic strategy design in the domain of human mobility. The strategic objective is to evoke cross-fertilisation in research and education between all stakeholders. We consider this holistic approach crucial in the education of future mobility designers, because the mobility industry is undergoing a similar transformation. The holistic approach is driven by the growing demand for human mobility in the (near) future, which dictates that we must rebalance individual wants and collective means. In that, mobility design is becoming a mere rational system exercise, which wrongly surpasses human experience as a design objective, while that is crucial in eliciting the necessary behavioural change. Despite the automotive industry’s declining reason of being (in its current manifestation), its unrivalled expertise to synthesise the rational with the emotional is instrumental in designing for behavioural change. Cross fertilisation between transport modalities is how the automotive industry may reframe itself while mobility design as a whole will benefit from its specific expertise. Strategy framing, design and implementation by means of a virtual laboratory, were facilitated by consecutive visuals. The first visual established common understanding of the strategic process, its scope and commitment. A second visual, based on context driven design, actively involved stakeholders to embrace the holistic framework and identify their respective positions therein. In a third, which is also the starting point for the HMI design of the digital platform, all elements are rearranged around a customer journey, so that design for behavioural change becomes the focal point.

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Current research in the field of performance measurement hasn't presented a rigorous composite indicator for quantifying company performance, with environmental indicators for automobile companies. This paper aims to construct this missing composite indicator. A new approach is developed, including techniques of fuzzy logic, analytic network process, the entropy theory and a geometric mean with unequal weights. The method is transparent, and the composite indicator derived can serve as a statistical tool for benchmarking. A case study is conducted in six leading automobile companies with data from the fiscal year 2016.

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The construction industry has had a history of non-performance in the delivery of services [in terms of on time and on budget]. Other industries such as IT and professional services have also experienced non-performance. The problem seems complex, as there are many participants who are involved in the project non-performance including the owner, the buyer, the vendor, sub vendors, manufacturers, designers, and project managers. An industry structure analysis proposes that the problem is caused by parties managing, directing, and controlling (MDC) another party. This could happen anywhere in the supply chain. This paper proposes that a major source of the non-performance in projects is caused by project managers who are managing the projects from the different construction supply chain participants including the owner, the designer, the vendors, and procurement. This has been identified in numerous project tests where the objective of the test was to minimize the MDC in the projects and the major difficulty was the resistance from project managers. The paper also proposes that the project managers are educated to manage, direct, and control in their education and training, including their professional certifications from the Project Management Institute (PMI) and the International Project Management Association (IPMA).@en

Purpose: One of the key challenges in the servitization of companies is developing the required capabilities to deliver advanced services. A strategy to tackle this challenge is to collaborate with a service-providing partner, that has complimentary capabilities. In such collaboration, though, the people involved have to serve their corporate goals and have different organisational and professional backgrounds. The differences challenge the collaboration. In practice, people struggle to deal with the critical situations that arise when these differences affect the collaboration. The literature’s recommendations on what to do in those situations show great variety and can even be contradictory. This paper presents a repertoire of actions people can take in the critical situations they experience when collaborating with a service-provider. Design/methodology/approach: Based on an earlier study into critical situations in the collaboration in those networks, we developed an experiment to study what people do in those situations. We asked thirty managers with experience in such collaborations what they would do in the fifteen situations we provided. Findings: Across the situations presented in the simulation experiment, recurring themes emerged in the activities people undertook and further analysis resulted in a repertoire of actions that servitizing collaborators can take to act upon the critical situations in servitization they experience while collaborating with service providers. Originality/Value: This paper provides practitioners in servitization collaboration with a hands-on action repertoire. This repertoire can be further developed into a general tool for collaboration in servitization to resolve collaborative issues as they arise.@en