This essay analyses how sustainable development of emerging share economy businesses, such as Airbnb and Zibbet, is a wicked problem due the subjectivity of stakeholders and regulatory authorities associated with the businesses. A share economy business utilises the peer-to-peer platform and leverages on technology to connect people on a global scale to allow them to share, rent and exchange personal assets, services and lifestyle. However, in the urban environment share economy businesses are impacted by legal, political and social challenges and complexities. Therefore the urban environment presents an ever changing and continual wicked problem space for share economy businesses due to the existence of conflicting views of stakeholders which …show more content…
A wicked problem as recognised by Rittel and Webber (1973) can have various explanations of the same problem and no correct or explicit solutions. Firstly, the sustainability of a business is in itself a wicked problem as the degree to which it is sustainable falls upon the biasness of individuals. It is therefore not possible to determine if any share economy is sustainable and this reflects the characteristics of a wicked problem also stated by Rittel and Webber (1973) that there is no end point or resolution to these types of problems. Airbnb contributes to sustainability by designing a more efficient way to travel and by making effective use of personal assets. However, a wicked problem space occurs as the company operates on the basis of trust between strangers. Customers may sometimes be lodging in a spare room in the host’s house where there will be unavoidable interaction between the individuals which brings about concerns of theft and safety. The issue of trust is also extended to the nearby neighbours of the host’s home where people may feel uncomfortable with having a stranger living in adjacent properties and also to the property owner who may feel that it is unfair for their tenants to be making income from their assets. To increase trust, Airbnb can impose new policies which enforces agreements to be made with the property owner and lsurrounding …show more content…
Zibbet is an online redistribution market where individuals can sell exclusively handcrafted items. Peer-to-peer sharing businesses like these operate in “wicked territory” as they challenge the conventional business processes (Logue 2012) in which goods are outsourced and mass-produced. Due to the immense competition Zibbet must confront, its sustainability is questionable and therefore presents a wicked problem space. Zibbet is a viable business when their main stakeholder which are the customers have the common belief in embracing uniqueness of handmade products produced creative individuals. Nonetheless, this belief will be at variance as companies which sell mass produced items offer cheaper commodities to customers. Zibbet can improve the business value by sharing to a wider range of people their focus on individuality and the practicality of internet shopping to meet people’s needs in the modern world to increase their sellers and gain greater market opportunity. Sustainable development of Zibbet is a wicked problem due to the ambiguous social system complications and conflicting views of clients and decision makers (Churchman
The growth of online business has grown enormously over the years. Cliptomania is a family operated and owned small e-business that primarily sells clip on earrings (Brown, DeHayes, Hoffer, Martin, & Perkins, 2012, p. 308). Cliptomania early developments were very modest, and as such the company experienced copious strategic dilemmas. An initial strategic dilemma that the company encountered when establishing and building their new e-business undertaking was to create a website for the business operations and essentially to have it fully operable. The owners, Jim and Candy elected to hire a vendor to host the website and additionally utilize the IT systems resources of the vendor to sustain their business. At the very beginning they exploited the offerings of the Yahoo Store. However, continuing down this avenue of using the services of the Yahoo Store inevitably became too costly. By using the services and business offerings of a vendor made it convenient and effortless for Jim and Candy to start their e-business store. Unfortunately the couple did not have much in the way of professional help, and so they had to create and put together the website by themselves. Additionally they also had to deal with establishing their online credibility as many customers preferred to call in their orders just to talk with a real person before being comfortable enough to place their orders via the webpage.
This rhetorical analysis essay describes how reducing carbon emissions that cause pollution and other harmful effects on the environment and the lives of the people can attain a clean environment. It is based on Andrew C. Revkin’s article Carbon-Neutral is Hip, but is it Green? This article explains how carbon-neutral companies reduce carbon emissions. The companies’ work is to estimate the amount of greenhouse gases that are produced by different bodies like big businesses, international banks and transportation sectors. The effects are then sold to these emitting parties who pay for projects such as algae fertilization and tree plantation that could absorb the emitted gases. The argument of the author of this article is in agreement with what most environmentalists claim.
Task: A series of environmental catastrophic events has virtually wiped out human life on earth. The only known survivors in your vicinity are the eleven listed… There are resources to sustain only seven. Choose seven…people to survive. List them in the order in which you would choose them. (220)
Whenever we fight for clean drinking water, or clean air, or a safe workplace, we are likely to find a corporation on the other side of the issue. The goal of a corporation is, first, to survive, and, second, to return a profit to its shareholders, not to mention for money and if the air has to be fouled to accomplish these goals, then the air will be fouled. Meaning, the corporations will do anything to keep these goals even if it means that they have to cause pollution or some issues. Pollution is one of the problems by the corporations that affect us. The Business Council for Sustainable Development thinks of this as ?gToday, for instance, the earth's atmosphere is providing the valuable service of acting as a dump for pollutants; those enjoying this service rarely pay a reasonable price for it,". This is an example of corporations ?gexternalizing?h their costs. By using the air as a free dump, corporations are able to get away with paying the costs for waste disposal to the people while they prof...
One of the wicked problems or super wicked problems that human faced recently is climate change, this issues is no longer environmental issue but it is shifting to broader aspects such as political, socio-economic and policies frames.
In today's competing world, many organizations are rethinking their strategies in terms of the online business and its capabilities and culture. Organizations are taking advantage of the widespread web to buy and sell goods from other companies and recently from individual customers. Exploiting these opportunities of convenience, availability and widespread reach of the web or Internet, many companies such as Amazon have benefited from the use of web successfully.
The wicked problem of urban sustainability poses a large challenge for share economy businesses in the present and future. The nature of a wicked problem and its impossibility of being solved is being constantly appropriated by share economy business that are increasingly aware of the need to please as many of their stakeholders as possible. Share economy business such as Uber, Monkey Parking and Airbnb attempt to resolve the need for public transport and purchasing new goods or using existing services, whilst also emphasising the positives and negatives that come from collaborative consumption. The way that such businesses attempt to resolve the overarching wicked problem is by inviting consumers, suppliers, the media, the government, the
Based on these concerns, retailers in the international marketplace have their work cut out for them. But through proper education of consumers, and the ever-expanding growth of the infrastructure in many countries, the future seems to be leaning heavily towards using the Internet for many needs.
1.- INTRODUCTION: Without doubt, the 20th century has changed our priorities, especially when it comes to the way we do business. Popular sustainable business models, as advertised in the media, have evolved into much more than a moral obligation or an external requirement to generate money. Essentially, they are forcing companies to reinvent the systems and approaches with which they generate value and profitability for the company.
Jeff Butcher and Rachel Hill pointed out the impacts of businesses on environments, by stating “The more of a product that is consumed or produced, the more of an externality that results” (Butcher, Jeff, & Hill, Rachel, 2006). Obviously, we can see that one product produced will bring benefit to consumer, sellers, and manufacturers. Meanwhile, one produced and consumed will cause negative externalities for environment. There is one fact we cannot deny that the more social life develops, the more externalities will be produced to the society. Daily living garbage, industrial wastes, carbon dioxide from factories are most outstanding examples to describe negative externalities to environment (Butcher, Jeff, & Hill, Rachel, 2006). In “The tragedy of the Commons”, Hardin showed us causes of negative externalities. He proved that people assume a...
Business today is inextricably intertwined with technology, from the smallest home office, to a multinational corporation with multiple monolithic legacy application. It is impossible to be in business today without confronting the issues of technology. The way we do business today is different than 30 years ago. Technology has evolved around the areas of telecommunication, travel, stock market, shipping even around our daily lives. E-commerce a system by which people can buy, sell and deal without even seeing the person on the other side has taken a front seat in improving the economy of countries around the world. Technology today has made it possible for monetary institutions to help locate the customers resources and help solve their problems at any given time through online banking. The Internet, a boon to all business, is playing a part of a catalyst; it links millions of customers to its suppliers and vice versa due to this, manufactures are able to cut the role of middlemen and are able to deal with the customers, giving them the ability for direct input from the customers about their choices and views of their product. The busi...
As previously implied, cities are currently the antithesis of even the barest sense of sustainability. To succinctly define the term “sustainability” would be to say that it represents living within one’s needs. When it comes to the city, with almost zero local sources of food or goods, one’s means is pushed and twisted to include resources originating far beyond the boundaries of the urban landscape. Those within cities paradoxically have both minimal and vast options when it comes to continuing their existence, yet this blurred reality is entirely reliant on the resources that a city can pull in with its constantly active economy.
The Internet is rapidly becoming widespread and widely used as a tool for globalization across the world. As the Internet became more easily accessible by most people in the world, the web is bringing significant implications and changes to the way we live, including the way we shop. There is a rapid growth with e-commerce and moving businesses onto the web and retail success is no longer about stores and shopping centers. In developed countries, about two thirds of the population have access to the Internet making the option of online shopping is easily accessible to most people (Valerio). With the ease of shopping in your own home there are many benefits of doing your shopping online. Consumers can easily compare prices online, there is a larger range of products on the web, you can save time by having your shopping delivered right to your doorstep and it also overcomes physical barriers. Over the last decade online shopping has challenged and replaced the traditional means of physically going into shops as the digital world has provided customers with further convenience, flexibility and comfort from shopping from your own home.
The sustainability of the ecosystems on which the global economy depends must be guaranteed. And the economic partners must be satisfied that the basis of exchange is equitable” (World). This quote demonstrates the complexities of sustainability. Another thing corporations should focus on when trying to be sustainable is their environmental impact.
The high take-up of the Internet leads to variety of opportunities in front of companies. People are more online than ever. They spend many hours each day on Social Networks such as Facebook and Google+. It is no wonder that buying and selling can now be done in a more convenient way. Although traditional shopping is still thriving, online shopping can be an alternative for people wanting to save time and money. If a certain customer plan to go shopping, it could be stressful and also be time consuming. E-business has made shopping or any kind of transactions online much easier and convenient. It introduces new facilities, opportunities and way of shopping for both vendors and customers.