The aviation industry faces pressure to reduce its environmental footprint while maintaining cost efficiency, regulatory and safety compliance. This research investigates how recyclability, as a key strategy within circular economy principles, can be implemented for aircraft interior parts. Employing a multi-method approach, including literature analysis, field research, stakeholder interviews, and a case study, this research identifies critical enablers and barriers to recycling aircraft interior parts. The findings demonstrate that recycled materials can meet key fire safety standards, supporting their potential for reuse in safety-relevant aircraft applications. A decision-tree framework was developed to assess the recycling potential of interior parts across maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) operations. The research concludes that advancing recyclability within aircraft interiors aligns with circular economy ambitions and is both technically feasible and economically advantageous, offering a scalable pathway to enhance sustainability and operational efficiency in the aviation sector.

Integrating air transport with alternative modes of transport holds great promise for substituting short-distance flights in regions like Europe, provided that the benefits of existing transport networks are preserved. Effective multimodal integration requires collaboration among transport operators and hubs to enhance the passenger experience. This study explored the perspectives of these practitioners across Europe through an interview-based case study, identifying key factors for a passenger-oriented multimodal air journey and examining the mechanisms that influence their delivery. The findings reveal five Passenger Experience Factors (PEFs) that contribute to a successful passenger-oriented multimodal air journey: 1) integration of booking systems; 2) whole journey guidance; 3) transfer time and ease; 4) baggage management; and 5) disruption management. We found that delivering these PEFs necessitates support processes within and between organizations to align, including IT, infrastructure, scheduling, operations, commercial, interorganizational, and strategic efforts. Additionally, external conditions – such as market dynamics and regulatory frameworks – play a pivotal role in either enabling or constraining these efforts. We discovered that these underlying support processes converge in delivery mechanisms that influence the provision of PEFs for multimodal air travel. The findings emphasize that while airlines often lead in shaping the multimodal experience, progress is hindered by fragmented responsibilities, misaligned incentives among operators, and market competition. It is crucial to recognize that delivering passenger-oriented multimodal journeys requires effective cross-system collaboration, and that a regulatory framework must be established to create conditions for more sustainable transportation integration.

Design thinking and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities are gaining prominence in today’s dynamic markets. However, research gaps remain regarding their influence on the outcomes of new product development (NPD), such as decision-making agility, and the structural conditions facilitating or impeding their effective implementation. Considering design thinking as a dynamic capability and AI capabilities as technology-driven innovation enablers, this study examines their impact on NPD performance via NPD decision-making agility. An empirical investigation using data collected from 230 U.S. firms shows that design thinking and AI capabilities positively influence agility, which in turn drives NPD performance. This study also uncovers that the moderating role of organizational formalization attenuates the impact of design thinking on NPD decision-making agility but strengthens the impact of AI capabilities on NPD decision-making agility. These findings provide NPD managers with insights into using these capabilities to enhance agility and improve NPD performance in the organizational context.

Integrating air&rail systems requires collaboration among transportation stakeholders. This study used Action Research to explore tensions during a 16-month real-life air&rail integration effort, structured around co-creation sessions. The single case study identified six system-level tensions: no control over airport slots, conflicting priorities in train stop allocation, misaligned scheduling, different business models, fragmented booking systems, and different passenger experiences. Additionally, three collaboration-level tensions emerged: limited mutual understanding, embedding systems thinking in organizational processes, and differences in organizational momentum. While these tensions primarily arose between air and rail operators, resolving them also requires infrastructure managers and government involvement. The identified tensions indicate that the actors tended to prioritize organizational interests over passenger needs. While co-creation fosters understanding, challenges extend beyond peer-level collaboration. Our findings suggest that involving an orchestrator and a European governing body could facilitate system-level decision-making. This may help overcome institutional and regulatory boundaries, for the benefit of air&rail integration.

Although the topic of dynamic design capabilities is emerging in the literature and the design community, no research has yet offered an operationalization that considers the strategic integration of DDCs within the organization. This Research Design paper aims to address this gap by defining, conceptualizing, and measuring DDCs through multiple validation studies. Specifically, a scale development procedure grounded on measurement theory will operationalize DDCs through their operational and regenerative dimensions. Drawing on the theory of dynamic capabilities, this paper also presents a conceptual model that will be used to test and validate the newly developed construct of DDCs. This conceptualization explores the influence of DDCs on business model innovation and innovation performance under varying conditions, such as volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA).

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.

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.

Abstract. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the aviation industry is interested in becoming more resilient; however, its operationalisation remains challenging. This study aims to support the operationalisation of resilience by investigating the sources of resilience of airport crisis management teams' (CMTs). Through six training and debriefs with 54 operational managers and reflexive thematic analysis, three sources of resilience were identified. The first source emphasises the role of metacognition, where practitioners adopt a reflective approach to their decision-making. Metacognition is critical for creating shared situational awareness (SSA) and directionality. The study identified two ways to foster metacognition: being explicit and reflective about the SSA level and asking metacognitive questions. The second source is directionality, which involves establishing and adjusting a shared goal during disruptions. Directionality helps align CMTs, prioritise goals, and provide a benchmark for success. It also facilitates timely escalation to higher-management CMTs when necessary. The third source highlights the importance of mastering the rules of play (e.g. protocols, procedures and leadership styles) as it creates a robust decision-making process. Given the high turnover in aviation personnel, further research is needed to ensure that protocols and procedures are easy to use. Finally, the training methodology used in the study proved effective for evaluating and improving resilience capabilities. It provides a near-real-life experience that allows for detailed analysis. Further exploring the interactions between participants and antagonists could help develop a qualitative resilience indicator, offering new insights into measuring, standardising and operationalising resilience.

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

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.

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.

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.

As the aviation industry has become more complex and uncertain, we need to teach aviation topics with different pedagogical approaches: making the educational setting interdisciplinary and more design-and user-driven. We developed a design curriculum to address emerging complexity around air travel journeys and piloted the curriculum at a major research university in the Netherlands. Novice students in engineering, design, and social science programs in the Future of Airport minor on campus engaged in a quarter-long design course centered on the seamless air travel experience. The course aims to teach students how to approach the complexity of an airport and the stakeholders involved and design for people in transit. Data were collected from the results of work in document format (project progress reports and final deliverables) from thirty-five student teams who collaborated with aviation industry sponsors to develop solutions to address complex system-level industry design challenges. We classified the detailed project brief and outcomes by different innovation levels (product, service, system, or socio-technical), and examined the design methods implemented by each team over the design process. Our discussion is divided into (D1) trajectory of levels of innovation traveled during the project execution, (D2) descriptive reflection on overall selecting design methods, (D3) design method selection dynamics over design phases in complex problem domains, and (D4) challenges of offering a design approach to novice engineering students, drawn from the reflection by course coordinators and coaches on the course structure and contents.

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.

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.

Purpose: This paper addresses designing overarching servitization strategies in the B2B manufacturing industry, creating resilience to overcome disruptive events and achieving an overarching servitization strategy for a future business context.
Design/Methodology/Approach: We practised action research, carrying out and evaluating strategic design interventions in the case company.
Findings: We composed a framework to map and assess product-service value propositions co-created by ecosystem actors. We designed and evaluated sequential workshops that foster strategy design by participants without design skills.
Originality/Value: We explore how B2B manufacturers can transition towards resilient organizations and extracts some implications for the servitization and strategic design

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.

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.

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.

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.