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The objective is to describe and evaluate the development of a novel planning tool for end‐use efficiency in the built environment and for infrastructural changes in the energy system.

After describing problems related to further reduce heat demand in the Danish built environment, the geographical nature of the planning task is discussed. The requirements are then translated into concepts for the development of a general method, which is implemented in a practical design of a heat atlas. Typical applications are described and discussed.

It was found that the availability of the extensive public databases in Denmark make feasible the development and application of a highly detailed geographical information base for end use and infrastructure planning and analysis. It was also realised that the development has much higher potentials than explored in this paper. On the other hand, the complex geography of the urban/rural boundaries of cities requires extra care when using this approach.

Unfortunately, the results of this report are only directly applicable for Denmark, which maintains public databases on the built environment and socio‐demography with a very high standard of detail and coverage. The research presented here may require further development of empirical methods of the relation between energy demand and physically and socially mapped data. On the other hand, the research may contribute to better data for analyses in the techno‐economic analyses of future energy systems, which now can be carried out for arbitrary geographical units, independent of administrative boundaries.

The method presented here may be further developed as a practical tool to be used to revive the municipal and regional energy planning, either by technical consultants or by local governments. Even a publicly accessible, web‐based tool is feasible.

The paper describes how existing data in society can be assembled to a novel method to be used within energy planning, and environmental management as a whole. A system of the one developed does not exist as yet. On the other hand it builds upon existing traditions in energy planning and local governance.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the wave scattering behaviour of an inhomogeneous and eccentric inclusion in a homogeneous matrix material. Another purpose is to evaluate the influence of epistemic uncertainty on the wave scattering behaviour, particularly on the lack of knowledge about this eccentricity. This task calls for a multidisciplinary model.

The inclusion is modelled as a multi‐layered obstacle, with all layers being eccentric with respect to each other. The material behaviour of the embedding matrix is linear elastic and isotropic. In a multidisciplinary approach, the interaction of the inhomogeneous inclusion and the embedding matrix with respect to an incoming shear wave of arbitrary shape is solved analytically. The purely analytical solution process takes place in the frequency‐domain. Due to the lack of knowledge about the eccentric configuration of the matrix inclusion and its influence on the total wave field inside the matrix material, the mechanical model is coupled with fuzzy set theory for modelling this non‐stochastic uncertainty.

An analytical model for describing the wave scattering behaviour of an elastic matrix inclusion with eccentric set‐up is found and intimately connected with the framework of fuzzy set theory. Hence it is shown that the treatment of epistemic uncertainty with the derived analytical model is possible and fruitful. Additionally, it is shown that eccentric configurations lead to highly increased amplitudes with respect to the reference case of a concentric or even homogenous set‐up of the inclusion.

The value of this contribution is in the analytical model, which allows one to predict the wave scattering behaviour of eccentric configurations of multi‐layered fibres including the surrounding interphase, and its coupling with fuzzy set theory to cope with the epistemic uncertainty inherent in the geometric set‐up of the matrix inclusion.

In view of a lack of understanding of the consequences of performance‐based contracting (PBC), this paper aims to reveal deeper insights into the mechanisms inherent to PBC and explore which benefits and uncertainties may result for providers and customers.

Conducting a comprehensive literature review and drawing on insights from agency theory as a framework, the auhtors analyzed a broad range of academic publications on the benefits and uncertainties of PBC and developed testable propositions from the provider's and the customer's perspective.

With PBC, in comparison to the conventional selling and supporting of machinery or equipment, the manufacturers are more likely to acquire customers for highly innovative technologies, to increase their profit, and to improve customer loyalty. Manufacturers, however, have to deal with uncertain revenues and costs which affect their profit. The customers are more likely to receive increased performance at decreased costs. Concerning the performance, however, the customers enter into an uncertain relationship of dependence.

This is the first paper to analyze the benefits and uncertainties of PBC in manufacturing industries systematically from an agency theory perspective. The paper further develops extant research by outlining the mechanisms of PBC and relating the benefits and uncertainties that are scattered over a broad body of literature. The paper proposes several promising avenues for further research.

This paper addresses the puzzle of why the same workplace employment relations regimes can lead to different performances and why different regimes can produce the same performance. It is argued that the incidence of mutual, and not necessarily unilateral, trust between the employee representation and the management accounts for these differences, as mutual trust fosters information sharing and helps to strike deals that are mutually beneficial. Against the background that the institutional and organizational characteristics of some workplace employment relations regimes also constitutes information sharing and joint decision making, the author further argues that mutual trust is a functional equivalent.

Methodologically, the article is international and cross-country comparative in nature and conducted on the basis of a unique, large and transnational comparable data set of the employment relationship at firm level in eleven countries.

Our results show that strong mutual trust is associated with significantly higher incidences of increases in firm profitability, regardless of the workplace employment relations regime in which the firms are embedded.

The results clearly indicate that trust between the employee representation and the management works as a functional equivalent to performance enhancing employment relations regimes. Therefore, some policy recommendations and imposed institutional reforms of employment relations regimes by the IMF and the European Central Bank in some countries are sub-optimal and might not have been necessary. Trust building initiatives between the employee representation and the management are therefore an alternative, which is less conflictual and could have the same effect on the performance of firms.

Previous analyses on differences in the performance effects of workplace employment relations regime concentrated almost exclusively on institutional factors. Factors that account for differences in the functioning of regimes such as in particular the role of trust were not considered before. Against this background, the originality of this analysis is that it clearly shows that it is not sufficient to consider only the institutional and organizational structure of regimes, but it is essential for a better understanding of the effects of the employment relationship to consider factors which account for the functioning of the regimes such as, in particular, trust.

The purpose of this paper is to identify and reflect on a set of dynamic capabilities for managing service innovation and applies a dynamic capabilities view (DCV) of firms for managing service innovation.

This theoretical paper offers a conceptual framework for managing service innovation by proposing six dynamic service innovation capabilities. This framework builds on and is integrated with a model of service innovation that covers the possible dimensions where service innovation can take place. On this basis, avenues for future research into managing service innovation are identified and managerial implications discussed.

The six dynamic service innovation capabilities identified are: signalling user needs and technological options; conceptualising; (un‐)bundling; co‐producing and orchestrating; scaling and stretching; and learning and adapting. It is hypothesized that successful service innovators, which may include manufacturing firms developing into providers of service solutions, outperform their competitors in at least some of these capabilities.

The six dynamic service innovation capabilities identified in this theoretical paper, their mutual links as well as links with dimensions of service innovation need to be tested further. Further refinement is required in order to be able to discriminate between various industries, sizes and types of firms.

Those involved in managing service innovation are offered a framework for systematically assessing dynamic service innovation capabilities.

The main contribution of this paper is that it links a service (innovation) perspective to a DCV of the firm by proposing a set of six dynamic service innovation capabilities.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the influence of the use of different types of management controls (cost information, budget information, nonfinancial indicators and informal controls) on product innovation mediated by knowledge sharing and moderated by technological turbulence.

Partial least squares structural equation modeling and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis have been used in a sample of 142 Brazilian startups that are in the traction stage.

Informal controls and nonfinancial indicators are used for product innovation, while budget information and cost information have not been shown to be directly associated with product innovation. However, as technological turbulence increases, budget information becomes particularly relevant to the innovation process. Informal controls are directly related to knowledge sharing in the startups studied.

The results can be useful to managers of startups in the traction stage, as the research highlights different management controls and possible combinations that can be used to drive product innovation, in addition to highlighting the role of knowledge sharing in promoting innovation, especially in the context of technological turbulence.

The literature on management control systems (MCS) has challenged the traditional belief that their use is restricted to the entrepreneurial stance of startup companies. The study develops an understanding of how and under what conditions the presence of MCS supports innovation in startup companies, in particular, what types of management controls used by these companies impact product innovation.

This article presents a theoretical investigation of the concept of ‘subject’ or ‘subject matter’ in library and information science. Most conceptions of ‘subject’ in the literature are not explicit but implicit. Various indexing and classification theories, including automatic indexing and citation indexing, have their own more or less implicit concepts of subject. This fact puts the emphasis on making the implicit theories of ‘subject matter’ explicit as the first step. A very close connection exists between what subjects are, and how we are to know them. Those researchers who place the subjects in the minds of the users have a conception of ‘subject’ different to that possessed by those who regard the subject as a fixed property of the documents. The key to the definition of the concept of ‘subject’ lies in the epistemological investigation of how we are going to know what we need to know about documents in order to describe them in a way which facilitates information retrieval. The second step therefore is an analysis of the implicit epistemological conceptions in the major existing conceptions of ‘subject’. The different conceptions of ‘subject’ can therefore be classified into epistemological positions, e.g. ‘subjective idealism’ (or the empiric/positivistic viewpoint), ‘objective idealism’ (the rationalistic viewpoint), ‘pragmatism’ and ‘materialism/ realism’. The third and final step is to propose a new theory of subject matter based on an explicit theory of knowledge. In this article this is done from the point of view of a realistic/materialistic epistemology. From this standpoint the subject of a document is defined as the epistemological potentials of that document.

This paper analyzes the effects of environmental uncertainty on the use of Management Control Systems (MCS) and product and process innovation.

The hypotheses were tested with data from a survey carried out with 140 managers of innovative Brazilian firms using structural equation modeling.

The analyzes show significant negative effects of environmental uncertainty on MCS use and non-significant ones on product and process innovation, which suggests that when environmental uncertainty increases, the MCS use decreases. In contrast, significant positive effects of MCS use on product and process innovation were found, despite environmental uncertainty permeating innovation. However, no mediating effect of the MCS use on the relationship between environmental uncertainty and innovation was observed.

This study presents implications to the management literature grounded on the Contingency Theory by pointing out negative effects of environmental uncertainty on MCS use and product and process innovation. This encourages research on other contingency factors that might be predictors of MCS use and innovation.

The findings provide evidence that the analyzed organizational practices (MCS use and innovation) are conceived and implemented to disregard external stimuli, which may bring dysfunctional consequences that need to be monitored.

The study contributes by revealing that environmental uncertainty inhibits the MCS use and does not favor innovation. It was expected that MCS that produce information about the external environment would be valued and would have effects on the strategic planning in these firms.

The purpose of this paper is to offer a critical analysis of the literature of solutions offerings; to provide a new conceptual framework, incorporating dimensions that can distinguish between different kinds of solutions and connect their different characteristics.

The paper takes a critical review of the relevant literature, 28 contributions being identified in a search of three major databases and a range of other published work for the broader perspective, illustrated by real‐world examples.

There is no unanimous and rigorous definition of solutions, but rather a number of often broad and generic descriptions that could be applied to a wide array of different offerings, if not generically.

The sample of subject‐specific contributions to the literature may not have been sufficient, and a wider selection of keywords to identify them might have captured a richer variety of concepts and opinions.

This structured and critical review contributes to the literature on services and solutions, by developing a conceptual framework as a basis for future studies and current management strategy.

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to investigate the supplier's view on supplier‐initiated relationship dissolution due to lack of customer profitability. Design/methodology/approach – The research is focused on inter‐organisational buyer‐seller relationships. An exploratory study in the German mechanical engineering industry was conducted to provide insights into the usage of customer valuation techniques and the preponderance of unprofitable customer relationships, and to identify various ways of managing unprofitable customer relationships by means of cluster analysis. Findings – The study shows that many companies in the industry lack knowledge and use of customer valuation techniques. Three clusters of supplying firms are identified that differ in their willingness to end unprofitable customer relationships. Research limitations/implications – Provides an exploratory study into a neglected aspect of relationship marketing characterised by a low response rate. The sample contained companies from one major German industry, limiting the applicability of its findings. The main implications are that unprofitable customer relationships are a common feature of industrial markets, which merits further investigation. Respondents were shown to have a range of different views and approaches to such relationships. Research on customer valuation needs to focus on the implementation barriers of valuation methods. Practical implications – Study results stress the importance of developing and implementing customer valuation methods, the relevance of unprofitable relationships, and suppliers' decision making concerning such precarious relationships. It is a useful source of information and impartial advice for managers involved with customer management. Originality/value – The paper leads to a more thorough understanding of relationship marketing and provides empirical data on a neglected field of marketing research, as prior work did not consider the supplier's view on dissolution management in detail.