Household-level energy-saving behaviors help mitigate climate change within the broader energy transition. However, existing studies have primarily emphasized direct economic incentive interventions, with relatively little attention to energy-saving behaviors in the private sphere. This study examines the drivers of private-sphere energy efficiency behaviors in a non-Western context of residential buildings, focusing on social norms, awareness, and perceived personal responsibility in China. Building from previous assertions of social practice theory, we assess whether individuals feel personally responsible for building-related emissions and whether they view occupants as the primary agents to enact operational efficiency. Using an original survey dataset of 1,042 respondents in China, we analyze both ongoing behaviors, such as turning off lights and A/C, and one-off actions, including home energy efficiency upgrades. Hierarchical regression models sequentially examine the effects of demographics, social norms, awareness, and personal responsibility. Results indicate that social normative pressures and awareness predict engagement in energy efficiency behaviors, whereas perceptions of personal responsibility do not. These findings suggest that individuals adopt desirable efficiency behaviors even without strong sense of responsibility or self-efficacy motivation, highlighting the potential of leveraging normative influence and information campaigns to overcome behavioral barriers and advance decarbonization in the residential building sector. 

Payments are central to modern economies and societies yet concerns over the environmental impact of payment services are growing, especially from a climate perspective. This study examines the climate impact of retail payments in Sweden in 2021, including cash, cards, Giro payments, Swish, and payment apps. It builds upon established life cycle assessment (LCA) methodologies to measure the climate impact of retail payment services in the Swedish market, and evaluates their individual and aggregate climate impact. A full LCA is performed for cash, card, and app payments, while a screening LCA, considering only energy and GHG emissions, is applied to Giro and Swish. The study identifies areas to reduce overall impact and provides valuable information for sustainable decision-making related to payments. Total climate effect of card payments in Sweden is higher than those of cash, mainly due to a higher number of card transactions. However, the per-transaction climate impact of cash is higher than all other payment services. The research shows that the emissions from operational energy use for Swish and Giro are very low compared to cash and even card payments. Transitioning to digital payment systems therefore presents a clear opportunity to reduce the climate impact per transaction as well as per value transacted or per krona. Total system impact depends on transaction volume, infrastructure, and user behaviour, which can be shaped by supportive policies. The paper outlines key factors deciding the climate impact of retail payments which lay the foundation for future international comparative studies. 

Residential or household energy use in heating, cooling, and lighting must become more efficient to advance residential decarbonization and meet 2050 global climate targets. This study presents a typology of social impacts and behaviors, emphasizing normative community roles in decarbonization of residential buildings. We examine efficiency-related behaviors in the private sphere including lighting, air-conditioning use, and building upgrades using a nationally representative United States dataset (n = 1002). We analyze social encouragement from friends, family, and workplace. OLS analyses show that these social normative pressures significantly predict ongoing energy-efficiency behaviors, including both developing behaviors (i.e. managing air conditioning, β = 0.220, p < .001) and habitual behaviors (i.e. turning off lights, β = 0.163, p < .001). Logit models further indicate that social influence significantly increases the likelihood of one-off efficiency upgrades in the home (b = 0.336, p < .001). Results additionally distinguish three behavioral profiles characterized by differing levels of awareness of emissions and energy issues and varying degrees of peer influence. Across profiles, contextual factors such as awareness and social encouragement outweigh demographic predictors and independently shape efficiency behaviors. These findings substantiate the importance of social context in household energy management. We conclude with policy recommendations. 

Investments in sustainability are critical given the myriad environmental and societal challenges the world confronts. However, accessing and analyzing reliable information when making informed investment decisions has proven challenging. This article, therefore, aims to identify and explore the challenges faced by investors when making sustainable investments, and to outline potential solutions to overcome them. The article utilizes a combined-method approach of interviews and complementary data from company websites, sustainability reports, and sustainability information provided by quantitative rankings and indexes. It validates results from previous studies on the lack of coherence among the various rankings and indexes via correlation analysis, and studies why reliable sustainability data are not easily accessible and why reliable analysis and investment decision-making are difficult. The article highlights a need for continuous dialogue on sustainability reporting between companies and their stakeholders, as well as for stronger regulation and research to develop better and more widely shared standards for reporting sustainability data.

The power of platform business models has grown as our economies become increasingly digital, but how companies address the challenge of platform growth to achieve a critical mass of users remains unclear. In this study, we take a business model (BM) perspective to understand how mobile payment platform providers go about addressing such a challenge. We studied how mobile payment providers engaged in innovation of their business models, and thus identified three pertaining aspects: rethinking the relationship management with retailers, creating partnerships with other actors in the payment ecosystem to complement and deliver the proposed value, and integrating and using front-end mobile technology. Furthermore, our study suggests that mobile payment providers need to adapt their role within the ecosystem to scale the platform, and that it will depend on their choice of scope of geographic availability. Finally, we suggest that mutual adaptation of BMs of platform-associated actors leads to improved diffusion of the platform offer, which also hints at the need for researchers to revisit innovation diffusion and technology adoption theories by acknowledging the importance of the BM of the offer side of technology.

This study seeks to provide a review of the emergent literature in order to advance the current understanding of the business model (BM) concept in a context in which more than one actor is actively involved in the development and delivery of a joint offer based on information and communication technologies.

The paper employs a systematic literature review approach. The review is based on 25 systematically-selected publications published from 2000 to 2018 and retrieved from bibliographic databases and through a process of snowballing.

The authors found several alternative conceptualizations of a BM at a network level, which highlighted different elements as core components. Based on this, our findings suggest the literature has a fragmented view of what the BM concept entails at a network level, and of which actors are relevant. Conversely, there is a consensus that a single-firm view is inadequate for describing and studying joint value architectures due to its inability to consider all involved actors and their activities and resources. Therefore, a network-oriented view, as a relational aggregator, is a possible way forward.

The study contributes to the current understanding of a BM concept at a network level and suggests three viewpoints from which to interpret value architectures at different levels of analysis: single-firm view, dyadic-level view, and network-oriented view. Furthermore, the authors highlight several gaps to be studied and provide avenues for future research opportunities for scholars.

This open access book tells the story of how Sweden is becoming a virtually cashless society. Its goal is to improve readers’ understanding of what is driving this transition, and of the factors that are fostering and hampering it. In doing so, the book covers the role of central banks, political factors, needs for innovation, and the stakeholders involved in developing a cashless ecosystem. Adopting a historical standpoint, and drawing on a unique dataset, it presents an academic perspective on Sweden’s leading role in this global trend.

The global interest in the future of cash payments makes the Swedish case particularly interesting. As a country that is close to becoming a cashless economy, it offers a role model for many other countries to learn from - whether they want to stimulate or reduce the use of cash. This highly topical book will be of interest to politicians, researchers, businesses, financial service providers and payment service providers, as well as fintech start-ups, regulators and other authorities.  

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to apply a capability perspective to investigate the shift from relationship lending to transaction lending in a bank’s corporate segment. The authors investigate the impact of three operational capabilities: assisting corporate clients in funding and business operations, management of customer relationships and internal cooperation on performance in relationship and transaction lending. Design/methodology/approach: The primarily empirical material comprises longitudinal survey data, collected on three occasions during the period 1998 throughout 2001 from one of Sweden’s largest banks. Data are analyzed using factor analysis and OLS regression. Findings: Results show that the effects of the three capabilities are contingent on the type of lending strategy: In relationship lending, assisting corporate clients has no significant direct effect on performance; however, it has an indirect effect on performance via the management of customer relationships. In transaction lending, assisting corporate clients has a direct effect on performance, and this effect becomes stronger as the transaction strategy is further implemented. The results also show that the direct effect of the management of customer relationships and cooperation on performance is significant in both strategies; however, the relation is stronger in relationship lending compared with transaction lending. Originality/value: The findings indicate that the choice of lending strategy is more complex than a choice between a strict relationship strategy and a strict transaction strategy and that a strategy that leads to competitive advantage includes elements of both strategies.

Purpose Digitalisation has been identified as a driving force behind retail sector transformation. The purpose of this paper is to provide a deeper understanding of how omni-channel strategies link to the digitalisation phenomenon. The study is explorative in nature and aims to expand existing knowledge by using a business model (BM) perspective. Design/methodology/approach The study uses a qualitative approach. Data collection involved a questionnaire answered by 13 firms from three retail segments (i.e. fashion, consumer electronics and bookstores and media) and a group discussion with senior managers. The data were complemented with information from websites, applications and available online reports. Findings The findings present empirical insights about different strategic and BM approaches to omni-channel retailing and highlight examples of pioneering retailers from the Italian market. The proposed framework consolidates earlier studies and puts forward three dimensions for a successful transition to omni-channel retailing BMs: a seamless customer experience, an integrated analytics system and an effective supply chain and logistics. Originality/value First, this paper applies a BM perspective as a novel approach for analysing a transition to omni-channel retailing. Second, it is based on empirical analysis of three retail segments, which provide new insights into omni-channel strategies in the retailing literature.

Banks are motivated to be interested in developing platforms to provide mobile payment services to their customer and for those to be innovative. However, the successful implementation of a mobile payments service platform is mainly determined by how much players are fully motivated to realize it. In fact, in the Swedish context, the involvement level of mobile payment service platforms are very high whereas few studies have examined the related issues of mobile payments service platform. Thus, the purpose of this article is to investigate the factors leading banks to develop platforms and how banks manage these platforms. Data was collected by conducting interviews of applicable banks. The results mainly showed that the driving factors are significantly influenced by contextual factors, mutual objectives and opportunities. This article also looks forward to providing the payment industry with applicable guidelines for efficiently implementing and designing mobile payment service platforms.