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At least since the European Union’s Eco-Innovation Action Plan, eco-innovation has received increased attention from scholars, practitioners, and policy-makers alike. Eco-innovation offers many opportunities for businesses in terms of cost reduction, competitive advantage, and sustainability. However, eco-innovative business models differ from conventional business models and have special requirements in terms of stakeholder involvement, value definition, and value creation. Facing technological progress, many businesses need guidance on how to translate the potentials arising from technological innovation into eco-innovative business models. Applying a design-based research approach, this study develops a design-based workshop concept to facilitate the development of eco-innovative business models on a firm level. The workshop concept was iteratively tested in a series of 22 workshops within the European Alpine bioeconomy sector. It transfers the specific requirements and substantive design principles of eco-innovative business models into an operative workshop concept. By building on stakeholder- and value-centred perspectives and ensuring a holistic understanding of sustainability and innovation, the paper derives a number of procedural design principles that could build the basis for further tools and methods of eco-innovative business model development.

Using various digital devices, and being faced with digital interruptions is a given for students not only in traditional university classes but also in blended learning courses. Hence, this study (N = 201) at an Austrian university of applied sciences investigated students’ perceptions of digital device use and the digital interruptions that they face during webinars and on-campus sessions. Results show that students primarily use the same types of digital devices during webinars and on-campus sessions, i.e., computers for course-related (CR) activities, and smartphones for non-course-related (NCR) activities. Results further indicate that while the majority of students are aware of the interruptive impact that NCR activities have on their learning, the effect on others seems to be a blind spot. The reasons for NCR activities are manifold. Moreover, results suggest that students have difficulties in assessing the actual time spent on NCR activities during webinars.

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