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Different age groups display different shopping patterns in terms of how and where consumers buy products. During times of crisis, such behavioural differences become even more striking yet remain under-researched with respect to elderly consumers. This paper investigates the impact of age on retail-related behavioural changes and behavioural stability of elderly shoppers (in comparison to younger consumers) during a crisis.

The authors surveyed 643 Austrian consumers to assess the impact of perceived threat on behavioural change and the moderating effect of age groups. Based on findings from this survey, they subsequently conducted 51 semi-structured interviews to understand the causes of behavioural change and behavioural stability during a crisis.

Elderly shoppers display more stable shopping behaviour during a crisis compared to younger consumers, which is influenced by perceived threat related to the crisis. Such findings indicate that elderly shoppers reinforce their learnt and embedded shopping patterns. The causes of change and stability in behaviour include environmental and inter-personal factors.

Through the lens of social cognitive theory, protection motivation theory and dual process theory, this research contributes to an improved understanding of changes in shopping behaviour of elderly consumers, its antecedents and consequences during a time of crisis. The authors reveal reasons that lead to behavioural stability, hence the absence of change, in terms of shopping during a crisis. They further outline implications for retailers that might wish to better respond to shopping behaviours of the elderly.

In fire resistance tests (FRTs) of building materials, a crucial criterion to pass the test procedure is to avoid the leakage of the hot flue gases caused by gaps and cracks occurring due to the thermal exposure. The present study's aim is to calculate the deformation of a steel door, which is embedded within a wall made of bricks, and qualitatively determine the flue gas leakage.

A computational fluid dynamics/finite element method (CFD/FEM) coupling was introduced representing an intermediate approach between a one-way and a full two-way coupling methodology, leading to a simplified two-way coupling (STWC). In contrast to a full two way-coupling, the heat transfer through the steel door was simulated based on a one-way approach. Subsequently, the predicted temperatures at the door from the one-way simulation were used in the following CFD/FEM simulation, where the fluid flow inside and outside the furnace as well as the deformation of the door were calculated simultaneously.

The simulation showed large gaps and flue gas leakage above the door lock and at the upper edge of the door, which was in close accordance to the experiment. Furthermore, it was found that STWC predicted similar deformations compared to the one-way coupling.

Since two-way coupling approaches for fluid/structure interaction in fire research are computationally demanding, the number of studies is low. Only a few are dealing with the flue gas exit from rooms due to destruction of solid components. Thus, the present study is the first two-way approach dealing with flue gas leakage due to gap formation.

Recently emerged Packaging-as-a-Service (PaaS) systems adopt aspects of access-based services and triadic frameworks, which have typically been treated as conceptually separate. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the implications of blending the two in what we call “access-based triadic systems,” by empirically evaluating intentions to adopt PaaS systems for takeaway food among restaurants and consumers.

We derived relevant attributes of PaaS systems from a qualitative pre-study with restaurants and consumers. Next, we conducted two factorial survey experiments with restaurants (N = 176) and consumers (N = 245) in Germany to quantitatively test the effects of those system attributes on their adoption intentions.

This paper highlights that the role of access-based triadic system providers as both the owners of shared assets and the operators of a triadic system is associated with a novel set of challenges and opportunities: System providers need to attract a critical mass of business and end customers while balancing asset protection and system complexity. At the same time, asset ownership introduces opportunities for improved quality control and differentiation from competition.

Conceptually, this paper extends research on access-based services and triadic frameworks by describing an unexplored hybrid form of non-ownership consumption we call “access-based triadic systems.” Empirically, this paper addresses the need to account for the demands of two distinct target groups in triadic systems and demonstrates how factorial survey experiments can be leveraged in this field.

This study aims to analyse the differences between professional interaction mediated by video conferencing and direct professional interaction. The research identifies diverging interests of office workers for the purpose of addressing work ethical and business ethical issues of professional collaboration, competition, and power in future hybrid work models.

Based on 28 qualitative interviews conducted between November 2020 and June 2021, and through the theoretical lens of phenomenology, the study develops explanatory hypotheses conceptualising four basic intentions of professional interaction and their corresponding preferences for video conferences and working on site.

The four intentions developed on the basis of the interviews are: the need for physical proximity; the challenge of collective creativity; the will to influence; and control of communication. This conceptual framework qualifies a moral ambivalence of professional interaction. The authors identify a connectivity paradox of professional interaction where the personal dimension remains unarticulated for the purpose of maintaining professionality. This tacit human connectivity is intertwined with latent power relations. This plasticity of both connectivity and power in direct interaction can be diminished by transferring the interaction to video conferencing.

The application of phenomenology to a collection of qualitative interviews has enabled the identification of underlying intention structures and the system in which they affect each other. This research identifies conflicts of interests between workers relative to their different self-perceived abilities to persevere in competitive professional interaction. It is therefore able to address consequences of future hybrid work models at an existential and societal level.

This chapter addresses the question of what normatively binding claims can be associated with the principle of sustainability. It proposes a theoretical reading of justice that requires a new level of morality, namely a global (spatial), intergenerational (temporal) and ecological (material) extension of the scope of responsibility. This makes it plausible that responsibility for those who are distant in space and time, as well as for nature, becomes a matter of conscience. At the same time, it is shown how the binding claims resulting from the principle of sustainability can be internalised in the course of a conscience formation and how the gap between knowledge and action in questions of sustainable development can be closed by means of an emotional underpinning. Finally, it is proposed to transfer the question of conscience to spatial units and tourism through the model of ‘Destination Conscience’ and to institutionalise the idea of ‘inner commitment’ or self-commitment. One suggestion is the creation of committees that could be a collective ethical conscience for the future issues.

This article introduces the Special Issue on Sustainable Management of Heritage Buildings in long-term perspective.

It starts by reviewing the gaps in knowledge and practice which led to the creation and implementation of the research project SyMBoL—Sustainable Management of Heritage Buildings in long-term perspective funded by the Norwegian Research Council over the 2018–2022 period. The SyMBoL project is the motivation at the base of this special issue.

The editorial paper briefly presents the main outcomes of SyMBoL. It then reviews the contributions to the Special Issue, focussing on the connection or differentiation with SyMBoL and on multidisciplinary findings that address some of the initial referred gaps.

The article shortly summarizes topics related to sustainable preservation of heritage buildings in time of reduced resources, energy crisis and impacts of natural hazards and global warming. Finally, it highlights future research directions targeted to overcome, or partially mitigate, the above-mentioned challenges, for example, taking advantage of no sestructive techniques interoperability, heritage building information modelling and digital twin models, and machine learning and risk assessment algorithms.