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The assessment of ecosystem services (ES) in urban areas can be an important policy instrument for both strategic directives at national and regional levels and concrete actions at municipality level. A unifying underpinning framework that combines different administrative levels through a common, consistent basis would greatly facilitate the mainstreaming of such an instrument. Three key concepts underpin this framework: urban ecosystems, nature-based solutions (NBS), and ES. First, NBS are acknowledged as the ecological assets that in the urban context can provide ES, meant as complex processes made possible through the existence of natural and seminatural systems at various scales. Second, the classification of urban ecosystems needs to be consistent with the treatment of urban areas in ecosystem accounting and with NBS levels of intervention and primary objectives. Third, by serving societal challenges, it is important to clearly frame the strategic drivers of change: whether it concerns management practices of current land use or radical conversions in land use. Finally, once such a framework will be in place, it can facilitate sustainability assessment in urban ecosystems by quantifying the presence of NBS, whose creation/maintenance assure the delivery of ES. The purpose of this chapter is to theoretically frame an ES-based approach, but this is only a first step. Many more steps are required on to concretely put this framework in practice at different administrative levels, such as strategic planning and policy setting (at national level), and urban, peri-urban, and coastal development (at municipal level).

Chapter 17 discusses challenges for financing nature-based solutions (NBS). Financing NBS is a key challenge to ensure scaling of the use of NBS in urban areas. This is mainly due to the difficulty to monetize the value generated through the provisioning of ecosystem services, as well as the multiple cobenefits that NBS provide. Certain types of NBS, such as green roofs, have been able to allow for private value capture, enabling such projects to attract private or blended capital. Others, where benefits are generally regarded as public good, have to rely on different financing strategies and instruments. The section provides an overview of financing solutions (public, private, and blended instruments) for different types of NBS and their applicability to NBS in the urban context.

Nature-based solutions (NBS) are increasingly seen as a holistic approach to a wide array of environmental and societal problems. Crucially, much of its appeal stems from its potential to address multiple challenges at once, being not only valuable for their positive impacts toward sustainability and human welfare but also their cost-effectiveness when compared to some engineered solutions. This helps to explain the growing awareness of the private sector of the market opportunities arising from the introduction of NBS to their operations. This chapter presents some of the opportunities for businesses in implementing NBS, such as the risk and cost reductions, compliance with regulatory requirements, reputational and financial gains, among others. I will also introduce some of the challenges they might face, such as the difficulties for companies to fully internalizing all benefits generated by investing in NBS, the need for long-term planning in adapting NBS in a company's operations, possible hindrances in financing innovative NBS, among others. The chapter will also showcase NBS being implemented by companies in urban contexts, based on the responses of local governments that disclose to CDP's cities questionnaire. This concluding section of the chapter provides policy recommendations for public entities to incentivize the uptake of NBS by the private sector.

Biodiversity loss now ranks as one of the most significant global drivers of environmental change. In an increasingly urbanized world, there is enormous potential to address this problem through conservation, restoration, and creation of new urban ecosystems. This chapter explores how nature-based solutions (NBS) can contribute to addressing the urgent problem of biodiversity loss in a way that goes beyond just greening gray environments. It then explores the alignment (and misalignment) between the ways in which NBS is framed as a nature conservation tool globally and the ways in which biodiversity is considered in urban approaches to NBS. Finally, the chapter explores the ways in which NBS might become an essential part of the solution to biodiversity and ecosystem decline. It discusses how NBS can be effectively leveraged to address the biodiversity crisis in urban areas, through conservation, restoration, and efforts to create thriving places for both people and nature. Although the concept of NBS in urban areas is fairly divorced from its nature conservation origins, reconnecting with those ecological roots is important for creating biodiverse, resilient cities. In so doing, NBS could offer a unified concept for environmental management in urban areas that integrates the ecological benefits of nature conservation with an innovative focus on confronting major societal challenges. Though this is a demanding task, it could provide a fit-for-purpose approach for conserving biodiversity and supporting functional ecosystems in the Anthropocene.

Nature-based solutions (NBS) generate different impacts at the urban scale, such as the ability to regulate water or store carbon, comparable to traditional, gray infrastructures in a more cost-efficient way. On the other hand, by their intrinsic nature, NBS do deliver a series of other services that are commonly defined as social, economic, and environmental cobenefits. These benefits are not always valued in a consistent and complete way, so there is the need to compile a more comprehensive evidence base on the social, economic, and environmental effectiveness of NBS. The chapter attempts to identify a categorization of the existing NBS and define the ecosystem services (ES) provided by them. Furthermore, starting from the results achieved through the definition of the existing NBS frameworks assessment, the chapter will identify a set of key performance indicators KPIs, based on the ES produced by NBS, to measure the economic, social, and environmental benefits generated in by NBS at the urban level taking into account their multifunctional character. In total, 66 key performance indicators have been individuated: 3 for provisioning services, 38 for regulating services, 17 for cultural services, and 8 for supporting services. Each indicator has been associated to a category of ES in order to measure and evaluate the performances of NBS implemented in cities.

This paper aims to investigate price and objective-quality in durable product categories containing national and private-label (PL) brands.

Using data from consumer reports objective-test results of 14,476 durable products available in the US the authors identified product categories containing both national and PL brands; constructed relative price- and quality-indices for each category; calculated price and quality differentials for each category then modeled the relationship between them; estimated the price premium associated with national brands (NBs); and computed price–quality (PQ) correlations for each category. The authors also analyzed the same relationships using subjective brand-perception data collected from 240 consumers.

Overall the price of NBs in durable products was substantially higher than the price of PL brands despite there being little to no difference in quality levels overall, with the proportion of categories having higher PL quality nearly equaling that of categories having superior NB quality. Correlation between price and quality was moderate. Accuracy of consumer perceptions varied depending on the importance of brand in the purchase decisions for particular product categories.

This paper uses a large objective dataset spanning a period of more than eight years to assess price and quality for durable goods in categories offering PL brands. It addresses an under-studied area, that of PL brands for higher-priced, longer-lasting products. The findings contribute to an existing understanding of PLs, especially in the domain of durable-goods, as well as to the body of research in the area of PQ relationships. It also adds to our understanding of consumers’ perceptions of brand as a factor in durable product decisions and how the market aligns with those perceptions.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate situational factors (i.e. social risk) and negative emotions (e.g. shame and guilt) on consumers’ purchase intentions for premium private labels (PPLs) vs national brands (NBs) at discounter (Lidl) in the UK, and the underlying process of this effect.

The authors conduct a 2 (social risk) × 2 (brand type) between-subjects design experiment employing a Qualtrics online panel in the UK.

The study shows that NBs still have the edge over PPLs when consumers shop for socially risky situations, which is due to higher product expectations of NBs, and a moderated mediation shows that this effect is more pronounced among consumers that feel negative emotions when shopping at Lidl.

This study included leading NBs, which differ in terms of price compared to selected PPLs. Researchers should include pricing information as an additional factor and investigate Lidl’s options to deal with negative emotions in the online setting.

The results help brand managers to understand consumer reactions toward PPLs vs NBs at the discounter in UK.

NBs have recently joint rather than fight discounters’ product assortment, this study contributes to understand the moderating impact of negative emotions and product expectations as the driving force in consumers’ purchasing decision.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how nature-based solutions (NBS) are being used in city areas to improve environmental conditions and increase tourism. This research examines the drivers behind, and impacts of, the application of NBS in city redevelopment projects for tourism. NBS is a term that refers to the use of flora and fauna ecosystems as an approach to resolve problems faced by society.

An interdisciplinary research methodology has been developed to examine the relationship between city NBS and tourism; the methods include a literature review of contemporary practice, field observations and thematic textual analysis from digital archives. The research methodology uses a combined empirical and desk-based analysis of five case studies cites.

NBS, as part of city redevelopment projects, is now a strategic aim of many cities globally to re-brand, re-vision and re-orientate themselves to be more hospitable, liveable and attractive to tourists and visitors.

City redevelopment projects are incorporating NBS to address climate change as well as local environmental issues such as disaster resilience whilst simultaneously delivering social and economic benefits.

The research reveals that NBS can deliver benefits to human wellbeing, tourism, economic vitality as well as more sustainable models of urban development.

The research reveals for the first time how NBS is being used as a driver for increasing tourism globally. The research is highly original as it examines a new topic in tourism studies, the role of NBS in relation to city tourism.

The purpose of this paper is to explain the link between national business system (NBS) and innovation decisions at the firm level by offering sequentially ordered sense-making mechanisms that enable the formation of firm-specific knowledge repositories and knowledge-processing capabilities.

This study engages in an extensive scale development effort to collect representative data about the NBS in the Pakistani setting, complemented by relevant validity and reliability tests. The overall theoretical model was tested on 214 firms by means of a structural equation modeling approach, using partial least-squares algorithms.

The results statistically supported the role of firm-level knowledge repositories (intellectual capital) and knowledge exploration and exploitation capabilities (absorptive capacity) as sequential mediators in the association of NBS and firm-level innovation. Besides, bridging networks of lateral ties among Pakistani businesses are found to be more effective than bonding networks of vertical ties in encouraging radical innovations.

This study significantly extends the literature about the NBS approach. It provides specific sense-making mechanisms (i.e. priming, triggering and editing) about how abstract institutional templates constituted at the business system level are translated into firm-level actionable sets by the help of intangible resource repositories and processes that guide knowledge exploration and exploitation.

This contribution aims to provide multidisciplinary knowledge on the effectiveness of experimenting with nature-based solutions (NBS) for urban regeneration policy, planning, design, and governance. Specifically, the following research questions have been investigated through a cross-case study conducted in the cities of Barcelona, Copenhagen, and Marseille: What is the wider contribution of NBS for urban generation? What are the added value, the strengths, and the weaknesses of urban regeneration programs leveraging on NBS? and What is the upscale potential of NBS within selected urban regeneration programs in Europe in a post–COVID-19 scenario? The focus of the research is to create an understanding of what type of NBS development process can bring forward sustainable urban development, the different stakeholders that might be involved, the nature of their involvement, and the relationship between the actors. Three cities have been identified as most informative to explore how NBS can be valid alternatives for buildings, districts, and infrastructures redevelopment, as a starting point to foster urban resilience: Copenhagen, Barcelona, and Marseille. The results of the conducted study reveal future opportunities as well as challenges with respect to possible integrated strategies for successful codesigned and cocreated NBS for urban regeneration, especially in light of the revised post–COVID-19 pandemic urban agendas focusing on health and well-being of citizens as well as on more balanced and resilient urban built environments.