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The discussion of sustainable development focused attention on new environmental goals and raised the issue of improving resource productivity. A first step towards sustainability would be to slow‐down and reduce the man‐induced movements of materials: this is the focus of dematerialization approach which emphasizes what socialist countries used to neglect most – minimizing the use of scarce input factors. This paper applies the dematerialization approach to the discussion on sustainable development in central and eastern Europe. In the early 1990s all countries in eastern Europe have developed new environmental programs which mainly focus on reducing pollution. Environmental strategies focusing on reducing emissions are important but not sufficient for reaching sustainability. A new orientation in the environmental policy in the young market economies is required. Dematerialization approach can be a new option for environmental policy in central and eastern Europe. Dematerialization requires a mix of instruments. Important role can be played by an ecological fiscal reform which covers ecological tax reform and the restructuring of subsidies.

Recreancy is a concept that received William R. Freudenburg’s studied attention. Freudenburg moved beyond its conventional meaning – shirking duty – to a larger realm of irresponsibility by public actors who breach a societal trust they assume. This research focuses on the issue of “Peak Farmland,” a rendering of global carrying capacity that, we suggest, qualifies for what Freudenburg called “privileged discourse” and possibly recreancy. Scholars identified with dematerialized progress argue that finite farmland in the face of increasing population will improve human welfare and spare land for nature. This iconoclasm presents an arena for testing academic probity with respect to global food security. After an overview of past carrying capacity debates, we summarize the “Peak Farmland” position of the dematerialization school and suggest an important blind spot: the dematerialization of the global land base itself. Gathering the results of multiple studies on land loss, we offer evidence that the world’s warehouse of productive land is not just peaking but eroding on a grand scale. Ignoring this form of dematerialization while proclaiming nearly unlimited carrying capacity for Earth’s denizens strains the meaning of responsible scholarship.

Land bank distribution in India is a complex subject and with the family size reduction, the average land holding is going down. Maintenance of the land records in physical format is very difficult. There are thousands of court disputes for different land parcels and managing the same is becoming a complex task. The aim of the chapter is to design a conceptual framework with electronic landbank records in dematerialized form, so that they can be easily maintained and traded. Associated benefits of implementing such system are also discussed. Authors have used secondary data published in previous research work in the area of Geographical Information System (GIS) and business analytics to analyze the prospects of land bank dematerialization and its possible applications. The chapter focuses on the need of regulatory support and associated IT infrastructure to put the plan in action. If implemented, this change can help India to transform its land management process and will also enable to explore commercial utilization of agricultural land and urban land plots for planned development.

The purpose of this article is to analyze the symbolic and practical impacts of demateriality in two areas that are emblematic of the way the modern world operates. Firstly, finance via currency, and secondly, trade via the relationship between trading firms and their customers. The article also addresses the current role played by so-called “information” technologies, exploring the double embedding of society within trade and trade within finance.

A multidisciplinary approach which mobilizes available knowledge in finance, technology, marketing and sociology.

The overall social power of the state of demateriality is that it reinforces the double-embedding.

A multidisciplinary approach which mobilizes available knowledge in finance, technology, marketing and sociology to comprehend the role of a state, beyond the process creating that state.

This chapter addresses the issue of value creation in the retail banking sector, focusing on France. The author shows that since the 2007 financial crisis, banking organizations have used a disruptive innovative approach to regain the trust of retail banking customers. This innovative hybrid design is not only driven by efficiency and fully dematerialized solutions, but also considers human, social, and territorial development aspects.

This chapter is based on an EU statistical analysis (2009–2013) of two strategies used by French, Italian, and German national banks to manage the 2007 financial crisis: closing retail bank branches and lay-offs. Interestingly, in France, bank units and employee numbers fell the least. A complementary qualitative analysis of the principal banking innovations promoted by R&D directors helps to explain the main features of the French strategy to cope with the mistrust of clients and employees.

Though low-cost models are promoted as major innovations today (“banking is necessary, bankers are not”), and result in massive offshoring and restructuring levels to face new global competitors such as Google, Amazon, and PCCW-HKT, the French retail banking sector, previously state regulated but progressively deregulated, has adopted an original strategy to regain trust and loyalty. Rather than adopting these low-cost models strictly, with full dematerialization, it focuses on balanced innovation – such as the “neighbourhood bank format,” which improves knowledge of the expectations and needs of local clients and environments. These solutions are not only global or local, but a mix of both dimensions.

Global industries like finance are embedded in both territorial and historical relationships and governance. This means that they can only be observed from this dual perspective, which is a dilemma that characterizes today’s economy. Innovation decisions and design particularly illustrate the banking sector’s embeddedness, with the dichotomy between fully digitalized options and fully territorialized services. Therefore, innovation is neither a “Champion” or leadership question, nor a mere ICT option. It is a hybrid combination to restore trust and relations.

The implications of such a balanced approach to innovation are highly important in terms of offshoring, lay-offs, and outsourcing practices, which are adopted as essential, and taken for granted by owners and CEOs in global value chains such as finance.The given data and analysis give concrete means to integrate local cultural and institutional habits, so that innovation make sense to stakeholders.

This chapter suggests a critical approach to innovation strategies and trends in the finance sector.

The study aims to determine the environmental impact of printed content in libraries and thus to find out how a digital information service can help libraries and institutions play a key role in helping the environment.

Data were collected and analysed through a combination of environment scan and document analysis, and some mathematical calculations. Comparative data for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from printed books and journals in certain countries, and some specific university libraries in Australia and New Zealand are presented. A lifecycle analysis approach is used to identify various factors that are responsible for GHG emissions for printed as well as digital information resources.

The study found that dematerialisation, i.e. the replacement of printed content with digital information services, can help libraries and institutions to reduce their impact on the environment. However it is also noted that further research is needed to develop benchmarks and comparative data for GHG emissions from print‐based and digital information services.

The paper provides data relating to the potential savings in GHG emissions that can be achieved through dematerialisation of printed content in libraries. A series of research issues in the area are identified.

The paper opens up a new area of research on the environmental impacts of information services. For the first time raw data on GHG emissions from printed content held in university libraries are calculated.

In this article the author proposes to traverse various views on money in order to contend that while antiquated notions of its materiality continue to bedevil English legal structures, the law will fail to keep up with current commercial practices, and, equally seriously, fail to detect, prevent or punish coming criminal practices as well. The thrust of the argument is that how money is perceived, and what is conceived of as constituting it, together determine how laws deal with the cultural and commercial need for consensus on what might function as a medium of exchange and a store of value. As a consequence, if the perception of money is locked into its historically contingent aspects, legal structures will become increasingly marginalised by the superior resources and sophistication of contemporary organised crime.

This paper presents a model for Public Contracting Authorities to quantify procurement performance benefits that can be achieved by adopting e-procurement. It has been found that e-procurement could generate positive impacts, especially on the efficiency, effectiveness, dematerialization, competitiveness and transparency impact dimensions. Adopting e-procurement in the public sector is far more than just a technological challenge; it embodies a large scale change management effort to create a more efficient procurement culture. Using the performance measurement approach herewith presented helps to tackle this challenge, stimulating the effective use of e-procurement solutions. Measuring how eprocurement is contributing to optimize public expenditure by increasing organizational performances; can help to overcome the resistance to change. Plus, this model can be used to strengthen stakeholder accountability of both Contracting Authorities and public e-procurement service providers. The model has been consistently tested over the last four years with satisfactory results confirming the hypothesis; the case study is herewith exposed. The model can be applied in different context, therefore method and practical recommendations are also provided.