Thought some members of this list might be interested. The emphasis is on business sustainability, and coworking is such a wonderful business for sustainability.
http://www.nbs.net/researcher/5415/ Here's the description: Every day, individuals make decisions involving social and environmental issues. Many of these decisions are extremely complex and do not have clear answers. For example, buying locally grown vegetables may create local jobs but require more energy than vegetables flown in from elsewhere, and installing a wind farm may reduce carbon emissions but increase noise and costs in the short- term. Past research has suggested that individuals make decisions by rationally comparing the options under consideration, weighing them against various criteria, then making tradeoffs and a decision. More recent research has shown that—even with simple decisions—biases often prevent such rational decision-making and that individuals use heuristics (rules of thumb) to decisions. We are calling for proposals for a systematic review of the existing body of knowledge on how individuals make decisions involving social or environmental issues. Insights may be drawn from the fields of behavioural economics and finance, behavioural decision theory, judgment decision making or others. The project may require answering the following related questions: What drives decisions? What heuristics are most important in how individuals make decisions? How are tradeoffs recognized, evaluated and ultimately made (consciously or more likely subconsciously)? In what ways are decisions involving social or environmental issues made differently (if at all) from other decisions? Are there differences across consumers, managers, investors and the general public? Based on the reviewed evidence, what can managers do to help individuals make more sustainable decisions? How can social / environmental decisions be de-biased? How can biases be used to facilitate social / environmental decisions (e.g., framing)? What tools (e.g., websites, smart phone applications, info cards, etc.) exist to help individuals make social/environmental decisions? $25,000 in funding is available. The deadline for proposals is December 1, 2010. For more details read the call for proposals. Please contact Tom Ewart ([email protected]) with questions or to signal your intention to apply. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Coworking" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en.
