Open Practices Business Briefing

OPEN PRACTICESBusiness Behaviour Change Research Briefing report

PURPOSE OF THIS BRIEFING

There is a growing interest among governments in applying innovative practices to developing government policies, interventions and services. This includes using design thinking, foresight and applying insights from the behavioural and social sciences.

Businesses participate in and impact on the socio-technical conditions that drive long-standing behaviours and habits among the wider public. This can be through the products and services that are produced but also how businesses shape the cultural and social context within which people live their daily lives.

While the application of behavioural insights have become increasing popular, for example “nudge” approaches, these are typically applied to individuals. Businesses are not typically susceptible to the cognitive biases that underpin the nudge type interventions.

Over a 3.5 month period, the Open Practices project conducted research with businesses and public sector organisations across Ireland. This research explored the scope an potential of applying behavioural insights in the design of policy interventions to support behaviour change in Ireland.

The research applied design research methods such as design ethnography, user journey mapping, service safaris and contextual interviewing.

This slide deck provides a summary of the key research outputs and presents a simple framework through which policy interventions for behaviour change can be designed.

This framework is intended for policy makers and state agencies. It is not intended to be a general employee engagement or change management tool but it may support these activities

BACKGROUND & CONTEXT

The design of policy interventions for resource efficiency and the circular economy has been dominated by a “resource based view of the firm”. This undervalues the socio-technical drivers of organisational and business behaviour as well as the potential biases that influence business decision-making.

In this context, behaviour refers to how an organisation makes decisions, how these are influenced by factors such as socio-technical system, organisational culture and structures but also biases at the cognitive level of decision makers.

Given the recent insights emerging from the behavioural sciences literature with regards the cognitive dimensions of decision making there has been a clear desire to apply these insights across a range of contexts e.g. individual decision making, organisational behaviour.

While this is understandable there is also evidence from the literature that the application of these approaches may not be as readily applicable to businesses and other types of organisations so policy makers need to proceed with caution.

Organisations are less susceptible to the cognitive biases that underpin many "nudge" type interventions. Having said that, some evidence suggests that organisations are not immune from cognitive biases.

Decision makers in organisations have to work within the context of unavoidable constraints such as information asymmetry or limitations, time constraints, limited capacity and experience.

Therefore, designing more effective policies and policy interventions may be contingent on understanding the behavioural constraints and biases affecting decision makers and managers.


Historically a failure to embrace more sustainable businesses practices has resulted in higher operating costs, e.g. landfill tax, fines, penalties. Whereas businesses that have successfully implemented more sustainable practices have reduced costs, built a strong brand reputations, attracted investment, driven innovation and created repeat business.

Because of this, increasing numbers of companies have moved towards applying Life Cycle Thinking or circular economy approaches with integrated environmental strategies and management systems. It is clear that these approaches to creating closed-loop, circular production systems have driven resource efficiency and innovation.

There are also many examples of companies working with their supply and value chains in environmentally responsible ways. This is helping these companies to innovate their business model and capture value from these new sustainable approaches.

Typically there are four different levels of a business where resource efficiency can be applied. These include:

Process improvement: e.g. designing recycling greywater systems, better process controls, intelligent lighting

Product or service redesign: e.g. using less materials, material substitution, reducing the volume of packaging

Technology change: e.g. heat pumps instead of gas heaters, replacement production process, and more efficient equipment

System design: circular economy, new business models, product service systems, leasing models, product take-back and remanufacturing


The business barriers to resource efficiency are often discussed in terms of endogenous and resource-based factors such as organisational issues, financial resources and so on. Other key barriers include:

Weak external pressures & incentives Often there are weak market signals for investing in resource efficiency. These unclear market demands are reinforced by a misalignment of policy incentives, few favourable tax incentives or consumer subsidies.

Lack of skills and resources Resource efficiency typically requires new skills, mindsets and resources. Many SMEs in Ireland are highly dependent on the local supply of skills so their capacity to increase their skills base is limited.

Limited access to finance Businesses often mention the difficulty in raising finance for resource efficiency from internal and external sources.

Inflexible business models A key barrier to the shift towards more resource efficient business models is that companies remain aligned to and directly or indirectly locked into their existing business models.

Innovation capacity The low level of innovation capacity in some businesses can be observed through factors such as a traditional mindset among senior management and a lack of horizontality among different business functions.

A lack of information A frequently cited barrier to resource efficiency is a lack of information or information asymmetry.


In the context of resource efficiency policy makers may need to:

• Address system and market failures, imperfect information and unaccounted externalities (e.g. carbon emissions)

• Rectify regulatory barriers to resource efficiency (e.g. definitions of waste that hinder trade and transport of products for remanufacturing)

• Co-create appropriate enabling conditions for resource efficiency

• Actively steer and stimulate market activity by setting targets, sustainable public procurement, phasing out unsustainable products, facilitating sustainable behaviour in the public

• Invest in innovative pilots, sustainable and socially innovative start-ups and sustainable R&D.

• Promoting markets for secondary raw materials, reuse and repair

• Reduce the cost of doing resource efficient business

Three forms of policy intervention may be useful to consider when developing services and interventions for resource efficiency.

1. Resources based: financial, human and organisational resources - deployed through or on behalf of policy programmes and projects

3. Informational: the provision of new information (vision, strategy, coordination, best practice) that is geared towards innovation activities

5. Institutional: new institutions (legal acts, rules) designed to explicitly affect the innovation process.

RESEARCH DESIGN

The research applied a qualitative research strategy to investigate the experiences, socio-cultural structures and the practices that shape resource efficiency behaviours in Irish companies.

DISCOVER(research)

DEFINE(insights)

DEVELOP(ideas)

DELIVER(prototypes)

1. UNDERSTAND POLICY & SERVICE CONTEXT

METHODS:EVIDENCE ASSESSMENT, DESK RESEARCH, LITERATURE REVIEW

2. UNDERSTAND BUSINESS & SERVICE PROVIDER CONTEXT

METHODS:CONTEXTUAL INTERVIEWS. SERVICE SAFARIS, PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION, CO-DESIGN WORKSHOPS, USER JOURNEY MAPPING

3. SYNTHESIS

METHODS:CODING, DATA VISUALISATION,

4. SERVICE PROTOTYPES & STRATEGY METHODS:STORYBOARDING, WIREFRAMING

DISCOVER(research)

DEFINE(insights)

DEVELOP(ideas)

DELIVER(prototypes)

KEY STAGES - 3.6 MONTHS

Attending events and workshop - Green Business, Enterprise Ireland, expanding networks

Service Safari / particpant observation of the delivery of Green Business with company

Desk research

Mapping policy lansdscape

Developing initial company database

DISCOVER: FEBRUARY - APRIL 2015

DEFINE: MAY - SEPT. 2015

DEVELOP: SEPTEMBER 2015

Interviews and meetings with service providers intermediary organisations and government agencies

Journey map workshop with Green Business programme manager and team

Field research with companies

Site vists, contextual Interviews

Synthesis of data collected and refining of insights

Co-design workshop with service providers and consultants

development of design report and briefing document

development of design propositions

development of service prototypes

start

DISCOVER STAGE (DESK RESEARCH)

DISCOVER(research)

DEFINE(insights)

DEVELOP(ideas)

DELIVER(prototypes)





3. SYNTHESIS



DISCOVER(research)

DEFINE(insights)

DEVELOP(ideas)

DELIVER(prototypes)

BEHAVIOURAL ROLE OF POLICY INTERVENTIONS

POLICY OPTIONS

POLICYLEVEL

INTERVENTION CATGEGORY

Research, guidance

Fiscal instruments

Funding and co financing

Public procurement

Voluntary Agreements

Education Training mobility and research

Enterprise support networking collaboration platforms

Knowledge and technology exchange and brokerage

Regulatory instruments bans obligations standards

Motivate(create demand)

Inform

Enable(build capacity)

Restrict behaviour

Demand Side

Regulation

Supply Side

IRISH INTERVENTIONS

Key issue: Irish interventions are dominated by information-based interventions, strategies and grants

EPA INTERVENTIONS BY THEME

Key issue: EPA interventions mostly information or advisory

BENEFICIARIES & OTHER PROVIDERS

Bia Food / EPA

Bord Bia

Bord Iascaigh Mhara / EPA

DOECLG

Econcertive

Enterprise Ireland

EPA

Forfas

IDA

NPWS

Offaly County Council

Repak

SEAI

Teagasc

Business

Farming

Energy / Climate

Resource Efficiency Waste

Sustainability

Key issue: EPA interventions aimed at business intersect with interventions by other providers

Key issue: Irish SMEs more focussed on waste issues than energy

IRISH SME ATTITUDES (N=400, EUROBAROMETER)

IRISH SME ATTITUDES (N=400, EUROBAROMETER)

Key issue: Irish SMEs rely on private sector or sectoral organisations for advice as well as own financial or technical resources

KEY BEHAVIOURAL INSIGHTS

Business behaviour can understood by looking at various levels of business activity and the interaction between these e.g. Capacity, Structures, Social Context, Culture.

While each of these levels have an impact on business behaviour and should considered when designing or evaluating interventions and service it is important to note that some aspects are more dynamic and change over time.

The behavioural economics literature presents a number of social factors that can influence decision making at an individual level. These include factors such as messaging, reciprocity, fairness and inequality-aversion.

Capacity decision-making processes

and practices of individuals, skills, competencies

Culture the interactions between the dominant culture and various subcultures within

an organisation

Structures the tacit structures of the

organisation as set out in its procedures, history and

ethos

Social Context social factors that can

influence decision making at an individual level


From the desk and field research on sustainable community initiatives, there appeared to be some behavioural insights that will be more relevant for future intervention and service design. These include:

Salience

Salience refers to how important a topic is perceived to be at a particular time. The salience of resource efficiency can be a key issue to consider when determining whether it becomes a strategic or investable issue for a company. This is typically determined by a number of factors such as the overall resource intensity of the business (e.g. material input per unit of productive output), the size of the business, its sector or and position within its value chain.

Groupthink

Research has shown that decision makers often present a bias towards established ways of doing things and that change only occurs if there are strong incentives. This status quo bias can be reinforced by organisational or sectoral conditions, for example by having senior management having similar training and backgrounds. These conditions can lead to ‘groupthink’ and this reduces the likelihood to pursue alternatives, especially alternatives that vary from the established practices.

Norms & peer influence

There are a wide variety of motivations to invest in resource efficiency, even at an exploratory stage, and these vary between and within sectors.

A dominant motivation is the combination of willingness to comply with regulation or licence requirements and informal sectoral norms.



Messaging

The behaviour literature focussing on individuals has dealt with the delivery of messages and how a key driver of the impact of messaging is who is delivering the message (as opposed to the content).

Given that other evidence points to the fact that decision makers seek advice from and add weight to a trusted advisor this has implications for the design of these information based interventions.

Framing

It is well understood that the outcome of a decision can depend on how the choice or decision is framed. This means that different outcomes can be achieved by framing choices in different ways. ness of framing through trials. Resource efficiency is often framed or “sold” to industry as a cost and that efficiency savings are framed as a “gain” compared with the theoretical counterfactual case (of not investing in efficiency).

Principle agent problem

This is the situation where production or facilities staff tend to be distant from the senior management that set the strategic direction of the business.

This can have restrictive effects on innovation in the business and the same is true for investment in resource efficiency.



Heuristics

Many people in business use heuristics or ‘rules of thumb’ to tackle complex problems and this can often be an efficient and effective approach to making decisions.

While this can have adverse implications for particular types of policy interventions (e.g. incentives) the heuristics also help overcome potential delays and “analysis paralysis”.

Satisficing

The term ‘satisficing’ describes the situation where a decision maker achieves 'satisfactory' rather than optimal decision outcomes. Sometimes decision makers or managers choose courses of action that are satisfactory or “good enough”. In the case of ‘satisficing’ the decision makers may apply heuristics (e.g. imitating “best practice”) rather than on a complete calculation of options and optimal strategies

Bounded Rationality

Bounded rationality describes the situation wherein sub-optimal decisions are taken because decision makers have to work with limited, often unreliable, information, under time constraints and with limited cognitive capacity to evaluate and process the information that is available.

DEFINE STAGE (FIELD RESEARCH)

DISCOVER(research)

DEFINE(insights)

DEVELOP(ideas)

DELIVER(prototypes)





3. SYNTHESIS



DISCOVER(research)

DEFINE(insights)

DEVELOP(ideas)

DELIVER(prototypes)

EXPLORING 2 EPA SERVICES

GREEN ENTERPRISE

The provision of direct public finance for R&D (e.g. Environmental R&D) has been a common model internationally for many decades. The rationale is typically driven by the assumption that R&D will, directly or indirectly stimulate innovation.

Model: direct public finance for R&D - common model internationally

Justification: Presence of information failures (information asymmetry, variable quality) and wider potential for economic development through capacity building

Advantage : support can be targeted, low investment in environmental R&D strengthens rationale. popularity has diminished in recent years in favour of more generally supportive environment for sustainable innovation

Assumption: R&D will directly or indirectly stimulate innovation or concerns re. underinvestment

Challenge: evaluation of impacts can be problematic. E.G. timing. Difficulty measure spillover effective and intangible impacts (skills, innovation capabilities and capacities).

Needs to avoid “picking winners” or create exemplar cases

GREEN BUSINESS

Green Business is a resource efficiency support service that aims to support Irish SMEs become more resource efficient through the provision of subsidised consultancy, knowledge exchange and networking opportunities.

Model: subsidised consultancy, information provision

Justification: Presence of information failures (information asymmetry, variable quality) which are widely understood and reported by SMEs themselves.

Advantage : support can be low cost

Assumption: Information will directly or indirectly stimulate innovation or concerns re. underinvestment

Challenge: evaluation of impacts can be problematic - evaluations are scarce

GREEN BUSINESS JOURNEY MAP

EPA INTERVENTION THEORY OF CHANGE

FIELD RESEARCH

LOCATION OF COMPANIES (N=20)

Energy services

Energy

Farming

Consulting

PharmaceuticalsRetail

Manufacturing Social Enterprise

Food products

Healthcare

Manufacturing

Manufacturing

Digital / software

PROFILE OF COMPANIES (N=20)

Key issue: Irish SMEs rely on private sector or sectoral organisations for advice

CONTEXTUAL INTERVIEWS (N=20)

USER JOURNEY MAP

A user journey map outlines the route or journey a service user or customer takes when accessing a service. Typically a user journey map will seek to understand what happens before the service is accessed, what happens during use and what happens after the user is finished with the service.

Each moment that the user interacts with the service or is expected to do something is called a ‘touchpoint’. When designing services it is important to consider the entire customer journey and to design all touchpoints as effectively as possible.

To better understand the experience of businesses that access support services, user journey maps were created. These journey maps highlight the stages each company went through from the point they considered resource efficiency, accessing support services to developing projects and in-

company initiatives and what happened after they exited services.

This journey map has the following four broad phases:

1. Trigger to action 2. Formalisation of possible actions 3. Accessing and using service 4. After service

At each stage there are identifiable friction or pain points that can prevent a business from undertaking an action

SERVICE PROVIDERS

Through the interviews and co-design workshops with service providers, a number of key insights were generated. This include the stated preferences of service providers for improvements to be made to the system of delivery and key hassle factors they experience.

Making resource efficiency salient For resource efficiency to become a strategic objective it needs to be salient among senior staff so that it can compete with other spending priorities.

Cost saving is likely a weak incentive Resource efficiency is often framed or “sold” to industry as a cost saving exercise rather than an investment in productive capacity. If the savings are uncertain or low compared to overall cost base this can be a weak incentive. Also, smaller companies have been shown to be more concerned with avoiding losses than seeking gains.

Current public sector support can be complex There is an expectation that support should be available but that the current offerings can be difficult to navigate or differentiate between providers. There is a relatively complex network of providers of support and each of these is operating to the best of their ability but with limited reach and resources.

Information overload Environmental staff tend to feel overloaded with paperwork and this can reduce their capacity to champion the issue and build strong businesses case.

KEY BUSINESS LEVEL INSIGHTS

Through the contextual interviews, service safaris and participant observation with companies, a number of key insights were generated.

SERVICE PROVIDERS


Resistance to moving past “low hanging fruit” There is some resistance to moving past the “low hanging fruit” of resource efficiency e.g. waste management. This may be related to the weak links between resource efficiency and wider innovation activities in businesses.

Impacts sometimes go unmeasured Positive impacts from existing services and intervention (e.g. input additionality) can go unmeasured and misattributed because the intermediary organisations do not have resources to evaluate over the most appropriate timeframes.

Fear of engagement While compliance, licensing and enforcement are the primary touchpoints through which businesses interact with the public sector there is general fear and uncertainty around these issues and the role they play in assisting the business.

Aspiration-resource gap The research found that while the opportunities emerging from resource efficiency are significant there is still a gap between government aspirations and what resources are allocated to support and enable sustainable behaviour change in reality.





Evidence and data There is a need to build upon the high quality support that is available by addressing the capacity for policy prototyping and trials, evidence and data, communication and ongoing iterations to the services and interventions on offer.

Personal contact a key motivator There is a need to maintain an integrated policy and service framework that encourages, enables and engages businesses while exemplifying the necessary changes through public sector leadership.

Top slicing of available funds Those that access support consider it to be responsive and easy to access but only once the

correct support has been identified. In many cases there is an additional intermediary (e.g. a consultant) between the service provider and the business and this can increase costs (top-slicing budgets) or act as a form of rent seeking.

Innovative approaches As a trusted regulator, the EPA is well positioned to inform the development of innovative business models by aligning with other innovation financing. This can be through the development of policy projects and supports that specifically target environmental tech-start-ups, sharing and collaborative economy businesses as well as alternative business models within existing sectors.

SERVICE PROVIDER WORKSHOP

SERVICE PROVIDERS


Service providers need:

Better ways to network with other service providers, share data, case studies and evaluations

To reach out to businesses and to engage them effectively over the long term (using the limited resources)

To find a way to increase knowledge and awareness in ways that are not time consuming

Key hassle factors include:

The administration of services can be labour intensive

There is a need to test / evaluate / learn

SERVICE DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS


Peer influence Peer influence can occur between, as well as within, organisations (e.g. leadership acting consistently with sustainability agenda). The prevailing local business climate can have a powerful influence on organisational behaviour, particularly in SMEs.

Physical context matters Evidence suggests that context (e.g. physical environment, visual cues) can have a significant impact on behaviour. Potential for nudges.

Less susceptible to “nudging’’ Organisations are more cognitively sophisticated than individuals - better at slower, more rational thinking than

individuals. Also, cultural norms in established organisations may make them resistant to being ‘nudged’.

Intrinsic motivations Successful employee programmes work with intrinsic motivations of staff

Structure is important Structural factors (such as organisation size, shape, sector and decision topic)

Affect & emotional rationale “questionable” behaviour can be framed as affecting an identifiable individual or situation as opposed to something anonymous.

SERVICE DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS


Remove frictions Identify any ‘friction points’ in service or bureaucratic and operational procedures and design them out.

Simplification Make information clearer and easier; pre-populate forms

Exemplify Respond to desires for reciprocity and fairness by leading through example and by public commitments

Key moments Consider timing interventions around critical points (e.g. following media coverage of climate change or flood events), or at key stages when managers are open to change (e.g. investment)

Framing Frame interventions as investment in productive capacity rather than saving

Commitments Encourage public commitments (and then publish pledges/charters on websites)

Incentive design Provide short-term incentives for resource efficiency such as helping to meet other management objectives

DISCOVER(research)

DEFINE(insights)

DEVELOP(ideas)

DELIVER(prototypes)





3. SYNTHESIS



DISCOVER(research)

DEFINE(insights)

DEVELOP(ideas)

DELIVER(prototypes)

POTENTIAL BEHAVIOURAL INTERVENTIONS

Increasing information about RE / CE (includes benefits)

Experiencing RE / CE

Assessing RE / CE

Reading and seeing information about RE/CE (e.g. TV and radio; press; specific communications or leaflets)

Conversations with business peers, trade associations, family and others.

Seeing RE / CE in practice (e.g. on neighbouring business)

Encountering RE / CE messages at other events (e.g. trade shows)

Sectoral or regional predisposition against RE / CE

Assessing how RE / CE is driven or affect the operating environment or market

Consideration of wider commercial benefits (including non-market benefits e.g. CSR)

Priming – people behave differently if they have been ‘primed’ by certain cues beforehand, e.g. words, sights. Anchoring – relies heavily on an initial value

Framing and simplification – can facilitate information processing

Context and learning – collective discussions aid familiarisation with issues and process

Social norms – people make choices based upon the perceived or informed view of others.

Exemplify – leading by example

Cultural polarisation, mental accounting – RE / CE may be mentally assigned to particular types of businesses or only in EH&S

Priming, salience, framing – Information presentation


Seeking clarification of benefits relative to commercial goals

Generating ideas

Researching options

Building business case

Assessing how RE / CE is driven or affect the operating environment or market

Tailored material emphasising impacts, framed to emphasise non-environmental and other benefits

Provide experiential learning opportunities - e.g. site visits, practical workshops

Provide opportunities for previously successful application to assist in framing projects.

Use novel techniques (e.g. visualisation and metrics) within other business events (aimed at those considering investment).

Tailor presentation material to managers, board, (e.g. business concerns, investor trends). Also consider the context (setting), and tailoring discussions to the individual or group.

Information presentation

Learning effects – people’s values and attitudes can change when information is exchanged in a constructive way

Reciprocation – people reciprocate help

Information presentation and salience including visualisations

Priming, salience, framing – Information presentation


Makes a commitment to undertaking a project

Dealing with sceptical or otherwise negative ‘others’

Identifying available and appropriate funding / support

Applying for a grant

Accessing a grant

Developing a plan - seeking reassurance from sector peers

Identifying contractor or advisor

Engage contractor to offer advice

Commitment – through public ‘pledges

Removing frictions – making it easier

Remove frictions – remove any ‘sticking points’ that may deter individual from acting

Defaults and prompted choices – people will go for the default option

Loss aversion – incentives


Networks – information, presentation and framing


Encouraging public pledges to invest in RE / CE (publishing pledges on a EPA or sector website).

If concern relates ‘an onerous application process’ or risk of EPA visit, reduce the bureaucracy burden for applicant through simplifying process, pre-populating forms engaging with inspection teams where they exist

Offer application traininig to managers, have one-fill forms so all future applications can be faster

Make RE a default in other grant options to steer businesses towards a particular purpose

Emphasis of top-up grant availability as a time-limit may encourage take up to avoid missing out - Provide a higher level of grant if a threshold of applicants is reached

Facilitate learning and knowledge exchange, rather than just providing materials

Support business in search for contractors

Support business by pooling/sharing information and expertise on RE and the delivery of projects


Makes a commitment to undertaking a project

Dealing with sceptical or otherwise negative ‘others’

Identifying available and appropriate funding / support

Applying for a grant

Accessing a grant

Developing a plan - seeking reassurance from sector peers

Identifying contractor or advisor

Engage contractor to offer advice

Commitment – through public ‘pledges

Removing frictions – making it easier

Remove frictions – remove any ‘sticking points’ that may deter individual from acting

Defaults and prompted choices – people will go for the default option

Loss aversion – incentives




Encouraging public pledges to invest in RE / CE (publishing pledges on a EPA or sector website).

If concern relates ‘an onerous application process’ or risk of EPA visit, reduce the bureaucracy burden for applicant through simplifying process, pre-populating forms engaging with inspection teams where they exist

Offer application traininig to managers, have one-fill forms so all future applications can be faster

Make RE a default in other grant options to steer businesses towards a particular purpose

Emphasis of top-up grant availability as a time-limit may encourage take up to avoid missing out - Provide a higher level of grant if a threshold of applicants is reached

Facilitate learning and knowledge exchange, rather than just providing materials

Support business in search for contractors

Support business by pooling/sharing information and expertise on RE and the delivery of projects

Provide options for feedback

Consider further actions (to increase/maximise benefits)

Demonstrating RE / CE to peers & local/sector discussions

Provide access to peers (to enable further/wider benefits to be realised)

Communicate benefits of RE to other businesses

Engage in and view results of RE projects



Messenger - Using social networks to encourage collective behaviour


Social norms

Social norms

Provide opportunities for previously successful application to assist in framing projects.

Provide opportunities for previously successful application to assist in framing new programmes

Encourage business that successfully implement RE to become a ‘champion’ to reinforce benefits.

Communicate RE as the preferred social norm at other non-environmental events e.g. membership organisation events

Encourage view of investing in RE as the preferred social norm

MEASURING BEHAVIOUR CHANGE

Traditionally approaches to evaluating the impact of public service and policy interventions such as R&D programmes, in particular those related to resource efficiency or eco-innovation, have failed to distinguish between single project outputs and the persistent change in business practices following an intervention.

There is also a need to measure the effects of individual interventions, such as R&D grants and tax incentives, but also on the different types of effects they have on the behaviour of businesses.

Additionality Additionality describes the change that has occurred over and above what would have happened anyway without the intervention. Additionality is a key component of evidence that proves an intervention has corrected the market or system failure that gave rise to the need for an intervention.

Input additionality is concerned with resources provided to a company and whether these are additional.

Output additionality is concerned with outputs of an intervention that would not have occurred without public support.

Behavioural additionality addresses the difference in company behaviour as a result of the intervention. Behaviour in this context can relate to persistent changes to strategies, capabilities and routines.

BEHAVIOUR CHANGE METRICS

Resource efficiency behaviours are diverse (company dependant) but there are generalised and aggregated patterns that are systematically linked to factors such as the size of an organisation, its sector, sub-sector and local and national context. These behaviours can be modelled and better segmented in order to support the effective targeting of interventions and service touchpoints. The table below presents an example of a framework of metrics that can inform an assessment of additionality.

BEHAVIOURAL INTERVENTION TOOL

One of the issues that emerged through this research was there was no accessible tool that could be used to guide discussions on behaviour change for resource efficiency in business.

The Behavioural Intervention Tool assists policy makers and intermediary organisations in better understanding why businesses may behave in particular ways. The tool describes key themes driving behaviour identified through the research and can be applied to examining the design of services and interventions.

The model is a development on a preliminary framework developed during the Open Practices research and reported on in a research blog during February 2015. This initial framework was designed based on research by O’Rafferty (2012).

The tools is based a round a model of behaviour that focuses on the following three different levels: • Context - the operational and market

context within which the business is operating. This can include supply chain, subsidiaries, sub-contracting models as well as social enterprises.

• Capacity - this refers to the organisational capacity and the issues that are internal to the organisation

• Decision Making - this refers to the potential cognitive and social factors that have an effect on decision making

BEHAVIOURAL INTERVENTION TOOL

strategy& group think

rules of thumb/ heuristics

networks

purpose,culture &

norms

skills &knowledge

organisationstructure

businessmodel(s)

trust &history

operationalcontext

CAPACITY

CONTEXTDECISIO

N MAK

ING

How w

e mak

e de

cisi

ons

Who we are & how we organise ourselves

The context we’re working in

BUSINESSBEHAVIOUR

DEVELOP STAGE (SERVICE PROTOTYPES)

CONCEPT 1

FINDINGS

structural Some companies struggle to understand how to navigate the system of support that is available

Service providers rely on personal knowledge to know “who is who”.

There is no structured way for service providers to share data on who has been supported, what support they provided and the outcome of this.

It can be difficult to monitor and evaluate the support companies receive and the activities they undertake once they leave a formal service

FINDINGS

behavioural there are "optimal moments to influence the behaviour of businesses" (e.g. when capital expenditure is being planned, merger, start-up).

impossible to achieve in the current context of generic information, advice and financial instruments

making the issue of resource efficiency salient is key to determining whether it becomes a strategic or investable issue for a company.

Increasing salience can be supported by highlighting the strategic value of the issue in relation to the wider activities

DESIGN BRIEF

Design a service that:

• changes the data architecture around enterprises receiving public support

• allows service providers to share data around companies they are supporting

• creates a single record to ensure there is no overlap or duplication of support

• allows different levels of access to the company record depending on the provider

• allows the support services to provide support at optimal moments

ADVISORS FROM DIFFERENT AGENCIES CAN LOG INTO SERVICE

ADVISORS ACCESS DIFFERENT DATA DEPENDING ON CLIENT RELATIONSHIP

PLATFORM CAN BE ACCESS VIA MOBILE WHEN OUT ON SITE VISITS/AUDITS

CONCEPT 2

FINDINGS

structural The EPA Green Business programme is restricted in the number of companies they can support because of financial resources

The administration of the Green Business can be labour and time intensive.

There is also a weak incentive to act upon the support provided.

There is a long process of filtering the information resources available to find a resource that is relevant to the search requirements of a company

FINDINGS

behavioural Companies, in particular SMEs, rely on trusted sources that have similar characteristics to them. These trusted sources are more likely to be from the private sector

Evidence from the desk research (e.g. Eurobarometer survey) and interviews suggested that companies are willing to pay for resource efficiency advice

Companies benefit from learning in networks even if the network is not particularly local or in the same sector

DESIGN BRIEF


• Disrupts the existing models of support e.g. consider open source and “many-to-many”

• Connects those companies who have successfully implemented resource efficiency initiativec

• Adds value to the knowledge that exists in the Irish Innovation system

• Removes frictions preventing companies choosing appropriate support (from any provider)

• Frees up time so that EPA and Green Business teams could focus on strategy, administration, verification, evaluation.

BUSINESS LOGS ONTO WEBSITE

SEARCHES FOR SUPPORT REQUIRED & RECEIVES RELEVANT RESULTS

IS PROVIDED WITH A MAP OF SUPPORT PROVIDERS

CAN REVIEW PROFILES OF SUPPORT PROVIDERS

POSSIBLE TO SUGGEST EXPERTS

CONCEPT 3

FINDINGS

structural There is a resistance to move beyond the “low hanging fruit” of resource efficiency and to move projects to scale.

The EPA/GB need exemplars that can inspire and motivate other companies to move beyond the “low hanging fruit”

Due to resource constraints the support is spread thinly across the client companies

This makes it difficult to create momentum and scale.

There is no pipeline for identifying, nurturing and developing innovative solutions and the focus is on generic support.

FINDINGS

behavioural there are "optimal moments to influence the behaviour of businesses" (e.g. when capital expenditure is being planned, merger, start-up)

The framing of resource efficiency as a “cost saving” can be a weak driver as the savings may be low in relation to overall cost base. This is exacerbated by weak market signals

The framing of resource efficiency as “green” can be problematic because is frames the issue in a way that does not necessarily align with how the business sees itself.

DESIGN BRIEF


• combines the behavioural incentives of a competitive process and the motivation to invest in the productive capacity of a company

• provides a structured process for developing exemplar innovations

• combines common goals that relate to the broader strategic objectives of the EPA

• builds networks to foster social norms