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The Next Step of the Sustainability Development in
Taiwan’s Exhibition Industry
Yun-Man FU
Student Number: 11864915
Aug. 2018
ymfu5521@gmail.com
Supervisor: Dr. Edward Huizenga
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Abstract:
In the exhibition industry, it has been known that every exhibition creates a lot of wastes after the show by its nature. Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center Hall 1 (Nangang Hall 1), one of the exhibition hall managed by TAITRA, is the venue and the company project I work with. The managerial challenge for the venue is that there are still a lot of wastes produced from exhibitions, though the venue itself already tried its best to be a green venue by adopting ISO 20121 and being a green building itself. Thus, from this paper, it aims to find the recommendation for the next step of sustainable adoptions to further reduce the wastes from exhibitions in Taiwan. We conducted a survey in Computex Taipei 2018 in June, the 2nd largest IoT show in the world, to try to understand the exhibitors. The survey shows 3 important results. First of all, product design of exhibition booths can benefit by green designs and depends on the exhibitors’ attitude or willingness for reuse of booths. Secondly, the product life value can be extended if exhibitors are willing to use modular booth design. Finally, the waste can be reduced if exhibitors start a recovery process after the show, especially in the dismantling period.
We recommend TAITRA continues to perform as the leading role to facilitate and collaborate green exhibitions to the next stage in the sustainability development in Taiwan’s Exhibition Industry: moving from Stage 3 (Designing Sustainable Products and Services) of sustainability development to Stage 4 (Developing New Business Models) and at the same time prepare for the development to the Stage 5 Creating New Practice Platform in long term (Nidumolu et al’s framework, 2009).
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Table of Contents:
I. Introduction ………...……….………...P.3 A. Company Introduction………....….P.6 B. Green MICE Project of MEET TAIWAN: The Initiatives from the
Government……….……...P.7 C. Research Question………,..…..P.11 II. Literature Review ………….………..…....P.12 A. Sustainable Supply Chain ………...P.12 B. Closed-Loop Supply Chain ………...P.14 C. Sustainable Operation Management ………...P.15 III. Frameworks ….………...P.18
A. The 5 Stages of Change in Sustainability ………...P.19 B. The Integrated Framework: Open Business Models in Extended
Product Life Cycles ………...P.25 IV. Current Green Practices of Stakeholders in Taiwan’s Exhibition
Industry………..………...P.30 A. Venue: Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center, Hall 1 ………P.30 B. Show Organizers………...P.34 C. Decorators ………..……...P.39 D. Exhibitors……….………...P.41 G. Attendees………..………...P.43 V. Company Survey, Implications, Managerial Recommendations………P.44 A. Research Method & Data Collection………....P.45 B. Results & Implications………..…..P.46 C. Managerial Recommendations ……….P.59 VI. Conclusion & Limitation ………...P.62
VII. Bibliography ………P.64
3 I. Introduction:
With the recognition of the importance for environmental protection, many industries have advocated the concept of sustainability: to reduce, reuse and recycle the resources in the business or its daily operations. While some companies put more focus on the CSR initiatives, others design environmental friendly products and services. “The quest of sustainability is already starting to transform the competitive landscape, which will enforce companies to change the way they think about products, technologies, processes, and business models (Nidumolu et al, 2009, p. 58).”
In recent years, the concept of “Going Green” becomes the trend in the Exhibition Industry. The concept of Green MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences, exhibitions/events) in Taiwan was introduced by the MEET TAIWAN project initiated by Taiwanese government as to implement 3Rs (reduce, reuse and recycle) by the stakeholders in the industry like organizers, venue providers, exhibitors and visitors (MEET TAIWAN Website, 17th July, 2018). On the other hand, since 2008, UFI (the global association of exhibition industry) has adopted and support sustainability in its mission and vision statements (UFI Sustainable Development website, 17th July, 2018). What’s more? UFI started initiated the best practice award in sustainability from 2012 with different themes in sustainability to its members to encourage and reward those who make an effort to be more environmental friendly (UFI Sustainable Development website, 17th July, 2018). From UFI’s Report on Best Practices in Sustainability (UFI, 2016) as shown in Table 1 about the awarded companies, the trend of Going Green becomes a non-stop activity in the business field, and there is no exception in the exhibition industry.
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In the exhibition industry, it has been known that every exhibition creates a lot of wastes after the show by its nature. All the booths’ decorations and exhibition related products and offerings all last only for a short period (4 to 5 days of the show time). After the exhibitions, all the booths need to be dismantled and the wastes left by the exhibitors and decorators needed to be dealt with. Thus, it is critical for the exhibition industry to really adopt sustainability to reduce wastes, and reuse and recycle the resources.
This paper will take a sustainability perspective on exhibition halls and focus on the role of exhibitors; thus, the most important stakeholders of Green Exhibitions for an exhibition hall are identified to be government, show organizers, decorators, other service providers, and exhibitors. The literature review will cover the topics of sustainable operations management, sustainable supply chain management, close loop supply chain; and the framework is related to the adoption of close loop supply chain into exhibition industry. From Linton et al (2007, p. 1075), sustainability development is considered to be the area potentially could influence not only the current operations, but also the government policies in the future; and it even could assist to identify potential new business models. This paper aims to identify the direction for Taiwan’s exhibition industry to procedd for the next step. For the case company, TAITRA, this paper intends to deliver
1) Customer insights of exhibitors’ current practices, willingness and attitude towards green exhibitions.
2) Advice on ways to co-create and develop green exhibitions.
3) Recommendations towards TAITRA on their leading role to facilitate green exhibitions.
6 A. Company Introduction:
The case company, TAITRA, is a non-profit government agency in Taiwan. TAITRA
not only manage 3 international exhibition halls and 1 convention center for the
Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) of Taiwan, but also is the biggest international
B2B trade show organizer in Taiwan (organizes 40 trade shows in 2018). The most
famous trade shows held by TAITRA includes two 2nd largest show in the world
(COMPUTEX TAIPEI and TAIPEI CYCLE). What TAITRA performs make it in the
leading and dominant position in the exhibition industry in Taiwan for more than 30
years with nearly 1,300 specialists promote international trades for Taiwanese
companies (Figure 1). Appendix 1: TAITRA’s organization chart)
Figure 1: TAITRA company information, source: TAITRA official website
http://www.taitra.org.tw/About-TAITRA
On the other hand, the TAITRA also assists Taiwanese government to execute
Green MICE Project of MEET TAIWAN to advocate sustainability in the exhibitions
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worldwide already have the notion to pursue the Going Green practices, TAITRA
is with no exception: the Green MICE Project of MEET TAIWAN executed by
TAITRA was awarded by UFI as one of the winners of Best Actions to Engage
Participants on Sustainability in 2016.
Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center Hall 1 (Nangang Hall 1), one of the exhibition
hall managed by TAITRA, is the venue and the company project I work with. This
venue is Taiwan’s biggest venue in which around 65 exhibitions are accommodated annually with the capacity of 2,467 booths. Yet, the managerial
challenge for the venue is that there are still a lot of wastes produced from
exhibitions, though the venue itself already tries its best to be a green venue by
adopting ISO 20121 and being a green building itself. The wastes from the
exhibitions include the wood materials from the construction of the booths which
cannot be re-used and re-cycled, the other wastes left by the exhibitors which
includes flyers and booklets, giveaways, bottled water, flowers/ plants, and other
decorative materials. Thus, from this paper, it aims to find the recommendation for
the next step of sustainable adoptions to further reduce the wastes from exhibitions
in Taiwan.
B. Green MICE Project of MEET TAIWAN: The initiatives from Government “The government of many developing countries have become concerned about the environment and are encouraging companies to introduce sustainable products and processes (Nidumolu et al, 2009, p.62).” Taiwan is a very good example to reflect Nidumolu et al’s observation. Since 2012, Taiwanese government already noticed the trend in the sustainability in the MICE industry; thus, the Green MICE Project was initiated under the MEET TAIWAN project. This governmental project
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has been executed by TAITRA to facilitate the Green MICE developments in Taiwan. The general concept is to advocate 3R: reduce, reuse, and recycle by using 3 steps to engage stakeholders in the exhibition industry: firstly raising the awareness of the green concept and conduct the communication, and then inspiring the actions from the stakeholders, finally, assisting the stakeholders to adopt international standard (Figure 2).
Figure 2: Green MICE Project of MEET TAIWAN- 3 steps to engage MICE stakeholders
According to the materials provided by TAITRA, under Green MICE Project of MEET TAIWAN, there are some sub-projects to be executed from the 3 steps of engagement, which includes:
1. Raise the awareness of Green exhibition:
a. Promote the Green MICE guidelines as a local standard for MICE industry in which suggests practicing Green MICE initiatives in 5 categories: Transportation, Decoration & Promotional Material, Accommodation, Catering, and others. Since 2013, TAITRA has assisted
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20 exhibition and conference organizers to adopt the guidelines. (Appendix 2: The Green MICE Project of MEET TAIWAN Self-Checklist) b. TAITRA also has conducted Green MICE orientations to exhibitors by introducing them the Green MICE guidelines to share green ideas with them. In the past 2 years, around 3,800 exhibitors were reached under the co-operation of the show organizers. On the other hand, TAITRA also targets other stakeholders like decorators, MICE professionals and design students to held a Green seminars by sharing TAITRA’s experience (as a venue provider and show organizer) about cutting the carbon footprint and becoming more socially responsible in the industry. 2. Inspire Action:
a. Offering incentives to inspire stakeholders to take action: every year, there are Green MICE awards given to those organizers who have best actions in going green.
b. Providing green consulting services: TAITRA arranges green consultants to exhibitions and conferences to give customized advices. c. Green Booth competition organized at the Taiwan International Green
Industry Show (or TiGiS), Taiwan International Photovoltaic Exhibition (or PV Taiwan) and TPCA show. In the competition, the criteria were set to be focus on module systems, energy saving, low-carbon decoration, green marketing, eco-friendly management and innovative design. 3. Adopt International Standard:
TAITRA promotes and assists stakeholders in the industry to obtain or to be tracked by following international certification, successful cases include venues, decorators, exhibition and conference organizers.
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a. ISO20121 Event Sustainability Management System: “a system to improve the sustainability of the events (ISO20121 website, 19th July, 2018)”.
b. ISO5001 Energy Management System for the efficient use of the energies (ISO5001 website, 20th July, 2018)
c. PAS 2050:2011: the standard to calculate carbon footprint during the goods and services’ life cycle (BSI website, 19th July, 2018).
d. ISO 14064-1: standard about greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and removals in the aspect of quantification and reporting (ISO website, 19 July, 2018).
Figure 3 shows the main drivers of the exhibition stakeholders for green initiative. As shown, the Taiwanese government’s Green MICE Project of MEET TAIWAN encourages show organizers, exhibition hall and decorators to create greener exhibitions; on the other hand, the regulations set by the venue for booth decoration also have the influence.
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Although TAITRA already targeted exhibitors to communicate green ideas through Green Orientations, the exhibitors’ attitude toward the green exhibition and their willingness for green might be driven by their company and the cost associated with going green. From the one-way advocation to the exhibitors, there is still a lack of understanding on the attitude of the exhibitors to take actions for co-creating green exhibition.
C. Research Question:
From TAITRA’s execution of Green MICE Project of MEET TAIWAN and the endeavor of Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center Hall 1 to adopt ISO 20121 Event Sustainability Management System, there are some progress in Green Exhibitions in Taiwan. Yet, the progresses are all from the in-side out approach from various of stakeholders with a lack of the insights from exhibitors. It is crucial for the industry to know the attitude of the exhibitors, so the research questions for this paper is “What sustainability approach can we adopt in Taiwan’s exhibition industry from exhibitors’ current practice, willingness and attitude toward green exhibitions?” We will start from an out-side in approach by conducting a survey to the exhibitors and focus on the following questions:
1. How do the exhibitors deal with the waste or the things they don’t need after the show?
2. Are they willing to co-operate to facilitate green exhibitions?
3. Are they willing to use more sustainable material (module design) and reduce the use of the woodwork design?
4. Are they willing to order exhibition related products from the suppliers who can re-use or re-cycle the products?
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5. How do they value the digital platform to facilitate green exhibition?
II. Literature Review:
In the literature review, we intend to find the theoretical foundation in the area of sustainability to support the development of the sustainable strategy for the case company in the exhibition industry. The areas cover 3 main topics: sustainable supply chain, the closed-loop supply chain and sustainable operation management.
What is sustainability? The most general definition was raised in 1987 in the Brundtland Report (WCED, 1987) to define sustainability as development that “meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (Linton et al (2007, p. 1076).” If we narrow down to the perspective of sustainability operations management, Kleindorfer et al (2005, p. 482) considered sustainability to “include environmental management, closed-loop supply chain, and a broad perspective on the triple-bottom-line thinking (profit, people and planet).”
A. Sustainable Supply Chain
From Linton et al (2007, p. 1076), the coverage of the environmental operations shall include the whole supply chain, from the production, customers’ consumption of products, the service provided to customers and the post consumption disposal of the products. Linton et al (2007, p. 1078) also emphasizes the necessity to extend the supply chain management to product design, product life-extension, and even the and the recovery process at product end-of-life.
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1. Product Design:
The main idea is about the design of the product which could minimize the environmental impact not only during its life cycle, but also after the usage (Karna and Heiskanen, 1998). It is necessary to consider the disposition of the products at earlier product design stages as it could determine whether the products can be re-used, re-cycled or re-produced (Linton et al, 2007, p. 1079).
2. Product Life-extension:
The product life-extension benefits to avoid producing new products and reducing the consumption of resources; at the same time, it also creates the value to the products as with longer product life cycle (Linton et al, 2007, p. 1078).
3. The recovery process at product end-of-life:
This process is considered as the challenge for the sustainable supply chain as it involves the uncertainty and the co-operation for the arrangements like transportations, timing to return the products, and the communications with the partners in the supply chain (Linton et al, 2007, p. 1079).
If we view the exhibitions as the products of the show organizers, the whole supply chain, from the organizers, venues, decorators, service providers to the end customers (exhibitors) shall all be involved in the scope of sustainable supply chain to cooperate with each other. The product design will be the general plan for the whole exhibitions from the exhibition organizers, and the booth design for decorators and exhibitors. The recovery process at product end-of-life will be the move-out/ dismantle period after the show, because all
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the decorators need to move out the materials used in the booth construction from the venue.
B. Closed-Loop Supply Chain:
Regarding to the concept of the closed-loop supply chain, Kleindorfer et al (2005, p. 488) defined it to be the combination of the forward supply chain and the reverse supply chain. What is reverse supply chain? It “begins when the customer returns the product and ends when the company has recovered the maximum value (Kleindorfer et al, 2005, p. 488)” and has the focus on product returns during (end-of-use) and after (end-of-life) the product life-cycle with the need of a reverse supply chain to maximize the value (Guide and Van Wassenhove, 2006, p. 345). Overall, in the management aspect, the definition of the closed-loop supply chain management proposed by Guide and Van Wassenhove (2006, p. 349) is “the design, control, and operation of a system to maximize value creation over the entire life-cycle of a product with dynamic recovery of value from different types and volumes of returns over time.”
Guide, Harrion and Van Wassenhove (2003, p. 3) indicated the difference between traditional forward supply chain and the closed-loop supply chain lies on the closed-loop supply chain has the following additional activities from the manufacturers: get the products from the end users with reverse logistics (logistics arrangements from end users to the manufacturer), determine the most economical reuse options for the returned products (including repair, reuse, recycle, remanufacture or disposal), and remarketing the products after the return. With this perspective, it is obvious that the whole process needs to
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be controlled and pre-planning. Thus, it also brings challenges for the execution; such as the uncertainties associated with the management of the returning process in terms of timing, logistic, remanufacturing arrangements and alignments among parties involved (Guide, Harrion and Van Wassenhove, 2003, p. 4). Though the challenge exists, Guide, Harrion and Van Wassenhove, (2003, p.5) foresaw the future trend in the closed-loop supply chain business model to be that companies shift from the concept of product ownership to provide creative services offering instead.
In the study, we use the concept of design, life-extension, and reuse the return products. In the exhibition industry, the reverse supply chain is what the decorators adopt for their reusable materials after the show. On the move out days, all the reusable modular materials needed to be moved back to the warehouse through decorators’ pre-planned returning logistic arrangement within the time frame decided by the organizers. On the other hand, all the non-reusable material needed to be arranged for disposal. Ideally, if the decorators can have modular designs for their clients (exhibitors), they are able to reuse them to maximize the economic value of the material they have. Due to the nature of the exhibition and the competitiveness in the industry, the future trend Guide, Harrion and Van Wassenhove (2003, p.5) foresaw that not owning the products but offering creative service is very difficult for the decorators to adopt in the short time.
C. Sustainable Operation Management:
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operation management, it is necessary to know the importance of the sustainable operation management, and its essence in the following literature review. The factors raised by Kleindorfer et al (2005, p.484) which make sustainable operations become more and more important include
1. The increasing trend on the cost of the material and energies. 2. The pressure from the public on the environmental issues. 3. The increase of the awareness of 3P (people, planet and profit).
4. The recognition of the sustainability performance from the globalization.
Klenforfer et al (2005, P. 484) reformulated the framework from previous researchers by suggesting the sustainable operations shall cover the following 4 aspects:
1. The current internal strategies:
This is more about the continuous process improvement in the area of sustainability. Base on Klenforfer et al (2005), waste reduction, the consumption of energies, and CO2 emission control belongs to this category. 2. The current external strategies:
This is about the improvement on the supply chain, not only by adopting the use of closed-loop supply chain but also involving some trade-offs when selecting the materials.
3. Internal strategies for the future:
This involves to redesign products to reduce the use of the material and the energy.
4. External strategies for the future:
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the competence in products, process, and supply chain management.
After studying the first 50 issues of the sustainable operation management, Klenforfer et al (2005, p. 485 – P. 488) clearly indicated that for the sustainable operation management, the main 3 areas and the essences to integrate 3 P (people, planet, profit) are as follows:
1. Green Product and Process Development:
This relates to the sustainable product design which avoid environmentally un-friendly components by using those with higher reuse value. The use of the modular design could facilitate the remanufacturing and the disposal as well.
2. Lean and green operations management:
Green operations benefit the organizations to have better corporate image. By adopting quality and environmental management systems, organizations would also increase the synergies created between the two.
3. Remanufacturing and closed-loop supply chain:
This involves the return of the products in the situation like at the end-of-lease, end-of-use, and end-of-life. The recovery of the value on the products could be actualized by reusing the products which might be with the modular design. Regarding to the closed-loop supply chain, Kleindorfer et al thought that it is broadly considered to integrate the process from product acquisition of the customers to re-marketing the product after returned, which extend beyond traditional concept of product life cycle. Kleindorfer et al (2005, p. 489) also mentioned that sustainability is fostered by the closed-loop supply chain as the recovery and the reuse of the products reduce the negative
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impact to the environment regards to the waste disposal and the extracting raw materials.
From the literature review, there are some key elements in pursuing sustainability: Product design or re-design, the use of modular designs, product life-extension, closed-loop supply chain, reuse, recycle, or re-manufacture, and sustainable operations. I am inspired to think and link to the case company project in the ways that making the following hypothesis:
H1: Product design of exhibition booths can benefit by green designs and depends on the exhibitors’ attitude or willingness for reuse of booths.
H2: The product life value can be extended if exhibitors are willing to use modular booth design.
H3: The waste can be reduced if exhibitors start a recovery process after the show. Especially in the dismantling period.
II. Framework:
With the challenge on the recovery process at the product end-of-life stage and the closed-loop supply chain, I am interested in knowing the possible application of the closed-loop supply chain in the exhibition industry and the exhibitors’ attitude toward the co-operation in the recovery process at the end of the exhibition, the last exhibition day in the dismantling period. Figure 4 shows what is expected to know about exhibitors’ attitude, current practice and future needs for Green Exhibition in this paper.
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Figure 4: The main theme of this paper is to find out the exhibitors’ insight toward green exhibition.
The 2 frameworks I use will have the function to firstly assess the positions of each stakeholders in the sustainability stages, and then find the possible solution from the 2nd framework to the next sustainability strategy for the industry. Thus, the first framework we will use is the 5 stages of change in sustainability by Nidumolu et al (2009) to assess the current stage of the sustainability execution by various stakeholders of Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center Hall 1 (including the venue itself) in Taiwan’s exhibition industry. Followed by that, I will use “The Integrated Framework: Open Business models in Extended Product Life Cycles” by Kortmann & Piller (2016); though it is related to the management of the manufacturer, we intend to use this framework to be applied to the exhibition industry to seek the possible sustainability approaches for the industry to apply in the future.
A. The 5 Stages of Change in Sustainability:
From the research of Nidumolu et al, (2009), most organizations go through 5 stages after they start the journey in sustainability with different challenges and
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would at the same time acquire capabilities through these challenges.
1. Stage 1: Viewing Compliance as opportunities
Nidumolu et al, (2009) mentioned that most companies decide to start the sustainability because of the law. On the other hand, there are also some pressures from external parties, like non-government agencies or other industry parties who advocate the green practices. By adopting sustainability, companies not only can take the advantage to be in the preemptive position in the competing market, but also can perform the role to lead and shape related environmental regulations; Nidumolu et al took HP as an example to spot out this critical point: HP turned to be able to reduce costs and increase its brand reputation by its decision to take the lead.
2. Stage 2: Making Value Chains Sustainable
In stage 2, Nidumolu et al, (2009) indicated that most of the organizations might choose to reduce the consumption of renewable resources (like water, and timber), and non-renewable resources (like coal and natural gas). The development of the sustainable operations extends to the whole value chain, first from the supply chain and later move to the area of product returned; “at this stage, corporations work with suppliers and retailers to develop eco-friendly raw materials and components and reduce waste (Nidumolu et al, 2009, p.59).”
a. The effort in the supply chain:
From the examples of Cargill and Uniliver, Nidumole et al (2009) found that most large companies might provide incentives to their suppliers for
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the environmental practice. It draws my attention that with incentives, suppliers or some stakeholders are more willing to adopt sustainability. Of course, Nudumole et al also suggested some management tools upon implementation, such as energies analysis, carbon foot print analysis, and life-cycle assessment.
b. Returns:
In Stage 2, companies try to reuse the returned products and recapture the value from them; Nidumolu et al, (2009) raised the point that this practice might create profits to the companies and create the environmental friendly image to the companies.
3. Stage 3: Designing Sustainable Products and Services
After evolving to stage 3, companies have developed some competence and tools from the last 2 stages. Nidumolu et al, (2009) found that companies in this stage are more able to discover the environmental un-friendly products they have and try to re-design their products to be more environmental friendly; take Procter & Gamble as an example, they shifted their detergents to cold-water detergents to reduce the energies consumption of the washing machine in the house hold to heat water when washing clothes.
4. Stage 4: Developing New Business Models:
The key successful factors in developing new business models in stage 4 is proposed by Nidumolu et al, (2009, p63) to be having an innovative way to gain revenues and providing services with other companies in tandem. In the article, Nidumolu et al used FedEx’s combing its print shop with the delivering services by providing the clients a new way for delivering the
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copies of their documents, that is to provide the electronic file to the printing shops in the destination city and FedEx will deliver the copies printed by the printing shop next morning. In this way, it shortens the time for the clients to get the copies of the documents to be delivered; on the other hand, it also makes the whole delivery process became more eco-friendly as FedEx’s trucks only spend few time to deliver the documents. Another example raised by Nidumolu et al is the Waste Management Company who collect the electronic waste by partnering with Sony in the US market; later, it shows that Waste Management Company can reduce waste and even create recovery value from the waste they collected through this partnership. Finally, Nidumolu et al indicated that the development of the technologies also helps to develop new business models. “Developing a new business model requires exploring alternatives to current ways of doing business as well as understanding how companies can meet customer’s needs differently (Nidumolu et al, 2009, p64).”
5. Stage 5: Creating New Practice Platforms
In stage 5, Nidumolu et al (2009, p64) considered the influence of the sustainability developments for the companies would not be only limit to one single market but create new practice platforms (even cross industry platform is possible), such as using digital technologies to manage energy.
From Nidumoku et al’s (2009) point of view, they considered most of the companies start to enter stage 1 in the sustainability initiatives because of the compliance of the governmental regulations. Actually, in Taiwan’s exhibition industry, companies started adopting going green policy is from the
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encouragement of the government rather than the compliance to the regulations. The leading firms in the industry even started it due to their willingness to follow the global going green trend in the industry and their determination to be in the leading position in the local market. On the other hand, some associations pursue sustainability in organizing the exhibition to create positive eco-friendly image for their industry. So, the exhibition industry in Taiwan shows that the motives for companies to enter stage 1 of change in sustainability is not only confined to the compliance point of view. Figure 5 shows what Nidumolu et al (2009) considered the competences needed for the companies in each of the 5 stages of Change in Sustainability.
Figure 5: 5 Stages of change in sustainability & the competence needed, Nidumolu et al (2009)
When using the competence needed in each stage to assess the stakeholders in Taiwan’s Exhibition Industry, Figure 6 (in next page) shows the positions of TAITRA as the venue provider & show organizers, of other show organizers, and
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decorators. Due to the Taiwanese government’s Green MICE Project of MEET TAIWAN, some of the show organizers and decorators are willing to enter to the field in the stage 1 of sustainability. In stage 2 – making value chain sustainable, we also have some show organizers and decorators they won the incentives awards from the Green MICE Project of MEET TAIWAN and adopt Green MICE Guidelines. On the other hand, the F&B contractors of Nangang Exhibition Hall are influenced by the venue’s ISO20121 certification, they are willing to comply with the requirements from the hall. Finally, in stage 3, we have TAITRA and some show organizers and decorators who are willingly to design sustainable products and services in their business. Overall, the progress of going green in Taiwan’s exhibition industry is in stage 3.
Figure 6: The stakeholders’ positions in the sustainability stages in Taiwan’s Exhibition Industry, source of ISO20121 certification list: TAITRA
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B. The Integrated Framework: Open Business Models in Extended Product Life Cycles:
With the sustainability developments, it is critical to develop a new business models in the 4th stage in the previous framework. Kortmann & Piller (2016) raised the 9 archetypes of sustainability-oriented business models in extended product cycles (Figure 7), which gives us the direction to think of the possible models to be adopted in the future for Taiwan’s exhibition industry in the industry.
Figure 7: The Integrated Framework: Open Business models in Extended Product Life Cycles, Kortmann & Piller (2006, p. 91)
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Kortmann & Piller (2016) viewed a sustainability solution for firms is to adopt the close-loop value chain (including the production stage, the consumption stage and the subsequent circulation stage) to create a system to maximize the value for the entire product life cycle; thus, the 9 archetypes of business models were proposed to the manufacturers to rethink about their business models and shift the models to be closer to the close-loop value chain which could contribute to the circular economy: from Maker Economy to circular economy and from production to circulation. From Figure 5, the models are composed by 2 axes, the vertical axe is the type of horizontal collaborations (individual firms, alliances and platforms); the horizontal axe is the 3 stages of value chain (from forward value chain to close-loop value chain). Each model involves the activities or collaboration among the focal firm, consumers, and suppliers.
Base on different involvements among the stakeholders and the outputs (goods, value-added services, and re-acquired products), the 9 types of business models proposed by Kortmann & Piller (2016) are as follows: (1) Transaction Oriented Manufacturer (2) The Servitizing Manufacturer (3) The Rebound Manufacturer (4) The Creating Manufacturer (5) The Maker-Platform Operator (6) The Co-Creating Service Provider (7) The Sharing Platform Operator (8) Recycling Alliance (9) The Circulation-Platform Operator. Although the framework from Kortmann & Piller (2016) was proposed for the manufacturer, if we view the stakeholders in the whole exhibition supply chain as the manufacturer, in which the show organizer organizes the show, the venue provides the space for producting the products (exhibition), and the decorators perform as the suppliers to produce the decorated booths and the layout of the exhibtion; with this sense, the consumers will be the
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exhibitors. With this perspective, the current business model in Taiwan’s exhibtion industry (stage 3 in Nidumolu et al’s framework) belongs to the 2nd model: The Servitizing Manufacturer (Figure 8) which focus on providing value-added services to the consumers in the consumption stage. Take Nanagnag Hall 1 as an example, it provides some value-added services in green initiatives, such as the LED pannel and free recycle bins for collecting badges during exhibitions.
Figure 8: The current business model and the possibility for future models in Taiwan’s exhibition industry
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With the identification of the Servitizing Manufacturer business model, according to Kortmann & Piller’s framework (2016), Taiwan’s exhibition industry has the possibility to shift to the following 3 business models in the future (the red arrows in Figure 6): co-creating service provider, rebound manufacturer or recycling alliance. In the stage 5 of sustainability development, creating a new practice model is the main focos; at that time, the possible business model will be the 2 indicated by the yellow frame in figure 6.
A. Co-creating service provider:
According to Kortmann & Piller (2016), this business model opens the chance for consumers to participate under the joint services provided by an alliance composed by firms with/without suppliers. Through the partnership, all the members in the alliance could benefit from capturing the value for the users. In the co-creating service provider models, it belongs to towards the sharing economy category defined by Kortmann & Piller.
B. Rebound manufacturer:
In this business model, Kortmann & Piller (2016) explained that consumers sell their products to others via platforms or make disposal at the end of consumption, which involves the integration of closed-loop value chain. After consumption, most of the consumers face the uncertainties associated with demands and cost to sell the used products. In this condition, they are more willing to return the products to the manufacturer (seller) when not having extra costs. “The products are dissembled and useable elements (materials, parts, components, or subassemblies) cleaned, reconditioned, refurbished, and put
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into inventory (Kortmann & Piller, 2016, p. 94).” In this sense, the rebound manufacturer can benefit from producing the products with usable elements, which further creates the circular value of the products.
In the exhibition industry, the decorators have the greatest benefit to become a rebound manufacturer if they are willing to invest in reusable module materials for the booths designed to their clients.
C. Recycling alliance:
In this business model, the members in the alliance specialize to re-acquire the used products after the consumption from the consumers, Kortmann & Piller (2016, p. 100) also mentioned that this alliance is driven by “ecological, social, and economic goals” and composed by various stakeholders, such as consumers, local communities, NGOs, local city government and other firms.
It is clear that among the 3 possible business models, the Recycling alliance is the most challenging one due to the scope of the stakeholders involved are more than the other two business models (Co-creating service provider business model & Rebound manufacturer business model). Especially the involvement of the communities and the local city government becomes a critical challenge for establish the Recycling alliance.
As the Co-creating service provider business model and the Recycling alliance business model both require the involvement of consumers, to know whether these 2 models are suitable for Taiwan’s exhibition industry or not, it is
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necessary to know the insights and attitude from the consumers. Thus, in the later section of this paper, we conduct the survey to the exhibitors participated in Taiwan’s exhibition to know their willingness to participate to facilitate green exhibition.
III. Current Green Practices of Stakeholders in Taiwan’s Exhibition Industry: In the perspective of the exhibition hall, the stakeholders of an exhibitions are shown in Figure 9. As we already discussed the influence from the Taiwanese government in the introduction, in this section, we discuss the current practice of stakeholders (exclude government) in green exhibition in Taiwan.
Figure 9: Exhibition Stakeholders of Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center Hall 1
A. Venue: Taipei Nangang International Exhibition Center, Hall 1
Taipei Nangang International Exhibition Center, Hall 1 (Nangang Hall 1) was the 1st purpose-built multi-functional exhibition hall and 1st green building exhibition hall in Taiwan to meet the growing demand for large exhibitions and events. Under the management of TAITRA, Nangang Hall 1 has consistently
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pursue the concept of going green since its grand opening in 2008 by advocating 3Rs (reduce, reuse and recycle) and has tried to reduce energy consumption, increasing energy efficiency and minimize CO2 emissions. Among the 9 targets of the green building label issued by the Ministry of The Interior Taiwan, Nangang Hall 1 has achieved 7 of the targets (Table 2).
Table 2: Green Building Label: Targets & current practice of Nangang Hall 1, source: TAITRA
From Table 2, it is apparent that the next step for Nangang Hall 1 as a green building is to reduce the waste. From 2011, with the determination be the leader in the local market and later be encouraged by the Green MICE Project of the Taiwanese government, TAITRA started its journey in ISO certification for Nangang Hall 1 to meet the global trend in the industry. The hall has won many 1sts in Taiwan’s exhibition industry and has certified by international standards as shown in Figure 10 in the next page.
32 Figure 10: Certificated of Nangang Hall 1
From the materials and the photos provided by TAITRA, the Green practices for Nangang Hall 1 include the following aspects:
A. Transportation: encourage all visitors come to the shows via public transportation as the metro station is right next to the exhibition hall.
B. Energy Saving-Lighting: Nangang Hall 1 cut the number of the fluorescent light and supply lighting base on the actual need. This practice reduced use of lighting tubes saves 48,945 KWH each year.
C. E-bulletin boards replaces traditional posters and signage.
Picture 1: LCD signage in front of conference room and LED signage at the entrance of the showground, source: TAITRA
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D. Encourage use of second-hand carpets, or no carpets on the main aisle
Picture 2: no carpets on the main aisle, source: TAITRA
E. Encourage show organizers to use reusable modules for their information board and registration desk
Picture 3: reusable modules design of the information desk by organizer, Creative Expo Taiwan, source: TAITRA
F. Use the Energy Management System to analyze and monitor the consumption of energy
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Picture 4: the EMS system of Nangang Hall 1, source: TAITRA
With the above practice, Nangang Hall 1 is considered in this paper to be in stage 3 of the path to sustainability raised by Nidumolu et al (2009) in which stage the main challenge is “to develop sustainable offerings or redesign existing ones to become eco-friendly (Nidumolu et al, 2009, p60).” With the adoption of ISO international standard, Nangang Hall 1 is ready to step into stage 4: developing new business models. According to Nidumolu et al (2009), in stage 4, companies need to understand the consumers’ needs and try to fulfill their demand in another way; at the same time, companies also need to know the way their partners can assist to enhance the value created from their offerings. This corresponds to the main purpose of this paper to conduct the survey to gain consumers’ insights from the exhibitors in the exhibition.
B. Show Organizers:
TAITRA, not only the venue provider but Taiwan’s biggest show organizer, also endeavors itself to organize exhibitions which meet Green concept. Table 3 shows the green achievement of the exhibitions organized by TAITRA in recent years.
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Table 3: Green achievements of the exhibitions organized by TAITRA, source: TAITRA
TAITRA performs the role as the pioneer in practicing green concept in Taiwan, this also becomes the main driver for the company to consistently pursue sustainability. On the other hand, as the executor of the Green MICE project of MEET TAIWAN, TAITRA also assists and advocates the application of Green initiatives to other show organizers in Taiwan’s exhibition industry. Table 4 shows the green achievements of the other local show organizers by their spontaneous participation in the journey of going green.
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Table 4: Green achievements of the other local show organizers in Taiwan, source: TAITRA
Regarding to the Green practices of the show-organizers, take TPCA show 2016 as the example, some of the creative green initiatives include:
1. Setting a re-cycle area for the wastes of 5 categories and assign a lady from the cleaning company to assist the exhibitors and decorators to throw away the wastes during the exhibition. The 5 categories of wastes are general wastes, PET bottle, glass, paper, and iron/aluminum can.
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Picture 5: Recycle area in TPCA show 2016, source: TAITRA
2. Using recycled corrugated cardboard on the information board:
Picture 6: TPCA show 2016 used recycled material in the show
3. Setting up an information board & CSR display area in the show to promote Green concept adopted by the organizer in this show.
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Picture 7: TPCA show 2016 advocated Green concept and promote its CSR result, source: TAITRA
4. Use of e-registration with smart phone to replace traditional paper registration
Picture 8: Use smart phone as the registration tool in TPCA Show 2016, source: TAITRA
5. Exhibition badge recycle: TPCA donated NT$3 (around €0.09) per badge recycled back in the show.
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6. Invited exhibitors in the TPCA show to participate the i-ECO Booth design award, and provided great exposure for those who participate by the award announcement board.
Picture 10: The I-Eco Booth Design award announcement board in TPCA Show 2016, source: TAITRA
From the above achievements and the green practices adopted by the show organizers in Taiwan, it is clear that some of the show organizers are in the leading position to do their best to set the models in the industry. It is foreseeable that in the future, there are more and more show organizers are on the way to enter the journey of going green by the influence of the industry leaders and by the Green MICE project. With the development of green practices among the show organizers, it is considered that they are already in stage 3 of the sustainability, which is in the same stage as Nangang Hall 1.
C. Decorators:
The potential business opportunities for decorators in the exhibition industry comes from two sources: the decorations of the exhibitions from the demand of
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the show organizers and the booth decorations from exhibitors in the show. While there is only one official decorator for the exhibition, there are many decorators could do the booth design and propose to the exhibitors to get the business. So, the decorators’ ability to design the booth which satisfies the clients become their competence to compete in exhibitors’ booth design market.
Among all the decorators in Taiwan’s Exhibition industry, there are 4 decorators who are actively participating the Green initiatives due to the influence of TAITRA. As every trade shows needs to have an official decorator for the exhibition’s overall decorations, and TAITRA organizes around 40 trade shows every year which is considered a very attractive business for the big decorators in Taiwan to compete in the bidding process per every few years when TAITRA needs to start a new contract with the official decorators. On the other hand, from the advocation by the Green MICE project, the 4 leading decorators are incentivized to pursue the ISO20121 Event Sustainability certification.
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With the achievement from the 4 decorators who leads the decorative market in Taiwan and could further create influence power, it is assessed that they are already in stage 3 of the sustainability, which is in the same stage as Nangang Hall 1 and the show organizers. Overall, the sustainability development of the 3 important stakeholders are in the same stage, which already shows that some of the shows from TAITRA (listed in Table 3) and other local show organizers (listed in Table 4) already execute the close-loop supply chain in the perspective of the official exhibition decorative design to meet the green demand of the show organizers (using module designs but not woodwork design). Yet, every exhibition still has a lot of decorative wastes from the booth designs of the exhibitors, so it is critical to further find the way to improve to reduce the waste from this source.
D. Exhibitors:
So far, some of the exhibitors in Taiwan were reached by Green MICE orientations; yet, majority of them are still unexposed to the concept of green exhibitions. Their willingness and attitude to adopt green initiatives are still un-known.
Regarding to the booth design, most of the exhibitors pursue the beauty and the great appearance of booth design which could attract buyers and visitors’ attention to visit. It leads to the result that many exhibitors’ booths are in woodwork designs rather than module designs. Decorators need to compete to win the business from exhibitors; thus, to fulfill the demand of the appearance and functions of the booth design has become more important for most of the
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decorators rather than thinking of the green concept when raising the proposal.
Picture 11: the woodwork designs of the booths in the exhibitions in Taiwan, source: TAITRA
In additions, green initiatives have long been perceived to be costly by public, this might also influence the willingness of the exhibitors’ adoption, although it has already been discussed by scholars (Dowell & Muthulingam, 2016, p.1287) that it is not necessary to be costly to be green (in some situations/ cases, even it is possible to have positive financial performance to be green). Overall, it leads to the result that many exhibitors have their booth design to be woodwork design, which creates a lot of wastes unable to reuse or recycle after the show (picture 12).
Picture 12: The wastes from the woodwork booth designs which can not be reused and recycled, source: TAITRA
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On the other hand, there are some wastes left by the exhibitors after the show during the move-out dismantling period in their booths, items like bottled water, flowers/plants, giveaways, flyers/ booklets. It becomes critical to reduce the waste from the woodwork design of booth and brought in to the exhibition in Taiwan.
Picture 13: the wastes from the exhibitors after the show, source: TAITRA
E. Attendees:
Attendees (buyers and visitors of the exhibitions) attend exhibitions or seminars organized by the show organizers, so if the show organizers and the venue can adopt green initiatives, it can influence the attendees’ behaviors in the exhibition. The followings are some green practices arranged by the organizer or the venue.
1. There are recycle bins in the venue to encourage attendees’ assistance to recycle the wastes.
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Picture 14: the recycle area in the showground for attendees to throw the wastes in Nangang Hall 1, source: TAITRA
2. The recycled badge bin provided in the show for the attendees to throw the badges after visiting.
Picture 15: Badge recycle bins provided by the venue, source: TAITRA
3. The organizers encourage attendees to bring their own container/bottle for the drinks provided in the tea breaks.
IV. Company Survey Results, Implications & Managerial Recommendations “To design sustainable products, companies have to understand consumer
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concerns are carefully examine product life cycles (Nidumolu et al, 2009, p.63).” Thus, if we would like to think of the future strategies for the sustainability development for green exhibitions, we need to understand what the exhibitors think toward the exhibitions.
A. Research Method & Data Collection:
We conduct a survey in Computex Taipei 2018 in June, the 2nd largest IoT show in the world, to try to understand the exhibitors. The show is chosen due to the scope of the show provide us the opportunity to reach the greatest number of the exhibitors in one single exhibition in Taiwan. On the other hand, the show has the ability to generate the exhibitors from the local market as well as from the world. In 2018, Computex Taipei attracted 641 exhibitors to exhibit in Nangang Hall 1 with total use of 2,467 standard booths during 5th to 9th June. We distributed the questionnaire to the exhibitors who have their booths in Nangang Hall 1 in the language of Chinese to local exhibitors and in the language of English to those from overseas countries during the exhibition. Total number of returned questionnaires is 313 among the 641 exhibitors, the reply rate is 49%, nearly half of the exhibitors in Nangang Hall 1 shared their insights with us.
⚫ 128 exhibitors have already heard of the Green Exhibition concept. ⚫ 249 exhibitors bring back their flyers and booklets to reuse.
⚫ 207 exhibitors bring back their giveaways to reuse. ⚫ 186 exhibitors bring back their show-bags to reuse.
⚫ 63 exhibitors bring back their flowers and plants. 61 exhibitors are willing to order from flower suppliers who were able to reuse and recycle the flowers and plants.
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⚫ 143 exhibitors bring back the un-opened bottle water to their company; and 17 exhibitors return the bottle water to the suppliers. On the other hand, 106 exhibitors are willing to donate them after the show, and 70 exhibitors are willing to order from the suppliers who can collect the un-opened bottle water to reuse or recycle them after the show.
⚫ 131 exhibitors are willingly to consider using reusable material with module design.
⚫ 104 exhibitors believe the booth decorators’ design ability and choose the booth design from one of the proposals.
⚫ 157 exhibitors have the interest to find the decorators who are motived to design green booths if there is a platform providing related services.
B. Results & Implication:
The survey begins with asking the exhibitors whether they have heard of Green exhibition or Green MICE, surprisingly among 313 of the responses nearly 40.9% of the exhibitors (128 exhibitors) have already heard of the concept (Figure 11). If we convert the 128 exhibitors to be the ratio among all exhibitors in Nangang Hall 1, there is around 20% of exhibitors already has already heard of green exhibition. This implies that the Green MICE project has gradually created its influence to promote Green concept to exhibitors.
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Figure 11: among 313 responses, around 40.9% of the exhibitors already heard of Green exhibitions or Green MICE
Are they prepared to execute the Green Exhibition? In the questionnaire, we mainly divided the questions into 3 areas: (1) the way they deal with the items they brought to their booth after the show, (2) their attitude about the booth design and their willingness to consider using reusable module design for their booths, and (3) their willingness to use the digital platform as one of the application for green exhibition.
1. The items exhibitors brought in to the booths:
By investigating how exhibitors deal with the items they brought in to their booths which might potentially become wastes left in the venue, we asked them to reply the way they arrange the items like flyers & booklets, giveaways, show bags, flowers & plants, and bottle water. In Figure 12, it shows that actually among the 313 responded, most of the exhibitors choose to bring back the flyers & booklets, giveaways and showbags to their company to reuse them.
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Figure 12: The ways exhibitors in Computex Taipei 2018 deal with the items they bring in
Yet, flowers & plants, and the bottle water are the items the exhibitors are most likely to leave them in the booths after the show. Figure 13 shows that around 40% (125 exhibitor) of them left the flowers & plants in the booth.
Figure 13: 40% exhibitors of Nangang Hall 1 in Computex Taipei 2018 left flowers & plants in the venue after the show
On the other hand, regarding to bottle water, around 46% of the exhibitors would bring back the bottle water to their company, there is around 27% of the exhibitors they left them in the booth after the show (Figure 14). It is also interesting to know that there are already 5% of the exhibitors returned the bottle water to the supplier. It is an important implication that some bottle
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water suppliers already can adopt the return process and provide the service to exhibitors in Taiwan.
Figure 14: 27% of the exhibitors in Nangang Hall 1 left bottle water in the venue after Computex 2018.
From the survey results, we also find that the exhibitors tend to bring back the items with the logo or information of the companies which creates the value to reuse, for example, the flyers & booklets, giveaways, and the show bag with the prints of company logo. For the perishable items like flowers & plants and the commodities like bottle water, they are more easily to be considered not so valuable to the company, so the possibility of them to be thrown away in the booth after the show is higher. Thus, we further ask about their willingness to order longer living plants which could be reused by others or be donated rather than flowers, and the willingness to donate the un-opened bottle water after the show. The results show that among 313 questionnaires received, there is around 24% of the exhibitors (75 exhibitors) is willing to order longer living plants (Figure 15). For the willingness to donate the un-opened bottle water, 106 among 313 exhibitors (34%) are willing to donate them after the show (Figure 16).
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Figure 15: 24% of the exhibitors is willing to order flowers & plants with longer lives
Figure 16: 34% of the exhibitors in Nangang Hall 1 is willing to donate un-opened bottle water
The above results imply that the exhibitors are more willingly to donate the bottle water rather than ordering plants with longer lives. The donation of the bottle water will be a solution to reduce the waste in the venue.
On the other hand, to further reduce the wastes, is it possible for the exhibitors to order from the suppliers who can collect back the flowers/plants and bottle water during the move-out period after the show? By asking the question “If there were flower suppliers who were able to reuse and recycle
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the flowers and plants, would you be willing to order from them?” 61 out of 313 exhibitors which is around 20% of them are willing to order from them.
Figure 17: Around 20% of the exhibitors in Nangang Hall 1 are willing to order from the suppliers who can reuse and recycle the flowers/ plants
For the bottle water, around 22% of the exhibitors (70 out of 313 questionnaires received) is willing to order from the suppliers who can collect the un-opened bottle water to reuse or recycle them after the show.
Figure 18: Around 22% of the exhibitors in Nangang Hall 1 are willing to order from the supplier who can reuse and recycle un-opened bottle water
The results imply that there are some exhibitors already have the willingness to take the actions to donate bottle water and ordering flowers and bottle water from the suppliers who can adopt closed-loop supply chain. Though
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the percentage of the expressed exhibitors is not big among the whole exhibitors in Nangang Hall 1 (Figure 19 – 21), if we can take improve the green practice by small steps and take actions, there is the way for the hall to reduce the wastes left by the exhibitors.
Figure 19: 17% of the exhibitors of Nangang Hall 1 in Computex Taipei 2018 is willing to donate the un-opened bottle water
Figure 20: 9% of the exhibitors of Nangang Hall 1 in Computex Taipei 2018 is willing to order from the suppliers who were able to reuse and recycle the flowers and plants
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Figure 21: 11% of the exhibitors of Nangang Hall a in Computex Taipei 2018 is willing to order from the suppliers who were able to reuse and recycle the flowers and plants
2. The booth design:
In the section of booth design, we firstly investigate what kind of the booths the exhibitors have in Computex Taipei 2018. Among 313 quesionnaires received, around 42% of the exhibitors (132 exhibitors) have woodwork design of the booths, which is considered producing reusable and non-recycled wastes to the environment (Figure 22). If we convert the 132 exhibitors who use woodwork design of the booth to the ratio among all the exhibitors in Nangang Hall 1, it means that nearly 20.5% of the exhibitors already known to have un-environmental design of booth.
Figure 22: around 42% of the exhibitors in Nangang Hall 1 have woodwork design of the booths.
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We further probed to ask them if they are currently discussing reusable material with the booth decorator, none of them has this practice. Thus, we would like to know the importance of some of the booth designs elements to them, including the overall booth design, the cost of the booth design & construction, the use of woodwork booth design, reducing waste from the selection of the material, and consideration of the safety of workers in building and dismantling the booth. The results in Figure 23 shows that from the 255 responses, the importance of using woodwork design is perceived relatively unimportant than other elements like the overall design of the booth and the cost of the booth design and construction.
Figure 23: The exhibitors’ perception to the importance of the elements in booth design (from 255 exhibitors)
We also find that most of the exhibitors consider reducing waste from the selection of the material and the safety of the workers in building/dismantling the booths are more important then the use of the woodwork designs. It implies that these exhibitors already have the concept of thinking about the “people” in triple-bottom-line thinking (profit, people and planet) of the sustainability adoption.
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Thirdly, we raised the key question by asking “Are you willing to consider using reusable material with module design for your booth?” We get very positive result that over half of the exhibitors responded to this question, 131 out of 313 exhibitors are willingly to consider using reusable material with module design. There are around 42% of the exhibitors of Nangang Hall 1 in Computex Taipei already expressed their positive attitude toward Green exhibition.
Figure 24: 42% of the exhibitors is willingly to consider using reusable material with module design.
Figure 25: 20% of exhibitors of Nangang Hall 1 in Computex Taipei expressed positively to module design.
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Finally, we like to know how the exhibitors decide their booth designs. We find that though there 39% of the handed in questionnaires do not reply this question, around 33% of the exhibitors of Nangang Hall 1 (104 exhibitors) believe the booth decorators’ design ability and choose the booth design from one of the proposals. This implies that if the decorators can propose the green booth designs to the exhibitors, it will be the chance for Taiwan’s MICE industry to facilitate the development of Green exhibitions. On the other hand, there are also around 19% of the exhibitors will raise the ideas to the decorators to design the booth. If there are more and more exhibitors could know the green booth concepts, there is a bigger chance that the exhibitors are willingly to open the discussions of green booth design with their decorators.
Figure 26: 33% of the exhibitors choose the booth designs from decorators’ proposal.
3. The exhibitors’ willingness to use the digital platform:
As from Nidumolu et al (2009), the last stage of sustainability development is to develop a platform. On the other hand, in Kortmann & Piller’s business models related to sustainability developments (2016), when the firms can
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integrate resources and adopt closed-loop supply chain, it will lead the business to the scope of circular economy. Thus, for the possibility of long-term potential development of Taiwan’s Exhibition industry to step into the circular business model, we ask the exhibitors to reply the question “If there is a digital platform to facilitate Green Exhibitions by providing certain services, which of the following services you will be interested in using?”
Figure 27: the exhibitors’ willingness to use the service in the platform
Among 313 questionnaires received, there are 157 of them (around 50%) have the interest to find the decorators who are motived to design green booths. This reply reveals the fact that 157 exhibitors of Nanagang Hall 1 in Computex Taipei (around 24.5% of the exhibitors in Nangang Hall 1) are actually willing to cooperate with the decorators who have green knowledge to develop the booth for them. If there is a platform, they are willing to use the platform to find this kind of decorators. Regarding to the 2nd popular services in the digital platform is to find suppliers for giveaways made from environmental friendly material. It implies that a portion of the exhibitors are willingly to consider using environmental giveaways with their company information to create positive image for the firm. Follow by this service is the
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donation. Followed by that, it comes the service of donation in the platform. There are also 52 exhibitors are willing to order their flowers or plants with the suppliers who can do the arrangement of the product returns. From the result, we also get to know that 42 exhibitors (13.4% among 313 questionnaires received) of Nangang Hall 1 are not willing to use platforms.
This survey result also shows that the decorators plays a key role for the next step sustainability development in Taiwan’s exhibition industry. In the future, when the industry’s development steps into stage 5 in Nidumolu et al’s framework (2009) to develop platform, there are already at least 24.5% of the exhibitors would like to try to use to find the green decorators in this platform. If the exhibitors are willing to use the services provided from the platform, it will have higher possibility for them to be willing to integrate their process management (Circular Platform Operator business model, Kortmann & Piller, 2016) to participate the exhibition via platform if the sustainability development becomes more mature in Taiwan’s exhibition industry.
By reviewing the hypothesis, we set previously, we confirm that all the 3 hypotheses are true.
1. Product design of exhibition booths can benefit by green designs and depends on the exhibitors’ attitude or willingness for reuse of booths. 2. The product life value can be extended if exhibitors are willing to use modular booth design.
