Managers' interpretations of LCA: enlightenment and responsibility or confusion and denial?

Environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) and ‘life cycle thinking’ are popular approaches to evaluate and manage the environmental aspects of products. While LCA has been propagated as a decision‐making tool, the interest here is in LCA as a mental model, which managers may interpret and enact differently. If LCA and ‘life cycle thinking’ manage to infuse organizations with an extended sense of responsibility, this could counteract some of the ‘organized irresponsibility’ of modern markets. However, LCA use may also lead to confusion, doubt and denial. This article explores potential managerial interpretations of LCA with a small illustration from the wholesale trade, and through a conceptualization of the illustration in terms of Hatch's ( 1993 ) dynamic model of organizational culture. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Business strategy for sustainable development: Impact of life cycle inventory and life cycle impact assessment steps in supply chain design and planning

Sustainability reporting has become a central instrument in displaying a company's strategy and engagement with a more sustainable society. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is an important tool in this context as it is aimed to analyze the entire life cycle of the product/service, instead of focusing on one focal firm. However, the lack of standardized guidelines in its application raises questions regarding the usefulness and validity of results. This study contributes to the improvement of sustainability reporting through the identification of the uncertainty sources in life cycle methodologies that have the biggest impact in the definition of business and environmental strategies, exploring a supply chain‐oriented analysis. The focus is on life cycle inventory (LCI) and life cycle impact assessment (LCIA). A multiobjective optimization‐based methodology is applied to a supply chain case study in the pulp and paper industry. Environmental and economic objectives are considered. Results show that different LCIA methods and different normalization data sets result in significantly different business and environmental strategies. However, different system models and cultural perspectives at the LCI step and variations in the characterization factors tend to lead to the same decisions. Important insights are gained regarding the impact of nonstandardized analysis of the application of LCA in supply chain design and planning decisions and consequently on business strategy definition and sustainability reporting. Furthermore, the importance of operations research methods to improve LCA‐based studies and of bridging the gap between LCA and supply chain management bodies of knowledge is highlighted in this work.     

基于生命周期分析的绿色供应链管理研究

绿色供应链管理被认为是企业实现绿色化的最有效的工具之一。生命周期分析是对产品或服务在其全生命周期内各个阶段对环境影响识别和评价的一个工具,文章首先分析了生命周期分析与绿色供应链管理的概念及两者之间的并行性关系,然后对生命周期分析在绿色供应链管理的应用领域、模式及设计进行了分析研究。     

Economics of life cycle assessment: Inefficiency of the present approach

From an economic perspective, tools of environmental management must be eco‒efficient, i.e. they have to be economically efficient and they must lead to ecologically sound decisions. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is regarded as one of the most important environmental management tools today. It attempts to record and assess all the environmental impacts of the whole life cycle of a product. The potential benefits of LCA have been discussed extensively. However, the costs and the effects actually achieved have been vastly neglected. Economic analysis shows that the present approach of LCA is economically inefficient compared with site‒specific environmental management, and that it is likely to result in ecologically wrong decisions. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Life cycle assessment in the food supply chain: a case study

This research aims at assessing the environmental impact of the poultry supply chain from cradle to grave using case study research and also life cycle assessment (LCA). While a limited number of generic poultry production LCA studies have been published, fewer yet assess the whole process of a specific organisation, none comparing the increased impact of further processing. Our results show that irrespectively of the impact assessment method utilised, the process of producing portions is considerably higher in total environmental impact due to the extra raw material required to produce the same mass into retail. Our research contributes to the growing number of LCA studies and could be used by practitioners for comparison against national and international averages. From a theoretical point of view, this research provides new insights into the relationship between vertically integrated supply chains and environmental performance which has not been examined in the past.     

教学楼全生命周期碳排放测算与减排策略研究

目前,建筑工程的碳排放问题日益成为热点话题。基于生命周期评价理论(LCA),选取某教学楼工程作为案例进行研究,搜集、整理该教学楼的相关数据,对其生命周期各阶段碳排放量进行了分析计算,并提出相应的减排策略。     

The ABC-LCA method for the integration of activity-based costing and life cycle assessment

This article presents an approach to integrating life cycle assessment (LCA) into an activity-based costing (ABC) model to develop a steering system that takes into account both financial costs and associated environmental impacts. By combining the formalism of LCA and ABC matrix calculations, we show how impact assessment results can be affiliated with costs to jointly and simultaneously compute the costs and environmental impacts of products and activities. The conditions of integration are developed following the four-step structure of LCA. The proposal is applied to a simplified case study of the ‘Classic Pen Company.’ The developed ABC-LCA approach paves the way for further test applications, which are considered useful in the context of environmental indicators for strategic steering, communication with customers and forecasting or simulation.     

Misalignment between societal well-being and business profit maximization: The case of New York taxis drivers’ incentive system

Objectives of business sustainability efforts commonly include increasing consumer safety, decreasing resource consumption, and decreasing pollution. Even though there is a societal interest in attaining these goals, business and other economic agents often operate under incentive structures that run counter to these objectives. Taxi drivers operate as economic independents. Their revenue depends on their fares and tips. Moreover they choose how many hours to work, how fast to drive, and which route to take. Using New York City taxi data from 2013, we test the level of alignment between the revenue maximizing behavior of drivers versus safety, conservation and pollution-related outcomes that are valued by stakeholders. We find substantial misalignment—i.e., in order to maximize revenue, drivers take inefficient routes and they exceed the speed limit thus decreasing safety, increasing fuel consumption and increasing air pollution. Based on these empirical results, we suggest methods of aligning societal goals with those of revenue maximizing taxi drivers.     

LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT AND INNOVATION IN LARGE FIRMS

Life cycle assessment (LCA) applications within large European firms are discussed. Many industrial applications have been proposed for cradle to grave assessments of environmental burdens of products, including technology design and optimization, technology strategy, green marketing and environmental foresight. There is evidence of a growth of LCA competences and applications within industrial firms, although there are few examples of systematic applications of the instrument in business decisions. The influence of life cycle approaches on the generation of product and process innovations is assessed. The paper argues against the assumption that LCA will be ‘internalized’ pervasively across industry. Commodity producers will maintain externally oriented approaches, whereas some engineering based final goods producers may find more routine uses for internally oriented LCAs. These applications may influence technological innovation. In most cases the capacity to appropriate LCA-based innovations will be constrained.     

全寿命周期集成化管理模式的思想和组织

决策阶段开发管理（DM）,实施阶段业主项目管理（OPM）和运营阶段物业管理（FM）在建设项目传统管理模式中相互独立,导致许多弊端,主要表现在最终用户需求自决策阶段开始就得不到准确的定义,项目参与各方所拥有的知识和经验不能很好地为全寿命周期目标的实现服务。对不同阶段之间界面很难进行有效的组织和管理、全寿命周期不同阶段生成的信息不能共享。本文提出了建设项目全寿命周期集成化管理（LCIM）模式的全新概念,并对相应的组织模式进行了深入的分析。     

Integrating sustainable development in the supply chain: The case of life cycle assessment in oil and gas and agricultural biotechnology

It is widely accepted that firms play an important stewardship role in addressing sustainable development concerns. A key challenge in this role is to balance the often conflicting pressures created by sustainable development—firm-level economic performance versus environmental degradation and social disruption. Drawing on complexity theory, risk management, stakeholder theory and the innovation dynamics literature, we discuss the problems of integrating sustainable development concerns in the supply chain, specifically the applicability of life cycle assessment (LCA). Many authors have emphasized the importance of the “cradle to grave” approach of LCA in optimizing closed-loop supply chains, improving product design and stewardship. Based on two case studies (an agricultural biotechnology and an oil and gas company) with supporting data collected from key stakeholders, we argue that sustainable development pressures have increased complexities and presented ambiguous challenges that many current environmental management techniques cannot adequately address. We provide a framework that addresses these deficiencies and discuss implications for practitioners and management theory.     

Project management improvement efforts—creating project management value by uniqueness or mainstream thinking?

This paper presents a research study that is part of the large international Project Management Institute (PMI)–sponsored research project the “Value of Project Management.” Three case studies have been conducted on Norwegian enterprises. This article focuses on how enterprises improve project management and presents the improvement efforts and the stated reasons behind them. There are striking similarities as to the prioritized ways the enterprises have chosen to make improvements: use of a rather standardized model for project work and internal schooling activities. The enterprises all explain their efforts as internally driven, even if some consultancy assistance was used. This article discusses three drivers behind the improvement efforts: an economic perspective, a new institutionalism perspective, and an innovation perspective. This article identifies indicators pointing to all drivers and helps us understand why and how enterprises are improving project management. The importance of research on the practice of the most capable enterprises within the project management field is acknowledged.     

Fine tuning the dinosaur? Environmental product innovation and strategic threat in the automotive industry: A case study of the Volkswagen Audi Group

The environmental impacts associated with the life cycle of the automobile are pronounced. Indeed, many environmentalists suggest that through its lifetime the core product of the automotive industry is the most polluting product on earth. This paper analyses the response to such criticism from one particular automotive manufacturer, the Volkswagen Audi Group. The paper charts the improvements that are being realised by VW throughout the life cycle of the car, particularly in relation to product use and disposal. It is suggests that the efforts of the automotive industry to reduce its environmental impact through incremental improvements in the environmental efficiency of each car are continually undermined by an overall increase in the level of transport. Thus, it is concluded that the ability of the automotive industry to manage the life cycle impact of its product is severely constrained unless it can dramatically influence the demands of its customers, and that potentially this is an issue of fundamental strategic importance for the industry as a whole.     

Measuring TQEM returns from the application of quality frameworks

This study addresses one of the major perceived barriers to total quality environmental management (TQEM): cost measurement. Operations managers have difficulty assessing the impact of TQEM programs because of the lack of appropriate measures. In order for TQEM to be given serious consideration, a cost framework is required for evaluating TQEM by appropriately including all the environmental costs and savings for each investment option. At present, frameworks such as life‐cycle assessment (LCA) and environmental cost accounting (ECA) exist, but they have both been recognized as too difficult to implement at the plant level among operations managers. This study focuses on identifying and formulating a set of easy‐to‐use quantitative cost measures. The structure of these measures is taken from the operations management (OM) literature itself, and specifically the total quality management (TQM) and cost of quality (COQ) frameworks developed by Joseph Juran. However, an empirical examination of this remains untested. The findings of this study provide an important foundation for theory development and set the stage for further research in this burgeoning field of TQEM. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

论IPD模式下的产品生命周期管理

文章论述了在集成产品开发模式（IPD）下产品生命周期的管理,以确保产品上市后生命周期的实际绩效能达到产品计划时的期望和目标。     

WHAT DRIVES CAPITAL FLOWS TO EMERGING MARKETS? A SURVEY OF THE EMPIRICAL LITERATURE

This paper reviews the rapidly growing empirical literature on the drivers of capital flows to emerging markets. The empirical evidence is structured based on the recognition that the drivers of capital flows vary over time and across different types of capital flows. The drivers are classified using the traditional distinction between ‘push’ and ‘pull’ drivers, which continues to serve as a useful framework. Push factors like global risk aversion and external interest rates are found to matter most for portfolio debt and equity flows, but somewhat less for banking flows. Pull factors such as domestic output growth, asset returns and country risk matter for all three capital flows components, but most for banking flows.     

Appreciating and ‘retooling’ diversity in talent management conceptual models: A commentary on “The psychology of talent management: A review and research agenda”

This commentary on “The Psychology of Talent Management” suggests that readers should avoid concluding that the diversity of talent management concepts across psychological disciplines is something to be “corrected,” and instead embrace it as a resource to be tapped for future understanding. It suggests two frameworks to enhance these efforts: “Retooling” talent management using well-known frameworks applied to more traditional organizational resources, and tapping research on “shared mental models” through which teams articulate and appreciate their diverse concepts of tasks and goals.     

Impact mitigation or ecological restoration? Examining the environmental sustainability practices of multinational mining companies

This paper examines the environmental sustainability practices of multinational mining companies in addressing their impacts and promoting the sustainable development of local communities in Ghana. Although large-scale mining companies have embraced environmental sustainability, the drivers and the mechanisms for addressing their impacts throughout the mine life cycle is not fully understood because of the limited research in this area. The focus in this study involves an examination of the drivers for environmental sustainability in a weak and non-enabling institutional context and the mechanisms for addressing impacts on biodiversity, water quality and quantity, and ambient climate. The findings show that the environmental sustainability practices of multinational mining companies are determined by regulatory compliance and corporate environmental responsibility based on perceived ethical obligation. Additionally, we find gaps in mine closure planning and rehabilitation because of the limited requirement for biodiversity restoration in the domains of flora repopulation and active fauna reintroduction. This paper provides empirical and theoretical insights for academics and practitioners in industry and policymaking.     

Digital finance and misallocation of resources among firms: Evidence from China

The resources misallocation among firms is serious in China, our calculation shows it has resulted in the total factor productivity (hereafter, TFP) loss of over 200% and has been gradually increasing in recent years, based on the firm-level data from National Tax Survey database from 2007 to 2016. This paper further investigates empirically the impact of digital finance on resources misallocation, by measuring resources misallocation with firm’s capital deviation and labor deviation, as well as measuring digital finance with the number of searches for fintech keywords on Baidu's webpage. Results suggest that digital finance can significantly mitigate resources misallocation among firms to improve the aggregate TFP by redistributing resources from over-resourced firms to under-resourced firms, although it cannot improve the TFP within a representative firm. The findings remain robust after addressing the endogeneity and using alterative variables of digital finance and value of labor output elasticity. Moreover, digital finance can rectify the credit-market discrimination, where its mitigating effect on resources misallocation prefers to non-state-owned firms and small and medium-sized firms. However, traditional finance, as measured by the number of offline bank branches, can also optimize resources allocation, but this effect is gradually diminishing and it also fails to rectify the credit discrimination.     

Leveraging entrepreneurial ecosystems as human resource systems: A theory of meta-organizational human resource management

Entrepreneurs require human resources to establish and scale their ventures; however, constraints often prevent entrepreneurs from investing in formal human resource systems. How entrepreneurs overcome human resource challenges by leveraging their entrepreneurial ecosystems as informal inter-organizational talent management systems has been overlooked by scholars. We propose a model of entrepreneurial ecosystem human resource management, theorizing that ecosystem participants collectively perform the human resource management function for entrepreneurship communities. Drawing from economic rents theory, we explain how entrepreneurial ecosystems encourage a form of meta-organizational human resource management that allows ecosystem participants to coordinate talent acquisition, learning and development, performance management and rewards, and retention. Coordinated entrepreneurial ecosystems improve entrepreneurial performance by sourcing talent, onboarding selected members, enculturating ecosystem values, developing entrepreneurial skills, and retaining human resources, which in turn generates rents. We discuss how our theory catalyzes research at the HR and entrepreneurial ecosystems interface and reveals insights for practitioners.