Learning strategic cooperative behavior in industrial symbiosis: A game‐theoretic approach integrated with agent‐based simulation

This paper investigates the negotiation phase of industrial symbiosis relationships, where companies exchanging wastes for inputs need to develop strategies on how to share the additional costs to operate the industrial symbiosis business. The business behavior is approached as a “coopetition” problem where companies need to cooperate to reduce waste discharge costs and traditional input purchase costs and dive into competition to pay a minimum share of additional costs (i.e., waste treatment, waste transportation, and transaction costs) of operating industrial symbiosis. A noncooperative game‐theoretical model for sharing the additional costs is proposed that highlights the two strategies that companies can adopt aimed at sharing costs: a fair strategy and an opportunistic strategy. Then, an agent‐based model is used to simulate the game iterated over time and investigate how the players can adapt their strategies according to their past experience. Simulation results show that players learn that playing the fair strategy is beneficial in the long period, despite in the short period they can gain more benefit by playing the opportunistic strategy. Findings of the paper are critically important to reduce the business and managerial barriers against the formation of industrial symbiosis networks and to stimulate innovative thinking of company managers to foster the development of the circular economy. The paper proposes theoretical, managerial, and policy implications, which are discussed in detail in a comparative manner between linear and circular economy.     

Assessing collective firm behavior: comparing industrial symbiosis with possible alternatives for individual companies in Oahu,HI

Are companies better off acting collectively in sharing resources, such that one company's waste becomes another company's feedstock, or is it strategically preferable to act individually to minimize resource flows? Eleven enterprises on Oahu, HI, were found to be exchanging nine different materials, constituting previously undocumented industrial symbiosis collaboration, anchored by a coal‐fired power plant in the Campbell Industrial Park. The environmental and economic performance of eight companies exchanging six of these materials is assessed based on price and quantity data collected during interviews with the participants. The largest environmental benefits were found to be reduced landfilling and conservation of primary materials, including 40 million gallons of fresh water and approximately 17 800 tons of coal annually. The research finds that symbiotic solutions, when made visible, are often preferable, especially on an island. Indeed, company managers who fail to consider symbiotic solutions for resource issues risk overlooking the most effective strategic options. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Developing integration in a local industrial ecosystem – an explorative approach

The objective of this study is to develop and evaluate an approach for initiating development of a local industrial symbiosis network. By maintaining the broad perspective of industrial symbiosis, which includes both material and energy flow analysis, and also taking into account the internal energy use and possibilities for energy savings, we aim to achieve a better system view that avoids both sub‐optimizations and unhealthy dependencies. The approach is applied to a case based on the cooperation between the forest industry, municipality and energy service company in a small town in southern Sweden. Several possibilities for improving material and energy use by increasing integration were identified. It was concluded that it is important to have a genuine knowledge of the system studied and close contact with the actors involved, since a simple analysis of energy and material flows is not sufficient to decide which solutions might be more advantageous. It is also important to have a flexible system boundary looking at the system from different perspectives and at different levels to find the best uses for existing energy and material streams. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Doing More with Less: Building Dynamic Capabilities for Eco‐Efficiency

This article sheds light on the manner in which managers perceive, develop and integrate dynamic capabilities for eco‐efficient activities inherent to industrial ecology. The research employs a case study of 12 Canadian facilities involved in the processing of a wide variety of waste materials. Findings from the experiences of 60 managers interviewed reveal that capabilities for industrial ecology largely depend upon the integration and coordination of competencies, innovations and new routines related to several functional areas: innovation and technological development; control of residual material flows; adjustments in human resources; management of environmental constraints; and networking and marketing. These dynamic capabilities are developed and integrated through a four‐stage process: local experimentation, internal operationalization, enlargement/cross‐functional integration and strategic consolidation. The paper contributes to the extant literature related to dynamic capabilities and the natural resource‐based view by offering an understanding of those factors necessary for the success of industrial ecology, and also by demonstrating the functional and dynamic nature of such factors. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

中国电石法PVC工业共生网络模型案例分析与比较

由于电石法生产PVC树脂(Polyvinyl chloride)的能源和资源消耗量大,并产生大量具有较大危害的废弃物,带来资源、环境和生态问题,所以中国很多电石法PVC企业寻求与其它企业进行副产品和废弃物的交换利用,形成工业共生网络,以解决资源、环境和生态问题。本文结合工业共生网络在中国电石法PVC树脂工业中的应用实践,构建了中国电石法PVC树脂工业四种工业共生网络模型:主导型、平等型、混合型和虚拟型,分析与比较了各自模型的主要特点、优缺点、适用性、资源节约、副产物利用、废弃物处理等,并提出了这四种模型的适用范围和发展方向。     

Planning eco‐industrial parks: an analysis of Dutch planning methods

In theory, eco‐industrial parks can make significant improvements in the environment. In that light, this article analyses six planning methods currently in use in the Netherlands. The most salient findings are that these methods lack an explicit vision of sustainability, they do not give due consideration to symbiotic or utility‐sharing options, they do not sufficiently engage the companies involved in the development and their policy instruments have a limited environmental impact. The planning methods prove to have many shortcomings: the definition of sustainability is unclear; there are no quantitative standards; information on symbiosis and utility sharing is inadequate; the economic and organizational implications are largely ignored and the environmental impact is insufficiently monitored. However, eco‐industrial parks can only have greater environmental benefits through symbiosis and utility sharing. Therefore, location‐ and company‐specific factors have to be taken into consideration. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. and ERP Environment     

The role of Embeddedness in Industrial Symbiosis Networks: Phases in the Evolution of Industrial Symbiosis Networks

Industrial symbiosis (IS) has emerged as a body of exchange structures to progress to a more eco‐efficient industrial system, by establishing a collaborative web of knowledge, material and energy exchanges among different organizational units. However, even given the potential economic and environmental benefits derived from IS networks, the process of emergence and development of these networks seems far from straightforward. The effective operation of such networks relies heavily on aspects such as trust and general reciprocity, aspects insufficiently covered in the IS literature. Based on the theoretical framework provided by social network analysis and economic geography and the empirical data collected through qualitative methods, based on the approach of Grounded Theory, the authors propose a modelling framework to analyse the main mechanisms in the building of trust and embeddedness and identify different phases in cooperation leading to effective IS exchanges. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

区域工业共生体内逆向物流渠道的运作模式研究

首先分析了工业共生体与逆向物流的关系,然后根据区域工业共生体内不同共生模式的特点,建立了三种工业废弃物逆向物流渠道模型,最后详尽比较了这三种模式的特点和适用条件,为区域工业共生体内企业选择适合自身发展的逆向物流渠道模式提供了一定的理论依据。     

基于产业共生网络的供应链金融结构模式的研究

产业共生网络是由具有关联性的各种类型的企业通过经济、社会和环境各方面的合作而形成的企业与企业间关系的复杂系统,根本目的是提高经济效益、环境效益和社会效益,将生态学的理论应用于产业发展指导是当今产业界的一个重要发展趋势。基于产业共生网络,分析了供应链金融共生网络形成的必要性和可行性,提出供应链金融共生网络的结构模式,并分析该共生网络的效益。     

Managing Performance Expectations of Industrial Symbiosis

Firms collaborate on environmental management issues for number of reasons, including cost reduction, risk sharing and managing competition. Industrial symbiosis represents a voluntary collaborative approach among firms in geographic proximity. Companies participating in industrial symbiosis have been found to improve their individual economic and environmental performance, while the regions where they are located are thought to benefit through enhanced environmental quality. However, too few studies have actually investigated whether this is always the case. This paper considers a single case on the island of Puerto Rico, where several firms in a predominantly pharmaceutical manufacturing cluster participated in symbiosis initiatives for several decades. It examines whether early stage symbiotic activities, specifically a shared utility, met technical performance and community expectations for improved environmental quality. Results suggest that collaboration does not necessarily lead to expected environmental performance goals. The paper details the circumstances that led to under‐performance of the initiative and the lessons for symbiosis projects in general. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Collaborative energy partnerships in relation to development of core business focus and competence – a study of Swedish pulp and paper companies and energy service companies

Several aspects of the growing market for energy‐related collaboration between pulp and paper industries (PPIs) and energy service companies (ESCOs) in Sweden were investigated through in‐depth interviews with PPI and ESCO managers. Aspects of concern are the different forms of co‐operation established, the managers' views on the recent changes made regarding competence and business focus, the managers' views on the opportunities and risks with energy related co‐operation and the implications for sustainable industrial energy management. The study shows that there is a mutual belief among PPI and ESCO managers that co‐operation can provide opportunities for improved competitiveness through a more rational distribution of competences between companies. The main two barriers against the utilization of this potential are that ESCOs must prove that they can bring added values other than capital to pulp and paper mills, and the lack of competition between external energy service providers. Furthermore, we argue that adding aspects related to competence and inter‐firm partnering can improve the existing theory surrounding barriers and opportunities for sustainable industrial energy management in manufacturing industries. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Beyond a Liberal Critique of ‘Trickle Down': Urban Planning in the City of Malmö

This article scrutinizes the much used, but less examined, concept of ‘trickle down' in an urban setting. We make a distinction between the production of and distribution in the city, and argue that trickle down in contemporary urban policy could be regarded as the liberal link between production and distribution. Based on interviews with key figures and document analyses, we look at the transformation of the Swedish city of Malmö from an industrial to a post‐industrial city, where, during the last two decades, we have found three concurrent components: the ideology of trickle down; several urban policy programs and governmental policies to ‘make' money and resources trickle down; as well as increased economic polarization and segregation. A liberal critique of trickle down would argue that market mechanisms cannot by themselves solve distribution, and that government policies therefore are needed. We argue for the need to go beyond a liberal critique of trickle down and stress how unequal distribution is built into the unequal production of the city.     

基于共生理论在湖南3+5城市群经济一体化中的应用分析

基于湖南"3+5"城市群经济一体化内涵及目标,引入种群生态学中的共生理论,剖析其在湖南"3+5"城市群经济一体化中的适用性,将参与湖南"3+5"城市群经济一体化的各方作为具有复杂相关关系的生态有机种群,进而通过分析其共生单元、共生模式、共生环境和共生界面,从一个全新的角度,提出湖南"3+5"城市群经济一体化的运作机理和对策。     

Financializing Desalination: Rethinking the Returns of Big Infrastructure

Against the trend prevalent during the 1990s and 2000s, large‐scale infrastructural projects have made a comeback in the water sector. Although sometimes framed as part of a broader sustainable transition, the return of big infrastructure is a much more complicated story in which finance has played a crucial role. In the following article, we explore this encounter between finance and water infrastructure using the case of Britain's first experiment in desalination technologies, the Thames Water Desalination Plant (TWDP). On the surface, the plant appears to be a classic example of the successes of normative industrial ecology, in which sustainability challenges have been met with forward‐thinking green innovations. However, the TWDP is utterly dependent on a byzantine financial model, which has shaped Thames Water's investment strategy over the last decade. This article returns to the fundamental question of whether London ever needed a desalination plant in the first place. Deploying an urban political ecology approach, we demonstrate how the plant is simultaneously an iconic illustration of ecological modernization and a fragile example of an infrastructure‐heavy solution to the demands of financialization. Understanding the development of the TWDP requires a focus on the scalar interactions between flows of finance, waste, energy and water that are woven through the hydrosocial cycle of London.     

Don't Plan! The Use of the Notion of ‘Culture’ in Transforming Obsolete Industrial Space

How is the notion of ‘culture’ understood and used in planning the transformation of obsolete industrial space? This article analyses the evidence from a current planning project in Suvilahti, Helsinki. It shows that ‘culture’ is imagined and employed as an instrument capable of producing difference in urban space. The transformation of the Cable Factory in Helsinki and the subsequent consensus on the importance of ‘culture’ are shown to have influenced the planning of Suvilahti. On the one hand, planning is being carried out with a deliberate minimization of planning interventions and the promotion of the spontaneous, non‐planned practices of cultural producers: the future Suvilahti is imagined as a ‘cultural enclave’ and its community is characterized as a ‘living organism’. On the other, ‘culture’ is planned in terms of its supposedly positive effects on urban space. Planners do not want to interfere with the non‐planned character of ‘cultural production’, yet at the same time they express certainty about cultural production's positive spatial and socioeconomic effects. The transformation of Suvilahti is playing an important part in the large‐scale planning project to redevelop the old industrial harbour in Kalasatama, Helsinki. The changes in the nature of planning are analysed under the concept of cultural governmentality.     

National influences on European Works Councils in UK‐ and US‐based companies

The view that the role of European Works Councils (EWCs) is shaped predominantly by national industrial relations (IR) traditions in the company's country of origin derives largely from the experience of EWCs in companies based in continental Europe. This article argues that a more differentiated approach to the influence of national IR factors on EWCs needs to be developed to take account of the circumstances of companies headquartered in the UK and the US, whose national IR arrangements do not provide a strong institutional model for the EWC and, in the case of US‐based companies, where headquarters management has little or no direct involvement in the EWC. Findings from comparative case studies of EWCs in eight UK‐ and US‐based multinationals suggest that their character is shaped by the interplay between ‘country‐of‐origin’ factors,‘country‐of‐location’ factors and structural, company‐specific considerations.     

Restructuring as a reaction to growing pressure on trade unionism: the case of the Austrian ÖGB

After charting the specific problems that the Austrian Trade Union Confederation (ÖGB) faces, this article describes the ÖGB's predominant strategy in reaction to growing pressure: structural adjustments. They focus on external restructuring, especially mergers, and union administration. The article analyses the motivations for restructuring and assesses whether transformative restructuring can be observed.     

Front‐line managers as agents in the HRM‐performance causal chain: theory,analysis and evidence

Research on the link between HRM and organisational performance has neglected the role of front‐line managers, yet it is these managers who are increasingly charged with the implementation of many HR practices. Using an employee survey in 12 ‘excellent’ companies we explore the extent to which employee commitment towards their employer and their job are influenced by the quality of leadership behaviour and by satisfaction with HR practices. Both have a strong effect on employee attitudes. The article concludes with a case study of a planned effort to improve front‐line managers' skills in people management.     

Being ‘Green and Competitive’: The Impact of Environmental Actions and Collaborations on Firm Performance

In this paper, we seek to enhance the understanding of the link between environmental management and firm performance, so contributing to the debate of being “green and competitive”. Relying on the resource‐based view, we study the effect of different environmental management capabilities on a firm's market and image performance. In particular, we analyze the capabilities to implement product and process‐related environmental actions with different types of environmental focus (materials, energy, pollution) and the capabilities to develop environmental collaborations with different types of actors (both business actors and non‐business actors). To this aim we conducted a survey on 122 Italian companies. Results show that market performance and image performance have partially different antecedents. Specifically, a firm's market performance is positively affected by the capabilities to implement environmental actions with a focus on energy and pollution and to develop environmental collaborations both with business and with non‐business actors. On the other hand, a firm's image performance is positively affected by the capabilities to implement environmental actions with a focus on materials and to develop environmental collaborations with non‐business actors. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment