Moving to a Circular Economy in China: Transforming Industrial Parks into Eco-industrial Parks

Mathews, John A.; Tan, Hao; Hu, Mei

doi:10.1177/0008125617752692

Cited by 50 publications

(64 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…The role of the network orchestrator is crucial to the processes of implementation and engagement in realizing a circular business model. Its aim is to manage the complementarities (Mathews et al, ) between all the companies and institutions involved in the ecosystem. We departed from the (few) extant studies (Paquin & Howard‐Grenville, ; Zaoual & Lecocq, ) on this subject.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This gap in studies has recently been confirmed by Zaoual and Lecocq (, p. 134): “the implementation of industrial ecology at the inter‐organisational level remains complicated. The mere processes of implementation remain understudied.” As stated by Mathews et al (, p. 175), “in the case of the move toward circular economy (CE), the existence and identification of complementarities between firms is the starting point for moves toward CE relations that close industrial loops.” These studies result in a strong need to understand the role of “matchmakers who act as network orchestrators to facilitate new forms of inter‐organisational cooperation.”…”

Section: Business Models Ecosystems and Innovation In The Circular mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Circular business models for sustainable development: A “waste is food” restorative ecosystem

2018

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Our aim is to provide a better understanding of a business model based on circular principles. In particular, we focus on two issues that support the development of a circular business model: (a) the focal actor as orchestrator of the circular network and (b) the circular ecosystem encompassing suppliers, customers, research centers, and public authorities, in which each actor/stakeholder plays a specific role, based on effective interorganizational relationships. The research method applied is an in-depth nested single case study of a circular project. Our results highlight an exemplar case of an ecosystemic business model in agriculture, involving different types of innovation and strong collaboration among network members, orchestrated by a focal firm. The abductive approach used led to the formulation of some research propositions and to the identification of some adoption factors and barriers to growth in circular business models.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Business Models Ecosystems and Innovation In The Circular mentioning

confidence: 99%

Circular business models for sustainable development: A “waste is food” restorative ecosystem

2018

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“…In particular, in order to mitigate the environmental impacts caused by increasing industrial development [7], Chinese manufacturers have committed to the adoption of environmental management approaches that encourage the implementation of more environmentally sustainable practices, compliance with environmental regulations, and a better use of natural resources [8,9]. To incorporate environmental management principles into internal management practices of businesses, Chinese manufacturers have implemented a series of approaches based on environmental management systems (EMSs) [10,11], cleaner production [12,13], a circular economy [14,15], eco-efficiency and eco-design [16,17], and green supply chain management [18,19]. In particular, the last two decades have witnessed a strong commitment of Chinese manufacturers to the implementation of EMSs under the international standard ISO 14001 [20].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

SWOT Analysis of the Application of International Standard ISO 14001 in the Chinese Context. A Case Study of Guangdong Province

et al. 2018

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Industry has long been one of the most important drivers of Chinese economic growth. In order to improve the environmental footprint of industrial areas, Chinese authorities have established mechanisms of environmental control in the internal management processes of companies. In this regard, the international standard ISO 14001 for environmental management systems is the management tool that has had widest adoption among Chinese companies since its creation in 1996. The main purposes of the paper are to investigate the available international and national statistics on the adoptionof ISO 14001 in China, and present opinions on ISO 14001 of the 72 representatives of small and medium enterprises and multinational companies of Guangdong province that participated to the workshop “New tools and standards to advance and measure corporate sustainability”, held in Guangzhou on 26 January 2018. The analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) was adopted as the research method to collect opinions on the ISO 14001 standard. Participants were asked to discuss strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities considering four business aspects: sustainability, internal processes, stakeholder engagement, and resource management. Our findings indicate that companies fully embraced ISO 14001 and recognized the necessity of a standardized approach to identify environmental aspects. On the other hand, they also expressed concern about aspects such as the certification cost, the focus on certification itself and not on the improvement of environmental performance, and the lack of integration with sustainability tools such as life cycle assessment (LCA) and other sustainability paradigms such as circular economy and corporate social responsibility (CSR).

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“…While plenty of evidence is available today about top-down and international initiatives taken to establish CE in China, much less is known about how the notion of CE is translated into practice by organizations and individuals. In fact, CE operates at three levels of scale: macro (globally [33,34], within countries [26,35,36], regions or cities [37][38][39]); meso (eco-industrial parks and supply-chains [40][41][42]); and micro (single organizations [43], including its products and services [11,44]). The study at the micro-level is fundamental because the CE is described as one of the most prospective approaches that companies can adopt to address current and future sustainability challenges [45][46][47].…”

Section: Rationale Goals and Structure Of The Papermentioning

confidence: 99%

Circular Economy in China: Translating Principles into Practice

et al. 2020

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The concept of circular economy (CE) has recently gained momentum in the political, scientific, and economic debate, especially in China and Europe. As a result, organizations and scholars have started to establish different sets of principles for its adoption. For this reason, it is important to identify and assess the differences and similarities among existing sets of CE principles, and how organizations and individuals understand and translate them into practice. In this paper, we firstly present a brief review and analysis of the coherence among six existing sets of principles. Our analysis finds that, despite the mixed degree of coherence, all sets describe the necessity to implement CE principles at all levels of a company. We then present the results of an in-depth qualitative survey that investigates how 19 key informants representing small, medium, and multinational companies based in China understand and carry out the CE principles laid out by the BSI standard BS 8001:2017; how these principles can transform the culture and processes of these companies; and what are the opportunities and threats that such transformation can bring. Results describe a good awareness and knowledge of the CE principles and an optimistic outlook concerning their adoption. At the same time, numerous barriers and threats that the implementation of these principles might entail are presented. Overall, respondents confirm the complexity of implementing the principles of the CE in an integrated and consistent way in the management and strategies of Chinese companies and highlight the challenges that might arise during their implementation.

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Moving to a Circular Economy in China: Transforming Industrial Parks into Eco-industrial Parks

Cited by 50 publications

References 5 publications

Circular business models for sustainable development: A “waste is food” restorative ecosystem

Circular business models for sustainable development: A “waste is food” restorative ecosystem

SWOT Analysis of the Application of International Standard ISO 14001 in the Chinese Context. A Case Study of Guangdong Province

Circular Economy in China: Translating Principles into Practice

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