Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Sustainable Business Ecosystems'

The City relies on Nature‟s products and services for its wellbeing and its very existence. Smallbusinesses, the socio-economic fabric of the City, are mostly mainstream and not engaged insustainability. From their point of view, how do they connect to the Sustainable City?In one of the most competitive areas of central Paris, mainstream businesses and also frontrunners, thelatter already engaged in sustainability, were interviewed as a pilot to further explore transformationinto the Sustainable City. All were asked to reflect on their experience in managing change. They werethen encouraged to propose actions in face of the challenges of sustainability and the sustainable city,and react on a vision of the Sustainable City for Paris and its larger region. They expressed barriers tochallenges and to the vision proposed. And they also proposed ideas, expressed desires, opportunitiesand overall bridges for sustainability to be practically implemented. The findings presented theenterprises‟ interpretation of the concepts of trust and innovation. Reflecting on how the results couldcontribute to a transformation into a Sustainable City resulted in a practical list of actions. This pilotstudy showed a potential for sustainable development to emerge throughout the City through its mostimpactful yet promising actors, the small businesses.In order to contribute in building bridges between City and Nature, the exploration is inspired bysocial ecological research, looking for ways to harmonize the various elements and actors to transformcities into sustainable ones. The framework is mostly based on a business-inspired research design anda construct from the European Union Sustainable City challenges, resilience theory approaches and theFrench national strategy for sustainable development.

Background: Social entrepreneurship has lately gained wide recognition as a promising avenue to develop market-driven solutions to improve lives of the marginalised. While identified as an emerging topic in academics, literature is still limited and heavily biased towards the context of western countries. Further, little is known about how social enterprises interact with the supportive ecosystem to develop their organisations and ensure financial viability while attending their social mission. Thus, the Philippines was chosen as the location of the study, a developing country plagued by social problems, but simultaneously harbouring a growing ecosystem that support social enterprises in their quest to address them. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore how the development of New Generation Social Enterprises (NewGen SE) is enabled by the surrounding ecosystem in the context of the Philippines. It further aims to identify factors constraining the progress of NewGen SE, and how the ecosystem can be enhanced to better support these enterprises. Method: The data for this qualitative study has been collected using in-depth, semi-structured interviews. In total, twenty interviews were conducted: ten entrepreneurs from three different development stages (start-up, growth & mature), and ten ecosystem actors. The data has been analysed and interpreted using a general inductive approach. Conclusion: The networks of both the entrepreneurs and the ecosystem actors enable social enterprises to access resources, expertise, and foster collaboration. Challenges on both the macro and micro level are hindering social enterprises to grow, resulting in only a few success stories. To enhance the support for social enterprises more collaboration within and outside the ecosystem should be fostered through the implementation of more intersections such as physical and online spaces where people can connect.

Background: Three mega trends are profoundly changing today’s market dynamics; climate change, digitalization, and globalization. The increasing interconnectivity and omnipresence of digital technologies are blurring the boundaries of the physical and virtual reality, implying a shift in how digital companies create value and internationalize. Also, new policies and higher customer demand in greener and smarter technologies have created new opportunities for value creation to develop cleaner technologies that foster the growth of clean-technology firms. To be competitive and persist in a sustainable and digital economy, firms must be able to cope with changing market conditions. Strategic agility can support to avoid rigidity and benefit from change, which is fostered by strong dynamic capabilities. Knowledge gaps: The study aims to address shortcomings of digital sustainability business models and specifically characterize the emerging sector of sustainable software companies offering Cleantech-as-a-Service applications. The international potential of these ventures recognizes the need to elaborate on internationalization drivers. The globally competitive environment enforces the need to be strategically agile, whereby applying agile principles to an international context can bring a comprehensive view of internationalizing digital sustainability ventures’ critical capabilities and business model characteristics. The study will also assert the role of collaborative ecosystems in an entrepreneurial internationalization. Purpose: This study will explore the emergence of Cleantech-as-a-Service and investigate how these digital entrepreneurs achieve strategic agility in global pivoting and competitive environments. Our exploratory research aims to apply agile principles to entrepreneurial internationalization strategies, where we through six in-depth interviews will discover the role of digital cleantech firms’ dynamic business models, capabilities, and ecosystems when entering a foreign market. Theoretical framework: The conceptual frame of references is based on two major sections where the first considers the context of digital and sustainable firms and exhibits the essences of digital and sustainable business model designs and how to sustain competitiveness through the interrelation of dynamic capabilities and strategic agility. In the second section the study brings forward theory supporting the exploration of an agile internationalization for digital firms, such as virtual markets and ecosystems. The key theoretical forthcomings are summarized into a conceptual framework that combines the role and interplay of entrepreneurs, business models, as well as networks and ecosystems on the basis of strategic agility and dynamic capabilities, that jointly foster an agile and virtual internationalization. Methodology: The interpretive research used an explorative and abductive approach to perform a qualitative multiple case design. The empirical study was based on six Cleantech-as-a-Service companies where in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with the informants of significant positions. The thematic and content data analysis supported the identification of common patterns and themes through coding which guided the subsequent analysis chapter. Findings: Our study revealed characteristics and success factors of Cleantech-as-a-Service ventures operating on global volatile markets, which adopt a leagile approach. The findings supported a definition of the concept but also identified the dynamic capabilities and flexible business models leveraged to sustain international competitive agility. The key agile capabilities relate to networking, experimenting, and learning whereas business model characteristics confer resiliency, interdependency, and efficiency.

The scale and urgency required to address the interconnected economic, environmental, and social challenges currently facing society is significant. Business increasingly looks to natural systems for inspiration, one example being codified in the circular economy discourse (CE). CE, based on a biological ecosystem analogy, emphasises creation of environmental and economic value from converting waste into a productive resource. What it disregards is the social dynamics of sustainable value creation within social systems, neglecting the role of power and influence in the discussion. Equally, a gap exists in the nascent literature on sustainable business models (SBMs) in respect of the social dynamics of value creation. The relationship dynamics enabling sustainable value creation need to be better understood and integrated with a perspective which takes the impact of power relations into account. This thesis seeks to contribute insights to the understanding of how power relations impact sustainable value creation. To address these gaps, an analytic framework of organizational influence is developed. It draws on a resource based approach to power-dependency, based on Margaret Archer’s (1995) concepts of first and second order power and her distinction between structural and cultural resources. It also integrates Emerson’s (1962) emphasis on both relative power differentials and the degree of dependency in exchange relationships. This framework is used to interpret qualitative data gathered from Adnams Plc., a UK brewery and sustainability pioneer. A case study is developed based on observation and semi-structured interviews related to 30 inter-organizational relationships within Adnams’ business ecosystem. The findings have theoretical implications for the strategic management and sustainability literature, particularly the SBM literature, resource dependence theory (RDT) and the CE discourse. This research illustrates the importance for organizational actors to consider the power relations within inter-organizational relationships when developing sustainable value creation strategies.

Background: Swedish textile waste management ecosystem is recognized to be a multi-actor ecosystem as opposed to a single-actor scenario whereas actors tend to perform their activities single-handedly and in a fragmented manner. Participating actors, each play a significant role in handling and treating the textile waste but this fragmented system renders certain drawbacks. The main treatment of textile waste in Sweden is incineration which addresses environmental damages. This in particular is more worrying when textiles are used as a fuel. This highlights the necessity for the actors to perform in a network and expand their collaboration, thus move more efficiently towards development of a sustainable innovation and find an alternative for the current treatment of textile waste. Purpose: This study strives to investigate the challenges and at the same time opportunities of implementation of a collaborative business model for sustainable innovation. This has been achieved through taking benefits of value mapping tool and actor-mapping. The core values of actors have been identified which was continued by identification of their shared and conflicting values. Methodology: Pre-study was conducted in order to design and develop two mappings, “main actors mapping”, “actor’s activity mapping” which helped the authors and the interviewees to gain a better realization of the Swedish Textile Waste Management ecosystem through visualization. The process of data collection occurred through semi-structured interviews with Open-ended questions which resulted to rich detailed responses from the interviewees. Seven organizations as the representative of Swedish textile waste management ecosystem were reached and studied. The outcomes of the interview were analyzed by the aid of value mapping tool and led the authors to formulate the answer to the research question. Interview findings: Interview findings presents the outcome of the collected data in accordance with the purpose of the study and the answer to the proposed research question. Consequently, this chapter provides a description of the Activity classification in TWM eco-system in Sweden as an outcome of the pre-study, continued by expanding on the results of Actors mapping & their activities in TW eco-system and Activity mapping in relation to actors’ interactions, which were achieved by the aid of value mapping tool. This chapter is concluded by providing actors perspectives regarding the formation and the suitability of a collaborative business model for sustainable innovation on the basis of mapped values within textile waste scenario in Sweden. Analysis& Discussion: This study tends to present rich and comprehensive picture in a descriptive manner in regards with participating actors, their activities, collaboration and value-orientations within Swedish textile waste scenario and propose a solution to the identified short-comings of the system by investigating the potentials of a collaborative business model for sustainable innovation. The literature review confirm and support the interview findings and addresses the need for further dialogue and collaboration among actors while highlighting the need from moving from ego-centric business model to multi-actor business model. This chapter is concluded by the response to the research question.

La blockchain suscite un intérêt croissant, identifié par les organisations et institutions comme une technologie potentiellement transformative pour adresser les défis environnementaux, dont la gestion des crédits carbone. Cette technologie, qui permet des transactions sécurisées et transparentes via un registre distribué et immuable, pourrait contribuer au développement d'écosystèmes d'affaires plus durables. Si la blockchain a été étudiée dans divers contextes organisationnels, son rôle dans le renforcement de l'intégrité inter-organisationnelle au sein des écosystèmes d'affaires durables reste peu exploré. Pourtant, la recherche sur les écosystèmes d'affaires durables et leur transformation numérique ne cesse de croître, notamment face à l'urgence climatique soulignée par le GIEC.Cette thèse doctorale sur travaux est composée de 5 chapitres et est située à l'intersection des systèmes d'information, du management stratégique et du développement durable. Le principal objectif est d'étudier comment la blockchain peut contribuer au développement d'écosystèmes d'affaires durables à travers la problématique suivante : Comment la diffusion et l'adoption des plateformes blockchain peuvent-elles contribuer au développement d'écosystèmes d'affaires durables ?Pour répondre à cette problématique, nous avons d'abord étudié le rôle des cabinets de conseil dans la diffusion de la blockchain à travers 14 entretiens semi-directifs. Puis, nous avons mené une revue systématique de la littérature (83 articles) pour cartographier les applications de la blockchain dans les écosystèmes d'affaires. Enfin, nous avons réalisé une étude de cas explicative de Carbonable, une plateforme blockchain dédiée à la gestion des crédits carbone, à travers 17 entretiens.Cette thèse vise à contribuer à la théorie des parties prenantes en explorant comment la blockchain peut faciliter de nouvelles formes d'engagement dans les contextes de durabilité. Elle propose des pistes de réflexion sur la conceptualisation de l'intégrité inter-organisationnelle dans les écosystèmes blockchain et suggère des éléments d'analyse sur l'articulation entre approches instrumentales et normatives de la gestion des parties prenantes. Sur le plan pratique, elle présente des suggestions pour la mise en œuvre de la blockchain, en considérant à la fois les aspects techniques et organisationnels
Blockchain technology has garnered increasing attention, being identified by organizations and institutions as a potentially transformative technology for addressing environmental challenges, including carbon credit management. This technology, which enables secure and transparent transactions through a distributed and immutable ledger, could contribute to the development of more sustainable business ecosystems. While blockchain has been studied in various organizational contexts, its role in strengthening inter-organizational integrity within sustainable business ecosystems remains relatively unexplored. Meanwhile, research on sustainable business ecosystems and their digital transformation continues to grow, particularly in light of the climate emergency highlighted by the IPCC.This doctoral dissertation, comprising 5 chapters, is situated at the intersection of information systems, strategic management, and sustainable development. The primary objective is to examine how blockchain can contribute to the development of sustainable business ecosystems through the following research question: How can the diffusion and adoption of blockchain platforms contribute to the development of sustainable business ecosystems?To address this research question, we first studied the role of consulting firms in blockchain diffusion through 14 semi-structured interviews. Subsequently, we conducted a systematic literature review (83 articles) to map blockchain applications in business ecosystems. Finally, we carried out an explanatory case study of Carbonable, a blockchain platform dedicated to carbon credit management, through 17 interviews.This thesis aims to contribute to stakeholder theory by exploring how blockchain can facilitate new forms of engagement in sustainability contexts. It offers insights into the conceptualization of inter-organizational integrity in blockchain ecosystems and suggests analytical elements regarding the articulation between instrumental and normative approaches to stakeholder management. From a practical perspective, it presents recommendations for blockchain implementation, considering both technical and organizational aspects

Thesis: S.M. in Management Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2014.
Title as it appears in MIT commencement exercises program, June 6, 2014: Strategic analysis on the Smart TV ecosystem from a manufacture perspective Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 43-44).
Over the past decades the revolution of electronic devices had a major impact in our everyday lives. The penetration of PCs and distribution of Internet made it easier to communicate with people around the world. The rise of smart phones changed many aspects of our everyday life, the impact ranging from alarm clocks to email consumption to video conference calls. The era of connected devices now trigger a radical change in an area that has not been disrupted over decades - the TV experience. By integrating the Internet into television sets, Smart TVs will allow consumers to use on-demand streaming media services, listen to Pandora Radio, access interactive media, use social networks, and download apps. In light of this industry change, several questions arise from the perspective of TV manufacturers. Can the Smart TV become a platform leader and create a sustainable ecosystem? What is the business model for TV manufacturers and how will they collaborate with other stakeholders? How will the smart TV create value for the customers and not get dis-intermediated? This thesis looks at factors that drive the industry change and identify challenges and opportunities to address. Overall, the thesis provides a strategic direction for television manufacturers.
by Eileen J. Park.
S.M. in Management Studies

The focus of this research lies on the possibilities and willingness of accommodation businesses to work for and towards sustainability in a destination. The area of investigation is the municipality of Bad Hindelang located in the German Alps. The so called Ökomodell stands for a collaboration agreement between agriculture and the municipality in order to preserve Bad Hindelang’s ecologically and touristically extremely valuable cultural landscape through continued traditional pasture-based livestock farming. The point of departure for this research is the destination’s goal to bring the accommodation sector on board. Two questions are particularly relevant in this context. First, to what extend do accommodation businesses recognize the Ökomodell’s importance for their own success as tourism stakeholders? And second, what factors influence their willingness to implement appropriate sustainability measures? The approach chosen for this research is mixed methods. Both, qualitative semi-structured expert interviews as well as a quantitative survey have been conducted. The results lay open the perspective of accommodation providers in Bad Hindelang. They have shown to be aware of agriculture being the condition for landscape preservation and thus long-term success in tourism. However, their willingness to contribute by implementing suggested sustainability actions is influenced by a multitude of other factors; above all, the costs and benefits going along as well as their level of engagement and foresight as tourism entrepreneurs.

The thesis explores how monetisation of corporate externalities, can be carried out in order to provide investors, policy makers and consumers with accurate pictures of the true costs and benefits of business operations from a resilience and ecosystem services perspective. By drawing conclusions from company cases, and previous research – methods, drivers and monetary values of impacts such as carbon dioxide, water usage, pollutants and land use are analysed. The findings reflect opportunities that open up with monetisation, in terms of tools for guidance and support in internal corporate decision making, by making the actual impacts visualised and understandable. Findings from company cases, show that monetisation of corporate effects has potential to contribute to visualising impacts – and add knowledge that may close information gaps internally as well as externally. It can guide and facilitate strategic choices at corporate level. It may also have a role in bridging information asymmetries in the picture of a firm’s operation, to consumers and investors. Monetising effects may facilitate identification of risks arising from ecosystem services dependencies, visualising the actual impacts by, assed costs in losses in ecosystems’ production (yields e.g.) caused by corporate harm.Providing relevant information to policy makers, on obstacles and where regulative incentives are needed, and investors and consumers with guidance, monetisation of impacts potentially can play a part in bridging market information gaps toward better incentive structures and possibly facilitating effective market transformation in favor of sustainable production and consumption patterns.

Samtidigt som fokuset på hållbarhetsarbete inom organisationer har ökat, har det även resulterat i frågor om hur företag skapar ett hållbart värde. Hållbarhet har definierats utifrån tre grundpelare: miljömässig-, ekonomisk- och socialhållbarhet. Inom tjänsteteori har intresset för hållbarhetsteorier ökat, men relationen mellan dessa områden är relativt outforskade. Detta är förvånansvärt då många organisationer är beroende av hållbart värdeskapande. Således är syftet med studien att alstra förståelse för hur aktörer skapar värden inom ett hållbart tjänsteekosystem. Studien utgår från ett makroperspektiv eftersom viktiga implikationer för värdeskapande kan upptäckas då hållbarhet genererar värde för flera aktörer. Det teoretiska ramverket omfattar tre delar; teori om tjänsteekosystem, hållbarhet och en sammanföring mellan dessa områden. Eftersom värdeskapande inom hållbara tjänsteekosystem är relativt outforskat valdes en kvalitativ och explorativ ansats för att undersöka hur hållbart arbete inom ett tjänsteekosystem bidrar till att skapa värde.  Analysen förankras i nio semistrukturerade intervjuer som genomfördes med respondenter från olika organisationer som tillhörde företagsklustret Paper Province. Intervjuerna kombineras med teori för att skapa en koppling mellan ett empiriskt fall och teori. Deltagande respondenter hade hög befattning inom respektive organisation, vilket var viktigt för att förstå organisationens struktur. Studien visar att hållbarhet inte bara ligger till grund för organisationers värdeskapande logik utan även skapar en grund för arbetsstrukturer. Genom att utgå från tjänstedominant logik ger analysen ett nytt sätt att se på hållbara aktörers värdeskapande. Inom det hållbara tjänsteekosystemet skapar aktörer förutsättningar för ett högre samhällsvärde till följd av hållbar resursintegration.
At the same time as the focus on sustainability work within organizations has increased, it has also resulted in questions about how companies create sustainable value. Sustainability has been defined based on three pillars: environmental, economic, and social sustainability. In service theory, interest in sustainability theories has increased, but the relationship between these areas is relatively unexplored. This is surprising as many organizations are dependent on sustainable value creation. Thus, the study aims to generate an understanding of how actors create value within a sustainable service ecosystem. The study is based on a macro perspective because important implications for value creation can be discovered as sustainability generates value for several actors. The theoretical framework comprises three parts; theory of service ecosystems, sustainability, and a merger between these areas. Since value creation in sustainable service ecosystems is relatively unexplored, a qualitative and exploratory approach was chosen to investigate how sustainable work in a service ecosystem contributes to creating value.  The analysis is anchored in nine semi-structured interviews conducted with respondents from various organizations that belonged to the Paper Province cluster. The interviews are combined with theory to create a connection between an empirical case and theory. Participating respondents held senior positions within each organization, which was important for understanding the organization's structure. The study shows that sustainability forms the basis for organizations' value-creating logic and creates a basis for work structures. Based on service-dominant logic, the analysis provides a new way of looking at sustainable players' value creation. Within the sustainable service ecosystem, actors create conditions for a higher societal value because of sustainable resource integration.

Attaining sustainability of wildlife tourism has been a challenge in a world of uncertainty. This is even more so when the world's climate is rapidly changing. Scientific evidence suggests that climate change will continue and escalate into the future. All sectors of the economy, including tourism, will be impacted by climate change. Both the human and environmental systems of tourism will suffer the consequences of climate change. Thus, reducing vulnerability is inevitable if wildlife tourism is to grow sustainably.

abstract: Over the past few decades, businesses globally have advanced in incorporating the principles of sustainability as they strive to align economic outcomes with growing and complex social and environmental demands and opportunities. This transition is conditioned by the maturity, scale, and geographical location of a business (among other factors), with particular challenges placed on small enterprises in middle- to low-income communities. Within this context, the overarching research question of this dissertation is why and how business incubation processes may foster sustainable enterprises at the middle and base of the socioeconomic pyramid (MoP/BoP). To explore this question, in this project I used as a case study the experience of a network of social business incubators operated by Tecnologico de Monterrey, a private, non-profit, multi-campus university system in Mexico. Centering on its campus in Guadalajara and in order to understand if and how MoP/BoP businesses address sustainability, I developed a current state assessment of incubator processes, analyzing during two semesters the activities of incubated entrepreneurs and their goals, motivations, and outcomes. The general expectation at the outset of the study was that Tec's social business incubation process, in both its design and implementation, focuses on the economic viability and outcomes of incubated projects and hence does not promote entrepreneur commitment to sustainability goals and practices. The general approach of the research project involved a qualitative, in-depth ethnographic assessment of participants. Data were collected by means of the following research tools: (a) archival and documentary review, (b) participant observation, (c) surveys of participants (entrepreneurs and advisors/mentors), and (d) semi-structured interviews of participants. The overall design of the research was inspired by the transitions management approach and by the intervention research method, while qualitative results were assessed under the grounded theory approach. Results of the research are reported under three general categories: (a) analysis of entrepreneur goals, motivations, and outcomes, (b) identification of social and environmental opportunities, and (c) review of the role of social networks and broader support structures. While results confirmed the general expectation of the study, it was possible to establish (based on the interaction with the entrepreneurs and other actors) that there is both interest and commitment to identify and explore opportunities in social and environmental issues. Thus, the dissertation concludes with a proposal for potential future interventions in this social incubator, exploring a new vision and strategies for a transition to a more sustainability-oriented approach. Finally, key recommendations define the most critical elements of an agenda for transition in the social incubation process at Campus Guadalajara and provide input for other efforts.
Dissertation/Thesis
Ph.D. Sustainability 2014

碩士
國立清華大學
科技管理研究所
106
Since Moore (1993) has first proposed the concept of business ecosystem, several streams of ecosystem theory have been carried out. Existing literature has applied ecosystem theory to specific industry fields like high-tech industry (Adner, 2016), but few research has been focus on other industry field, such as cultural and creative industry. Take a case study approach of two focal firms, this study aims to investigate how innovation contributes to the incubating process of an ecosystem by revealing the key factors necessary to sustain the health of an innovation ecosystem in a cultural and creative industry, and what the feature of the potential focal firms is to give out efficient vertical or horizontal alliance throughout different industry fields. Our findings provide further depiction in constructing a mechanism of nurturing professional artists to elevate the product’s quality. By creating a popular and high-quality work, the market demand will increase, which also initiate a potential upsurge of cultural and creative industry.

La simbiosi industriale è un utile approccio per supportare lo sviluppo sostenibile. Valorizzando scarti prodotti da un processo produttivo come input per altri processi, le imprese possono mitigare l’impatto ambientale dei propri processi produttivi e ridurre i costi di produzione, incrementando così la propria competitività. Questa tesi si focalizza sulle self-organized industrial symbiosis networks, reti di imprese che scambiano rifiuti tra di loro. Queste reti emergono dal basso in maniera spontanea, come risultato di un processo di auto-organizzazione delle imprese coinvolte. Nonostante la letteratura scientifica riconosca le self-organized industrial symbiosis networks come uno strumento promettente, queste reti sono attualmente sottosviluppate in termini di applicazioni pratiche comparate con le opportunità teoriche. Questo aspetto limita fortemente l’efficacia dell’approccio di simbiosi industriale nell’affrontare le sfide dello sviluppo sostenibile. Lo scopo di questa tesi è supportare lo sviluppo delle self-organized industrial symbiosis networks analizzando due aspetti che, pur essendo diversi, presentano una forte interrelazione: l’emergenza spontanea di queste reti e la loro sostenibilità nel lungo periodo. La prima parte della tesi affronta due barriere che frenano l’emergenza spontanea delle self-organized industrial symbiosis networks. Nonostante queste barriere siano riconosciute dalla letteratura scientifica, nessuna soluzione è stata finora fornita. In particolare, ho formalizzato tutti i modelli di business che le imprese possono adottare per implementare l’approccio di simbiosi industriale e ho discusso i possibili scenari di business che possono nascere dalla collaborazione tra imprese diverse, ciascuna della quali orientata al proprio modello di business. Inoltre, ho progettato un meccanismo contrattuale per allineare gli incentivi tra le imprese, ripartendo in maniera equa i benefici economici creati dagli scambi simbiotici, testandone poi l’efficacia tramite simulazione ad agenti. La seconda parte della tesi è orientata a sviluppare un quadro concettuale riguardo alla sostenibilità delle self-organized industrial symbiosis networks nel lungo periodo, validandolo mediante simulazione ad agenti. Prendendo spunto dalla letteratura in campo ecologico, ho supposto che la sostenibilità delle self-organized industrial symbiosis networks nel lungo periodo possa essere massimizzata quando i network simbiotici sono caratterizzati da un bilanciamento ottimale tra due proprietà: efficienza nello scambio dei rifiuti e resilienza alle perturbazioni. In primis, ho investigato separatamente efficienza e resilienza dei network simbiotici e ho poi validato il mio quadro concettuale. La tesi è organizzata come segue. Il Capitolo 1 discute lo stato dell’arte riguardo alla simbiosi industriale e alle industrial symbiosis networks attraverso una review critica della letteratura. Inoltre, nel capitolo sono esposte le motivazioni dello studio, le specifiche domande di ricerca e le metodologie adottate. Il Capitolo 2 analizza i modelli di business che supportano la simbiosi industriale mentre il Capitolo 3 è focalizzato ai meccanismi contrattuali in grado di garantire un corretto allineamento degli incentivi tra le imprese. Il Capitolo 4 e il Capitolo 5 investigano rispettivamente le proprietà di efficienza e resilienza dei network simbiotici. Il Capitolo 6 investiga l’effetto combinato di queste proprietà sulla sostenibilità delle industrial symbiosis networks. Infine, sono esposte le conclusioni del mio lavoro.
Industrial symbiosis is a useful approach to support the sustainable development. In fact, by exchanging wastes for inputs, firms can mitigate the environmental impact of their production processes and reduce production costs, thereby increasing their competitiveness. This thesis focuses on self-organized industrial symbiosis networks, networks of firms exchanging wastes for inputs which emerge from the bottom, as the result of a self-organized process undertaken by the involved firms. Despite the literature recognizes self-organized industrial symbiosis networks as a promising tool, these networks are currently underdeveloped in terms of practical applications compared to theoretical opportunities. Such an issue strongly limits the efficacy of the industrial symbiosis approach in tackling the challenges of sustainable development. The aim of this thesis is to support the development of self-organized industrial symbiosis networks by addressing two different but related issues: the emergence and sustainability over the long period of these networks. The first part of the thesis is aimed to investigate two barriers hampering the spontaneous emergence of self-organized industrial symbiosis networks, recognized by the literature but unsolved so far. In particular, I formalized all the business models that firms can adopt to implement the industrial symbiosis approach and discussed the possible business scenarios arising from the cooperation among firms, each of them adopting its own business model. Furthermore, I designed a contractual mechanism to align the incentives among firms, fairly sharing the economic benefits stemming from the symbiotic exchanges, and tested its efficacy by adopting the agent-based simulation approach. The second part of this thesis is aimed to develop a theoretical framework for the sustainability of industrial symbiosis networks over the long period and validate it by agent-based simulations. By taking contribution from the ecological literature, sustainability of self-organized industrial symbiosis networks over the long period is supposed to be maximized when symbiotic networks are characterized by an optimal balance between two features: efficiency of waste exchanges and resilience to perturbations. Firstly, I separately investigated efficiency and resilience of industrial symbiosis networks and then I validated my theoretical framework. The thesis is organized as follows. Chapter 1 discusses the state-of-the-art about industrial symbiosis and industrial symbiosis networks through a critical review of the literature. Moreover, the motivation of this study, the specific research questions, and the adopted methodologies are presented. Chapter 2 addresses business models supporting the industrial symbiosis approach whereas Chapter 3 is focused on the contractual mechanisms aligning the incentives among firms. Chapter 4 and Chapter 5 are devoted to investigate the features of efficiency and resilience in the industrial symbiosis field, respectively. Chapter 6 investigates the effect of these features on the sustainability of industrial symbiosis networks. Finally, conclusions are provided.

Sustainable development and the Triple Bottom Line integrated sustainability concept focus on the choices between the imperatives of economic efficiency, social development and environmental sustainability. Corporate governance is being imposed by stakeholders and corporate social responsibility is indicated as being the most important socio-environmental demand being made on contemporary leaders. The influence of idealism and realism on, and the reasons for failure of, solid waste reduction projects in terms of sustainability is the foundation of the theories postulated in this research. It is the objective of this research to identify the motivational factors, with special reference to developing countries, of social capital, including management processes leadership and people management, that will augment solid waste reduction projects that are lethargic at starting, or deteriorating, to achieve sustainability. The methodology is to review the literature available to identify the augmenting (motivational) factors, and use analytical philosophical and empirical research to test formulated constructs using hypotheses. The criterion for the research sample is to obtain the opinions of environmental specialists in South Africa using a questionnaire. The technique employed is multivariate data analysis to identify the type of interdependent relationships, including cluster and multidimensional scaling analyses. Hypothesis testing, in this research, leads to the conclusion that additional motivational factors are needed to support the economic imperatives to make the process sustainable. `Reality' is statistically significantly different to `idealistic'. The inference is that for solid waste reduction projects to succeed leaders from government and the private sector are required, through the use of legislation and taking into consideration the value of waste, to instil economic incentives. According to this research, personal values and belief systems have little to contribute to the process of sustainability. The outcome of this research provides a strategy-benchmarking-model that leaders can use to target and prioritise their efforts in respect of achieving success with waste projects. The contribution it makes to the knowledge base of the subject and responsible leadership is contained in its summation of the augmenting factors required, their relative importance, and the lessening of the complexity of approach to these projects.
Graduate School of Business Leadership
D.B.L.