Search results
1 – 10 of over 79000Klaus Helling, Markus Blim and Bernadette O'Regan
To provide information to practitioners and researchers on how virtual networks can enhance the cooperation between organisations to help find sustainable solutions for complex…
Abstract
Purpose
To provide information to practitioners and researchers on how virtual networks can enhance the cooperation between organisations to help find sustainable solutions for complex environmental problems.
Design/methodology/approach
Along with the derivation of a theoretical classification of virtual networks, practical examples of material flow management (MFM) are described. The analysis of best practice is conducted to present actual developments along with virtual forms of cooperation within the environmental community.
Findings
The practical success of virtual networks in the environmental sector shows the direction of the future development. By using internet‐based information and communication tools, virtual networks are not limited by national borders and are able to enhance the cooperation of organisations in a global way. This means that virtual networks are essential instruments in developing complex solutions in the face of the global environmental challenge.
Research limitations/implications
The case studies described are exclusively German in origin, as MFM is a recognised and widely implemented tool for sustainability in Germany.
Practical implications
This paper provides practical information to practitioners and researchers on successful virtual forms of cooperation within the environmental sector and clearly identifies the value in maintaining virtual networks.
Originality/value
The information, and details of case studies, outlined in this paper provide useful advice to organisations seeking information regarding the success of virtual networks within the environmental sector.
Details
Keywords
This study aims to identify which actors play leadership and brokerage roles in voluntary environmental collaborations and how the corporate social responsibility (CSR) of actors…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to identify which actors play leadership and brokerage roles in voluntary environmental collaborations and how the corporate social responsibility (CSR) of actors is associated with such voluntary networking behaviours in Cambodia.
Design/methodology/approach
To achieve these purposes, this study mainly uses social network analysis to capture the properties of networking behaviours in the voluntary collaborative activities underlying three main environmental issues: waste disposal, energy and water pollution. The study focusses on the collaborative efforts undertaken by actors across multiple sectors: governmental organizations, for-profits and civil society organizations.
Findings
The results show that the government plays the leading role in voluntary environmental collaborations across environmental issues; however, the actual implementation is expanded to be undertaken by non-state actors. Moreover, CSR has positive associations with networking and brokerage roles; therefore, this study reveals the utility of various voluntary policy instruments.
Practical implications
This study demonstrates the role of governmental initiation and its influence on non-state actors, even for voluntary environmental tools. The CSR initiatives of private actors can also be supported and encouraged by the government, which will promote participation by private actors in voluntary collaborative networks and their leading role as network facilitators.
Social implications
By understanding the positions and roles of each actor in the environmental collaborative networks, environmental policymakers can better understand the possibilities and the capabilities of each actor both to improve policy design and learning and to respond to policy changes effectively.
Originality/value
Voluntary collaboration and CSR are non-regulated policy tools; however, they can be promoted and introduced into society by governmental organizations, and they affect each other.
Details
Keywords
This chapter explores the characteristics of emerging environmental movement organizations in China, and more specifically the role of guanxi – or personal networks – in Chinese…
Abstract
This chapter explores the characteristics of emerging environmental movement organizations in China, and more specifically the role of guanxi – or personal networks – in Chinese environmental activism. While organizational networks of environmental NGOs are still weak in Chinese environmental activism, personal networks of environmental activists are instrumental in building the first sprouts of a green civil society. We explore this via an in-depth case study of relatively successful environmental activism to halt the construction of a number of hydro-electric projects on the Nu River. The case study illustrates that in China, more so than in western countries, informal personal networks, rather than formal organizational networks, play a crucial role in the organization and success of contemporary environmental campaigns. This is partly explained by the immature environmental movement, and partly by the specifics of Chinese social networks.
Yusi Jiang, Chuanjia Li and Yapu Zhao
This study aims to explore the relationship between network position and innovation under major environmental turbulence.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore the relationship between network position and innovation under major environmental turbulence.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors use a difference-in-differences identification approach using the 2009 Industry Revitalization Plan in response to the global financial crisis as a natural experiment with a sample of Chinese listed firms from 2001 to 2017.
Findings
The findings show that a major environmental turbulence can facilitate firm innovation, and firms that occupy central positions in the interlock network show worse innovation performance while firms with high brokerage show better innovation performance.
Originality/value
The literature on environmental implication has largely focused on the threats and overlooked the potential opportunities. Moreover, social network literature has elaborated on the benefits and constraints of network positions from a static perspective but largely overlooked their implications facing environmental change. By exploring the bright side of major environmental turbulence and including this factor as a key contingency in exploring the effects of centrality and brokerage, this study integrates external environmental context with social network research and provides empirical evidence responding to the call for more attention to network dynamics and extends our understanding of the context-contingent network effects on firm innovation.
Details
Keywords
Yugang Yu, Xin Zhang, Xiong Zhang and Wei T. Yue
New information technologies such as IoT and big data analytics have reshaped the development of smart green products. These products exhibit two important features that are not…
Abstract
Purpose
New information technologies such as IoT and big data analytics have reshaped the development of smart green products. These products exhibit two important features that are not seen in traditional products: environmental friendliness and data network effect. Based on these unique features, the authors investigate a firm's optimal selling strategy of smart green products from both the profitability and environmental perspectives.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors establish stylized models to consider the optimality of three selling strategies: (1) traditional strategy – only offering traditional products, (2) green strategy – only offering smart green products, and (3) hybrid strategy – offering both traditional and smart green products.
Findings
The authors’ analysis shows that in the absence of data network effect, there will always be a conflict between profit maximization and environmental protection. However, a strategy that benefits both the firm and the environment exists when data network effect is present. Interestingly, hybrid and traditional strategies can be win-win strategies, but the green strategy cannot. Also surprisingly, the green strategy may harm the environment more as smart products become greener.
Originality/value
This study examines the economic and environmental implications of selling smart green products, and contributes to existing literature on sustainable operations and green product design by incorporating the impact of both consumer environmental awareness and data network effect. The authors’ findings shed light on how to coordinate the profitability and environmental impact of selling smart green products in the era of big data and IoT.
Details
Keywords
Lyndie Bayne, Sharon Purchase and Geoffrey N. Soutar
The purpose of this study is to develop an understanding of how change in environmental practices occurs in business networks. The study examines what types of network change…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to develop an understanding of how change in environmental practices occurs in business networks. The study examines what types of network change processes occur in bringing about environmental change. Further, the basic change process theory types (life-cycle, teleology, dialectics and evolution) involved in the change processes are analyzed.
Design/methodology/approach
A multiple, embedded, network case study was undertaken in the Australian agrifood sector, focusing on the pork and dairy industries.
Findings
Change was found to occur through the interaction of multiple network processes operating simultaneously and sequentially over time. Thirteen network process categories were identified, grouped further into legislative, business case and altruistic overarching motivations. Legislative change processes emphasize the need for continued government intervention through enforced legislation. Teleology and dialectics were common at the beginning of many change processes, followed by life-cycle theory types.
Originality/value
The study brings together change process conceptualizations from prior unconnected literatures into a comprehensive change process categorization framework. Examining changes in the activity dimension adds to network dynamics literature previously focusing on changes in the actor and resource dimensions. Contributions are made to processual research methods by theoretically and empirically clarifying connections between events, activities and processes. Analyzing the underlying change process theory types at the network level adds to both management and business network literature. Finally, the study answers calls to study sustainability issues at a network level.
Details
Keywords
Ming-Chao Wang, Pei-Chen Chen and Shih-Chieh Fang
Environmental turbulence represents a double-edged sword, simultaneously fueling and hindering a firm’s entrepreneurial orientation (EO). Drawing on the theories of EO and network…
Abstract
Purpose
Environmental turbulence represents a double-edged sword, simultaneously fueling and hindering a firm’s entrepreneurial orientation (EO). Drawing on the theories of EO and network relationships, this study aims to develop and test a conceptual model that provides a nuanced account of the relationship between environmental turbulence and firm EO.
Design/methodology/approach
Data for this study were collected using a survey of high-technology firms in Hsinchu Science Park (HSP) in Taiwan. Questionnaires were mailed to 297 high-technology firms in the semiconductor, photoelectric and communication industries within HSP. Completed questionnaires were received from 94 firms, which included responses from 94 research and development managers and 462 employees.
Findings
The results reveal that the degree of environmental turbulence exhibits an inverted U-shaped relationship with a firm’s EO. Moreover, this relationship is positively moderated by network relationships between firms, but negatively moderated by organizational inertia.
Originality/value
The empirical and conceptual findings have important implications for understanding EO, because the findings explain causal relationships that transform a firm’s interactive and inner control capabilities into firm-level results.
Details
Keywords
Shimpei Iwasaki and Rajib Shaw
In line with climate variability such as extreme floods and cyclones, siltation is identified as among the most serious environmental problems posed to Chilika Lagoon fisheries…
Abstract
In line with climate variability such as extreme floods and cyclones, siltation is identified as among the most serious environmental problems posed to Chilika Lagoon fisheries. Exposure to silt accumulation reduced the water spread area and hindered the exchange of water between the sea and river, resulted in decreased salinity level and subsequent prolific growth of freshwater invasive species. As a result, fish landing quantities in Chilika Lagoon rapidly decreased until the year 2000, thereby leading to the poorer people not being effectively able to adapt to the ecological-social-economic system. The weed invasion also obstructed passages from boat jetties to fishing grounds, sometimes leading to boat clashes and the subsequent disputes among fishers.
Qinghua Zhu and Qing Liu
This paper aims to develop a framework for Chinese telecommunication network companies on how to implement eco‐design by benchmarking its parent foreign company.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to develop a framework for Chinese telecommunication network companies on how to implement eco‐design by benchmarking its parent foreign company.
Design/methodology/approach
A case study approach is used to study key aspects for eco‐design planning in Alcatel Shanghai‐Bell Co. Ltd (ASB). Challenges and possible solutions are discussed.
Findings
It is reasonable and effective for Chinese joint ventures to develop their eco‐design planning by benchmarking their parent companies. Key aspects for such eco‐planning include top management commitments, awareness of employees, and training of eco‐design tools.
Research limitations/implications
Eco‐design is still an emerging environmental tool among Chinese telecommunication network companies. As a result, quantified data about eco‐design practices and performance improvements are not available. How to record such data still requires further study and data acquisition.
Practical implications
This paper provides ideas for Chinese (and other) telecommunication companies to develop their eco‐design planning. The proposed solutions can guide Chinese telecommunication network companies to overcome challenges for their eco‐design planning and implementation.
Originality/value
This paper puts forward a framework for Chinese telecommunication companies to initiate their eco‐design practices by benchmarking their leading parent companies. The framework can be applied to Chinese and other telecommunication network companies with few environmental experiences and practices.
Details