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High risk is one of the most prominent characteristics of the Chinese construction industry, and it poses a significant threat to construction projects. Owing to initiatives aimed at achieving high efficiency, low carbon emissions, etc., industrialization of the construction industry has become an inevitable trend in China. However, it remains to be discussed whether industrialization of construction can reduce the risks entailed in construction projects compared with traditional construction. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Based on the theory of risk life cycle, this paper proposes a practical risk assessment technique to assess the risk life cycle, including the risk occurrence time and potential financial losses. This technique is then applied to assess the differences between the risks involved in an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) project executed via traditional and industrial production modes.

The results show that the total duration of risks in the industrial construction project is half of that in the traditional project. In addition, the expected financial loss entailed in the industrial construction project is 29 percent lower than that in the traditional construction project. Therefore, industrial construction has the potential to optimize risk performance.

There is no significant difference between the traditional and industrial construction models in terms of probability of risk. The maximum total loss might occur in the procurement stage in the case of industrial production, and in the construction stage in the case of traditional production. Moreover, the total expected loss from risk in the EPC project in the industrial production mode is only half of that in the traditional production route. This study is expected to provide a new risk evaluation technique and promote an understanding of the life cycle of risk management in the construction industry.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the scope of applications and benefits of sustainability accounting for the production and industrial use of biomass as an energy source and substitute for fossil‐fuel use. As environmental degradation and unacceptable social impacts not only increase from the production and use of fossil‐fuel based energy, but also from alternative energy sources, the monitoring, controlling and measuring of the (un‐)sustainability of alternative energy production and use emerges as an area in critical need of research.

The paper presents a review of the issues surrounding the accounting for the (un‐)sustainability of industrial biomass production and use, considering what biomass is, the current and forecast importance of industrial biomass, different approaches to its production, and the subsequent measurement and monitoring of its potential (un‐)sustainability.

The paper finds that it is insufficient to conclude in general terms, as is often done or assumed in policy documents and statements, that industrial production and use of biomass is sustainable (or unsustainable) and that accounting for biomass must recognise the broader ecological and social system of which the production and use form a part. A further finding of the paper is that from agricultural or industrial production of biomass through to consumption and industrial use of biomass, the accounting issues surrounding biomass production and use are essential to determining its (un‐)sustainability.

The paper provides an overview of the importance of and problems with the production of biomass for industrial use, and related sustainability issues. It discusses possibilities for and limitations of accounting to address these sustainability issues as well as the need for and the challenges in measuring the (un‐)sustainability of biomass production for industrial use and the accounting for sustainability improvements.

Editorial This special issue of Industrial Management & Data Systems is a huge departure from our usual journal/ monograph style. This is an additional issue to the year's volume — a bonus in fact.

The purpose of this paper is to describe green technological trajectories in eco‐industrial parks and reveal the effect of the selected environment on the trajectories in China, by means of case studies of the Lubei Group and the Guitang Group.

The paper opted for content analysis from various sources, including annual reports of listed companies, newspapers, web sites and academic articles. It adopts contrast analysis, in order to show the different technological evolution trend and the diversified dynamics of the selected environment.

The study provides the empirical insights about how green technology evolves and affects the evolution of the eco‐industrial park. The green technology development of the Lubei Group forms self‐reinforcing mechanism through learning process, economies of scale in production and network externalities, while that of the Guitang Group is under way. Additionally, the paper discusses how the selected environment affects the green technology, referring to the six factors constituting the selected environment: environmental regulation, financial support, knowledge accumulation, market environment, organizational culture and resource endowment.

The paper analyzes the evolution process, drivers and operational risks of eco‐industrial parks in the perspective of green technological trajectories. Some practical suggestions, such as eco‐industrial parks should put the focus on environmental intellectual property protection, green core competencies construction and green technology transfer strategies are proposed. What is more, the Lubei Group is a large, state‐owned enterprise and the Guitang Group used to be. The contrast analysis tends to disclose the context‐embedded knowledge of eco‐industrial parks development in an emerging market.

Lester and Wolff (2013) find little empirical support for the Austrian business cycle theory. According to their analysis, an unexpected monetary shock does not alter the structure of production in a way consistent with the Austrian view. Rather than increasing production in early and late stages relative to middle stages, they find the opposite – a positive monetary shock typically decreases production in early and late stages relative to middle stages. We argue that the measures of production and prices employed by Lester and Wolff (2013) are constructed in such a way that makes them inappropriate for assessing the empirical relevance of the Austrian business cycle theory’s unique features. After describing how these measures are constructed and why using ratios of stages is problematic, we use a structural vector autoregression to consider the effects of a monetary shock on each stage of the production process. We show that, with a clearer understanding of what is actually being measured by the stage of process data, the results are consistent with (but not exclusive to) the Austrian view.

Studies concerning Soviet taxation demonstrate a diversity of opinions on the nature of turnover taxes. Four major views on the subject have emerged: (1) turnover taxes are simply a sales (excise) tax on articles' of consumption sold to the Soviet consumer; (2) not all turnover taxes are a sales tax, some of them are a substitute for rent on production of certain industrial materials; (3) in addition to being a sales (excise) tax on consumer goods and rent on some industrial materials, there exists a third type of turnover tax which is levied on agricultural production of the peasantry; (4) turnover taxes are a portion of the surplus product produced in industry and agriculture.

The article discusses the characteristics of the future industrial company, the so‐called interactive firm, and the challenges awaiting it down the road. To this end, a framework for the strategic positioning of tomorrow's industrial company is proposed.

In order to illustrate that the interactive firm may take on different forms, three archetypal, future‐oriented firms have been identified and tested in a panel of industrial managers to flesh out this framework.

The article provides a detailed picture of the strategic roles and functioning of the interactive firm.

Individual firms may use the framework as a guide to position themselves in the industrial climate of the future. The framework also includes five different strategic production roles that an industrial firm should consider.

The value of the article is that it triggers both scholars and practitioners to study and consider different forms as well as key characteristics of the industrial enterprise of the future.

Briefly discusses the industrial development process in Brazil by highlighting a few examples of its social and environmental implications. The current environmental crisis for which the industrial sector is co‐responsible puts evidence on the existing links between production and consumption cycles. In order to identify impacts at their origin, production processes and products need to be re‐assessed. Proposes a paradigm shift with the corporate world internalising the sustainability concept based on dematerialisation (tendency to use less material and energy inputs per unit of output) and eco‐efficiency (strategy to provide goods and services while continuously reducing ecological impacts).

The purpose of this paper is to identify how industrial robotics fits into lean manufacturing systems. This paper presents results from case studies where Swedish and Japanese manufacturing industries have been compared in order to identify differences on how advanced manufacturing technologies and industrial robotics are utilized.

The research has been conducted via case studies where researchers from academia have worked together with industrial companies. During the case studies, the results of interviews, observations and data collection in the form of performance measures and historical production data have been analyzed.

This paper highlights some of the differences between how Swedish and Japanese companies work with industrial robotics. It also proposes some key areas where development could lead to better integration of industrial robotics into lean manufacturing systems.

This research has been performed with the intention of identifying how manufacturing industries could increase their competitiveness through industrial robot automation. The companies involved in the research project have received feedback on their automation solutions. The overall goal is to create a guideline for how to design industrial robotic work cells that can easily be integrated into lean manufacturing systems. This research area is important in order to increase competitiveness in industry. It is thus of value for both industry and the scientific community.

This paper aims to investigate overlaps, complementarities and divergences between the literature on circular economy (CE) models and related literature in non-linear production models and frameworks, including CE, reverse logistics, closed-loop, industrial symbiosis and industrial ecology.

A systematic literature review was conducted focussing on the benefits of non-linear modes adoption.

The results show a high degree of convergence in findings, gaps and weaknesses of these literatures. Negative environmental, economic and operational impacts are understudied. There is a scarcity of studies identifying practices resulting in empirically tested benefits. The business and society case for non-linear production is still largely built upon conceptual studies, modelling and a few case studies. Despite a normative focus, there is very little use of theory, in particular, management theories.

First, the authors use only one, albeit highly recognized database, Scopus. This database may have omitted some relevant research, journals such as the Journal of Cleaner Production and Resources Conservation & Recycling that are more likely to publish such research and also have a more interdisciplinary approach. This is an important gap and interesting result to claim for more interdisciplinary research. Second, the filtering process used and the focus on Association of Business Schools top journals may have also omitted some relevant research, such as a large stream of literature in specialist journals such as Resources Conservation and Recycling and the Journal of Cleaner Production.

There are contradictions, tensions and epistemological ambiguity that needs to be critically addressed. Such tensions may be associated with the knowledge field that gave rise to these different non-linear production approaches. Many of them appeared at the same time, but from different sciences and disciplines with their own perspectives. Then in doing so, they create confusion in the definitions of CE, assumptions underlying modelling and business choices arising from this complexity. This can be minimized through the critical interpretation of knowledge to elucidate epistemological quandaries to improve the understanding of the economic, social and environmental impacts of practices.

In some way, this result makes sense, as the authors have limited the search to management, business and accounts journals, especially talking about Operations Management journals. This is an important gap and interesting result to claim for more interdisciplinary research.

In addition to gaps previously described, the authors identified areas of tensions where the literature offers inconclusive – often contradictory – findings requiring further exploration. A better understanding of these tensions is required to understand the impacts of non-linear production and develop policy guidelines for industry and policymakers to scale-up CE.