| 1. |
- Berlin, Daniel, 1993-, et al.
(author)
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Exploring the divide between the product and material perspectives in the circular economy
- 2021
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper attempts to bring together product design and material perspectives. It contributes to extant literature in three particular ways. We emphasise incommensurability between current waste management practices, which are developed for a linear economic model, and circular product design. We bring forward ideas of bounded creativity and the problems of making ceteris paribus assumptions in a role as circular product designer. This paper is a first step in exploring goal conflicts and challenges that appear when focal actor changes from original equipment manufacturers to a wide range of actors, including recyclers, and from products and components to materials.
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| 2. |
- Berlin, Daniel, 1993-
(author)
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Industrial Networks : Purposes and Configurations in the Circular Economy
- 2023
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Today, it is common knowledge that mitigation of and adaptation to climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution require sustainability transitions. An essential sustainability transition, for mitigating and adapting to resource depletion, is the shift from unsustainable to sustainable production and consumption patterns. At the nexus of academic, business, and policy discussions about sustainable resource management is the circular economy concept. Those researching the circular economy advocate that ecosystems in nature should be used as a blueprint for sustainable production and consumption. Ecosystems in nature are complex and dynamic systems which include many diverse and autonomous, yet interrelated and interdependent, parts. Actors will have to search for and establish collaborations with others that control processes that can feed their own or which their own can feed. In other words, actors will depend on a higher degree of relational means, and lower degree of contractual means, when working together.If companies are meant to change how they create and deliver value in the circular economy by configuring circular supply chains that replicate ecosystems in nature, academia needs to produce knowledge on the matter. One requisite is that researchers find ways to study energy and material flows in complex and dynamic systems. Recent literature has emphasized that actors must make apt changes to their supply chain configurations or develop new supply chain configurations that enable collaboration within and across supply chains. Nevertheless, there remains only a limited amount of literature addressing the subject. Several researchers into the circular supply chain have thus identified this as a research gap and argue that there is an urgent need to direct attention to circular supply chain configurations that enable collaboration within and across supply chains. In particular, there are two areas of major importance. Firstly, how collaboration makes actors more dependent on each other and the consequences of this development for issues such as the agency of actors, conflicts between actors, and relationship governance. Secondly, how configuring circular supply chains within and across industrial boundaries need to consider the distance between actors and the effects of product design on the circular supply chain configuration.This thesis, which is located at the intersection of industrial dynamics, industrial networks, and supply chain management, suggests the network as a metaphor for depicting the architecture of such complex and dynamic systems. In particular, interrelations and interdependences between diverse and autonomous parts of the network are studied using the industrial network approach. In essence, the economy is viewed as networks of relationships between the actors which control resources and perform activities. By applying the industrial network approach to supply chain management, this thesis outlines an approach for studying how companies configure circular supply chains for cyclical, restorative, and regenerative energy and material flows.As the state of prior theory was nascent, open-ended inquiries of an exploratory nature were necessary. Accordingly, the research questions were answered using qualitative case studies. The outcome was rich data about unique contexts, which was collected in various ways, such as through interviews, observations, and document analysis. An abductive case study approach, blending inductive and deductive processes, was considered particularly appropriate for studying industrial networks. However, a systematic literature review was also used because parts of the theory behind industrial network configurations in the circular economy are more mature.This thesis makes three main contributions. Firstly, it identifies three purposes of industrial networks in the circular economy. It is shown that industrial networks enable the agency of actors to produce holistic change in the industrial network. However, since an actor’s view of the industrial network is restricted, the actor depends on other actors’ complementary views in order to be able to produce such change. Secondly, this thesis introduces two conceptual frameworks that contribute to the understanding of how to configure industrial networks that enable collaborations within and across industrial boundaries. Thirdly, this thesis supports the idea that product design affects how to configure industrial networks for the circular economy. It also contributes to the literature by arguing that the relationship between product design and industrial network configuration is bidirectional. Product design is a collaborative process which both shapes the future industrial network and is shaped by the current industrial network.
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| 3. |
- Berlin, Daniel, 1993-, et al.
(author)
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Separating open- from closed-loop supply chains
- 2020
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We argue for a loop literature in supply chain management including the two concepts closed- and open-loop supply chain. From systematic literature reviews of the two concepts, the suggestion is that closed- and open-loop supply chain are two ends of a scale. At one end, the closed-loop supply chain concept captures product recovery options connected to reuse that the manufacturer (or actors further along the supply chain) control. At the other end, the open-loop supply chain concept encapsulates product recovery options connected to recycling that only involve other actors.
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| 4. |
- Berlin, Daniel, 1993-, et al.
(author)
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Supply chain collaboration in circular supply chains : The example of Swedish steel recycling
- 2019
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In: Operations adding value to society. - Helsinki. ; , s. 1657-1666
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Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The aim of this paper is to investigate the role of supply chain collaboration between buyers and suppliers in the reverse flow of a system of circular supply chains. The empirical context is Swedish unalloyed steel recycling, i.e. recycling of steel with a low proportion of additional components. The paper applies a framework on mechanisms of coordination and supply chain flows to discuss the underlying rationale for how the Swedish steel recycling industry organizes coordination. At the activity level, it is shown how the inherent uncertainty of reverse flows is handled through voluntary cross-industrial cooperation and standardization.
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| 5. |
- Berlin, Daniel, 1993-, et al.
(author)
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Supply network collaborations in a circular economy : A case study of Swedish steel recycling
- 2022
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In: Resources, Conservation and Recycling. - : Elsevier BV. - 0921-3449 .- 1879-0658. ; 179, s. 106112-106112
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Supply network collaboration has been recognised as a vital enabler in the transition to a circular economy. Even so, the existing literature has directed limited attention to the nature of these relationships and the motivation behind them. Hence, there is a need to understand the actual activities of actors engaged in collaboration to address this knowledge gap. The steel industry presents an interesting example. Given that more than one-third of the world's steel production originates from scrap, its supply is essential to the survival of the steel industry. Based on an explorative case study, this paper investigates collaboration of steel producers, a procurement intermediary and scrap dealers to facilitate steel recycling. These actors deal with the practical challenge of variation in the quantity and quality of steel scrap by engaging in various types of collaboration. This paper seeks to analyse the nature of these collaborations and answer the question of why actors engage in supply network collaboration. The paper identifies a complex web of relationships and outlines differing motives for and against collaboration, with specific focus on three types. While quality control is the main motive in dyadic vertical collaboration between a buyer and a supplier, efficiency is the main motive for both horizontal collaboration between buyers and lateral collaboration amongst all actors in the supply network. Thus, this paper adds to the conventional wisdom of sequential, dyadic, linear and vertical relationships, providing a deeper understanding of the types of supply network collaboration from the underexplored context of steel recycling.
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| 6. |
- Berlin, Daniel, 1993-, et al.
(author)
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The relatedness of open- and closed-loop supply chains in the context of the circular economy; Framing a continuum
- 2022
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In: Cleaner Logistics and Supply Chain. - : Elsevier. - 2772-3909. ; 4, s. 100048-100048
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The configuration of closed-loop supply chains (CLSCs) for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to recover and remarket products has been discussed as a crucial pathway in the transition towards the circular economy (CE). However, in the context of the CE, circular supply chains (CSCs) have an extended role to recover materials and minimize waste that goes beyond the particular firm’s product recovery and remarketing. Thus, the open-loop supply chains (OLSCs) have an equally important role to play as supply chain configurations where actors other than the OEM engage in product and material recovery. While the literature on CLSC is a mature field, studies that analyze the complementary nature of CLSC and OLSC in addressing the transition to the CE are scant. Based on a systematic literature review (2007–2021), this paper contributes to literature by identifying some of the characteristics of OLSC, providing empirical illustrations, and developing a conceptual framework of the open- and closed-loop supply chain continuum.
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| 7. |
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| 8. |
- Broström, Anders, Docent, 1978-, et al.
(author)
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Structured relations between higher education institutions and external organisations : opportunity or bureaucratisation?
- 2019
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In: Higher Education. - : SPRINGER. - 0018-1560 .- 1573-174X. ; 78:4, s. 575-591
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper explores the introduction of centrally coordinated initiatives aimed at formalising universities' relationships to external organisations. Such initiatives are referred to as structured relations. Based on a review of nine Swedish Universities, we identify three types of structured relation initiatives (network events, collaboration platforms, partnership agreements). In common for all structured relations identified are that they offer new opportunities to manage external expectations on universities, in particular as regards their ability to demonstrate their commitment to outreach activities. The formalisation of outreach activities challenges the academic tradition of giving individual professors discretionary mandates to enter and manage external relationships. Drawing on a collective action perspective, we analyse the tensions that are generated when universities introduce new elements of support and central coordination of outreach activities. The introduction of structured relations potentially contributes to changing the nature of the university as an organisation.
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| 9. |
- Chen, Lujie, et al.
(author)
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Applying GRI Reports for the Investigation of Environmental Management Practices and Company Performance in Sweden, China and India
- 2015
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In: Journal of Cleaner Production. - : Elsevier. - 0959-6526 .- 1879-1786. ; 98:1, s. 36-46
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The relationship between environmental management practices (EMPs) and company performance has recently been debated in literature and is of interest for both industrial managers and political decision-makers. This paper investigates the relationship between EMPs and firm performance in manufacturing companies in Sweden, China and India. With the content analysis of Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) reports and financial reports of sample companies, the levels of EMPs and the companies' financial performances were coded. Further statistical assessment was conducted in order to identify patterns and correlations. The results indicate that only selected EMPs have been employed differently in three different countries. Most EMPs clearly do not have a positive correlation with the financial performance; i.e. employing EMPs does not necessarily improve the economic consequence of companies. Nevertheless, a number of EMPs do have a strong correlation with improving innovation performance in various companies. It is also interesting to note that a negative correlation exists between the Environmental standard for suppliers and Sales growth. This is possibly due to increasing operational costs and a delay in market acceptance. This research illustrates the possibility of using standard environmental data from GRI reports as a resource for future studies of EMPs. In order to improve long-term financial performance, this study also suggests that innovation should gain a substantial amount of attention when EMPs are employed.
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| 10. |
- Compañero, Reinol Josef, et al.
(author)
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A value of information approach to recycling
- 2024
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In: Resources, Conservation and Recycling. - : Elsevier BV. - 0921-3449 .- 1879-0658. ; 209
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Uncertainties with respect to the chemical composition of scrap limit its suitability as an input to recycling. This study offers an alternative approach in dealing with this concern and explores the hypothetical case where this uncertainty is nonexistent. The effect of fully knowing the scrap composition is simulated using an optimization software adopted to scrap-based, stainless-steel production. Through the systematic implementation of this information-driven model in the studied cases, the results suggest that with access to perfect information, recycling incentives can be realized. Essentially, the steel scraps’ consumption increased since it was possible to select and combine scrap quantities with varying composition profiles to achieve the targeted product compositions. This also meant that elements already in the scrap were allocated in a manner that was less dependent on pure alloy additions. Being able to demonstrate the value of information on scrap composition could rationalize upgrades on current scrap management systems.
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