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Sustainability Performance in Modern Industrial Context: From Firm-Centric to Network-Based Assessment for Realistic Impact

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Proceedings of the 7th World Congress on Engineering Asset Management (WCEAM 2012)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering ((LNME))

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Abstract

The popular discussion of sustainability, its importance, and the need for its systematic assessment opened up many research venues and has led to the development of a variety of methods to measure and improve sustainability performance. While there have been some genuine efforts on developing life cycle-based research regimes, most of these efforts and subsequent solutions have seemingly been limited to the products and processes within the firms’-specific physical or organizational boundaries. In this paper, the authors argue that concentration on firms’ boundaries to improve sustainability performance is ineffective. This paper, therefore, brings a network-based approach into perspective for a systemic and dedicated sustainability performance improvement that extends beyond the prevailing firm-based approach. Shortcomings of firm-based approaches are highlighted, and how they can be avoided in a network setting will be outlined.

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Acknowledgments

The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement n°262931.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Universitetet i Stavanger, 4036, Stavanger, Norway

    Jakob E. Beer & Jayantha P. Liyanage

Authors
  1. Jakob E. Beer
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  2. Jayantha P. Liyanage
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Correspondence to Jakob E. Beer .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. World Congress on Engineering Asset Management, Seoul, Korea, Republic of (South Korea)

    Woo Bang Lee

  2. World Congress on Engineering Asset Management, Gyeongnam, Korea, Republic of (South Korea)

    Byeongkuen Choi

  3. Queensland University of Technology, Graceville, Queensland, Australia

    Lin Ma

  4. Queensland University of Technology, Sunnybank Hills, Queensland, Australia

    Joseph Mathew

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Beer, J.E., Liyanage, J.P. (2015). Sustainability Performance in Modern Industrial Context: From Firm-Centric to Network-Based Assessment for Realistic Impact. In: Lee, W., Choi, B., Ma, L., Mathew, J. (eds) Proceedings of the 7th World Congress on Engineering Asset Management (WCEAM 2012). Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-06966-1_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-06966-1_7

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-02461-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-06966-1

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