Strategic Decision-Making for Sustainable
Management of Industrial Networks: An
Introduction
Sustainability
Sustainability is a new field of science which tries to understand, analyze, and
improve “the fundamental character of interactions between nature and society”
(Kates et al. 2001). Sustainability cares about meeting the needs of the present and
future generations of humans. There exist several other concepts which although
have some linkages with sustainability, they are no synonyms. These include
circular economy, environmental science, and environmental protection, among
others. While sustainability cares about ecological, economic, and social objectives,
environmental protection and environmental science have more focus on ecological
objectives, and circular economy (CE) has a focus on ecological and economic
objectives (Sauvé et al. 2016). CE is a new business model with a focus on efficiency
in resources through waste prevention, exchange, reuse, and recycling patterns
(Geng et al. 2016). While some chapters of the book have a more focus on ecological
or environmental sustainability, in some chapters the focus extends to social and
economic dimensions of sustainability based on the triple-bottom-line definition of
sustainability. Having a long-term perspective, one might argue that destroying the
nature could ultimately come at the cost of destroying the society, which is why in
research on sustainability, like in this book, environmental sustainability has a
primary role.
What we, as individuals or organizations, decide affects the nature that we are part
of. This implies that if we decide to destroy (preserve) the nature, we ultimately
destroy (preserve) ourselves. So, our decisions matter! This is why in this book, we
try to understand the role of decision-making for sustainable management. The book
has a focus on strategic decisions in industrial networks. Today, many organizations
take big steps towards sustainability. They try to use cleaner production technologies, use renewable energies, and improve health and safety issues in their organizations and the products and services they offer. These involve several important
strategic and managerial decisions, which is the topic of this book. The main
vii
Management of Industrial Networks: An
Introduction
Sustainability
Sustainability is a new field of science which tries to understand, analyze, and
improve “the fundamental character of interactions between nature and society”
(Kates et al. 2001). Sustainability cares about meeting the needs of the present and
future generations of humans. There exist several other concepts which although
have some linkages with sustainability, they are no synonyms. These include
circular economy, environmental science, and environmental protection, among
others. While sustainability cares about ecological, economic, and social objectives,
environmental protection and environmental science have more focus on ecological
objectives, and circular economy (CE) has a focus on ecological and economic
objectives (Sauvé et al. 2016). CE is a new business model with a focus on efficiency
in resources through waste prevention, exchange, reuse, and recycling patterns
(Geng et al. 2016). While some chapters of the book have a more focus on ecological
or environmental sustainability, in some chapters the focus extends to social and
economic dimensions of sustainability based on the triple-bottom-line definition of
sustainability. Having a long-term perspective, one might argue that destroying the
nature could ultimately come at the cost of destroying the society, which is why in
research on sustainability, like in this book, environmental sustainability has a
primary role.
What we, as individuals or organizations, decide affects the nature that we are part
of. This implies that if we decide to destroy (preserve) the nature, we ultimately
destroy (preserve) ourselves. So, our decisions matter! This is why in this book, we
try to understand the role of decision-making for sustainable management. The book
has a focus on strategic decisions in industrial networks. Today, many organizations
take big steps towards sustainability. They try to use cleaner production technologies, use renewable energies, and improve health and safety issues in their organizations and the products and services they offer. These involve several important
strategic and managerial decisions, which is the topic of this book. The main
vii