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Publicly funded demonstration projects represent a critical intermediate step between basic R&D on the one hand, and large-scale commercialization of new sustainable technology on the other. However, these projects often suffer from various technical and nontechnical difficulties, frequently fail to meet objectives, and sometimes stall despite the best intentions of their facilitators. This paper reports on a multiple case study of 21 demonstration projects in the area of sustainable technology set in Sweden and offers two contributions. First, it maps the project-internal and external factors that allow or prohibit demonstration projects to reach their goals. Second, it suggests a process model outlining the key activities for setting up a new demonstration project. By doing so, the paper provides important implications for the process of developing and commercializing sustainable technologies. The escalating environmental crisis in particular underscores the need for new knowledge about how cleaner and more sustainable technologies can be applied.

Firms are reliant on third party certification schemes to provide an independent account of their quality, environmental and social practices. Although firms are typically involved with certification schemes over long periods, even decades, available literature so far provides little understanding about what certification related interventions firms pursue. To fill this gap, this study determines a typology of interventions and develops a theoretical understanding on why, how and under what circumstances firms intervene. Based on a qualitative enquiry involving 15 case study firms certified to ISO 9001 and ISO 14001, the interventions are classified as incremental interventions (external audit quality, contractual, learning and benchmarking interventions) and breakthrough interventions (adoptive, integrative and infrastructural interventions). The pursuit of individual interventions is explained by institutional pressures, firms' motivation for certification, competence of certification intermediaries, and by complexity of firms’ internal processes. A temporal perspective of the interventions and a set of four sequential pathways are discussed as well.

Agricultural cooperatives have grown exponentially in the past few decades. There is anecdotal evidence showing that vertical coordination of cooperatives with upstream and downstream supply chain bring benefits to cooperative members; however this relationship is far from clear. In particular, the common measurements for member benefits may not accurately represent cooperative practice in the literature. To fill this gap and using an ethnographic multiple case study method, 32 interviews were carried out with four dairy cooperatives in China. It is found that (1) there is a linear relationship between vertical coordination and cooperative performance; (2) Vertical coordination is associated with benefits distribution within the dairy cooperative, showing an inverted U-shaped relationship; (3) Member benefits are a function of both cooperative performance and benefits distribution.

This article reports on an in-depth multiple case study into the adoption of green modular innovations in the housebuilding sector. This adoption of green modular innovations is important because it enables a substantial improvement in terms of sustainable building. For this study, three modular innovations were selected – a modular renewable energy system, a modular bathroom pod and a modular photovoltaic roof. The multiple case study helped to identify ten variables that influence the adoption of these modular innovations. A closer analysis also revealed interrelations between several of the identified variables. Based on this analysis, four paths leading to the potential adoption of green modular innovations were identified. For each path, propositions were developed. These paths enable one to explain how and why green modular housing innovations are adopted. From these findings we derived clear managerial and policy implications while future research directions are also addressed.

In this study, we explore the drivers of and barriers to environmental innovation for new entrants and incumbents in the cement industry. The cement industry produces large amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions every year, and therefore, implementing environmental innovations in the industry is important. The study was conducted as a multiple-case study of seven companies; four are new entrants, and three are incumbents in the cement industry. We found that incumbents implement environmental process innovations, as these firms are driven by cost-efficiency incentives to serve price-sensitive customers that prioritize standard products with competitive prices. Incumbents’ efforts in environmental product innovations are hindered by economic feasibility and constraints of production facilities especially when compared to ordinary Portland cement (OPC) production. In turn, new entrants implement environmental product innovations, as these firms are driven by internal values and a mission involving environmentally friendly products. To attain better environmental performance, new entrants create environmental product innovations for niche markets and applications. New policies that stimulate customer demand for new entrants and incumbents could accelerate the change to lower emissions in cement production.

The roles of public actors in promoting the industrial circular economy is uncharted, despite sustainable actions often resulting from collaboration between these actors and private actors. This study therefore illuminated (1) what roles public actors take on in the operation of an eco-industrial park (EIP) and (2) how these roles occur within the actor structure of an EIP? Correspondingly, the research conducted two qualitative case studies on EIPs where public entities are essential actors and analyzed these public spaces via the qualitative content analysis of primary and secondary data. Study 1 extensively analyzed 20 EIP cases around the world. The analysis uncovered six roles played by public actors in EIPs: operator, organizer, financer, supporter, policymaker, and regulator. Study 2 involved a longitudinal exploration of four national EIP cases, an examination of identified roles, and an ecosystem visualization mapping of what positions public actors can assume in an EIP. The research contributes to the literature primarily through the identification of roles, which show how public actor involvement in EIPs can be multifaceted and crucial in successfully operating an EIP. The research also offers new insights and a model of public actor roles in EIPs, serving as a tool for these actors to self-reflect and understand the functions that they can serve in aiming for sustainable EIP operations. publishedVersion

Agri-food systems are in constant movement, constituted by practices that are shared by actors; however, in a context where new practices are established by the sharing economy, it is necessary to understand them. Thus, this article identifies and describes the sharing economy practices adopted by agri-food rural settlements. Using as basis a systematic review and a multiple case study, the literature revealed 11 practices although the multiple case studies just did not find the practice of housing sharing in the settlements; on the other hand, uncover a new practice, labor sharing, that was not yet mentioned in the literature. This study reveals that the sharing economy practices in agri-food production are strongly linked by the integration of resources and this reality generates the interdependence and interdefinition of the actors in rural settlements.

Leading manufacturers in developed countries generally implement green practices and have high levels of environmental awareness. However, it is uncertain which practices are implemented and how they are implemented in the home appliance sector of emerging countries such as Brazil. The purpose of this study is to identify and analyze the practices of green supply chain management adopted by home appliance manufacturers. To analyze green practices in this industry, 5 manufacturers and 2 professional associations were used as case studies; this approach provided in-depth interviews about internal environmental management, reverse logistics, green purchasing, eco-design, life cycle assessment, waste management, and green manufacturing. Waste management was the most widely used technique among the research participants, and green purchasing and life cycle assessment practices were less widespread. Significant differences in the adoption of certain green supply chain management (GSCM) dimensions were observed between companies with ISO 14001 certification and non-certified companies. Suggestions for further developing GSCM in the home appliance industry are also presented.

There is a growing consensus among scholars and practitioners that corporate community relations matter, especially from a sustainability standpoint. While current research has focused on strategies of corporate community engagement per se, little is known about the interactions between organizational arrangements and community engagement strategies of companies. Through the empirical study of 17 companies that pose serious and direct environmental risks, this article underscores the importance of organizational arrangements, including human and financial resources, competencies, issue status, and measurement tools. This study contributes to the literature on corporate community relations both empirically and conceptually. First, it provides a detailed examination of the experience of managers directly involved in the day-to-day practice of engagement with local community. This detailed examination sheds light on the integrational strategy, an inherently transverse strategy of engagement. The integrational strategy complements other strategies previously theorized and opens new research avenues.

This study undertakes an in-depth analysis of green and traditional entrepreneurs’ experiences using a multiple case study research methodology along with triangulation and coding techniques, identifying the specific drivers of ecopreneurship given the constraints and challenges faced by them. This study maps this analysis to Resource Based View’s (RBV) theoretical construct and argues that ecopreneurs navigate and negotiate their enterprise development constraints through combinations of personal attributes and innovative mechanisms rendering tangible and intangible economic, environmental and social gains. It further proposes a policy framework to incentivise, assist and accelerate ecopreneurs’ efforts in achieving scalability in an uncertain external ecosystem. This proposed framework would also address the conflict between monetisation of innovations and environmental concerns.

The innovative technologies search efficient ways of environmental preservation allied to organizational advantages. The innovation is an approach that contributes to understand the relationship between society, economy and environment. The technology parks are considered propitious environment for the development of innovative technologies. The Itaipu Technological Park (ITP) hosts eco-innovation projects in renewable energy in a dynamics that can be explained by Geels’ (2006) multilevel perspective (MLP) on the socio-technical transition theory. This article’s objective is to analyze the four innovations developmental trajectory in renewable energy of ITP, from the MLP multiphase analysis. The multiple case study of qualitative nature, the main applied technique was interviews. Out of the examined cases, two innovations are in the technical specialization phase, whereas the other two are in the diffusion and in the technology advancement phase. The results show that the ITP created a suitable environment for eco-innovation development companies in renewable energy.

For remote areas, small-scale local biodiesel production is particularly attractive if producers and consumers are the same. Such supply chains are labeled as bidirectional. However, little is known on how raw material supply, transportation, logistics, production and operations uncertainties impact the operational performance of such Bidirectional Biodiesel Supply Chains. This paper contributes by exploring these uncertainties in a multiple case study, directed at mobile processing of rubber seeds, in a remote area. Scientifically, the paper contributes by identifying several novel sources of uncertainty: a short-term perspective, lack of knowledge and the previously unrecognized influence of the local government. Additionally, based on these findings, an extended theoretical framework is proposed which links sources of uncertainty to operational performance. The study provides also insights for stakeholders aiming to increase local biofuel production and provides a stepping-stone to investigate adequate measures to manage the identified uncertainties. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

This work discusses the internal structuring processes of leading companies when adopting green supply chain management (GSCM) practices. A multiple case study approach was adopted as the research methodology, with four large Brazilian companies that are leaders in their market segments. The introduction of green products is a key step towards initiating concern for the environment among suppliers and customers. This study's results show the importance of having green teams, a dedicated functional area, and/or green jobs that support the discussion of environmental management among a business and beyond. The practical results of this study offer new insights into the behavior of companies that are adopting GSCM practices, thereby generating new evidence for the extension of GSCM theory.

This paper analyzes the practices adopted and difficulties experienced by Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) to transfer socially responsible behaviors to suppliers that operate in developing countries. In particular, a multiple case study was conducted on five Italian socially responsible SMEs. It was found that companies use different strategies as well as diverse management systems and tools to address Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) issues along their supply chains (SCs). The paper is innovative mainly since few are the existing studies that investigate the CSR practices adopted by SMEs in the SC. Furthermore, it is argued that our research can be helpful to SME managers willing to deal with CSR issues along their SCs, especially when developing countries are involved.