IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/bstrat/v17y2008i6p341-349.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Environmental regulation and innovation driving ecological design in the UK automotive industry

Author

Listed:
  • Mark Smith
  • Jo Crotty

Abstract

The theory of ecological modernization asserts that economic and environmental goals can be integrated within a framework of industrial modernity. Its central tenet is that environmental regulation can stimulate the application of ‘clean’ technologies or techniques. Ecological modernization also contends that environmental regulation can offer business benefits from innovation through improved product design and economic performance. The EU End of Life Vehicles Directive (ELVD) reflects many of these principles, as it compels all car manufacturers to ‘take back’ and dismantle vehicles at the end of their useful lives and to remove the hazardous substances from the production process. Each component will then be either reused or recycled. The legislation forces designers to introduce ‘clean design’ and ‘design for disassembly’ practices. In light of this, we examine the impact of the directive on UK automotive component manufacturers. We find limited evidence that the EU ELVD Directive has driven product innovation beyond short‐term, incremental technological trajectories. We therefore conclude that a more radical approach, in line with the ‘dematerialization’ thesis by Dobers and Wolff (1999), is needed to generate more radical, ecological design solutions within the UK automotive industry. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

Suggested Citation

  • Mark Smith & Jo Crotty, 2008. "Environmental regulation and innovation driving ecological design in the UK automotive industry," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 17(6), pages 341-349, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:bstrat:v:17:y:2008:i:6:p:341-349
    DOI: 10.1002/bse.550
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.550
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/bse.550?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Peter Dobers & Rolf Wolff, 1999. "Eco‐efficiency and dematerialization: Scenarios for new industrial logics in recycling industries, automobile and household appliances," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 8(1), pages 31-45, January.
    2. Arnold Tukker, 2004. "Eight types of product–service system: eight ways to sustainability? Experiences from SusProNet," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(4), pages 246-260, July.
    3. Jo Crotty & Mark Smith, 2006. "Strategic Responses to Environmental Regulation in the U.K. Automotive Sector: The European Union End‐of‐Life Vehicle Directive and the Porter Hypothesis," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 10(4), pages 95-111, October.
    4. Peter Hills & Jacqueline Lam & Richard Welford, 2004. "Business, environmental reform and technological innovation in Hong Kong," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(4), pages 223-234, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jule Naffin & Johanna Klewitz & Stefan Schaltegger, 2023. "Sustainable development of supplier performance. An empirical analysis of relationship characteristics in the automotive sector," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(4), pages 1753-1769, July.
    2. Anette von Ahsen, 2014. "The Integration of Quality, Environmental and Health and Safety Management by Car Manufacturers – a Long‐Term Empirical Study," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(6), pages 395-416, September.
    3. Ivan Bozhikin & Nikolay Dentchev, 2018. "Discovering a Wilderness of Regulatory Mechanisms for Corporate Social Responsibility: Literature Review," Economic Alternatives, University of National and World Economy, Sofia, Bulgaria, issue 2, pages 145-174, June.
    4. Francesco Rizzi & Irene Bartolozzi & Alessandra Borghini & Marco Frey, 2013. "Environmental Management of End‐of‐Life Products: Nine Factors of Sustainability in Collaborative Networks," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(8), pages 561-572, December.
    5. Flavius Ioan Rovinaru & Mihaela Daciana Rovinaru & Adina Viorica Rus, 2019. "The Economic and Ecological Impacts of Dismantling End-of-Life Vehicles in Romania," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(22), pages 1-18, November.
    6. Yi‐Chuan Liao & Kuen‐Hung Tsai, 2019. "Innovation intensity, creativity enhancement, and eco‐innovation strategy: The roles of customer demand and environmental regulation," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(2), pages 316-326, February.
    7. Doran, Justin & Ryan, Geraldine, 2012. "Regulation and Firm Perception, Eco-Innovation and Firm Performance," MPRA Paper 44578, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Marileena Koskela & Jarmo Vehmas, 2012. "Defining Eco‐efficiency: A Case Study on the Finnish Forest Industry," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(8), pages 546-566, December.
    9. Jeffrey Gauthier & Bill Wooldridge, 2012. "Influences on Sustainable Innovation Adoption: Evidence from Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(2), pages 98-110, February.
    10. Li, Ai Qiang & Kumar, Maneesh & Claes, Björn & Found, Pauline, 2020. "The state-of-the-art of the theory on Product-Service Systems," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 222(C).
    11. Moxi Song & Morgan X. Yang & Kevin J. Zeng & Wenting Feng, 2020. "Green Knowledge Sharing, Stakeholder Pressure, Absorptive Capacity, and Green Innovation: Evidence from Chinese Manufacturing Firms," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(3), pages 1517-1531, March.
    12. Lisa Melander, 2017. "Achieving Sustainable Development by Collaborating in Green Product Innovation," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(8), pages 1095-1109, December.
    13. Anton Shevchenko, 2021. "Do financial penalties for environmental violations facilitate improvements in corporate environmental performance? An empirical investigation," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(4), pages 1723-1734, May.
    14. Nikolaos S. Trevlopoulos & Thomas A. Tsalis & Konstantinos I. Evangelinos & Konstantinos P. Tsagarakis & Konstantinos I. Vatalis & Ioannis E. Nikolaou, 2021. "The influence of environmental regulations on business innovation, intellectual capital, environmental and economic performance," Environment Systems and Decisions, Springer, vol. 41(1), pages 163-178, March.
    15. Simic, Vladimir & Dimitrijevic, Branka, 2013. "Risk explicit interval linear programming model for long-term planning of vehicle recycling in the EU legislative context under uncertainty," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 197-210.
    16. Anna Cabigiosu, 2022. "Sustainable development and incumbents' open innovation strategies for a greener competence‐destroying technology: The case of electric vehicles," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(5), pages 2315-2336, July.
    17. Ángel Peiró-Signes & Marival Segarra-Oña, 2018. "How past decisions affect future behavior on eco‐innovation: An empirical study," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(8), pages 1233-1244, December.
    18. Piera Centobelli & Roberto Cerchione & Eugenio Oropallo & Wael Hassan El‐Garaihy & Tamer Farag & Khalid Hassan Al Shehri, 2022. "Towards a sustainable development assessment framework to bridge supply chain practices and technologies," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(4), pages 647-663, August.
    19. Gu, Haoran & Yang, Shenggang & Xu, Zhaoyi & Cheng, Cheng, 2023. "Supply chain finance, green innovation, and productivity: Evidence from China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    20. Muyao Li & Jinsong Zhang & Ramakrishnan Ramanathan & Ruiqian Li, 2020. "Opening the Black Box: The Impacts of Environmental Regulations on Technological Innovation," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(12), pages 1-18, June.
    21. José F. Molina‐Azorín & María D. López‐Gamero, 2016. "Mixed Methods Studies in Environmental Management Research: Prevalence, Purposes and Designs," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(2), pages 134-148, February.
    22. Zhuge, Liqun & Freeman, Richard B. & Higgins, Matthew T., 2020. "Regulation and innovation: Examining outcomes in Chinese pollution control policy areas," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 19-31.
    23. Tariq, Adeel & Badir, Yuosre F. & Tariq, Waqas & Bhutta, Umair Saeed, 2017. "Drivers and consequences of green product and process innovation: A systematic review, conceptual framework, and future outlook," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 8-23.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kohtamäki, Marko & Bhandari, Krishna Raj & Rabetino, Rodrigo & Ranta, Mikko, 2024. "Sustainable servitization in product manufacturing companies: The relationship between firm's sustainability emphasis and profitability and the moderating role of servitization," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    2. Nine Klaassen & Arno Scheepens & Bas Flipsen & Joost Vogtlander, 2020. "Eco-Efficient Value Creation of Residential Street Lighting Systems by Simultaneously Analysing the Value, the Costs and the Eco-Costs during the Design and Engineering Phase," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(13), pages 1-18, June.
    3. Huang, Youlin & Qian, Lixian, 2021. "Consumer adoption of electric vehicles in alternative business models," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    4. Kley, Fabian & Lerch, Christian & Dallinger, David, 2011. "New business models for electric cars--A holistic approach," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(6), pages 3392-3403, June.
    5. Fabio Antonialli & Rodrigo Gandia & Joel Sugano & Isabelle Nicolaï & Arthur Neto, 2019. "Business Platforms For Autonomous Vehicles Within Urban Mobility," Post-Print halshs-03687640, HAL.
    6. Wiebke Reim & David Sjödin & Vinit Parida, 2021. "Circular business model implementation: A capability development case study from the manufacturing industry," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(6), pages 2745-2757, September.
    7. Siri Jagstedt & Magnus Persson, 2019. "Using Platform Strategies In The Development Of Integrated Product-Service Solutions," International Journal of Innovation Management (ijim), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 23(04), pages 1-36, May.
    8. Fabio Antonialli & Bruna Habib Cavazza & Rodrigo Gandia & Isabelle Nicolaï & Arthur de Miranda Neto & Joel Sugano & André Luiz Zambalde, 2020. "Human or machine driving? Comparing autonomous with traditional vehicles value curves and motives to use a car," Post-Print halshs-03687616, HAL.
    9. Pan, Jeh-Nan & Nguyen, Hung Thi Ngoc, 2015. "Achieving customer satisfaction through product–service systems," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 247(1), pages 179-190.
    10. Rönnberg Sjödin, David & Parida, Vinit & Kohtamäki, Marko, 2016. "Capability configurations for advanced service offerings in manufacturing firms: Using fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(11), pages 5330-5335.
    11. Marileena Koskela & Jarmo Vehmas, 2012. "Defining Eco‐efficiency: A Case Study on the Finnish Forest Industry," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(8), pages 546-566, December.
    12. David Opresnik & Maurizio Fiasché & Marco Taisch & Manuel Hirsch, 0. "An evolving fuzzy inference system for extraction of rule set for planning a product–service strategy," Information Technology and Management, Springer, vol. 0, pages 1-17.
    13. Tommaso Elli & Alessandra Spagnoli & Valeria Maria Iannilli, 2024. "Mapping Service-Based Retailing to Improve Sustainability Practices in the Fashion Industry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(17), pages 1-20, August.
    14. Michael W. Toffel & Antoinette Stein & Katharine L. Lee, 2008. "Extending Producer Responsibility: An Evaluation Framework for Product Take-Back Policies," Harvard Business School Working Papers 09-026, Harvard Business School.
    15. Marcus Adam, 2018. "The Role of Human Resource Management (HRM) for the Implementation of Sustainable Product-Service Systems (PSS)—An Analysis of Fashion Retailers," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-27, July.
    16. Alberto de la Calle & Inmaculada Freije & Aitor Oyarbide, 2021. "Digital Product–Service Innovation and Sustainability: A Multiple-Case Study in the Capital Goods Industry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-29, June.
    17. Catherine E. Cherry & Nick F. Pidgeon, 2018. "Why Is Ownership an Issue? Exploring Factors That Determine Public Acceptance of Product-Service Systems," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-15, July.
    18. Á. Pereira & A. Carballo-Penela & A. Guerra & X. Vence, 2018. "Designing a policy package for the promotion of servicising: A case study of vineyard crop protection in Galicia (Spain)," Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 61(2), pages 348-369, January.
    19. Estephania Delgadillo & Tatiana Reyes & Rupert J Baumgartner, 2021. "Towards territorial product-service systems: A framework linking resources, networks and value creation," Post-Print halshs-03520232, HAL.
    20. Rodrigo Pascual & Matías Siña & Gabriel Santelices & Milton Román & Enrique López Droguett, 2017. "Optimal channel coordination in use-based product-service system contracts," International Journal of Production Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 55(23), pages 6946-6956, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:bstrat:v:17:y:2008:i:6:p:341-349. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1099-0836 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.