Morphogenesis of Industrial Symbiotic Networks

1 Introduction

The important nature of cost productivity, environmental safeguard, resource management, greenhouse gas emissions/reduction, and social considerations are imposing increasing pressure on the industrialized districts. Industrial symbiosis emerged as a collective, cooperative, and multi-industrial approach towards economic and environmental sustainability. Industrial symbiosis has been defined as bringing together »traditionally separate industries in a collective approach to competitive advantage involving the physical exchange of materials, energy, water and by-products« using Chertow’s definition (2000, 313−337). The positive economic effects are demonstrated as lower waste/by-product disposal costs, competitive advantages towards other firms, and a better reputation of the related firm that is also social actor. Firms hence participate in industrial symbiosis for the exchange of resources, such as by-products, materials, services, energy, etc., in the framework of closed and sustainable cycles. This cooperation contributes to the reduction of required input of materials and energy, as well as a decrease of the output in the form of waste. Furthermore, the low price of waste as a material, if compared with no waste materials, increases the economic effectiveness of individual organizations, which are recipients in the framework of industrial symbiotic networks. Open networks, on the other hand, allow entropy, which results in a loss of energy, poor utilization of materials, and consequently causes environmental damage (Chertow 2000, 2007).

The current study will analyse networks as parts of social fields in the industrial symbiosis, in which these networks help shape their topography. This will also have a more profound scientific effect, as the social topography of industrial symbiosis will serve as a case study of interaction among individual actors with their environment, based on their specific needs and preferences. Why is this the case in a present study’s research? Researching industrial symbiosis, combining its technological, ecological, informational, economical, and, as of recently, sociological aspects, can be relevant to study and to put forward a simple method for creating a model of industrial symbiotic networks. Keeping in mind that social interaction plays a major role in industrial symbiosis, including on a micro-mezzo-macro level, social structures are best suited to show the emergence of patterns from individual decisions and social interactions. By introducing a new model, this study explains and possibly forecasts new industrial symbiotic networks and their »behaviours-interactions« in a new region. By analysing such a model, it would be possible to identify some critical factors ←9 | 10→that should be considered when studying social interaction and their role for explaining observed patterns (Džajić and Rončević 2017).

1.1 Objectives and the purpose of this study

This study will deal with the development of industrial symbiotic networks, where industrial symbiotic networks are dynamic, evolving, complex networks that are transcending the boundaries of technical, natural computer, and social systems.

The objectives and aims of the proposed study are as follows:

1.2 Research questions and hypothesis

The research will be able to explore not only the explanatory role of social theory, but also its applied potential, the theoretically inspiring morphogenesis of industrial symbiotic networks. Exploration will be of one of the basic sociological questions, namely the mutual influence of emergent social constructions and individual actions. Next, the study and explanation of substantial differences in the morphogenesis of industrial symbiotic networks in different sociocultural settings and with the development of information and communication technologies, numerous formal and informal networks start to emerge.

Organized networks of structures and organized networks of actors are referred to as collaborative networks of industrial symbiosis (Archer 2003). In industry, clusters of organizations aim for efficient product development, production, and marketing tasks. Such partner consortia function as networked organizations in which cooperation is supported by information and communication technologies. Mutual trust can contribute to improved knowledge sharing, resource sharing, and taking joint risks. Trust brings many advantages to industrial symbiotic networks and should, therefore, be considered beforehand when creating industrial symbiotic networks. The branch of metaphysics (the philosophy concerning the overall nature of what things are) is concerned with identifying, in the most general terms, the kinds of things that exist in industrial symbiotic networks. In other words, addressing the following research questions: