Organizational Boundary Change in Industrial Symbiosis: Revisiting the Guitang Group in China
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Frameworks
2.1. Theoretical Framework
2.2. Methodology and Data Collection
3. Analysis
3.1. Definition of Organizational Boundary
3.2. Business Boundary Shift
3.2.1. Operational
3.2.2. Management
- (1)
- Socialist infrastructure and cultural heritage as an endowment of social capital: the initial infrastructure of the Guitang factory was designed by Soviet Union experts. In addition to factory buildings, they designed auxiliary facilities including a school, a hospital, a movie theater, a sports stadium, small shopping malls, and residential buildings to support a working community (Figure 4). There was also a hard-working culture created through “Work Emulation Campaigns”, activities that socially acknowledged the diligent workers from the community. Although the infrastructure has gone through changes over the years, the community identity as a working community was shaped from the very beginning. As part of the shared Guitang community, the children of the workers have gone to school together. A number of them got married to each other. The community-centric cultural norm has fostered trust, social linkages, and kinship [29,35,36]. These characteristics also contribute to shaping industrial symbiosis development in Guitang, as previous industrial symbiosis research has found that trust and social ties can be key factors in the emergence of industrial symbiosis [35,38,39].
- (2)
- Transition from bureaucratic to technocratic organizational structure as a premise for innovation: political economist Max Weber states that a bureaucratic organization possesses the following features: (1) Administration is carried out continuously instead of at the pleasure of any individual leader; (2) Tasks within the organization are divided into functionally distinct areas that require authorities and sanctions [40]. Based on this understanding, initial organizational structure of China’s state-owned enterprises, including Guitang, was largely bureaucratic. Bureaucracy could allow organizations to manage intensive administrative tasks and minimize uncertainties in decision making [41]. In Guitang’s case, adopting a bureaucratic management system likely helped to build structure and authority of a brand-new organization under the new-born nation’s institutional resource constraints [19]. While the centralized bureaucratic system reduces management complexity, the Guitang management became technically inclined particularly after the 1990s because of the increasing emphasis on production and efficiency internally [11,36].
- (3)
- The Communist Party system as a critical management and social linkage: similar to any state affiliated enterprise, the Guitang Group has a Communist Party Committee group in parallel with its management team (Figure A2). The Guitang Group Party Committee leads all sub-groups in the subsidiaries depending on the distribution of party members. It advises the management on decisions in all aspects and provides political and social leadership and serves as social ties. Specifically, the Party Committee is heavily involved in human resource management and ideological development of the Guitang Group [42]. The Party Committee not only serves the enterprise but also connects to the provincial and national party system through party meetings. The Party Committee at the Guitang Group has likely reinforced Guitang’s community identity as well as made new ties to other organizations nearby.
3.2.3. Financial
3.3. Industrial Symbiosis Network Boundary Shift
3.3.1. Internal Symbiosis
3.3.2. External Symbiosis
3.4. Policy Context for Boundary Shift
3.4.1. R&D Investment and Innovation
3.4.2. Circular Economy and the Guigang Eco-Industrial Park (EIP)
4. Discussions and Conclusions
4.1. Enabling Context
4.2. Comparative Analysis
5. Recommendations for Further Research
Acknowledgments
Author Contributions
Conflicts of Interest
Appendix A
Product | Unit | China | U.S. | India |
---|---|---|---|---|
Sugar | metric tons | 200,000 | 1,990,000 | 1,180,000 |
Coal | metric tons | 3200 | 43,600 | 3200 |
Electricity | GWh | 4300 | 345,100 | 4900 |
Oil | metric tons | 120,000 | 248,920,000 | 250,000 |
Cement | metric tons | 660,000 | 35,940,000 | 2,140,000 |
Soda | metric tons | 88,000 | 3,550,000 | 18,000 |
Caustic soda | metric tons | 15,000 | 2,020,000 | 6000 |
Plant Name | Outdegree | Betweeness | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Pre–1980 | 1980s–1990 | After 1999 | Pre–1980 | 1980s–1990 | After 1999 | |
1: Sugar | 2 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
2: Pulp | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 2 |
3: Paper | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
4: Alcohol | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 |
5: Cement | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
6: Fertilizer | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
7: Calcium Carbonate | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
8: Alkali | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | ||
9: CHP | 8 | 3 |
Year | By-product Use Amount (Ton/Year) | Total Economic Value 1 | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Sludge | Sugar Residue | Molasses | Coal Ash | Pith | Yuan (1000s) | USD (1000s) | |
2002 | 42,741 | 127,578 | 39,100 | 139,296 | 119,525 | 405,390 | 48,978 |
2003 | 57,169 | 157,540 | 41,389 | 113,505 | 159,560 | 504,420 | 60,942 |
2004 | 38,122 | 175,024 | 26,686 | 142,887 | 97,174 | 579,300 | 69,991 |
Time | Activity | Motivations |
---|---|---|
1956 | Use sugar cane residue for fuel | Save fuel cost |
1970–1980 | Use waste sugar for alcohol | Improve cost margin, reduce waste |
Use sugar cane residue for papermaking | Improve cost margin, reduce waste | |
1995 | Reuse alkali | Environmental law, technology improvements |
1996 | Water reuse | Environmental law, technology improvements (patent) |
1999 | Use waste alcohol for fertilizer production | Environmental law, cost margin |
1999 | Sludge used for free fertilizer for farmers | Environmental law |
Alkali used for Calcium Carbonate | Environmental law, cost margin | |
Use sugar cane residue for CHP | UNEP fund, technology improvements | |
Reuse alcohol water | Reduce water use | |
Reuse alkali processing water for CHP | Environmental law, reduce water use, reduce cost | |
2001 | Provide sugar cane residue and molasses residue to nearby plants | EIP policy |
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Manufacturing Process | Guitang Group (China) | Nanning Sugar Co. (China) | Nanjangud (India) | British Sugar (the UK) |
---|---|---|---|---|
By-Products Use | ||||
Sampling & cleaning | Soil mix → topsoil | Sludge → fertilizer | Organic material → Compost | Soil mix → topsoil and aggregate |
Slicing & diffusion & squeezing | Bagasse → pulp and paper production; CHP feed | Bagasse → pulp production | Pulp → animal feed | |
Purification | Sludge/mud → cement mill; Waste CaCO3 → CaCO3 production | Wet ash → sale; Coal ash → concrete hollow blocks; Stone residue → paving; Dry ash → sale | Press mud → alcohol production | Precipitate → lime |
Evaporation | Heat → CHP | Steam → craft water tank for reuse | Heat → tomato horticulture | |
Sugar cooking & molasses separation | Molasses → sale; Molasses → alcohol production | Molasses → alcohol production | Molasses → sale; Molasses → alcohol production | |
Crystallization & centrifugation | Residual resin → betaine, raffinate | |||
Sugar storage | Feed → vinasse, bioethanol, and liquefied CO2 through fermentation and distillation |
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Shi, L.; Chertow, M. Organizational Boundary Change in Industrial Symbiosis: Revisiting the Guitang Group in China. Sustainability 2017, 9, 1085. https://doi.org/10.3390/su9071085
Shi L, Chertow M. Organizational Boundary Change in Industrial Symbiosis: Revisiting the Guitang Group in China. Sustainability. 2017; 9(7):1085. https://doi.org/10.3390/su9071085
Chicago/Turabian StyleShi, Lin, and Marian Chertow. 2017. "Organizational Boundary Change in Industrial Symbiosis: Revisiting the Guitang Group in China" Sustainability 9, no. 7: 1085. https://doi.org/10.3390/su9071085