Connecting Digitalisation and Research and Development to Green Production: A Green Link?
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2024-07-08
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en
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Abstract
There is an increasing interest in sustainability practices for organisations. Industry 4.0 promises to
enable organizations to act more sustainably. The growing use of technologies allows manufacturing
companies to introduce green processes to reduce the impact of production on the environment and
to obtain a competitive advantage. However, few empirical studies focus on digitalization during
Industry 4.0 and its implications for green production while factors such as R&D and interoperability.
Therefore, this study focuses on the relationship between digitalization and green production
including R&D and interoperability as moderators. This study also investigates whether R&D has a
direct eect on green production. Dierent R&D and managing interoperability approaches are
studied to gain insights into the best ways to practice both concepts. A mixed-method approach is
being applied within this study, meaning that a quantitative and qualitative research method is used.
Besides using a database from the European Manufacturing Survey, six interviews were conducted
targeting Dutch manufacturing companies.
The results show that digitalization in itself positively stimulates green production. For R&D
and interoperability as moderators, results in quantitative and qualitative research dier. Although for
the direct impact of R&D, both types of research show a positive relationship. Additionally, qualitative
research made clear that a combination of both R&D approaches is best for performance. A
continuous improvement as a management style for interoperability seemed preferable over a radical
change approach. This research contributes to the academic literature by adding R&D and
interoperability to the relationship between digitalization and green production and focusing on their
approaches to stimulate green production. The results call attention to how and why managers need
to perceive R&D and interoperability for practicing green production.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen