Complementarity of circular economy practices: an empirical analysis of Chinese manufacturers

Yang Yang; Lujie Chen; Fu Jia; Zhiduan Xu

doi:10.1080/00207543.2019.1566664

Complementarity of circular economy practices: an empirical analysis of Chinese manufacturers

Yang Yang, Lujie Chen, Fu Jia^*, Zhiduan Xu

^*Corresponding author for this work

The York Management School

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

In recent years, circular economy (CE) is receiving increasing attention worldwide and is intended to integrate economic activity and environmental wellbeing in a sustainable way. The CE mainly focuses on both the front (eco-design, ECO) and back ends (reverse activities, RA) of operations and production at the firm level. However, what is missing in the literature are the synergistic effects between the two practices on corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance. Drawing on systems theory, this paper used panel data of Chinese manufacturing firms over the period from 2013 to 2015 that was collected from Chinese Research Data Services Platform (CNRDS) and Rankins CSR Ratings (RKS) databases and performed a series of regression tests to see whether complementarity exists between them and their effects on CSR performance. The results show significant complementarity between ECO and RA in improving CSR performance. Furthermore, building on systems theory, three kinds of enablers are identified as essential for promoting the interaction of subsystems and the complementarity of ECO and RA, including CSR vision as an internal enabler within the system, an environmental management system as a system regulation, and supply chain cooperation as an external enabler from the environment.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	6369
Number of pages	6384
Journal	International Journal of Production Research
Volume	57
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/00207543.2019.1566664
Publication status	Published - 16 Jan 2019

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10.1080/00207543.2019.1566664

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title = "Complementarity of circular economy practices: an empirical analysis of Chinese manufacturers",

abstract = "In recent years, circular economy (CE) is receiving increasing attention worldwide and is intended to integrate economic activity and environmental wellbeing in a sustainable way. The CE mainly focuses on both the front (eco-design, ECO) and back ends (reverse activities, RA) of operations and production at the firm level. However, what is missing in the literature are the synergistic effects between the two practices on corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance. Drawing on systems theory, this paper used panel data of Chinese manufacturing firms over the period from 2013 to 2015 that was collected from Chinese Research Data Services Platform (CNRDS) and Rankins CSR Ratings (RKS) databases and performed a series of regression tests to see whether complementarity exists between them and their effects on CSR performance. The results show significant complementarity between ECO and RA in improving CSR performance. Furthermore, building on systems theory, three kinds of enablers are identified as essential for promoting the interaction of subsystems and the complementarity of ECO and RA, including CSR vision as an internal enabler within the system, an environmental management system as a system regulation, and supply chain cooperation as an external enabler from the environment.",

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