Realising the Shift Towads Closed-Loop Recycling: Strategies of the Japanese Firms

Yasunori Baba, Masaru Yarime () and Hiroyuki Hatashima
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Yasunori Baba: Research into Artifacts, Centre for Engineering (RACE), The University of Tokyo, 4-6-1 Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153, Japan
Masaru Yarime: United Nations University Institute for New Technologies (UNU/INTECH) and Maastricht Economic Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT), Kapoenstraat 23, 6211 KV Maastricht, The Netherlands
Hiroyuki Hatashima: African Development Bank, Abidjan, Ivory Coast

International Journal of Innovation Management (ijim), 1997, vol. 01, issue 01, 89-110

Abstract: A sign of the shift towards closed-loop recycling has emerged in Japan. By referring to eight firms in the "film with lens", electronic photography, and electric and electronic appliances industries, this paper demonstrates how and why these firms have adopted recycling strategies. Our observation identifies the industrial taxonomy which determines a particular type of corporate strategy, based on three factors: market structure; user characteristics; and technological characteristics. First, a dominant firm, with profits due to the market structure, can bear the cost of recycling privately, while no surplus profits accrue to firms in a competitive market. Second, the type of users, i.e. end users or system users, influences the firm's cost of recovering products. Third, the match between the pace of a product's technological changes and its life-span determines the technological possibility of recycling.

Keywords: Closed-loop recycling; industrial ecology; innovation; Japan; film with lens industry (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1997
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DOI: 10.1142/S1363919697000061

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