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Industrial clusters as a vehicle for circular economy transition: A case study of networks in four industrial clusters in Zimbabwe

February 2024
Journal of Cleaner Production 447(394):141479

DOI:10.1016/j.jclepro.2024.141479

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CC BY 4.0

Authors:

Tawanda Collins Muzamwese

University of Twente

Laura Franco-Garcia

University of Twente

Michiel A. Heldeweg

University of Twente

Key Steps in Case Study adoption.

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Selection criteria for sustainable business network case studies.

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Workington-southerton industrial cluster map.

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Willowvale Industrial Cluster map.

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Stapleford industrial cluster map.

…

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Content may be subject to copyright.

Journal of Cleaner Production 447 (2024) 141479

Available online 26 February 2024

Industrial clusters as a vehicle for circular economy transition: A case study

of networks in four industrial clusters in Zimbabwe

Tawanda Collins Muzamwese

, Laura Franco-Garcia , Michiel Heldeweg

University of Twente, Department of Technology and Governance for Sustainability, Netherlands

ARTICLE INFO

Handling Editor by Mingzhou Jin

Keywords:

Circular economy

Sustainable business networks

Industrial clusters

Sustainability

Collaboration

Industrial symbiosis

ABSTRACT

Multiple stakeholder partnerships are required to attain a Circular Economy (CE). Circularity can be achieved

through industrial clusters in geographical proximity to each other. This research aims to assess the effects of

industrial clustering on the adoption of CE in Zimbabwe (Workington, Southerton, Willowvale and Stapleford) in

order to develop strategies for strengthening the impact of collaboration on CE practices in industry. The

Workington and Southerton clusters were assessed as a joint cluster due to regular joint programming, whereas

Willowvale and Stapleford were assessed separately. Interviews, document reviews and site visits were under-

taken at selected members within the industrial clusters to understand some CE initiatives being carried out. A

waste auditing programme was evaluated, resulting in ecological and economic benets. Whilst many organi-

sations were located in clusters, not all of them participated in CE activities. The Workington-Southerton cluster

consisted of twenty-ve (25) active members mainly dominated by private sector organisations in the

manufacturing sector whilst Willowvale cluster had four (4) active members and Stapleford had nine (9) active

members from industry and community network at the time of assessment. The main types of industries included

food and beverages, fertiliser, metal fabrication, cable manufacturing, seed processing. Engineering, transport

and bone char production. Collaboration based on geographical proximity allowed the organisations to under-

take training, capacity building, workshops and industrial symbiosis. Implementation of the Industrial Waste

Auditing Project (IWAP) by the networks, facilitated adoption of CE measures and presented an opportunity of

improved waste recycling. It is concluded that geographical proximity can be used as an opportunity to facilitate

attainment of a Circular Economy, but on its own is not a determinant of network success. Deeper issues of legal

status, governance, value adding activities and nancial viability - determine the ultimate impact of industrial

clusters. We conclude that due to geographical proximity, there are opportunities of promoting industrial

symbiosis. However, these opportunities need nancing, technical capacity, governance and external support.

Theoretical contributions of the research relate to the need for hybrid nancing models to support CE activities

and governance frameworks that provide oversight on industrial clusters. Further theoretical contributions relate

to the new forms association beyond idiosyncratic organisations and advancing the need for measurable effects of

collaboration using hybrid nancing. Our theoretical contributions reveal new insights in governance and

ownership of networks, especially how this can affect the delivery of CE activities.

1. Introduction

Global concern towards the burgeoning environmental sustainability

crises has heightened in both developing and developed regions of the

world. The coming of a Circular Economy (CE) to the forefront of sus-

tainability discourse, presents a last gasp chance for humanity to salvage

itself from the alley of self-destruction (Ellen MacAthur Foundation,

2012; Ghisellini et al., 2016). Industrial clusters are sustainable business

networks of geographically connected organisations in close proximity

to each other and can be effective vehicles for promoting a circular

economy (Yin et al., 2022). Collaborations through industrial clusters

have been studied by (Mbohwa et al., 2010; Mahuni and Bonga, 2016) in

Zimbabwe. However, in the context of developing countries such as

Zimbabwe, the contribution of industrial clusters to CE transition has

limited evaluation, although a few studies existed before the maturity

and widespread dissemination of the CE concept worldwide. Studies by

(Mbohwa et al., 2010) suggest that industrial clusters have an effect on

water management practices improvement, but no effect on efuent

* Corresponding author.

E-mail address: tmuzamwese@gmail.com (T.C. Muzamwese).

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Journal of Cleaner Production

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jclepro

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2024.141479

Received 11 June 2023; Received in revised form 18 February 2024; Accepted 25 February 2024

Journal of Cleaner Production 447 (2024) 141479

management. These studies do not specify the existence of any circular

products, but cite potential waste exchange possibilities.

In addition, most collaborative research on CE is centred in devel-

oped countries (Aisbert et al., 2023; Baah et al., 2023; Blasi et al., 2022;

Xu et al., 2023). These studied key issues including how collaboration on

green economy facilitated mutual economic gain, research, develop-

ment and nancing. In addition, they also assessed how Circular Econ-

omy collaboration facilitated Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

interventions. Other insights presented by these authors included the

fact that geographical proximity had effects on the tourism sector.

Furthermore, they analysed how inter-rm conicts occurred in net-

works and their potential to affect network success. These studies

conrm effects of industrial clusters on sustainability and at the same

time also include conicts (Xu et al., 2023) in collaboration. The main

gaps relate to the funding modalities of networks, which are not assessed

as well as tracking of the impacts of the networks on selected Circular

Economy indicators. In addition, very little is covered about networks on

the African continent and Zimbabwe in particular. Similar studies have

been done in Europe and managed to demonstrate the effects of clus-

tering and collaboration on supply chain sustainability (Jager and Pis-

cisceli, 2021). Studies in Asia conrm effects of collaboration on circular

economy and plastic packaging (Samitthiwetcharong et al., 2023).

However, they lack on governance regimes, nancing models and

tracking specic indicators of progress on CE elicited by the collabora-

tion. This paper is focused on circular processes, products and services

that result as a consequence of network collaboration in industrial

clusters and not necessarily individual environmental aspects. It ap-

proaches circular economy holistically than anecdotally. Some of the

previous studies lack adequate information on business models of the

networks and effective governance regimes for their sustainability. The

studies also lack information on governance regimes and business

models of networks.

Industrial development is widely acknowledged as responsible for

climate change and global warming. The adoption of cleaner production

measures is a key strategy of preventing the negative ecological and

toxicological effects of production systems. It has become a norm for

organisations to adopt Circular Economy concepts such as cleaner pro-

duction technologies. Adoption of cleaner production technologies,

recycling and industrial symbiosis in manufacturing companies requires

technical capacity to implement them. However, it is not every organi-

sation that can implement these novel and emerging CE concepts. (Hart,

1995) cites the need for organisations to acquire tacit skills in order to

ensure smooth transition to sustainable production systems.

In different sectors of the economy, collaborative arrangements have

been analysed and there have been barriers, opportunities, challenges

and lessons learnt from their operations (Bacudio, et al., 2016; Berlin

et al., 2022; Hina et al., 2022). Governance of these Sustainable Business

Networks has also been proven to have a signicant bearing on their

success.

Industrial clusters in Zimbabwe play a role in the transition towards

a CE (Mbohwa et al., 2010; Mahuni and Bonga, 2016). However, impact

of these networks is affected by nancing, low participation and

governance issues. (Madanhire and Mupaso, 2018) demonstrate that

there is even signicant potential for industrial symbiosis in Zimbabwe,

which has been untapped through utilising industrial clusters. If there is

improved networking capabilities and promotion of CE within industrial

clusters, there will be a higher uptake of CE measures such as waste

recycling (Leising et al., 2018; Jager and Piscisceli, 2021).

Evaluation of industrial clusters is not common in many countries

and there is inadequate documented information related to the network

performance and implementation of CE. As a result, industrial clusters

fail to tap into the learning opportunities. This paper evaluates industrial

clusters through a terminal evaluation of the Industrial Waste Audit

Project (IWAP) which was implemented by the industrial clusters. The

evaluation of the project used the internationally recognised OECD DAC

Evaluation Framework (OECD, 2019). Other forms of network

collaboration are well-documented in the form of networks (Jager and

Piscisceli, 2021; Leising et al., 2018; UNIDO, 2011; Veleva and Bodkin,

2018). Although network participation is inuenced by the orientation

of the network structure, government policy, innovation and subsidies

have a bearing on their outcomes (Yin et al., 2022).

Whilst it is possible to depend on idiosyncrasy and attain sustainable

development, there is a high likelihood of leapfrogging other organisa-

tions in the same sector, when operating in the inertia of organisational

networks due to mimetic, coercive and normative isomorphic pressures

acting upon the organisation (Di Maggio and Powell, 1983). Organisa-

tions can gradually be made similar due to emulating others, following

international standards and being compelled by external factors such as

laws, as articulated in the institutional isomorphism theory (Di Maggio

and Powell, 1983). Networks through collaboration are a chance to

access CE training, capacity building and also avail access to nance

opportunities. The vociferous call for network participation through

industrial clusters has not necessarily been supported by enough

empirical evidence to prove their effectiveness. Assessing the dynamics

related to barriers in multiple country contexts requires adequate

analysis in Africa. In Zimbabwe, evaluative research on the contribution

of industrial clusters to a circular economy is scant and needs to be

enhanced through current, cutting edge and inclusive research.

In this research paper, we are seized with the following questions.

i. What is the role of industrial clusters in promoting a Circular

Economy in Zimbabwe?

ii. How are the industrial clusters promoting CE activities?

iii. What business models are the industrial clusters using in the

promulgation of their CE activities?

iv. What governance regimes exist in the industrial clusters and do

these facilitate effective networks?

v. What opportunities for industrial symbiosis and CE imple-

mentation exist in the industrial clusters?

vi. Do industrial clusters deliver CE outcomes and what barriers do

they face in this process?

vii. Are the industrial cluster activities Effective, Efcient, Relevant,

Sustainable and Impactful to the network beneciaries.

This paper traced the effects of industrial clusters on the adoption of

Circular Economy practices Zimbabwe (Workington, Southerton, Wil-

lowvale and Stapleford) in order to develop strategies for strengthening

their impact in delivering Circular Economy practices. Specic objec-

tives of the research include 1) To assess the role of industrial clusters in

promoting a Circular Economy in Zimbabwe 2) To identify the ap-

proaches used by industrial clusters to promote CE 3) To analyse busi-

ness models used by industrial clusters in undertaking CE activities 4) To

identify governance models of the industrial clusters 5) To identify

models of industrial symbiosis and waste exchange within the industrial

clusters 6) To evaluate CE outcomes due to network activities and

identify barriers faced by the industrial clusters.

The study is structured in the following sequential arrangements:

Section 2 (Literature Review) Section 3 (Materials and Methods) which

explains the methodological foundations of the case study, Section 4

(Results) which presents the results of the case study divided according

the following thematic areas - history and development; structure and

governance; legal status; motivations; business models and nancing;

drivers as well as communication and knowledge management. Section

5 (Discussion) outlines the discussion of the results and proffers rec-

ommendations for the improved functionality of Sustainable Business

Networks in the form of industrial clusters and Section 6 (Conclusion)

presents the conclusions of the research.

2. Literature Review

Literature on sustainable business networks shows that collaboration

amongst organisations has effects on developing circular patterns of

T.C. Muzamwese et al.

Journal of Cleaner Production 447 (2024) 141479

production and consumption. Organisations operating in isolation may

fail to innovate faster than those which collaborate with others.

Networking amongst organisations facilitates transition to a Circular

Economy (Aisbert et al., 2023; Baah et al., 2023; Madanhire and

Mupaso, 2018).

Geographical proximity is believed to have an effect on the adoption

of CE innovation if the neighbouring stakeholders are having intensive

implementation. Studies on renewable energy adoption, conrm signs of

geographic proximity and its effect on innovation transfer (Fadly and

Fontes, 2019). However, such studies are limited to the specic country

contexts and may be inapplicable in other countries. Further critique to

the notions that geographical proximity drives innovation is echoed by

(Boschma, 2005), who argues that geographical proximity alone does

not drive innovation. Furthermore, underestimating each other amongst

actors in the geographical proximity, often leads to low impact out-

comes. Contrary to this outcome, other scholars cite indifferent out-

comes in sustainability due to geographical proximity. (Blasi et al.,

2022) unravel both positive and negative correlations between clus-

tering and sustainability behaviour. In the context of industrial clusters,

their ability to attain a circular economy transition cannot be left

entirely to the convenience of geographical proximity. It is against this

background, that the industrial clusters in Zimbabwe must be

researched and assessed.

Several theories conrm the essential role of industrial clusters as a

building block for effective collaboration for transition to a Circular

Economy. Firstly, the Sustainability Theory, anchored on inter-

generational equity is a core part of the theoretical foundations of the

research (Brundtland, 1987). The Brundtland Commission dened sus-

tainable development as the development model which meets the needs

of the present without affecting future generations to meet their own

needs (Brundtland, 1987). Secondly, the Organisational Theory supports

the assertions of this research, with a specic focus on the Institutional

Isomorphism Theory (Di Maggio and Powell, 1983). In this quest for

attaining sustainability, organisations can become similar in their

corporate behaviour as conrmed by the institutional isomorphism

theory (Di Maggio and Powell, 1983). The success or failure of the

network actors is determined by the contextual factors acting upon the

institutions as elaborated by the Contextual Interaction Theory (CIT)

(Bressers, 2007). Despite the theoretical framework on sustainability

and collaborative tendencies of organisations, little research has been

done to assess the effects of industrial clusters in Zimbabwe. These

literature gaps require lling with empirical research. (Mahuni and

Bonga, 2016) conrm that industrial clusters are under-developed in

Zimbabwe and most literature on clusters is conned to developed

country contexts.

Collaboration within networks for a circular economy requires

nancing to ensure viability. (Kierans and Chen, 2022) conrm the need

for proper nancing in the transition towards a circular economy.

Inadvertently, some SMEs nd themselves implementing circular

economy initiatives without collaboration; but literature argues that for

most SMEs, the transition to circular economy practices is difcult to

achieve due to several barriers (Mudavanhu et al., 2013). In the case of

Zimbabwe, the urgency of a circular economy transition is urgent due to

the challenges affecting the country such as waste management (Ncube,

et al., 2022). As industry develops, these problems have increased and

cleaner production approaches are inevitable (Nhapi and Hoko, 2004).

Proven examples of implementing circular economy practices exist

(Samitthiwetcharong et al., 2023) and just require scaling up.

Industrial clusters are geographically grouped organisations with a

quest to facilitate industrial transformation. Whether geographically

associated or not, collaboration for a circular economy intention has

many benets in managing projects and their governance determine

success (Schepman, et al., 2018). Cooperation amongst organisations

can uplift SMEs’ ability to implement sustainability and circular econ-

omy practices (Suchek and Franco, 2023; Xu et al., 2019; Varrichio

et al., 2012). Industrial clusters in Zimbabwe are developing in response

to the environmental challenges affecting the country. (Sithole, et al.,

2023) recognise the urgency of climate mitigation in the context of

sustainable development and as a pathway for attaining a circular

economy in Zimbabwe.

However, it should be noted that networks and collaboration are not

always afrmative and in agreement. Due to the differences amongst

organisations, conict and disagreements are inevitable in networks (Xu

et al., 2023; Tura et al., 2019). These may be fuelled by different pri-

orities and different corporate culture. The different priorities that exist

within networks can be a source of disagreement and become counter-

productive to the attainment of the network goals. Whilst researchers

recognise that there is need for collaboration, they also clearly identify

some sources of divergence within the ideological foundations of

network members (Xu et al., 2023). Whilst the aims of industrial clus-

ters, is to collaborate on CE activities, there is no specic need to make

members identical in their understanding and perception of issues.

There is an urgent need to ensure that humanity is able to overcome

the compounding sustainability challenges affecting the world,

including in areas such as waste management and climate change

(Brundtland, 1987). In Zimbabwe, waste management remains a big

challenge for municipalities, governments and other key stakeholders

(Ncube, et al., 2022).

Previous research in other regions conrms that collaboration can

yield positive outcomes in dealing with environmental sustainability

challenges. In the case of Brazilian industries, documented literature

shows that collaboration can yield innovation through the Collaboration

and Network Partnerships Model (Varrichio et al., 2012). The theoret-

ical framework of the research is presented in Fig. 1.

Fig. 1 shows the theoretical framework underlying the research.

Theories of sustainable development advocate for development that

meets the needs of the present without compromising future genera-

tions. As shown in Fig. 1, in order to attain sustainable development

through a CE, idiosyncratic organisations will need to be collaborative

with others. Their collaboration is inuenced by institutional isomor-

phism and the desire to conform to laws and emulate other organisa-

tions. The gure also explains the effect of the context within which a

network operates, as a critical factor determining its success, as

explained by the Contextual Interaction Theory (CIT). External factors

and organisational contexts both play a part in network success.

The industrial clusters presented in this research are all located in

Harare, the capital city of Zimbabwe. One of the industrial clusters

(Southerton-Workington) is based on exclusively industrial organisa-

tions only, whilst the other industrial cluster (Stapleford) is based on a

combination of industrial and community members. Whilst emerging

research has been undertaken in Zimbabwe by (Mbohwa et al., 2010;

Mahuni and Bonga, 2016), it is not yet clear whether CE improvements

can be attributed to the collaboration or they are as a result of individual

idiosyncratic tendencies of the network actors.

Although previous literature in Zimbabwe recognises the effect of

industrial clusters on environmental improvements such as waste water

management, it is essential to further assess whether this network

collaboration regime on geographic lines of proximity, is effective in

comparison to dispersed networks formed by the desire to forge transi-

tion to a circular economy. It is also not clear whether these industrial

clusters are self-sustaining in their business models and it is necessary to

determine strategies for improving their effect on corporate sustain-

ability performance. (Mbohwa et al., 2010) cite some weaknesses in

Zimbabwean industries on selected sustainability topics such as waste-

water management, although there are promising improvements in

water savings.

Knowledge gaps identied by this research include the lack of

identication of traces some industrial symbiotic relationships within

existing industrial clusters in Zimbabwe and limited evaluation of the

extent to which improvements in waste management performance can

be attributed to the industrial cluster network. Due to economic chal-

lenges, some industries closed operations and this had an effect on the

T.C. Muzamwese et al.

Journal of Cleaner Production 447 (2024) 141479

momentum of CE activities, thereby triggering a need to convince and

re-orient new members.

Although organisations are located in geographical proximity to

each other, not all of them are interested in industrial cluster activities

centred on the Circular Economy. This research is mainly focused on

those members who are focused on the CE activities and voluntarily

participate in the industrial clusters, meetings, and activities.

3. Materials and Methods

3.1. Research methods

The research was based on a case study approach using the three (3)

industrial clusters as case studies. Case Study research allows for deeper

understanding of research phenomenon. Case Studies of industrial

clusters were used to enable a thorough understanding of depth rather

than breadth. Furthermore, case studies allowed further exploratory

Fig. 1. Theoretical framework.

T.C. Muzamwese et al.

Journal of Cleaner Production 447 (2024) 141479

analysis of phenomena and the research units (Yin, 2003). Key infor-

mant interviews were undertaken with selected representatives of the

three (3) cluster networks, who work for the thirty-eight (38) cluster

member companies. There were also interviews with key informants and

sector experts with knowledge in industrialisation and circular econ-

omy. Documents were reviewed, including cluster records and perfor-

mance metrics recorded by the network.

Direct observations were undertaken in selected companies in the

industrial clusters, including non-alcoholic beverages, beverages, seed

processing, food, fertiliser, metal fabrication, cable manufacturing. En-

gineering, transport and bone-char production.

A questionnaire was developed and sent to the industrial cluster

representatives to access data on their CE activities, governance, busi-

ness models and barriers. In order to ensure data validity and reliability,

there was triangulation of data and triangulation of sources. Selection of

the case study was based on the criteria specied in Fig. 3.

A second questionnaire was distributed to the cluster members in

order to obtain specic information regarding waste management

practices and waste auditing capabilities. The sampling process was

strategic sampling as it was targeted at specic organisations who were

members of industrial clusters in Harare. Questionnaires were semi-

structured and consisted of 4 key sections.

i. Organisational prole

ii. Waste Management Practices

iii. Effect of Industrial Cluster on Waste Management Practices

iv. Training needs

Therefore, the research disseminated questionnaires at two levels

and key informants as follows. The questionnaires were administered to.

i) Network representatives e.g. Network Chairpersons and Executive

Committee Members to respond on behalf of the networks.

ii) Network members to get the view of benets accruing due to the

collaboration.

The responses to the questionnaires were used to ascertain the level

of development in terms of implementation of waste management and

waste auditing. The geographic location of the clusters was put into

consideration as well as their thematic focus on Circular Economy.

Networks targeted, were those located in Zimbabwe, South Africa and

Kenya. In this case study, all were drawn from Zimbabwe. The selection

was also based on organisations whose collaboration was voluntary and

they are not being forced to collaborate with other organisations. Both

qualitative and quantitative analysis was carried out to determine trends

in the network participation and activities. Case study research allows

for deeper analysis and can be in the form of single case or comparative

case studies (Veschuren and Dooreward, 2010). Within the different

case studies of industrial clusters, each cluster was assessed and then

comparisons were undertaken amongst clusters. Due to the evaluative

nature of the research, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and

Development Assistance Committee (OECD DAC) criteria was used to

Fig. 2. Key Steps in Case Study adoption.

T.C. Muzamwese et al.

Journal of Cleaner Production 447 (2024) 141479

assess the cluster network performance. The assessment was based on

the criteria of Effectiveness, Efciency, Relevance, Sustainability and

Impact. (OECD, 2019).

In order to ensure that there was a systematic process of Case Study

development the sequential steps of Case Studies were used namely.

•Development of conceptual structure

•Planning case studies

•Conducting pilot test

•Collecting data

•Analysing data and report development.

This approach was adapted from (Yin, 2017) in order to ensure that

Case Study was systematic. The systematic steps of adopting the case

studies is illustrated in Fig. 2.

In order to select Case Studies, a systematic process was undertaken;

following pre-determined procedures. Firstly, the research dened

concepts such as networks, industrial symbiosis, collaboration and in-

dustrial clusters; were assessed. These concepts enabled the develop-

ment of a conceptual model of the research. Secondly the research

developed criteria for selecting case studies, with a specic focus on

those case studies which were geographically associated together in the

same locality. Thirdly, a pilot test of the research instruments was un-

dertaken, using selected members of the BCSDZ in order to assess the

viability of the research tools. Furthermore, data was collected from the

industrial clusters through questionnaires sent to cluster

representatives, observations on selected sites and content analysis.

Lastly, there was a process of data analysis, with specic focus on

qualitative analysis.

In order to collect data for the inferential purposes of the research,

the data was collected during the Industrial Waste Audits Programme

(IWAP) and then there was further data collection at network level with

the key informants network representatives from January to May 2023.

Interviews were at two different levels, including cluster member level

and then cluster administration level. At cluster level, information such

as number of Circular Economy activities; number of CE training ses-

sions; number of workshops, events and seminars; symposia as well as

number of organisations benetting from each cluster was collected.

Qualitative information relating to business models of operation, bar-

riers, types of waste and specic information about the Industrial Waste

Audit Case Study were collected. Cluster documents were assessed for a

period of 10 years from 2013 to 2023 in order to ascertain specic ac-

tivities undertaken by the clusters in the context of CE. Information for

deriving results was collected from interviews, document review of

cluster records and observation of processes at cluster members’ pre-

mises. Waste streams were identied through direct observation and the

number of recyclable waste streams was divided by the total number of

waste streams observed in order to determine the total percentage of

waste streams recyclable. Observations collected data on types of waste

streams, waste management practices, opportunities for industrial

symbiosis, collaborative activities, waste and waste disposal facilities.

Data collection included a number of indicators of network CE

Fig. 3. Selection criteria for sustainable business network case studies.

T.C. Muzamwese et al.

Journal of Cleaner Production 447 (2024) 141479

activity such as network Circular Economy Activities, events, waste

generated, waste types, legal status, structure and governance, Number

of Circular Economy Training Sessions, Number of Circular Economy

Projects, Number or organisations benetting from the sustainable

business network, existing cases of industrial symbiosis, number of

network activities undertaken, cluster meeting and number of members

carrying out CE activities. This information was analysed using

descriptive statistics. A questionnaire that was used as part of the data

collection is inserted in Appendix A.

The interviewees were senior representatives of industrial clusters

such as cluster Chairpersons and Executive Committee members. The

selection of senior representatives of clusters was purposive, due to the

fact that they had power to make decisions and also they had more

signicant information about the network. Organisations who were

members of the industrial clusters were also interviewed to verify some

claims of the industrial clusters. The members were interviewed during

cluster training events and also during the Industrial Waste Audit Project

industrial visits facilitated by Environment Africa. A total of 38 orga-

nisations were interviewed from a total of 3 different industrial clusters

located in Harare. At organisational level, the interviews mainly tar-

geted individuals responsible for implementation of Circular Economy

and in the case of most Zimbabwean companies, it was Safety, Health,

Environment and Quality (SHEQ) Managers and Ofcers. The interviews

were not recorded, but were transcribed. Information collected from the

interviews included organisational prole, waste management prac-

tices, industrial cluster participation, benets of network participation

and governance regimes. Interviews were undertaken with individuals

and not in groups. This was to deal with issues of group dynamics and

prevent selected individuals from dominating the process. Field records

which were made include checklists of the waste management situation

and Circular Economy practices at the visited organisations. Content

analysis approaches utilised deductive analysis based on information

already known about the clusters through access to their cluster docu-

ments. These documents included cluster records, meeting reports, cases

studies, charters, waste records and audit records. In order to ensure the

trustworthiness of the content analysis, there was an adoption of a

systematic sequence based on preparation, organisation and reporting or

case studies as promulgated by (Elo, et al., 2014; Elo and Kyng¨

as, 2008)

in order to strengthen the trustworthiness of the research. Results were

categorised by content including thematic areas such as structure,

governance, business models, waste types, cluster activities, nancing,

barriers, drivers and examples of industrial symbiosis activities. (Elo and

Kyng¨

as, 2008) propose that qualitative analysis should be sytematic, in

order to facilitate trustworthiness of the qualitative analysis.

At each stage of the case study cycle, either triangulation of methods

or triangulation of sources was undertaken. The triangulation was car-

ried out in order to strengthen in validity and reliability of the research

data collected and to enhance credibility of the ndings. Triangulation

was done by considering documents of the cluster, interviewing

personnel and analysing questionnaire responses. In addition, observa-

tions facilitated verication of the information presented on question-

naires and offered another layer of triangulation with the pre-existing

methods. There was also triangulation of sources of information

including company documents, cluster documents and research records.

Some of the respondents preferred anonymity and condentiality due to

the fact that the information in the research presents the environmental

performance of their companies. Therefore, individual identity was not

specied for all entities in this research. Inferences in this research were

made at industrial cluster level without pointing out to individual rms

and information of the individual respondents.

The systematic selection of Case Studies is presented in Fig. 3. Firstly,

geographical location was considered. Preference was given to case

studies of industrial clusters which were located in the 3 target countries

of the research – mainly Zimbabwe, South Africa and Kenya. In this case

study, precedence was given to industrial clusters in Zimbabwe. Sec-

ondly we looked at the thematic focus of the industrial cluster. The

clusters which were selected, included those which had a focus on Cir-

cular Economy and related concepts such as industrial ecology and

sustainable development. The third element of selection included as-

pects of formalisation. Both formally registered networks and organised

networks without registration were considered. We further selected

those industrial clusters whose collaboration is based on voluntary

collaboration and not compulsion to collaborate. Furthermore, consid-

eration was given to networks which were based on functional gover-

nance structures such as secretariats, committees and focal points. From

a progressive analysis of the aforementioned factors, Case Studies were

determined. This systematic process ensured repeatability and objec-

tivity in the selection process of case studies.

Due to the fact that the industrial clusters implemented a project

called Industrial Waste Audit Project (IWAP), the research evaluated

interventions of industrial clusters based on internationally recognised

OECD-DAC criteria. The criteria was used as it is the methodology

mostly used in evaluating development programmes and has been used

since 1991 by international organisations for more than 30 years

(Chianca, 2008). The framework is the most preferred by international

development agencies and applied to various development projects. The

evaluation of the network project, was employed as a means of trian-

gulation of data and demonstrating the effects of networks on circular

economy implementation. Cluster documents that were assessed

included policies, procedures, working instructions, waste records,

project records, constitutions and evaluation reports. In order to address

the proportion of waste recycled and organisations implementing CE

measures, arithmetic computations were undertaken based on the re-

sponses from cluster members. These metrics were calculated based on

the number of recyclable materials divided by the number of total waste

streams and expressed as a percentage, in order to determine the recy-

cling potential of the clusters. The proportion of organisations imple-

menting waste reductions was calculated by number of organisations

implementing waste reduction measures suggested by the cluster and

divided by the total number of organisations and expressed as

percentage.

Effectiveness, Efciency, Relevance, Sustainability and Impact were

interrelated to the objectives in the following ways.

i. Effectiveness: Measures the extent to which CE goals of the in-

dustrial cluster are attained

ii. Efciency: Assesses the extent to which CE objectives are attained

with minimal resources

iii. Relevance: Relates to the degree of appropriateness of the CE

measures recommended by the industrial cluster.

iv. Sustainability: Assesses the ability of the beneciary to sustain CE

activities emanating from the industrial cluster

v. Impact: Refers to the to the effects of the CE measures on the

cluster members and to the wider society. Effects can be intended

or unintended.

These criteria enabled us to assess the nature of effects promulgated

by the collaboration and specic programmes initiated by the industrial

cluster. Strategies were therefore developed on how the network could

improve its effectiveness, efciency, relevance, sustainability and

impact.

3.2. Project location

The Southerton-Workington Industrial cluster is located in the in-

dustrial hub of Harare, the capital city of Zimbabwe and it combines 2

industrial zones in Workington and Southerton. Workington is located

about 7.2 km from the Central Business District (CBD) and the distances

of the furthest part stretches further to 10 km, depending on the direc-

tion taken. Southerton is located about 7 km from the CBD and

depending on the direction taken, distance from the furthest industry

varies. Workington is located on the South-Western part of Harare. In

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Journal of Cleaner Production 447 (2024) 141479

addition to manufacturing sites, the area has banks and commercial

space for emerging activities such as vehicle servicing and warehousing.

The area is characterised by both heavy industries and medium scale

industries. The sectors prevalent in this area include food, beverages,

chemicals, petrochemicals, cable manufacturing, fertiliser, paint, bat-

tery manufacturing, plastic making, transport and haulage, detergents,

tobacco processing, vehicle servicing, catering services, baking, phar-

maceuticals, paint manufacturing, meat processing, thermal power

generation, dairy garment manufacturing, sugar processing, cotton

processing and animal feed processing.

Stapleford industrial cluster lies about 24 km outside the Central

Business District of Harare (CBD). Stapleford is located in the north-

western part of Harare near the proposed new capital city of

Zimbabwe to be built near Mt Hampden. Stapleford comprises a com-

bination of seed processing, alcohol and spirits manufacturing, brick

making and chemicals. The Stapleford industrial cluster is also

embedded within the Stapleford community. The weather patterns

prevalent in the study area consist of wet and dry seasons. The rainy

season is between November and March, whilst April to October are dry

months. The coldest months are June and July.

Harare sits on a plateau and is located at 1483 m above sea level.

Rainfall averages 840 mm per annum whilst average temperatures are

about 18 ◦C. Harare is located in a region which is part of the Miombo

Woodlands, dominated by savannah vegetation. The most dominant

species are the brachstergia spirciformis, musasa and julbernadia globifora,

munhondo. Within the industrial zones, there is not much vegetation as

the areas have been developed by industrial development activities. The

map of the location of the industrial clusters is shown in Fig. 4, Figs. 5

and 6.

4. Results

4.1. History and development

The Southerton-Workington industrial cluster was formed in 2009

and the Stapleford cluster was formed in 2009. However, some of the

organisations were registered as entities before that. These clusters were

formed by organisations which had a desire to promote sustainable

development within their operations. The association of the organisa-

tions by geographical proximity was not based on any coercion, but by

the collective desire to develop and upscale techniques that would help

the organisations to deal with emerging environmental sustainability

challenges. There was not much evidence of emphasis on subscriptions

to be part of the network, because by virtue of geographical proximity,

an organisation was already an eligible member of the network.

Environment Africa played a catalytic role in initiating the Industrial

Clusters Concept, trying to bring the organisations already in proximity

to each other to start cooperating on CE. Environment Africa imple-

mented various programmes with industrial clusters in Zimbabwe

namely Workington, Southerton, Willowvale and Stapleford. Through

the technical support of the non-government organisations, the cluster

concept ourished and also organisations developed ownership of the

initiative. In selected times, cluster members associated on their own.

4.2. Structure and governance

Fig. 7 shows how the industrial cluster is governed and managed.

This structure was synonymous for all the three industrial clusters

assessed. The structure of the typical industrial cluster in Zimbabwe

comprises a Chairman, who leads the coordination of network activities.

The Chairman is assisted by an Executive committee that comprises

representatives from different organisations from within the cluster.

There are currently no oversight bodies such as the Board of Directors.

With regard to the leadership style, the industrial cluster uses demo-

cratic and transactional leadership styles (see Fig. 7).

There is currently no system established to evaluate the effectiveness

of network governance bodies and document areas of improvement. The

lack of governance bodies in industrial clusters and similar networks can

cause excessive demands on the few representatives in Executive and

also may limit the ability to separate management and governance

functions of the network.

Goals, responsibilities and strategies are not formally dened,

although the network is currently undertaking activities, there is an

opportunity that should be utilised of formalising the goals, re-

sponsibilities and strategies as well as communicate them to members.

When members have a shared vision of goals, responsibilities and stra-

tegies, it is possible to scale-up CE activities and ensure that members

understand the clear aspirations of the network. Major CE activities are

presented in Fig. 8 training, projects, workshops membership

benetting.

4.3. Legal status

The Southerton-Workington, Stapleford and Willowvale industrial

clusters are not formally registered as entities. They have no formal legal

status. Their existence is not driven by the formalisation of the network,

but by the geographical proximity without much institutional rules and

formalities. The network activities are driven by geographic proximity

amongst its members rather than institutional cognitions of a CE tran-

sition. In certain situations, both geographical proximity and institu-

tional cognitions are coinciding in facilitating corporate relationships.

Geographical proximity alone cannot facilitate the network collabora-

tion in a CE regime unless supported by genuine cognitions, leadership

and governance of the network actors. In areas of convenient coopera-

tion and ability to transfer materials from one organisation to another,

the organisations cooperate without formal structures.

The research also found evidence that there was no strategic plan

established yet for the industrial clusters. Most activities are member-

driven and ad-hoc in response to prevailing issues. A more structured

approach to CE activities anchored on a strategy for each cluster is

required in order to improve the impact of the network. It is essential to

develop a strategy to explain how aspects of the CE are to be main-

streamed. In order for sustainable business networks to attain a higher

level of impact in Circular Economy activities, a strategic approach to

undertaking network activities is necessary in order to ensure the scaling

up sustainable development activities.

4.4. Motivations

A variety of motivations were responsible for establishing the

networking facility alongside cluster lines. One of the key drivers was

the emergence of environmental legislation which was demanding on

industry, especially at the turn of the millennium. The establishment of

the Environmental Management Agency (EMA), coupled with the pro-

mulgation of the Environmental Management Act 20:27 acted as moti-

vations, as business tries to develop mechanisms of ensuring compliance

and demonstrating self-regulation.

Other motivations included the need to access green nancing and

opportunities for technical; assistance. It was also noted that organisa-

tions were motivated by corporate image pressures, especially wanting

to be considered as sustainable businesses by different stakeholders.

There were cognitions related to meeting stakeholder requirements and

avoiding conicts with the communities.

A very special arrangement was observed in the Stapleford Industrial

Cluster. In this industrial cluster there was a motivation to meet needs of

the community as well as the needs of industrial organisations. The

nexus between organisational requirements and community CE interests

presents evidence that industrial clusters and Sustainable Business

Networks can be adapted to different operational modalities in order to

suit the requirements of the country and its stakeholders.

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Journal of Cleaner Production 447 (2024) 141479

4.5. Business model and nancing

The business model of the industrial cluster networks was self-

nancing. Cluster members were expected to nance any CE activ-

ities. This model is very different from many other networks which were

based on subscriptions. However, even without subscriptions, some

members do not attend networking activities. Self-nancing networks

prevented dependency of network members on network nancing.

However, the model is detrimental when organisations do not have

nancial resources to support CE technologies and activities within their

organisations. The nancing of circular economy activities was depen-

dent on what the organisations could afford on CE. If there was no

commitment from the top management of respective organisations,

transition to a CE was greatly affected. The organisations in the clusters

experienced different levels of sustainability maturity and different

levels or top management commitment.

The industrial clusters were open to funding from external nanciers

such as UNIDO and UNEP through the Climate Technology Centre and

Network (CTCN). In addition, industrial clusters benetted from tech-

nical support through Industrial Waste Audit Programme which were

sponsored by Environment Africa. Whilst cluster members nance their

activities on CE, it was also observed that they sometimes benetted

from support emanating from not-for prot organisations. The only

major challenge was that most of the technical support was restricted to

assessments and audits evaluating areas of improvement and very little

was focused on nancing the identied areas of improvement. As a

result, most network actions and recommendations on CE went without

implementation. The self-nancing models to nance identied CE op-

tions did not gather much success, especially when most organisations

were facing operational challenges and nancial constraints.

4.6. Communication and knowledge management

The means of communication implemented by the industrial clusters

included “cluster meetings” and written communication to network

members. Social media was also used as means to communicate

knowledge. However, there were no databases of CE performance or

resource efciency measures for the clusters. The effectiveness of these

measures was not being tracked or assessed. Through the cluster events

such as trainings, seminars and cluster audits, it was possible to carry out

communications on CE and sustainability related concepts.

A knowledge management strategy has not yet been developed and

information is transferred from one member to the other on ad-hoc

basis. Organisations generally shared CE information, but avoided in-

formation which was proprietary to their operations due to fears of in-

dustrial espionage.

4.7. Key activities and project implementation

Waste audits were undertaken as a project undertaken in collabo-

ration with a local non-governmental organisation called Environment

Africa. Some of the key ndings from the waste audits included the

following – recycling opportunities, reduced waste generation and in-

dustrial symbiosis relationships. A total of 15% of the cluster members

undertook waste reductions due to the effect of the activities undertaken

at cluster level. Out of the 72 waste streams which were identied, a

total of 17 were recyclable. This represented 24% proportion of recy-

clable waste streams. This information was based on direct observation,

document review and responses from cluster members and cluster rep-

resentatives in the domain of the different waste types. Deriving recy-

clable portions of the waste streams arithmetically determined by

considering the number of waste streams which were recyclable and

dividing by the total waste streams identied. The most common waste

Fig. 4. Workington-southerton industrial cluster map.

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Journal of Cleaner Production 447 (2024) 141479

Fig. 5. Willowvale Industrial Cluster map.

Fig. 6. Stapleford industrial cluster map.

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Journal of Cleaner Production 447 (2024) 141479

type which was recyclable, was identied as paper. In assessing the

proportion of waste recycled and organisations implementing CE mea-

sures arithmetic computations were undertaken based on the responses

from cluster members. These metrics were calculated based on the

number of recyclable materials divided by the number of total waste

streams and expressed as a percentage, in order to determine the recy-

cling potential of the clusters. The proportion of organisations imple-

menting waste reductions was calculated by number of organisations

implementing waste reduction measures suggested by the cluster and

divided by the total number of organisations and expressed as

percentage.

Due to network participation, there were signicant gains in energy

management and renewable energy. Energy efciency programmes at

companies that were audited through the Industrial Waste Audit

Programme (IWAP) were successfully implemented. A total of 2 com-

panies managed to install 1 MW roof top solar and 5 MW solar eld, soon

to be connected to the national grid. This has contributed to emissions

reduction and creation of green jobs within and outside the industrial

clusters.

Due to the involvement in the industrial cluster, there were oppor-

tunities for industrial symbiosis in Zimbabwean industrial clusters.

Table 1 shows different types of waste existing in the industrial cluster

and Table 2 presents some of which had the opportunity for industrial

symbiosis. A total of six types of waste were currently being used for

industrial symbiosis where waste from one organisation became a raw

material to another organisation. The industrial symbiosis opportunities

were still in their infancy and require further development in terms of

technical design and business models for their promulgation.

Fig. 7. Structure and Governance of the Southerton-Workington Industrial Cluster network.

Fig. 8. Key performance indicators of the southerton-workington, willowvale and stapleford industrial clusters.

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Journal of Cleaner Production 447 (2024) 141479

The clusters varied in their membership numbers. Southerton-

Workington industrial cluster had the most number of members (25)

in comparison with the other industrial clusters such as Stapleford (9)

and Willowvale (4). Southerton-Workington industrial cluster showed

higher activity in the area of cluster meetings as shown in Fig. 9. All the

clusters were affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and their activities

were greatly reduced during that time. Recently, the clusters have also

adopted virtual meetings.

It should be noted that the numbers of cluster members active in each

industrial cluster varies regularly due to the fact that some organisations

operate and close operations at different stages of their life cycle. It can

also be noted that not all organisations in the same geographic location

are automatically active members of the industrial cluster. Some orga-

nisations are not involved in cluster activities even if they reside in close

precincts and proximity with others of the same geographic cluster. In

this case, it is not possible to attribute circular Economy improvements

in those organisations to cluster network activities.

4.8. Challenges and barriers

The major challenges of industrial cluster networks in Zimbabwe is

that they were conceptualised based on geographical proximity and not

necessarily based on CE or Eco-Industrial Parks (EIP) models. Zimbab-

wean industrial clusters are not Eco-Industrial Parks. The primary

determining factor of their formation was the zoning of industries, away

from residential and commercial properties. Therefore, the major chal-

lenge is to convert these industrial clusters into havens of a Circular

Economy. This process is an arduous task which requires organisational

cultural transformation.

The diversity of organisations and sectors of companies which are in

the clusters is a major obstacle in standardising approaches and facili-

tating a CE transition. The few companies leading on CE as well as in-

dustrial symbiosis, include fertiliser, food and beverages companies.

Some members in the identied industrial zones of the clusters do not

cooperate with those coordinating the industrial clusters in areas of CE.

Financing is a major obstacle for implementation of initiatives sug-

gested by the network. This barrier is common with previous research in

other jurisdictions by (Hina et al., 2022). The research observed that

network members undertook environmental audits and site visits at each

other’s industrial facilities. Whilst these audits and visits were very well

organised by the network committees, not every network member was

implementing these CE measures due to lack of nancial resources to

nance green technologies. The audits from Southerton-Workington

industrial cluster included those with environmental management,

Table 1

Waste types from selected industrial clusters in Zimbabwe which should be

assessed for Circular Economy potential.

Waste Types from selected industrial clusters in Zimbabwe (72 waste types exist in

Zimbabwean industrial clusters, but some of them can be classied and merged in some

major 49 waste groups illustrated in this table.

Waste poly-woven bags Chemical waste Empty chemical

containers

Scrap metal and scrapped

machinery

Waste rubble Expired chemicals

Used transformer oil Broken glass Fertiliser bags

Broken asbestos Seed chaff Old equipment

Used HFO oil Scrap bricks Contaminated soil

Used hydraulic oil Reel cores Laboratory efuent

Oil lters Sugar bags Oil separator sludge

Air lters Boiler ash Waste building rubble

Used paint tins Old belts Used printer ink cartridges

Broken uorescent light Laboratory waste Household waste

Used paper Shrink wrap

material

Medical waste

Used plastic Refrigerant gases Food waste from the

canteens

Used mutton cloth Sanitary waste Empty beverage bottles

Waste plastic bag Diapers Used kaylite

Waste coal rubble Electronic waste

Waste conveyor belts Chicken feathers

Run-off efuent Garden waste

Other

Table 2

Existing cases of industrial symbiosis in Zimbabwean industrial clusters.

Waste stream Industrial symbiosis

source

Industrial symbiosis target

1) Waste

Plastic

Plastic waste from brick

moulding

Community organisations involved in

plastic recycling

2) Waste

Bones

Waste bone material

from abattoir

Sugar processing organisations in

other industrial clusters

3) Waste

Bricks

Solid waste from brick

manufacturers

Road rehabilitation by cooperative

groups and individuals involved in

road rehabilitations

4) Food waste Beverage companies

canteens

Farmers involved in livestock

production

5) Spent grain Beverage companies Farmers involved in livestock

production

6) Chemical

waste

Waste from material

from fertiliser

industries

Wall nishing plaster manufacturing

company

Fig. 9. Comparative analysis of industrial clusters.

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Journal of Cleaner Production 447 (2024) 141479

legal compliance and waste audits. Under the support of the Climate

Technology Centre and Network (CTCN), some of the cluster network

members benetted from energy and water audits which were organised

in collaboration with the Business Council for Sustainable Development

Zimbabwe.

In order to overcome the barrier of nancing, the need to

further collaborate with external partners, government and other part-

ners to fund these CE initiatives is necessary. The involvement of local

banks in the CE discourse at national level is also considered as a

strategy for overcoming barriers.

Policy barriers were also cited as a hindrance to the success of the

network due to limited nancial incentives for undertaking CE activities

at company level. The lack of incentives made it difcult to convince top

management within organisations about the importance of Circular

Economy. Those organisations which overcame barriers related to

resistance by management included those which were part of Multina-

tional Corporations (MNCs). The MNCs had robust measures to manage

environmental and social risk through the supply chain. The sharing of

standards was possible from developed countries to developing coun-

tries such as Zimbabwe. As a result, the research observed that there

were other factors beyond network participation which were respon-

sible for an organisation’s CE performance.

Due to the fact that CE is a complex concept requiring clear eluci-

dating and explanation within clusters, there was lack of adequate

technical capacity to implement CE. A number of activities such as

“waste auditing initiatives”, “chemical management training”, “industrial

symbiosis” and “chemical leasing” were undertaken as a way of bridging

the gap between theory and practices. (Hart, 1995) already elaborated

the fact that implementation of sustainable development initiatives re-

quires “tacit knowledge”. (Mbohwa et al., 2010) conrms the capacity

challenges especially in the areas of wastewater management in Zim-

babwean industrial clusters. The results also are in agreement with

(Mudavanhu et al., 2013) who cite capacity to implement chemical

management practices in SMEs still persist. In this regard the ndings of

this research coincide with the assertion of the aforementioned

researchers.

Ownership of the industrial cluster was a challenge as there was low

ownership amongst cluster members. There were also views that the

organisations which supported industrial clusters needed to take greater

ownership of the industrial clusters and CE activities. However, this

strategy is not effective as there is need to have ownership by the

members of the industrial clusters themselves.

The effectiveness of CE cluster activities related to waste manage-

ment was affected by lack of continuity at organisational level of

selected cluster members when SHEQ

practitioners changed organisa-

tions and at times relocated to other countries. The feedback from the

cluster members also pointed to the need for more ownership of the

clusters, including the provision of resources for cluster meetings by

partner organisations. However, sustainability of networks cannot be

scaled up by external forces.

There is need to establish a new strategy and ownership of the cluster

concept. The incentivising of the clusters, especially the host organisa-

tion or the industries carrying out major coordination of the cluster must

be considered. However, looking at the experiences and other global

networks such as the Global Resource Efcient and Cleaner Production

Network (RECP-Net), overdependence on external support, such as from

donors may be good in the interim, but in the long-run is not sustainable

and the network may collapse without programme funding. The fact that

some industrial cluster activities for Southerton-Workington, Stapleford

and Willowvale were anchored on an external agent supporting them,

when the support is limited or discontinued, the network dynamics and

effectiveness are greatly affected.

Lack of cooperation was one of the barriers that affected the scaling

up of CE in all industrial clusters. Implementation of CE was concen-

trated in companies that were following cluster activities and those that

were focused on network cluster activities. Some organisations still exist

in the clusters but were inactive on cluster activities. The main challenge

is how to convince them to participate in cluster activities including

those related to CE.

The lack of adequate training opportunities on CE was cited as one of

the major hindrances to the attainment of sustainable development in

Zimbabwe. There were different training needs within the clusters,

including limited knowledge on.

•Accurate waste measurement and recording

•Identication of waste

•Waste reduction methods

•Waste separation and recycling options

•Collection of baseline data

•Establishing the impact of waste reduction measures

•Denition of the whole scope of waste auditing as well as prot

generating practices from waste management.

Through network participation, some of these activities were

beginning to improve greatly. In some organisations, there was low

priority of industrial cluster activities and also restrictions by members

of top management to send representatives to cluster activities. Such

organisations lagged behind in the adoption of CE and hindered network

growth.

4.9. Drivers

In Zimbabwean industrial clusters, there were a range of drivers to

network participation ranging from legal compliance, market pressures

and organisational culture. Some of the cluster members were part of

international organisations which had a strong blueprint on waste

management. As a result, there was a high level of compliance with the

international standards of the organisations that had international

parent companies. Some of the organisations were producing products

such as beverages under licenses from MNCs and therefore were

required to follow the sustainability requirements of these parent

organisations.

The need to export goods and services compelled many organisations

from the industrial clusters to start adoption of CE measures. Within the

Southerton-Workington, Stapleford and Willowvale industrial cluster

networks; most organisations were focused on promoting the export of

their products and services. In order to do that, the organisations were

required to be sustainable. Within the Southerton-Workington, Wil-

lowvale and Stapleford clusters, there were activities related to man-

agement systems such as ISO 14001:2015, ISO 9001:2015 and ISO

45001:2018. Due to network participation, a number of organisations

were working on developing ISO certication in order to protect envi-

ronmental resources. Some of the drivers noticed in Zimbabwean in-

dustries were similar to research by (Hina et al., 2022). Differences in

the priorities of network actors despite geographical proximity were also

observed and draw similar experiences from (Tura et al., 2019).

The other major driver of industrial clusters was the proximity

benets on transportation of waste from one organisation to another.

Due to the fact that the clusters were located in one city, it was possible

to establish linkages for industrial symbiosis. Evidence was noted

through the provision of waste streams such as PET to recycling rms

located in the city. Further examples included the transportation of

chemical waste from fertiliser companies to organisations involved in

the manufacturing of wall nishing plasters. Brick waste and used

The Business Council for Sustainable Development Zimbabwe (BCSDZ) is a

Sustainable Business Network consisting or over 100 members. It is a Global

Networking partner of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development

(BCSDZ). It was formed in 1993 by a group of CEOs focused on sustainability.

Safety, Health, Environment and Quality Management practitioners are

mostly tasked with activities related to waste management and Circular Econ-

omy Initiatives.

T.C. Muzamwese et al.

Journal of Cleaner Production 447 (2024) 141479

plastic were also transferred for road rehabilitation and recycling

respectively. The realisation of the proximal advantages of industrial

clusters also acted as a driving and motivating factor for geographically

induced networks of collaboration. The resultant cost reduction for

recipient organisations and the time saving benet were also of higher

level signicance. This facilitated greater opportunities for attaining

Circular Economy.

4.10. Effect of governance, ownership and technical capacity on the

success of industrial clusters

From the empirical information drawn from the industrial clusters,

all the three industrial clusters had network leadership to govern the

operations of the cluster. However, there were no oversight bodies such

as boards which could provide direction to the industrial cluster.

Therefore, executive committees were the ones driving the network. In

some cases, failing to arrange industrial cluster activities resulted in

apathy and limited participation. Due to the lack of subscription in some

of the networks such as the Willowvale, Workington-Southerton and

Stapleford clusters, the nancing of cluster activities was a common

challenge. Therefore, effective programmes of pollution prevention

were not possible, unless under the nancing of external institutions

such as Environment Africa. This depicted limited ownership by the

network actors. Cluster members have to some extent sustained

networking activities beyond Environment Africa and development

partners, albeit lower consistency and lower nancing regimes. This

research proposes subscriptions and innovative nancing models even

in geographically associated industrial clusters to deal with the issue of

resource mobilisation for CE activities. Due to varying multiple country

contexts, the effectiveness of such measures will vary signicantly from

one country to another.

4.11. Evaluation of industrial clusters based on the OECD DAC

Evaluation Framework

Through the document review, key informant interviews and

observation of industrial clusters, several aspects were evaluated. The

ve evaluation criteria were analysed based on the network activities

and impact. There were many conclusions and deductions derived from

the evaluation of the clusters. Table 3 presents the rating of the indus-

trial clusters based on the empirical results drawn from the different

clusters.

Table 4, presents a comparative analysis of the industrial clusters and

analysis of some of their composition, governance models, CE activities,

barriers and business models. Comparing the clusters, shows that

Workington-Southerton and Southerton clusters are predominantly

dominated by industry, whereas Stapleford cluster is a bit different as it

is a hybrid of industry and the community. The combination of indus-

trial and community stakeholders presented both opportunities and

challenges to the cluster and the need to consider multiple stakeholder

needs in implementing Circular Economy activities. All the three clus-

ters face nancial challenges to support CE project implementation and

this is occasionally alleviated through partnerships with organisations

such as Environment Africa and Climate Technology Centre and

Network (CTCN). Other barriers include the technical capacity on

implementing advanced concepts such as industrial symbiosis and Cir-

cular Economy. There are challenges related to the management of

uorescent tubes, which is prevalent across all the industrial clusters as

indicated in Table 5. Furthermore, the ability to implement wastewater

management remains a perennial challenge amongst the industrial

cluster members. Some of these challenges could be as a result of

nancial barriers facing cluster members. The attainment of CE and

industrial symbiosis is also greatly hindered by low institutional ca-

pacity within the cluster members and therefore, the emerging usage of

waste management contractors for waste recycling activities and waste

collection in order to close the loop. As illustrated in Table 5, within the

studies industrial clusters, a total of 10 contractors were identied. This

demonstrates that when industrial clusters have limited capacity for

Circular Economy, they can transfer this responsibility too external

providers.

5. Discussion

The highest number of cluster members is noticed in Workington-

Southerton cluster (25) followed by Stapleford (9) and Willowvale (4).

With regard to the activities of the cluster meetings, Stapleford had

seven cluster meetings annually, whereas Workington Southerton had

six cluster meetings and Willowvale had one cluster meeting. Convening

cluster meetings is an essential building block of ensuring that the

cluster remained active. Different constraints were cited as responsible

for the existing pattern including, availability of time, availability of

hosting facilities and ability of the network leadership to convene

members. These factors varied from one cluster to the other. From the

results, Workington-Southerton and Stapleford, show greater activity as

compared to the Willowvale cluster. Waste streams varied from recy-

clable to non-recyclable materials depending on the type of industry.

Some organisations took advantage of geographical proximity to forge

partnerships for industrial symbiosis.

The results show 15% reduction in waste due to implementation of

waste reduction measures from the Industrial Waste Audit Project. The

Table 3

Evaluation of Zimbabwean Industrial Clusters using the OECD DAC Framework.

Evaluation Criteria Assessment Reasons for the classication

Effectiveness: The ability to

attain set objectives

Moderately

High

The effectiveness of the

industrial clusters is moderately

high due to the evidence shown

in waste reductions and

identifying recycling options.

Efciency: Ability to properly

use allocated resources

Very High Clusters in Zimbabwe are able to

undertake their networking

activities with minimal or no

nancial resources spent. Where

resources are allocated for

technical assistance, there is an

ability to support members.

Relevance: Appropriateness of

the intervention to the

beneciary needs

Very High The thematic topics addressed by

the clusters, including waste

management, industrial

symbiosis and Circular Economy

are relevant to the

developmental and industrial

needs of Zimbabwe

Sustainability: The ability to

continue with the benets

beyond external support.

Very Low The sustainability of

Zimbabwean industrial clusters

is very low. This is due to the fact

that without nancing from

development partners, most of

them are not able to implement

signicant circular economy

activities. The lack of a nancing

model for the clusters limits their

ability to implement high cost

initiatives. Some of the benets

related to circular economy

capabilities may not last beyond

projects initiated by external

stakeholders. Ability to convene

beyond external actors is also

very limited.

Impact: The changes that the

intervention can make

Moderate In selected areas, they

succeeded, such as waste

reduction and identication of

industrial symbiosis measures.

However, on high cost waste

prevention and management

measures, implementation was

low.

T.C. Muzamwese et al.

Journal of Cleaner Production 447 (2024) 141479

number of organisations participating in the industrial clusters does not

include all the organisations which are in the industrial cluster. This

leaves other organisations located in the same industrial zone not get-

ting access to circular economy technical assistance. It can be observed

that geographical proximity alone does not determine the success of

networks for sustainability.

The results show that Workington-Southerton, Stapleford and Wil-

lowvale clusters are self-nancing. Without external support, the in-

dustrial clusters are failing to implement advanced circular economy

measures. Previous studies on industrial clusters in Zimbabwe (Mahuni

and Bonga, 2016; Mbohwa et al., 2010) failed to explain the effect of

business models of industrial clusters on the ability to deliver CE im-

provements at company level. The self-nancing business model of the

industrial clusters is not yielding signicant results as many

organisations are affected by nancial barriers and macro-economic

pressures as a result of lack of resources.

The involvement of external organisations such as Environment Af-

rica and the Climate Technology Centre and Network (CTCN) supporting

network members via the Business Council for Sustainable Development

Zimbabwe (BCSDZ) acts as a stimulating factor to the network actors.

Projects such as the Industrial Waste Auditing Project supported by

Environment Africa act as catalyst to the organisations involved in the

clusters. However, the external support by development partners is not

sustainable in the long run if the network actors do not take ownership

of the activities of the network and industrial clusters.

It terms of undertaking activities, the Workington-Southerton in-

dustrial cluster seems to be the most active in comparison to other

clusters, whilst industrial clusters like Stapleford have active CE initia-

tives with both industry and the community. However, the Willowvale

industrial cluster seems to have very low activity and requires enhanced

support and resuscitation if networking is to be effective.

All industrial clusters in Zimbabwe require governance regimes,

technical capacity, ownership, communication and documentation of

case studies in order to stimulate a sustainable business case. Consistent

execution of CE network activities is also a key strategy in recruiting,

maintaining and developing a cohort of organisations with active

participation.

Whilst many stakeholders are attempting to convert the industrial

clusters of Zimbabwe into Eco-Industrial Parks (EIPs), this will not be an

easy task as they were designed as industries in geographical proximity

to each other. A combination of factors to stimulate collaboration will be

required such as nancing, legal, policy, communication and technical

assistance.

6. Conclusions

6.1. Final remarks

The research concludes that industrial clusters have a role to play in

promoting Circular Economy transition in developing countries such as

Zimbabwe. Through awareness activities, capacity building and waste

audit projects, there was concrete effort towards attaining a CE. How-

ever, the results of networking in industrial clusters is not signicantly

higher than those which organisations network in a dispersed manner

away from each other. Implementation of Circular Economy initiatives

is greatly inuenced by network governance, corporate strategy,

nancing, leadership, communication and knowledge management.

Based on empirical evidence from the research, it can be concluded

that industrial clusters can facilitate uptake of industrial symbiosis and

waste exchange as evidenced in Zimbabwean industrial clusters. We

conclude that there is an opportunity for recycling 24% of waste

generated from industrial clusters in Zimbabwe. We conclude that 15%

of cluster members implement CE measures from cluster activities and

the effect of the Industrial Waste Capacity Building Project. Similar

studies in Zimbabwe industrial clusters estimate a range of 15%–25%

(Madanhire and Mupaso, 2018) who had estimated waste reduction in

industrial clusters but however, had not explained the business models

under which these were attained and the appropriate governance re-

gimes deployed. Whilst this performance is encouraging, it needs to be

scaled up if Zimbabwe is to accelerate towards CE transition.

We conclude that six (6) waste products are already being used for

industrial symbiosis, but more waste could be enrolled to harness in-

dustrial symbiosis. Future research should focus on assessing factors

which may stimulate network participation in industrial clusters beyond

geographical proximity. It is also essential to research on the factors that

improve network participation and increase adoption of CE measures.

The most popular business models of industrial clusters include self-

nancing of CE activities in combination with external support from

development partners. There was more impact of externally nancing

initiatives in comparison to self-initiated activities by the network

Table 4

Comparative analysis of industrial clusters.

Workington-

Southerton

Stapleford Willowvale

Number of

active

members

assessed

25 9 4

Composition •Industry •Industry and

Community

(Hybrid industrial

cluster)

•Industry

Leadership

and

Governance

•Chairperson and

Committee

•No oversight

bodies

•Chairperson and

Committee

•No oversight

bodies

•Chairperson and

Committee

•No oversight

bodies

Business

model

•No subscription

•Self-nancing of

CE measures

•External

nancing from

development

partners such as

Environment

Africa and CTCN

•Support from civil

society

organisations such

as Environment

Africa

•No subscription

•Self-nancing of

CE measures

•External nancing

from development

partners such as

CTCN

•Support from civil

society

organisations such

as Environment

Africa

•No subscription

•Self-nancing of

CE Measures

•External

nancing from

development

partners such as

CTCN

•Support from

civil society

organisations

such as

Environment

Africa

Level of CE

cluster

activity

•High •Moderate •Low

Approaches to

promote CE

•Audits

•Training and

awareness

•Cluster meetings

•Audits Training

and Awareness

•Community and

Industry exchange

activities

•Waste exchange e.

g. bone char and

sugar processing

industries exchange

•Audits

•Training and

Awareness

•Cluster meetings

Barriers •Financing

•Technical

capacity on CE

•Diversity of

industries and

different priorities

on CE

Interventions

•Dependence on

external support

•Financing

Geographical

proximity of the

cluster from other

industries makes it

difcult to facilitate

waste exchange and

industrial symbiosis

as it is located out of

the industrial zones

of Harare

•Dependence on

external support

•Demands of the

community, which

may not align with

priorities of

industry

•Financing

•Technical

capacity on CE

•Diversity of

industries and

different

priorities on CE

interventions

T.C. Muzamwese et al.

Journal of Cleaner Production 447 (2024) 141479

members themselves as shown by the evaluation of the Industrial Waste

Audit Programme.

The ownership of the clusters is debatable, as stakeholders consider

the members to own the clusters, whereas other stakeholders still

perceive partner organisations that nanced network activities as

owners of the clusters. Without subscriptions, the clusters cannot build

resources to nance activities and at the same time if that was to happen,

there is no mechanism to exclude other organisations which are in the

same geographical proximity.

The barriers faced by industrial clusters in promoting CE are mainly

nancial related, due to lack of monetary resources to implement CE. In

addition, clusters are also faced with governance and structural issues

such as lack of goals that identify members and also lack of oversight

bodies. Limited awareness of CE concepts also calls for greater focus on

awareness and technical assistance.

As a networking model, the industrial cluster concept in Zimbabwe is

gaining good ground for success, but it does not outperform other net-

works which are geographically dispersed. Industrial clusters must take

advantage of their geographical proximity to scale up the Circular

Economy. They also need to develop strategies and nancing models to

ensure that they attain sustained impact. Furthermore, industrial clus-

ters in Zimbabwe are not Eco-industrial parks as they were designed

with geographical proximity in mind, rather than with a consideration

of ecological possibilities such as those inspiring CE transition and in-

dustrial symbiosis.

6.2. Theoretical contributions

Theoretical contributions of the research pertain to the conclusion

that effective and viable business models are required to ensure indus-

trial clusters are well resourced and can nance their CE activities.

Further theoretical contributions pertain to the need for stronger and

robust governance regimes beyond the secretariats in order to develop

strategic CE initiatives and oversight.

6.3. Practical contributions

Practical contributions of the research pertain to new approaches of

overcoming barriers and challenges as well as emerging business models

of running industrial clusters. New governance regimes associated for

coordinating the industrial cluster networks are brought to the fore by

the research. Practical applications of evaluation criteria such as OECD

DAC, has demonstrated that networks can be evaluated in the same

manner that projects and programmes can be evaluated. Superimposing

project and programme evaluation criteria onto organisation perfor-

mance criteria is a key practical contribution that is not very common in

developing African countries such as Zimbabwe.

6.4. Limitations

The limitation of the research pertains to the fact that the research

was based on a specic number of Case Studies, namely Workington-

Southerton, Willowvale and Stapleford Industrial Clusters. The nd-

ings from the research of the aforementioned case studies may not be

exactly the same in different country contexts under different policy,

legal, monetary and geographic conditions. Furthermore, due to the fact

that the research is based on geographically associated network, the

results may vary in the case of different networking modalities. The

limitations of the research include the fact that the research was limited

to the specic geographic case studies and in the context of Zimbabwe.

These ndings may be different in other countries with different policy,

governance and nancing regimes. The other limitation is that there

were not many industrial clusters in Zimbabwe, apart from the capital

city of Harare and other parts of the country which are rural do not have

industrial clusters. In some enterprises, there was a general insecurity

and suspicion of what the intentions of the study were and how infor-

mation of their environmental performance would be utilised. In various

enterprises, there was limited quantication of waste streams, thereby

reducing the level of accuracy of the data that was presented by some

enterprises. This also made it difcult to benchmark the performance of

selected enterprises in line with international levels of performance. The

diversity of activities within the various clusters makes it generally

difcult to compare different industries due to the differences in the raw

materials and processes. There was also limited data on waste, as various

organisations are at different levels of development in their waste

quantication, waste management and knowledge management sys-

tems. However, despite the limitations, the study was carried out

effectively and derived a lot of practice oriented ndings in the eld of

waste auditing and waste management and hence managed to address

some of the limitations.

6.5. Opportunities for further research

There are opportunities for further research with respect to industrial

symbiosis in industrial companies in Zimbabwe. Furthermore, there is

need for more case studies on the geographic proximity and Circular

Economy implementation and to prove or disapprove this aspect in

multiple contexts. There is an opportunity for researching on product

development in industrial clusters especially those that generate a sig-

nicant amount of waste streams. Research must focus on how these

products can be brought to viability and sustainability through network

collaboration. There is also scope for further research on the effect of

geographical proximity and uptake of Circular Economy practices. The

business case of geographically clustered networks warrants further

research in multiple country contexts.

Table 5

Empirical information about Zimbabwean Industrial cluster networks.

Empirical information about Zimbabwean industrial cluster networks

1) Industrial clusters generated more than 72 different types of waste materials

2) Ten (10) contractors were involved in managing waste on behalf of cluster members

3) Proportion of waste recycled is approximately 24%

4) Paper is the leading waste stream in industrial clusters.

5) In currently sampled industrial clusters, an average of 1500 people; are employed per every 5 members at full capacity, but this varies due to operational challenges facing

organisations.

6) The most common challenge affecting industrial cluster networks is the issue of managing waste uorescent tubes.

7) Capacity for Wastewater management is currently still very limited and also affected by availability of nancial resources to invest in advanced wastewater treatment technologies

8) Currently the average number of cluster members is 13 members per cluster.

9) Safety Health and Environmental practitioners are normally tasked with the responsibility of carrying waste management activities including waste audits and participating in

cluster networking activities.

10) At least 6 waste materials are being utilised for waste exchange as raw materials to other industrial processes and this presents a model of industrial symbiosis.

T.C. Muzamwese et al.

Journal of Cleaner Production 447 (2024) 141479

6.6. Scientic value

This research has extended knowledge on business models for inter-

organisational collaboration and business models for networks. The

research has extended the knowledge on how to make industrial clusters

more nancially viable and how to enhance the impact of their pro-

grammes. Contrasting previous research, the main advancement is that

industrial clusters should have nancing models beyond merely relying

on members to nance their own CE activities and occasional donor

nancing of cluster activities. Robust nancing models such as sub-

scriptions and building a reserve fund for CE innovation is necessary.

Previous studies have not focused on how the industrial clusters can be

viable and self-sustaining. In addition, previous research has not focused

on governance and leadership of industrial clusters. Therefore, the main

advancement in research demonstrates the need for improved organ-

isational structures of the industrial clusters, including oversight bodies

such as cluster boards. In order to strengthen CE practices, we propose

improved capacity building of cluster members, Public Private Part-

nerships, establishment of a mechanism to pool cluster nancial re-

sources for CE, establishment of cluster Boards and improving

ownership of the industrial clusters through facilitating participation by

cluster members. The scientic value of the research lies in the identi-

cation of proven effects of network collaboration on the waste man-

agement practices of industrial clusters and characterisation of an

emerging business case. Further scientic insights relate to the need for

networks to grow their nancing models beyond nancing organisations

and developing partners; in order to attain long term viability. In

extending knowledge, this research afrms the notion that success of

network collaboration si inuenced by other factors beyond mere,

convenience of geographical location. Governance regimes, business

models, network structure and cognitions also play a leading role in

determining network success. Whilst geographical location can facilitate

reduction in transport costs for industrial symbiosis and transfer of

waste from organisation to another, it is more important to nurture the

relationships amongst organisations, in order to develop a sustained

impact. Most research on industrial clusters has been focusing on the

benets of clustering, whilst missing the point in literature that there are

other factors which inuence network success. This research extents

research by delving into the factors that facilitate network success

beyond mere geographical proximity.

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Tawanda Collins Muzamwese: Writing – review & editing, Writing

– original draft, Visualization, Validation, Project administration,

Methodology, Investigation, Formal analysis, Data curation, Conceptu-

alization. Laura Franco-Garcia: Writing – review & editing. Michiel

Heldeweg: Writing – review & editing.

Declaration of competing interest

The authors declare that there are no competing interests with regard

the research, that could inuence the outcomes of this paper.

Data availability

Data will be made available on request.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge Mr Evans Matare the

Chairman of the Southerton-Workington Industrial Cluster as well as

Stapleford Cluster for providing information about the Southerton-

Workington and Stapleford Industrial Clusters.

Appendix A. Supplementary data

Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://doi.

org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2024.141479.

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Full-text available

Mar 2023

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) are under increasing pressure to implement sustainability practices and collaborate in sustainable development. To do so, they can choose to collaborate with other organisations in order to overcome the challenges and barriers found in moving towards sustainability. Sustainability issues in SMEs have been discussed in the last two decades, but the knowledge on the inter-organisational collaboration towards sustainability remains dispersed. In this sense, this paper aims to answer the question: what is known about inter-organisational cooperation oriented towards sustainability involving SMEs? A systematic literature review (SLR) was carried out using 55 articles available on Web of Science (WoS) aiming to understand the processes of inter-organisational relations towards sustainability involving SMEs, simultaneously addressing the emergence of the circular economy. As a result, the articles were organised into four groups, namely (1) cooperation for sustainability promoted by government initiatives, (2) effects of inter-organisational cooperation for sustainability, (3) process of cooperation oriented towards sustainability, and (4) start of discussions on cooperation for the circular economy. A framework is presented with an overview of the evolution of the field, highlighting the main factors and outcomes related to inter-organisational cooperation involving SMEs for sustainability. The review provides theoretical implications as future research avenues for academics and scholars as well as practical implications for entrepreneurs, managers and policy-makers.

A network perspective of cognitive and geographical proximity of sustainable tourism organizations: evidence from Italy

Article

Full-text available

Dec 2022
Int J Contemp Hospit Manag

Purpose This research aims to contribute to the literature on sustainable hospitality and tourism by applying social network analysis to identify sustainable tourism business networks and untangle the role of cognitive and geographical proximity in their formation. Design/methodology/approach Data mining and machine learning techniques were applied to data collected from the websites of tourism companies located in northeastern Italy, namely, the Veneto region. Specifically, the authors used Web scraping to extract relevant information from the internet. Findings The results support the existence of geographical clusters of tourist accommodation providers that are linked by strong cognitive proximity based on sustainability principles that are well communicated via their websites. This does not appear to be greenwashing because companies that have agreed on sustainability principles have also implemented concrete actions and tend to signal these actions through a variety of sustainability certifications. Practical implications The results may guide tourism managers and policymakers in developing tourism initiatives directed at the creation of fruitful collaborations between similarly oriented organizations and methods to support clusters of sustainable tourism accommodation. Identifying sustainable tourism networks may assist in the identification of potential actors of change, fueling a widespread transition toward sustainability. Originality/value In this study, the authors adopted an innovative methodology to detect sustainability-oriented tourism business networks. Additionally, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the first to simultaneously explore the cognitive and geographical connections between tourism businesses.

Financing the Circular Economy: Four Elements of Success

Conference Paper

Full-text available

Jun 2022

The transition to the circular economy, from start-ups to multinationals, can only be realised if there is enough financing available. However, financial institutions and investors are only likely to finance profitable solutions, measured within time-honoured linear economy thinking. In this qualitative study, we argue that looking at simply the business case is a singular, static view whereas the economy is a complex, adaptive system. Hence, in addition to the business case, we are adding three more elements we consider indispensable for the circular economy transition to initially succeed and thereafter remain sustainable. These are infrastructure, education, and mindset.

International green economy collaborations: Chasing mutual gains in the energy transition

Article

Oct 2023

Climate change mitigation in Zimbabwe and links to sustainable development

Article

Jul 2023

How inter-firm cooperation and conflicts in industrial clusters influence new product development performance? The role of firm innovation capability

Article

May 2023
IND MARKET MANAG

Despite ongoing cooperation among firms in industrial clusters, inter-firm conflicts are also prevalent, and little research has explored how these factors impact new product development (NPD) performance. In this study, we examine the influence of inter-firm cooperation and conflicts (i.e., constructive and destructive) on NPD performance, and explore the mediating role of innovation capability (i.e., incremental and radical) and the joint interactive effects of cooperation and conflicts on innovation capability. Based on data collected from a multi-sourced sample of 181 industrial cluster firms, our results confirm that innovation capability mediates the relationship between cooperation/constructive conflict and NPD performance. Specifically, we find that cooperation and constructive conflict positively affect both types of innovation capability, while destructive conflict negatively affects incremental innovation capability. Moreover, we identify a negative interaction effect of cooperation and constructive conflict on radical innovation capability, and a positive interactive effect of cooperation and destructive conflict on incremental innovation capability. These findings contribute to the literature on industrial clusters and provide practical implications for firm managers and government officials interested in regional development through industrial clusters.

Towards sustainability through the circular economy of plastic packaging waste management in Rayong Province, Thailand

Article

Apr 2023

The circularity of plastic packaging waste (PPW) material via recycling is critical to its circular economy towards sustainability and carbon neutrality of society. The multi-stakeholders and complex waste recycling loop of Rayong Province, Thailand, is herein analysed using an actor-network theory to identify key actors, roles, and responsibilities in the recycling scheme. The results depict the relative function of three-actor networks, namely policy, economy, and societal networks, which play different roles in PPW handling from its generation through various separations from municipal solid wastes to recycling. The policy network comprises mainly national authorities and committees responsible for targeting and policymaking for local implementation, while economic networks are formal and informal actors acting for PPW collection with a recycling contribution of 11.3–64.1%. A societal network supports this collaboration for knowledge, technology, or funds. Two waste recycling models are classified as community-based and municipality-based management, which functions differently by coverage areas, capabilities, and process efficiency. The economic reliability of each informal sorting activity is a crucial factor for sustainability, while empowering people in environmental awareness and sorting ability at the household level is also essential, as well as law enforcement that is effective in the long-term circularity of the PPW economy.

Do circular economy practices accelerate CSR participation of SMEs in a stakeholder-pressured era? A network theory perspective

Article

Feb 2023
J CLEAN PROD

The relevance of the circular economy in mitigating resource scarcity concerns associated with the linear economy cannot be overemphasized. While circular approaches, as reported by the literature, have focused primarily on the economic and environmental dimensions, there is a paucity of literature concerning the social impacts of the circular economy. Responding to calls to examine the mechanisms through which circular economy practices tackle the social concerns of society, this paper draws on the network theory to investigate how circular economy practices, induced by stakeholder pressures, directly and via the mediating mechanisms of innovation and collaboration capabilities impact the CSR participation of SMEs. Using 133 survey responses, the findings reveal that circular economy practices significantly promote higher CSR participation only through the indirect effects of innovation and collaboration capabilities. The contribution of this study lies in providing insight concerning how SMEs can rely on stakeholder networks to access external resources and compensate for resource scarcity while adopting circular economy practices and achieving greater CSR participation through innovation and collaboration.

Crossing the valley of death: Network structure, government subsidies and innovation diffusion of industrial clusters

Article

Sep 2022
Tech Soc

To successfully cross the “valley of death” between source innovation and industrialization requires two-way efforts of technological innovation and innovative achievement transformation, which is a socialization process of innovation adoption and diffusion. Industrial clusters are the effective organizational carriers for the diffusion of innovation achievements, therefore, the research aims to explore the transformation mechanism of scientific and technological achievements in industrial clusters, especially considering the influence of network structure and government subsidies in helping industrial clusters to cross the valley of death and improve the efficiency of scientific and technological achievements transformation, so as to put forward targeted transformation countermeasures. Accordingly, a “two-stage and double-driving” innovation diffusion dynamics model was built and applied to the empirical research on China's blockchain industrial cluster by network analysis and system dynamics. It is found that government subsidies play a crucial role in the innovation adoption stage, especially for high innovative industrial clusters. In addition, there is an adoption threshold for the utility of government subsidies, and a reasonable exit mechanism should be established when adoption rates reach a certain proportion. However, for the low innovative industrial clusters, government subsidies continue to be effective. On the contrary, internal factors play a vital role in the stage of innovation diffusion, especially for industrial clusters that have developed close cooperation between upstream and downstream. This study provides the following policy implications for industrial clusters to overcome the valley of death, including carrying out classified guidance and precise implementation, appropriate subsidies and reasonable withdrawal, and improving the cultivation mechanism of “opinion leaders” enterprises.

Circular bioeconomy potential and challenges within an African context: From theory to practice

Article

Jul 2022
J CLEAN PROD

A circular bioeconomy has the potential to minimize the environmental impacts of biowaste while simultaneously generating value-added bioproducts and bioenergy. Currently, most countries of the African Union lack well-defined policies, requisite infrastructure, and expertise for biowaste valorisation, thus limiting the potential development of the region. Against this background, it is necessary to deploy circular bioeconomy principles based on the awareness of the biocapacity of territories through the nexus of biowaste management and life cycle thinking. In the present study, a preliminary assessment of waste management practices in a tourist hotel in Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe is explored. The hotel produces about 3.26 tons per month of biowaste, which is often improperly disposed in non-engineered waste dumps. Furthermore, the disposal options for 1 tonne of biowaste are explored using City of Harare (CoH) as a case study. The preliminary results show composting as the most environmentally favourable option (9.6 kgCO2 eq), followed by anaerobic digestion (56.4 kg CO2 eq), and finally, biowaste incineration (140 kg CO2 eq). Anaerobic digestion and composting remain the most viable biowaste disposal alternatives in Africa, due to limited expenses and expertise for construction, operation, and maintenance. However, both technologies remain under-utilized, hence, a significant portion of the source-separated biowaste is still disposed of in waste dumps and this reflects the lack of supportive institutional, regulatory and policy frameworks. Overall, these early results point to the potential to develop a circular bioeconomy in Africa, while calling for shared responsibilities among the state, market, and civil society actors to develop and adopt appropriate institutional, regulatory, policy and funding models.

Industrial clusters as a vehicle for circular economy transition: A case study of networks in four industrial clusters in Zimbabwe

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