Background context - Industrial Symbiosis (IS) is an approach that promotes the engagement of communities of companies in improving their economic and environmental performance through collaborative strategies. In the literature, there is still much debate on how to make the IS successful and on the factors that affect its implementation, including technical and organisational aspects, regulatory issues, stakeholders involvement, and economic feasibility. Exchange relations are also enabled from a base of social relations, which find strength in trust and cultural elements.
Justification of the research - Networks of companies are considered as hybrid patterns of economic activity coordination that combine the advantages of the traditional governance mechanisms of vertical integration and market exchanges. Networks can take various forms and operate at different spatial scales, in particular, due to the acquired tendency toward collaboration among the entities involved are considered to be one of the most promising contexts for IS.
Aim - The study presented aims at exploring new spaces and possibilities for the development of IS in existing industrial networks, an area of research in which the authors have been involved for years. Research on various forms of agglomerations of companies have been conducted, among them, and here presented: industrial areas, local supply networks, districts, ecologically equipped industrial areas, innovation poles.
Methods - The study has been structured as follows: an analytical framework has been built through a literature review, the general and specific features of each context (i. e. sectoral and local dynamics; number and types of companies involved; material and energy flows and stocks; social, technical and business relations) have been then analysed through on-site investigations; suitable IS-based solutions have been then identified and designed in the form of potential scenarios; considerations about the development of IS in each contexts have been finally made.
Finding results - The present research considers and critically analyses and compares the results obtained in each of the six contexts considered. The most significant considerations concern methodological limits and the role of the technological-organisational and socio-relational factors in promoting/preventing IS development.
Conclusions - The six existing networks analysed have proven to be promising contexts for the development of IS. The complexity that often emerges in their study, hides peculiar characteristics and forms of synergistic interactions but also limiting factors, that will be the subject of future studies.
5g. Special Track - Industrial symbiosis, networking and cooperation as part of industrial
