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Pre-paradigmatic Status of Industrial Sustainability: A Systematic Review

Published version
Peer-reviewed

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Authors

Smart, P 
Hemel, S 
Lettice, F 
Adams, R 

Abstract

This paper seeks to progress Operations Management (OM) theory and practice by organising contributions to knowledge production, in Industrial Sustainability, from disparate researcher communities. It addresses the principal question ‘What scholarly dialogues can be explicated in the emerging research field of Industrial Sustainability?’ and sub-questions (i) what are the descriptive characteristics of the evidence base? and (ii) what thematic lines of scientific inquiry underpin the body of knowledge? Using an evidenced based approach, a Systematic Review of 574 articles from 62 peer-reviewed scientific journals associated with Industrial Sustainability is conducted. This paper distinguishes three prevailing dialogues in the field of Industrial Sustainability, and uses Kuhn’s Theory of Paradigms to propose its pre-paradigmatic scientific status. The three dialogues (i) ‘productivity and innovation’, (ii) ‘corporate citizenship’ and (iii) ‘economic resilience’ are conjectured to privilege efficiency strategies as a mode of incremental reductionism. Industrial Sustainability espouses the grand vision of a generative, restorative and net positive economy, and calls for a future research trajectory to address institutional and systemic issues regarding scaling-up and transition, through transformative strategies. The review is limited by the nature of the inquiries addressed in the literatures by specific researcher communities between 1992 and 2014. This study performs the first systematic review in the field of Industrial Sustainability, synthesises prevailing scholarly dialogues and provides an evaluation of the scientific status of the field.

Description

Keywords

35 Commerce, Management, Tourism and Services, 3507 Strategy, Management and Organisational Behaviour

Journal Title

International Journal of Operations and Production Management

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0144-3577
1758-6593

Volume Title

37

Publisher

Emerald Group Publishing Ltd.
Sponsorship
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/I033351/1)
This work acknowledges the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Centre of Excellence for Industrial Sustainability (Grant Reference: EP/I033351/1).