ICT Usage in Industrial Symbiosis: Problem Identification and Study Design

Industrial symbiosis is a favored approach to balancing industry's economic growth and its environmental impact on a regional scale. Although the scientific literature reports a multitude of examples of industrial symbiosis around the world, this approach and its related concepts are not considered to be widespread in practice, due to various barriers. Information and management barriers are seen as significant obstacles to industrial symbiosis; however, they have not been adequately investigated yet. Empirical research capturing the perception of industrial actors is lacking. This applies especially to information and communication technology designed to reduce informational barriers. Therefore, in this research-in-progress paper, we will first examine these aspects by discussing related publications. In the second step, we develop a study design involving an online questionnaire to examine the extent of managerial and informational barriers that prevent industrial symbiosis as well as the perception of corresponding technological support.