Environmental service-providers, knowledge transfer, and the greening of industry

Recent development of ”greening” in manufacturing firms, inspired by environmental legislation, client and stakeholder pressure, as well as changes in corporate strategies, have created a new market for environmental business services. The implementation of new managerial practices and instruments such as environmental management systems, auditing schemes, eco-labeling etc., but also the growing need for technical assistance are all reasons for the dynamic evolution of the demand for specialized external services. Knowledge based enterprises provide services, for example in the fields of technical development, management consulting, legal services, insurance, environmental due diligence, and marketing. This externalization can be considered a further element in the flexibilization of industrial production systems in a post-fordist context. In a first step, this paper presents some reflections on the functional and spatial organization of this special type of advanced producer services. In particular, networking activities between different service providers and manufacturing firms will be analyzed. In a second step, the role of these knowledge intense business services in the greening process of industry will be conceptualized. Particular aspects of co-producership and knowledge creation by interactive learning between service providers will be discussed. This will enable an illustration of the stimulus that external services may give to industrial change. The comparative character of this study – dealing with the Cologne area (Germany) and the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region (France) will be underlined in the discussion of different styles of regional discourse as well as different ways of framing environmental problems. key words: advanced producer services, corporate environmental performance, environmental services, industrial change

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