Evaluating the Potential Business Benefits of Ecodesign Implementation: A Logic Model Approach

The business benefits attained from ecodesign programs in manufacturing companies have been regularly documented by several studies from both the academic and corporate spheres. However, there are still significant challenges for adopting ecodesign, especially regarding the evaluation of these potential business benefits prior to the actual ecodesign implementation. To address such gap, this study proposes an exploratory and theory-driven framework based on logic models to support the development of business cases for ecodesign implementation. The objective is to offer an outlook into how ecodesign implementation can potentially affect key corporate performance outcomes. This paper is based on a three-stage research methodology with six steps. Two full systematic literature reviews were performed, along with two thematic analyses and a grounded theory approach with the aim of developing the business case framework, which was then evaluated by seven industry experts. This research contributes to the literature of ecodesign especially by laying out an ecodesign-instantiated logic model, which is readily available to be adapted and customized for further test and use in practice. Discussions on the usefulness and applicability of the framework and directions for future research are presented.

[1]  Caroline Gauthier,et al.  Measuring Corporate Social and Environmental Performance: The Extended Life-Cycle Assessment , 2005 .

[2]  Jesse Strycker.  Logic Models as a Way to Support Online Students and Their Projects. , 2016 .

[3]  G. Andrews,et al.  Mja Guidelines for Assessing Qualitative Research Quality in Qualitative Research Criteria for Authors and Assessors in the Submission and Assessment of Qualitative Research Articles for the Medical Journal of Australia , 2022 .

[4]  M. Epstein,et al.  Making the Business Case for Sustainability , 2003 .

[5]  The business case for being a responsible business , 2011 .

[6]  Karen Denard Goldman,et al.  Logic Models: The Picture Worth Ten Thousand Words , 2006 .

[7]  Hilary Thomson,et al.  Developing empirically supported theories of change for housing investment and health , 2015, Social science & medicine.

[8]  Göran Svensson,et al.  A Triple Bottom Line Dominant Logic for Business Sustainability: Framework and Empirical Findings , 2016 .

[9]  C. Brodsky.  The Discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies for Qualitative Research , 1968 .

[10]  F. Myrick,et al.  Grounded Theory: An Exploration of Process and Procedure , 2006, Qualitative health research.

[11]  J. P. Peña-Rosas,et al.  Development and use of the generic WHO/CDC logic model for vitamin and mineral interventions in public health programmes , 2013, Public Health Nutrition.

[12]  A. Dossi,et al.  You learn from what you measure: financial and non-financial performance measures in multinational companies , 2010 .

[13]  Henrique Rozenfeld,et al.  Strategic implementation of design for environment at Embraer , 2013 .

[14]  Casper Boks,et al.  Essential perspectives for design for environment. Experiences from the electronics industry , 2007 .

[15]  Vinicius Picanco Rodrigues,et al.  Process-oriented performance indicators for measuring ecodesign management practices , 2016 .

[16]  A. Kocmanová,et al.  Determination of environmental, social and corporate governance indicators: framework in the measurement of sustainable performance , 2014 .

[17]  Douglas J. Besharov,et al.  Using Logic Models to Strengthen Performance Measurement , 2017 .

[18]  Annie Millar,et al.  Logic models: a systems tool for performance management , 2001 .

[19]  Christine M O'Keefe,et al.  Application of logic models in a large scientific research program. , 2011, Evaluation and program planning.

[20]  Tim C. McAloone,et al.  ECODESIGN MATURITY MODEL AS A FRAMEWORK TO SUPPORT THE TRANSITION TOWARDS ISO 14.001:2015 CERTIFICATION , 2015 .

[21]  A. Carroll,et al.  The Business Case for Corporate Social Responsibility: A Review of Concepts, Research and Practice , 2010 .

[22]  Jennifer Attride-Stirling.  Thematic networks: an analytic tool for qualitative research , 2001 .

[23]  Kulwant S. Pawar,et al.  Measuring product development performance in manufacturing organisations , 2000 .

[24]  Bruce Warburton,et al.  How Decision Support Systems Can Benefit from a Theory of Change Approach , 2017, Environmental Management.

[25]  Christoph H. Loch,et al.  Implementing a strategy-driven performance measurement system for an applied research group , 2002 .

[26]  John A. McLaughlin,et al.  Logic models: a tool for telling your programs performance story , 1999 .

[27]  José F. Molina-Azorín,et al.  ISO 14001 certification and financial performance: selection-effect versus treatment-effect , 2011 .

[28]  Vinicius Picanco Rodrigues,et al.  Process-related key performance indicators for measuring sustainability performance of ecodesign implementation into product development , 2016 .

[29]  Tim C. McAloone,et al.  Deployment and implementation of the Grundfos' sustainability strategy by means of the ecodesign maturity model , 2014 .

[30]  Tim C. McAloone,et al.  Environmental improvement through product development: A guide , 2009 .

[31]  Henrique Rozenfeld,et al.  The Deployment of Product-Related Environmental Legislation into Product Requirements , 2016 .

[32]  Casper Boks,et al.  The soft side of ecodesign , 2006 .

[33]  V. Braun,et al.  Using thematic analysis in psychology , 2006 .

[34]  S. Hart,et al.  Creating sustainable value , 2003 .

[35]  Leslie J. Cooksy,et al.  The Program Logic Model as an Integrative Framework for a Multimethod Evaluation , 2001 .

[36]  Thomas Dyllick,et al.  Beyond the business case for corporate sustainability , 2002 .

[37]  Wayne W. Wakeland,et al.  Moving Up the CMMI Capability and Maturity Levels Using Simulation , 2008 .

[38]  T. Hahn,et al.  Cognitive Frames in Corporate Sustainability: Managerial Sensemaking with Paradoxical and Business Case Frames , 2014 .

[39]  Anselm L. Strauss,et al.  Basics of qualitative research : techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory , 1998 .

[40]  Jacob Alex Klerman,et al.  Measuring and Managing Farther along in the Logic Model , 2017 .

[41]  Fernando Bernardi de Souza,et al.  Ecodesign field of research throughout the world: mapping the territory by using an evolutionary lens , 2016, Scientometrics.

[42]  M. Porter,et al.  Strategy and society: the link between competitive advantage and corporate social responsibility. , 2006, Harvard business review.

[43]  Tim C. McAloone,et al.  Ecodesign maturity model: a management framework to support ecodesign implementation into manufacturing companies , 2013 .

[44]  B. Cutts,et al.  Community Theories of Change: Linking Environmental Justice to Sustainability through Stakeholder Perceptions in Milwaukee (WI, USA) , 2016, International journal of environmental research and public health.

[45]  Esben Rahbek Gjerdrum Pedersen,et al.  Which firms use measures , 2012 .

[46]  Peter Kueng,et al.  Process performance measurement system: A tool to support process-based organizations , 2000 .

[47]  Marie-France Vernier,et al.  Economic benefits tied to ecodesign , 2011 .

[48]  Marly Monteiro de Carvalho,et al.  Exploring the dynamic and complex integration of sustainability performance measurement into product development , 2016 .

[49]  Adri Smaling,et al.  Varieties of methodological intersubjectivity — the relations with qualitative and quantitative research, and with objectivity , 1992 .

[50]  Thomas Greckhamer,et al.  The erosion of a method: examples from grounded theory , 2005 .

[51]  Steven A. Melnyk,et al.  THE GAP BETWEEN THEORY AND PRACTICE , 2006 .

[52]  A. Gunasekaran,et al.  Cleaner supply-chain management practices for twenty-first-century organizational competitiveness: Practice-performance framework and research propositions , 2015 .

[53]  Sue A. Kaplan,et al.  The use of logic models by community-based initiatives , 2005 .

[54]  A. Strauss,et al.  The discovery of grounded theory: strategies for qualitative research aldine de gruyter , 1968 .

[55]  S. Schaltegger,et al.  The 'Business Case for Sustainability' Concept: A Short Introduction , 2012 .

[56]  Jan Dul,et al.  Case Study Methodology in Business Research , 2007 .

[57]  Margot J. Hutchins,et al.  An exploration of measures of social sustainability and their application to supply chain decisions , 2008 .

[58]  Florian Lüdeke-Freund,et al.  Business Cases for Sustainability: The Role of Business Model Innovation for Corporate Sustainability , 2012 .

[59]  Kulwant S. Pawar,et al.  Performance evaluation of new product development from a company perspective , 2001 .

[60]  Justin Keeble,et al.  Using Indicators to Measure Sustainability Performance at a Corporate and Project Level , 2003 .

[61]  Wei-Tsong Wang,et al.  Evaluating organisational performance during crises: A multi-dimensional framework , 2012 .

[62]  Paula Gomes Mian,et al.  Systematic Review in Software Engineering , 2005 .

[63]  Ulrich Steger,et al.  The Business Case for Corporate Sustainability:: Literature Review and Research Options , 2005 .

[64]  Rod L. Flanigan,et al.  Developing competitive advantage using the triple bottom line: a conceptual framework , 2016 .

[65]  Anthony G. Tuckett,et al.  Applying thematic analysis theory to practice: A researcher’s experience , 2005, Contemporary nurse.

[66]  Vinicius Picanco Rodrigues,et al.  Measuring the implementation of ecodesign management practices: A review and consolidation of process-oriented performance indicators , 2017 .

[67]  Tim C. McAloone,et al.  Supporting the Development of Environmentally Sustainable PSS by Means of the Ecodesign Maturity Model , 2015 .

[68]  Frank Leymann,et al.  Identifying influential factors of business process performance using dependency analysis , 2011, Enterp. Inf. Syst..

[69]  Daniela Cristina Antelmi Pigosso,et al.  Ecodesign maturity model: a framework to support companies in the selection and implementation of ecodesign practices , 2012 .

[70]  A. Tiwari,et al.  Business process perspectives: Theoretical developments vs. real-world practice , 2008 .

[71]  Tim C. McAloone,et al.  Maturity-based approach for the development of environmentally sustainable product/service-systems , 2016 .

[72]  C. Jabbour,et al.  Assessment of business incubators' green performance: A framework and its application to Brazilian cases , 2012 .

[73]  C. Pinheiro,et al.  The Influence of Managerial Ownership on Bank Market Value, Performance, and Risk: Evidence from Banks Listed on the STOXX Global Index , 2012 .

[74]  Gabriel Seidman,et al.  Does SDG 3 have an adequate theory of change for improving health systems performance? , 2017, Journal of global health.

[75]  Su-Yol Lee,et al.  Antecedents and Consequences of Firms' Climate Change Management Practices: Stakeholder and Synergistic Approach , 2015 .

[76]  Deborah Nightingale,et al.  Toward a better comprehension of Lean metrics for research and product development management , 2014 .

[77]  H. Yarandi,et al.  Using the Program Logic Model to Evaluate ¡Cuídate!: A Sexual Health Program for Latino Adolescents in a School-Based Health Center. , 2015, Worldviews on evidence-based nursing.

[78]  Vikram Patel,et al.  Theory of Change: a theory-driven approach to enhance the Medical Research Council's framework for complex interventions , 2014, Trials.