Environmental information from stakeholders supporting product development

Abstract This article presents the results from an in-depth single case study in the Norwegian manufacturing industry. The scope of the research has been to identify, collect, and compile product development relevant environmental information from the firm's external stakeholders and compare this with internal stakeholders' knowledge on the same issue. Main results yield a substantial gap between environmental information availability and environmental information knowledge within this firm, partly due to limited stakeholder collaboration. The understanding of information usefulness was found to be affected by business priorities and goals, internal competence, in addition to function and professional training. The competent use and exploitation of relevant environmental information in product development has the potential to add value to products beyond functionality, quality, and cost, and hence in general enhance firms' competitiveness.

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