Title: Technological innovation and environmental practices in the auxiliary automotive industry

Authors: Pilar Gonzalez-Torre, Guillermo Perez-Bustamante

Addresses: Department of Business Organization, Universidad de Oviedo, Escuela Politecnica Superior de Ingenieria, Campus de Viesques, 33204 Gijon, Spain. ' Department of Business Organization, Universidad de Oviedo, Escuela Politecnica Superior de Ingenieria, Campus de Viesques, 33204 Gijon, Spain

Abstract: A driving force for product innovation is the need to manufacture and design products according to environmental practices such as environmental awareness, and legislation to recycle, remanufacture, reuse, disassemble and dispose of goods. Environmental practices are not clearly identified in the literature, so, a first step is to categorise them. Then within the environmental context, the central research question in this paper will be to analyse the effects of technological progress on environmental practices. The research is aimed at Spanish firms in the auxiliary automotive industry, which is a pioneer industrial sector in technological innovation and environmental awareness.

Keywords: reverse logistics; best environmental practices; technological innovation; auxiliary automotive industry; Spain; environmental manufacturing; recycling; remanufacturing; reuse; disassembly; disposal; product innovation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBE.2006.010683

International Journal of Business Environment, 2006 Vol.1 No.2, pp.177 - 189

Published online: 18 Aug 2006 *

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