Facoltà: Ingegneria Gestionale - classe LM-31
Collocazione: 19840
Autore: Curcio Alida
Data: 20/12/2021
Titolo: An investigation of Circular Supply Chain Management practices in the Italian SMEs
Relatore: Creazza Alessandro
Autorizzazione per la consultazione: SI
Le tesi si possono consultare unicamente in sede
Circular supply chain management (CSCM) is still a not mature topic, and it is expected to significantly develop in the next few years thanks to the growing interest of scholars, politicians, practitioners in the field of strategic management. It also seems that besides being an interesting topic for large and structured enterprises, CSCM represents a subject of relevance for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). With the aim to grasp the challenges and opportunities related to CSCM, an analysis of the literature was initially carried out, to review the practices of CSCM, related barriers and drivers (in general terms and for SMEs); followed by an empirical investigation on a sample of Italian SMEs. This thesis is divided into seven chapters: after an introductory section setting the scene of the work and of its subject matter, the literature review is presented. This is divided into other sections that concern the investigation of CSCM practices, enablers and barriers in the first phase, supported by some real cases, and then, an analysis of the same themes but linked to SMEs. In the third chapter three research objectives are declared, and we reiterate the relevance of investigating CSCM in the context of the SMEs, because they are the most representative firms of the Italian industrial community. In the fourth chapter, the twofold methodology used for the empirical analysis is described: a first internet-based search of ?The Atlas of Circular Economy?, which collects companies declaring the adoption of circular economy practices, with particular focus on SMEs, followed by the analysis of secondary data published on their websites in order to fill the map of the ten CSCM practices derived from the literature, to understand the most applied and at what level they are implemented (process, single company, supply chain, industrial symbiosis). This first step was followed by an investigation through structured interviews to collect primary data, conducted with a sample of Italian SMEs to deepen the analysis of practices, barriers and enablers according to the experience of the interviewees. In the fifth section, the findings of these two steps are reported and in the sixth chapter they are discussed. Considering the practices, consistently with the literature, it is possible to confirm that the most implemented is the one of recycling in all industries; thanks to empirical research we found that another widely used practice is the extraction of biochemical feedstocks, while those that find very few applications are anaerobic digestion, refurbish/remanufacture, sharing and re-use practices. As for the level of application, while the literature reports that CSCM practices are applied only at the level of the individual company, our empirical analysis found instead that, although the percentage of the companies that apply CSCM practices at the level of single company is still the highest, about half of the sample moves at the supply chain level and a third of them also apply at the level of industrial symbiosis. If we move to the enablers, some of them, like the importance of a network, stakeholder collaboration and the financial enabler, were confirmed. Others, that in literature were considered applied more by larger companies, like the use of technologies, Industry 4.0 and the possibility to implement a structured business model instead to just apply some circular practices, have been denied with emblematic cases of application at SMEs level. Considering CSCM barriers, the most impacting for SMEs are the financial ones, as in literature; from our empirical research, legislative and bureaucratic obstacles have also been found be crucial. Final considerations analyse the research implications and limitations in the Conclusion section
