Universität zu Köln

Borchard, Rebecca, Zeiss, Roman ORCID: 0000-0002-1366-3095 and Recker, Jan C. ORCID: 0000-0002-2072-5792 (2021). Digitalization of waste management: Insights from German private and public waste management firms. Waste Management & Research. pp. 1-18.

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Abstract

Policymakers, practitioners, and scholars have long-lauded digital technologies, such as smart waste containers or artificial intelligence for material recognition and robotic automation, as key enablers to more effective and efficient waste management. While these advances promise an increasingly digitalized future for collecting, sorting, and recycling waste material, little is known about the current extent of digitalization by waste management firms. Available studies focus on firms’ digitalization intentions, largely neglecting the level of actual adoption of digital technologies, and do not differentiate the level of digitalization alongside different steps of the waste management value chain. Our study reports on a cross-sectional descriptive survey that captures current digitalization efforts and strategies of 130 public and private waste management firms in Germany. We analyze their levels of digitalization along with different steps of the waste management value chain, explore their different objectives, approaches, and transformational measures with regard to digitalization. Our findings reveal that while the perceived importance of digitalization in the waste management sector continues to grow, the actual adoption of advanced digital technologies falls notably behind intentions reported in 2016 and 2017. We explore the reasons for this gap, point out so far largely ignored research opportunities, and derive recommendations for waste management firms and associations.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Translated title:	Title Language Digitalisierung der Abfallwirtschaft: Einblicke aus deutschen privaten und öffentlichen Entsorgungsunternehmen German
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID ORCID Put Code Borchard, Rebecca borchardrebecca@aol.de UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED Zeiss, Roman zeiss@wiso.uni-koeln.de orcid.org/0000-0002-1366-3095 UNSPECIFIED Recker, Jan C. jan.christof.recker@uni-hamburg.de orcid.org/0000-0002-2072-5792 UNSPECIFIED
URN:	urn:nbn:de:hbz:38-524205
DOI:	10.1177/0734242X211029173
Journal or Publication Title:	Waste Management & Research
Page Range:	pp. 1-18
Date:	2021
Language:	English
Faculty:	Faculty of Management, Economy and Social Sciences
Divisions:	Weitere Institute, Arbeits- und Forschungsgruppen > Cologne Institute for Information Systems (CIIS) Faculty of Management, Economics and Social Sciences > Business Administration > Information Systems > Chair for Information Systems and Systems Development
Subjects:	Data processing Computer science Economics Management and auxiliary services Civic and landscape art
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	http://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/id/eprint/52420