Network structure in sustainable agro-industrial parks

Recently several agro-industrial parks have been developed as applications of industrial ecology to agriculture, aiming at improved sustainability performance. Grounded in industrial ecology and the literature on inter-organizational networks, this study explores the social structure of sustainability oriented collaborations in agro-industrial parks. Empirical data from sixty four organizations in three Dutch agro-industrial parks are analyzed at network and at organizational level. At network level, the results show that network decentralization comes along with a high density of formal ties. At organizational level, the results show that the organizations in agro-industrial parks are more efficiently positioned (i.e. more positively perceive sustainability performance) in the network of formal ties if they can build ties with other organizations via a small number of intermediary partners (i.e. high closeness centrality) instead of having a large number of direct ties. A decentralized structure of formal ties in combination with sparse interdependency has a relatively positive influence on sustainability improvement perceptions. In conclusion, network decentralization is important for the organizations that avoid dependency on one (or a small number of) central and/or powerful actor(s). The preferable decentralized formal ties and sparse interdependencies were (quantitatively and qualitatively) most evident in the self-organized parks, confirming that, for the sake of sustainability improvements, a self organized agro-industrial park is preferable to a planned park. With regard to the theoretical contribution, this study opened up a new area of research for waste streams exchanges among co-located heterogeneous companies by examining them as inter-organizational networks in agro-industrial parks. With regard to the practical implications, the study suggests that organizations seeking advanced environmental performance should build ties by optimizing the number of intermediary partners. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.