EXPLORING THE POTENTIAL OF AI-ENHANCED TOOLKIT FOR PRODUCTS CO-DESIGN IN INDUSTRIAL SYMBIOSIS DYNAMICS

Industrial symbiosis (IS) refers to a subfield of industrial ecology in which industries belonging to the same or different sectors adopt a collective approach to gain competitive advantage by exchanging materials, resources, and by-products. As a result, traditionally separate industries can engender an industrial symbiotic network (ISN), comprising at least three companies exchanging at least two types of waste, to gain economic advantage from interfirm exchange. The present working paper addresses open questions in previous research on how to design and use applicable AI support in industrial symbiosis. how to coordinate industrial symbiosis activities while fostering companies’ engagement in Industrial Symbiosis Network. The aim is to assess whether and to what extent the implementation of AI enhanced tool for product co-design, namely product configurator can assist companies in processes of waste management while fostering dynamics of industrial symbiosis. At the empirical level, this study considers two cases of Italian companies adopting IS. The empirical investigation detects preliminary findings on the extent to which the implementation of a product configurator can assist companies in their intrafirm and interfirm transactions on IS dynamics. On the managerial implications of this study, it proposes the implementation of a product configurator as a tool to support companies in value creation and acquisition in approaching IS. At IS networking level the study proposes the implementation of a product configurator as a tool to overcome IS barriers with attention to knowledge sharing and companies’ engagement.