Stretching the boundary: the possibilities of flexibility as an organizational capability in industrial ecology

The concept of industrial ecology focuses on groups of firms and their stakeholders that interact to achieve sustainable development. This article presents a dynamic approach to the interaction within such networks of organizations. The literature on networks and group dynamics provides us with contradicting views on the extent to which learning is possible in a developing group of organizations. We assess these views, and apply them to three types of groups of firms: sectors of industry, product chains, and regionally defined groups. In addition, the necessary capabilities of individual organizations to learn within these contexts are discussed.