TY - JOUR
T1 - Current challenges for sustainable product development in the German automotive sector
T2 - A survey based status assessment
AU - Held, Maximilian
AU - Weidmann, Dominik
AU - Kammerl, Daniel
AU - Hollauer, Christoph
AU - Mörtl, Markus
AU - Omer, Mayada
AU - Lindemann, Udo
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2018/9/10
Y1 - 2018/9/10
N2 - Since 2015/16, dieselgate has initiated transformations of the automotive industry towards the integration of sustainability into the product development process. The present study combines a qualitative approach, based on semi-structured expert interviews, with a quantitative online survey to identify the current status of this implementation. The objective of the paper is to provide an overview on how German automotive companies currently deal with challenges and chances of a sustainable product development. The study obtained the following core conclusions: (1) A common understanding of the term sustainability is missing and a company-wide definition would be beneficial. (2) There is no consensus on the optimal organizational embedment for sustainability into a company. A centralized responsibility plus distributed awareness was identified as the most promising solution. (3) As a matter of supply and demand, automotive companies will not over-satisfy the customers’ demand. As dieselgate has boosted public interest, possible competitive advantages were identified by transforming the product property “sustainability” to a unique selling point. (4) There is an unmanageable amount of methods for the implementation of sustainability in the product development process. For that reason, academically developed methods are only rarely used in industry. (5) Companies are retrospectively evaluating the results of the development rather than using assessment outcomes systematically to improve the product prospectively. (6) Major potential drivers for sustainable product development are laws & politics, customers and competition. Sustainability could become more attractive for industry and customers by creating win-win-solutions. Conceivable propositions are tax advantages or Pigovian taxes, the internalization of sustainability, the shift from tank-to-wheel- towards holistic well-to-wheel-analyses or product service-systems.
AB - Since 2015/16, dieselgate has initiated transformations of the automotive industry towards the integration of sustainability into the product development process. The present study combines a qualitative approach, based on semi-structured expert interviews, with a quantitative online survey to identify the current status of this implementation. The objective of the paper is to provide an overview on how German automotive companies currently deal with challenges and chances of a sustainable product development. The study obtained the following core conclusions: (1) A common understanding of the term sustainability is missing and a company-wide definition would be beneficial. (2) There is no consensus on the optimal organizational embedment for sustainability into a company. A centralized responsibility plus distributed awareness was identified as the most promising solution. (3) As a matter of supply and demand, automotive companies will not over-satisfy the customers’ demand. As dieselgate has boosted public interest, possible competitive advantages were identified by transforming the product property “sustainability” to a unique selling point. (4) There is an unmanageable amount of methods for the implementation of sustainability in the product development process. For that reason, academically developed methods are only rarely used in industry. (5) Companies are retrospectively evaluating the results of the development rather than using assessment outcomes systematically to improve the product prospectively. (6) Major potential drivers for sustainable product development are laws & politics, customers and competition. Sustainability could become more attractive for industry and customers by creating win-win-solutions. Conceivable propositions are tax advantages or Pigovian taxes, the internalization of sustainability, the shift from tank-to-wheel- towards holistic well-to-wheel-analyses or product service-systems.
KW - Automotive sector
KW - Chances and challenges
KW - Dieselgate
KW - Status assessment
KW - Survey
KW - Sustainable product development
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85049333025&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.05.118
DO - 10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.05.118
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85049333025
SN - 0959-6526
VL - 195
SP - 869
EP - 889
JO - Journal of Cleaner Production
JF - Journal of Cleaner Production
ER -
