Ecossistemas industriais: análise bibliométrica da publicação científica mundial e brasileira sobre o tema

Abstract

Many actors have recognized the interdependence between environmental crisis experienced by humanity and the unsustainable economic activities. By the way, they have advocated changes in production structures for the establishment of development initiatives that could promote the conservation of ecosystem services. In this regard, the Industrial Ecology approach advocates industry restructuring in a cyclical model of material and energy flows, i.e., in the form of an industrial ecosystem. Industrial ecosystem raises the economic performance of the business and mitigates waste and pollution problems through symbiotic exchanges between companies; indeed, it constitutes a strategy to promote sustainable development in the interfirm level. This work emerges from the following question: What are the patterns and trends of the dissemination of scientific knowledge built on industrial ecosystems? Based on bibliometric techniques, the overall objective of this study is to characterize global and Brazilian publication about industrial ecosystems. It is a descriptive research which uses quantitative methods. The methodology of the bibliographic portfolio composition covered sequential procedures which began with the definition of search tools for papers in specific databases, followed by filtering the collected publications. The primary data for the bibliometric analysis were obtained from the extraction of bibliographic elements of the cataloged texts. The results corroborate the hypotheses adopted, showing that: i) in fact, the scientific community aroused his attention to the solutions provided by industrial ecosystems; there was an increase in the number of papers published since the mid-1990s; and ii) despite the emergence of industrial ecosystems as one of the most influential perspectives in the dialogue between industry and environment in various disciplines, economics still remains reticent to insert these discussions in its theoretical body.