THE EMERGENCE OF INDUSTRIAL SYMBIOSIS IN THE ROTTERDAM HARBOR REGION; THE ROLE OF SOCIAL PROXIMITY AND PLACE ATTACHMENT

Abstract

This research aimed at contributing to the industrial symbiosis literature evaluating whether firms’ social proximity and place attachment affect their willingness to participate in a project that wants to realize an ICT tool to stimulate the shared use of resources in an already existing SMEs mixed industrial park. This problem was investigated interviewing the managers of eleven firms of the Spaanse Polder industrial park of Rotterdam in relation to the Pulsup Project. It was found that social proximity and place attachment affect firms’ willingness to participate in an industrial symbiosis project. Social proximity appeared as a necessary but not sufficient element triggering firms’ willingness to participate, while high degree of place attachment positively correlated with firms’ willingness to participate.