recycling process at the breweries by showing how the used beverage containers (UBC) travel from the treatment plants, to smelters and rolling mills where they manufactured to the form of loadable contain- ers again.
Returpack logistical delivery feeds a major metal wholesaler as the first industrial partner in the downstream process. From a technological point of view scrap aluminum is getting de-ironated with a magnetic separator and consigned into containers for further delivery. From here, aluminum is travel- ling to a smelter or to another industrial partner for the re-use. In the first years of operation – while Returpack itself controlled the iron separation and delivery to the smelter – liquid “purified” aluminum travelled to the Audi engine block facilities in Győr (Western Hungary) and the TT-model engine block got casted partially from recycled cans. Recently, a technologically more feasible partnership has been created for the actual quasi reuse of cans to their original purpose: carrying beverages. This techno- logical solution is called can-to-can cycle during which collected and cleaned cans are transferred to specialized smelters and rolling mills that handle them separately without mixing with other metals. Such smelters are rather rare in Europe, but on the
other hand, their input – the UBC (Used Beverage Container) - is more valuable since the alloy struc- ture remains intact and used according to its original purpose.
In Hungary, this complex industrial network of the downstream process of recycling is coordinated by the National Waste-management Agency (NWA) who has special authorized partners for metal han- dling. For cans, if and when they are fed to the proper smelter and manufacturer, takes a couple of months at most until to re-appear in the market from the time of their disposal.
The rounding up of the business model spreads from vacating the RVMs, transporting the pressed cans to storages and cleaning, and finally to the place of recycling (as cans again) or the aluminum scrap for different purposes. Three phases offer innovative solutions in these areas: the intelligent logistics, the innovative utilization of industrial re- sources, and creating a supply network to the European recycling market. By merging Figure 2, Figure 3, and Figure 4 we drew Figure 5 as a summary and titled it technology enabled recycling due the immanent role of ICT in this process. We summarize the story of the case and its practical and theoretical implications in the last section.
Case Study of ICT Innovation
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Coonncclluussiioonn
In this paper we have shown, how high level policy objectives of can be achieved by aligning regula- tion, business modeling and technology innovation. In 2012 the central budget of Hungary collected 200mEuros in eco-tax fee part of which contributed to covering state deficit and another part had been reinvested into recycling technologies. The Retur- pack system – directly and indirectly - generates work for some hundreds of people, contributes to the state budget with many million Euro VAT pay- ment and also recycles valuable materials literally from the garbage into the blood circulation of the Hungarian economy. Using the transformational impact concept of Agarwal and Lucas, RIRS is an illustration of a high-value and high-impact tech- nology innovation capitalizing on institutional legis- lation, entrepreneurial agility and ICT development [2].
The second outcome of our description is a de- tailed analysis of an ICT driven nomological network – in a form of a causal loops – which integrates key constructs and their relationships to demonstrate how transformational impact is achieved [1].
In the center the ICT artifact is the RVM and the RIRS connecting logistics, clearing house and re- porting designed to enable and/or support a series of routines such as collection process, fleet sched-
uling, tax reporting. The analysis also showed the broader structure within which the ICT artifact is op- erating consisting of consumers, retailers, govern- ment and other actors.
Our study has several limitation which offers opportunity for further research. One of these areas is the investigation and explanation of the underlying mechanisms introduced in the models. Another direction of future research is the exploration of the Returpack model´s implication on social inclusion of the homeless in the upstream collection phase.
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Reeffeerreenncceess
[1] Benbasat, I., Zmud, R. (2003) The identity crisis within the IS discipline: Defining and commu- nicating the disciplines core properties. MIS Quarterly, 27(2), 183-194.
[2] Agarwal, R., Lucas Jr., H. J. (2005) The infor- mation system identity crises: focusing on high-visibility and high-impact research. MIS Quarterly, 29(3), 381-398.
[3] Bijker, W. E.: Of Bicycles, Bakelites, and Bulbs – Toward a Theory of Sociotechnical Change, Cambridge, MA; MIT Press. 1995.
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ANNDDRRAASSNNEEMMEESSLLAAKKII graduated at the Technical University of Budapest and holds a Ph.D. from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. He is Professor of Information Systems and Head of the E-Government Institute at the National University of Public Service in Hungary. For 12 years he was the head of the E-business Research Group at Corvinus University, and for eight years served as Associate Dean for International Affairs and the Academic Director of the CEMS Master in International Management program at Corvinus University. Professor Nemeslaki has been a founding member of the NITIM (Networks Innovation Technology in Management) international Ph.D. Consortium which is a unique but widely recognized cross-- university and inter-disciplinary experiment in doctoral education. His field of exper- tise and research interest is organizational use and value of information communication technologies, ICT in- novations in business and public organizations. He has taught courses as a Visiting Professor at several universities: Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio; University College Dublin; University of Cologne; Bocconi University Milano; University of Delaware.