Introduction: Collaboration as the New Paradigm in Industrial Transformation

Sustainable development has become a central perspective in environmental strategies around the world. In order to reach for sustainable development fundamental changes are needed in current production and consumption structures. It is clear that governments nor businesses have the capacity to engage society in such a transformational process on their own. Therefore, collaboration has emerged as a central concept in many strategies. At the same time it is obvious that someone has to take the lead in the development towards sustainability. Thus, partnership and leadership are strongly related concepts. This book describes different forms of collaboration emerging between various actors in order to transform the industrial production system. The objective of the book is to systematically explore the different roles and relationships between partnership and leadership. The main question we put forward is to what extent they contribute to the process of sustainable development.