The 19th volume of the Journal of Business Chemistry: The journey continues
The Journal of Business Chemistry is publishing its 19th volume with the first issue of the year 2022. Since 2004, 52 issues with over 200 contributions have been published and the Journal of Business Chemistry has developed continuously. We are pleased to announce that a special issue is planned in the context of the 4th International Workshop on Innovation and Production Management in the Process Industries (IPM2022) which will take place on the 12. & 13. May 2022 at Industrial Park Höchst, Germany. We would like to draw our readers‘ attention to the possibility to hand in an abstract and present their research at the workshop. The workshop is intended to shed light on various aspects of the transformation to climate-neutral process industries.
In his article titled “Joint product analysis of rare earths: economic, market and technological insights” Philipp Werner describes an approach to analyze joint products and specifically, the rare earth Gadolinium is investigated. The author gives an overview of the most important rare earth mining areas, capacities, applications, and estimated growth rates. Additionally, he includes political aspects and points out changes in Chinese regulation.
Secondly, Katharina Zander´s article “The influence of market orientation on innovativeness” analyses the overlap of those two concepts. Moreover, she describes current innovation projects of a chemical company as an example.
In the article “Gender – an essential substance for sustainable chemistry” Anna Holthaus and Minu Hemmati provide an overview of gender dimensions and inequalities in the chemical industry. Based on this, they describe three criteria for a gender-just and sustainable chemical industry and develop initial ideas for the integration of gender in sustainability management.
Sascha Nowak´s and Simon Wiemers-Meyer´s article “Better batteries – better recycling” discusses the recycling of Lithiumion batteries (LIBs) which are used in modern-day electronics like laptops, smartphones, or tablets. They emphasize that the diversity of batteries presents a huge challenge for recycling procedures. To foster the recycling of batteries, they propose that all necessary information about batteries is provided by the manufacturer.
Lastly, Nikolaus Raupp shares his experiences as seed investor in the commentary “My personal view on investment in chemistry start-ups”. To increase the likeliness of building a successful chemistry start-up, he points out three important aspects: First, follow the “bio-pharma example” and look for strategic cooperation. Second, focus more on your desired features than on raw material prices as they may change until your product is on the market. Third, select your team carefully and think about including a process engineer and a sales professional early even though this will lead to additional costs.
Please enjoy reading the first issue of the nineteenth volume of the Journal of Business Chemistry. We are grateful for the support of all authors and reviewers for this new issue. If you have any comments or suggestions, please do not hesitate to contact us at contact@businesschemistry.org. For more updates and insights on management issues in the chemical industry, follow us on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/jobc/.
Janine Heck Bernd Winters
(Executive Editor) (Executive Editor)