The article 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.
“The influence of market orientation on innovativeness“ – Katharina Zander
Her article analyses the overlap of those two concepts. Moreover, she describes current innovation projects of a chemical company as an example.
“Gender – an essential substance for sustainable chemistry” –Anna Holthaus and Minu Hemmati
In their article 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.
“Better batteries – better recycling” –Sascha Nowak and Simon Wiemers-Meyer
Sascha Nowak´s and Simon Wiemers-Meyer´s article discusses the recycling of Lithium-ion 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.
“My personal view on investment in chemistry start-ups” – Nikolaus Raupp
Lastly, Nikolaus Raupp shares his experiences as seed investor. To increase the likeliness of building a successful chemistry start-up, he points out three important aspects: First, follow “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 although 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 all the support from authors and reviewers. If you have any comments or suggestions, please do not hesitate to contact us at janine.heck@businesschemistry.org. For more updates and insights on management issues in the chemical industry, follow us on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/jobc/ and subscribe to our newsletter: https://www.businesschemistry.org/
Best regards,
the JoBC-team