The End-of-life Vehicle Ordinance in the German automotive industry – corporate sense making illustrated

The paper examines how corporate actors from the German automotive industry perceive and handle the End-of-life Vehicle Ordinance of 2002, which aims at material flow reductions through changes in product design. We analyse the entrepreneurial patterns of perception and how they are influenced and shaped by internal and external structures. Our study is based on a mix of qualitative empirical research methods, mainly interviews linked with a Delphi study. It becomes evident, that the End-of-life Vehicle Ordinance generates only minimal innovation effects. The OEMs as the central actors targeted by the legal norm handle it very defensively. This is on the one hand due to a general perception of legislation as an antagonistic and ill-informed intrusion into corporate policy. On the other hand, post-shredder technology currently provides a feasible end-of-pipe solution for meeting the Ordinanceʹs recycling quotas. It is embraced since it causes no friction with established routines and perceptions. A pro-active handling of the innovation incentives offered by the End-of-life Vehicle Ordinance would require a shift towards a relational or modular form of coordination within the automotive supply chain. Even though various development dynamics are pointing in this direction, there are also significant efforts by the OEMs to preserve their current position of power. The existing impulses for change are for the most part superimposed by structural rigidities and the established patterns of perception fostered by them. The planned tightening of the recycling quotas in the End-of-life Vehicle Ordinance in 2015 is currently the main prospective driving force for material flow innovations in the automotive industry.