| Course | DDBA 8522 Seminar in Sustainability |
|---|---|
| Week | Week 5 |
| Paper type | Supply chain trace |
| Length | About 760 words, 5 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Walden University |
| Program | Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for DDBA 8522 Week 5
From Shipyard to Tidal Beach: A Supply Chain Trace Following a Container Ship Ordered in the Late 1990s Through Its Owner, a Cash Buyer and a Change of Flag to the Yard That Absorbs the Cost of Taking It Apart
Student Name
Walden University
DDBA 8522: Seminar in Sustainability
Instructor Name
Month Day, Year
From Shipyard to Tidal Beach: A Supply Chain Trace Following a Container Ship Ordered in the Late 1990s Through Its Owner, a Cash Buyer and a Change of Flag to the Yard That Absorbs the Cost of Taking It Apart
Why Trace the End of a Ship's Life
Shipping companies publish sustainability reports about fuel efficiency and emissions while their ships are trading. The cost that those reports rarely include comes at the end, when a ship is taken apart. This trace follows a composite container ship of about 4,200 container capacity, ordered from a Korean shipyard in 1998 and delivered in 2000, from its owner to the place where it was dismantled in 2025, dating each handoff and asking who absorbed which cost.
The Handoffs
Table 1
The Ship's Final Handoffs
| Date | Holder | What changed | |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 to 2024 | European liner company | Ship trades on Asia to Europe and later intra-Asia routes; flagged in a European registry | |
| March 2025 | Same owner | Board approves sale for recycling; ship's last voyage scheduled | |
| April 2025 | Cash buyer based in Dubai | Ship sold for about $480 per lightweight ton, roughly $7.6 million; owner's sustainability report records the sale as "for recycling" | |
| May 2025 | Cash buyer | Ship reflagged to a registry popular for last voyages; ownership moved to a single-ship company | |
| June 2025 | Recycling yard in Chittagong, Bangladesh | Ship sold on for a higher price; beached at high tide on a tidal mudflat | |
| June to November 2025 | Recycling yard | Ship dismantled by hand on the beach | |
Composite case based on common patterns in end-of-life ship sales; prices and dates illustrative.
What Each Handoff Moved
The owner's sale to a cash buyer moved the decision about where the ship would be dismantled off the owner's books. The owner could report a sale for recycling without choosing the yard. The reflagging moved the ship out of a European registry, where rules restrict dismantling to approved facilities, into one with no such restriction. The single-ship company limited liability to the value of the ship itself. The sale to the beaching yard moved the physical work, and its hazards, to a place where labor is cheap and environmental controls are weak. Frey (2015), analyzing the ship-breaking centers at Alang in India and Chittagong in Bangladesh, described how end-of-life ships flow from wealthy owners to the world's poorest coasts because labor costs are lower and regulation weaker there, so that the costs of dismantling are borne by workers and coastal communities.
Who Absorbs the Cost
The yard pays the most visible price: dismantling a 4,200-container ship by hand on a beach takes several hundred workers about five months. Workers bear injury risk from falling steel, fires and toxic materials such as asbestos and paint residues; Frey (2015) documented high rates of injury and death in such yards. The tidal zone absorbs oil, paint chips and heavy metals as the ship is cut apart. The original owner, by contrast, received a higher price than a certified yard in Europe or Turkey would have paid, because beaching yards can pay more per ton, and recorded the transaction as recycling.
What the Trace Means for Sustainability Claims
Bansal and DesJardine (2014) argued that business sustainability concerns whether present actions preserve future well-being, which requires attention to costs that arrive later. A shipping company whose report covers 25 years of trading but not the end of the ship's life has measured the part of the life cycle it controls and handed the rest to others. Slawinski and Bansal (2015) described how firms resolve tensions between immediate and long-term concerns; the cash buyer arrangement resolves this one by moving the long-term cost to a different party entirely.
Why the Owner Can Say It Recycled
The owner's report is not false. The ship was sold for recycling, and most of its steel was recycled, melted down and rolled into reinforcing bars for construction in Bangladesh. What the report omits is how. The word recycling covers both a certified yard with impermeable floors, cranes and trained crews and a tidal beach where workers cut steel by hand. The sustainability claim depends on which, and the owner's sale structure ensured it did not have to choose.
What a Responsible Owner Could Do
An owner could sell only to buyers who contract to dismantle in yards certified to recognized standards, retain the ship under its own flag until delivery to such a yard or sell directly to certified yards at a lower price. Each choice costs the owner money and keeps the cost on its own books.
References
Bansal, P., & DesJardine, M. R. (2014). Business sustainability: It is about time. Strategic Organization, 12(1), 70-78. https://doi.org/10.1177/1476127013520265
Frey, R. S. (2015). Breaking ships in the world-system: An analysis of two ship breaking capitals, Alang-Sosiya, India and Chittagong, Bangladesh. Journal of World-Systems Research, 21(1), 25-49. https://doi.org/10.5195/jwsr.2015.529
Slawinski, N., & Bansal, P. (2015). Short on time: Intertemporal tensions in business sustainability. Organization Science, 26(2), 531-549. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2014.0960
What the DDBA 8522 Week 5 instructions ask for
The fifth week asks you to trace a product or asset through the end of its life, dating each change of hands. Choose something whose end-of-life costs are significant, such as a ship, vehicle or electronic device. Identify each party that held it, when and what changed at each handoff, such as ownership, registry, liability or location. For each handoff, explain what decision or cost it moved and to whom. Identify who finally absorbs the costs of disposal, including workers, communities and the environment, and compare that with the original owner's gains. Explain how the original owner's sustainability claims treat the end of life. Recommend what a responsible owner could do differently, with its cost. Cite research on the industry and on time in sustainability.
How this DDBA 8522 Week 5 example is built
The trace opens by noting that shipping sustainability reports cover trading years but rarely dismantling. A table dates six stages: 24 years of trading, the board's sale decision, the cash buyer's purchase at about $480 per lightweight ton, a reflagging and single-ship company, the sale to a Chittagong yard and five months of hand dismantling on the beach. A section reads each handoff for what it moved, citing Frey on how ships flow to the poorest coasts. A section on who absorbs the cost describes workers' injury risks and the tidal zone. A section explains how the owner can truthfully report recycling. Bansal and DesJardine and Slawinski and Bansal frame the time dimension, and options for certified yards close the trace.
Where the marks sit in the DDBA 8522 Week 5 rubric
Instructors judge the trace on its dating and on what each handoff is shown to move. A trace that lists owners without explaining what changed at each step earns little. Credit is concentrated on identifying the mechanisms that shift costs, such as sales to intermediaries, changes of registry and limited-liability vehicles, and on showing where the costs finally land. Comparing the original owner's gains with the costs borne by others makes the argument concrete. Examining how the owner's reporting treats end of life shows critical reading. Recommendations earn credit when they name their cost to the owner. Sources should support claims about the industry and its consequences.
DDBA 8522 Week 5 help: mistakes that cost marks
Supply chain traces often stop at the first sale. Keep going until you reach the place where the item is taken apart or thrown away, and date each step. At each handoff, ask what the new holder took on and what the old one shed. Look for intermediaries whose role is to break the link between the original owner and the final outcome. Find out who does the dismantling and under what conditions. Read the original owner's reports to see what they say. Suggest changes with their price. A tutor can help you find sources on end-of-life practices in your industry.
Get a DDBA 8522 Week 5 example written to your instructions
Name the product or asset your section is tracing, attach the Week 5 prompt and rubric, and a finished trace with its chain diagram is returned inside 24 to 48 hours, the first at no cost. When the assigned chain runs upstream instead, from a mine or farm toward the buyer, the dating and bearer structure is kept.
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DDBA 8522 Week 5 questions, answered
Where can I find a free DDBA 8522 Week 5 sample paper?
The full end-of-life supply chain trace is reproduced beneath this summary, with no sign-up.
What does the DDBA 8522 Week 5 trace follow?
A container ship from its European owner through a cash buyer and a change of flag to a beaching yard in Bangladesh.
What did each handoff move?
The choice of yard, the reach of European rules, the extent of liability and finally the hazardous work and its costs.
Who absorbs the cost of dismantling?
Yard workers facing injury and toxic exposure, and the coastal zone receiving oil, paint and metals.
What could a responsible owner do?
Sell only to buyers using certified yards, keep the ship under its own flag until delivery or sell directly to such yards.