An examination of effectiveness of demand pull practices for accomplishing sustainable development in manufacturing industries

Abstract

The main objective of study is to estimate and extract various significant Demand Pull (DP) practices influencing Sustainable Development in Indian manufacturing industries. The study critically examines the effectiveness of DP strategies in manufacturing enterprises. An extensive survey of 92 companies has been executed for this study, to identify improvements made by DP practices to achieve sustainable development in manufacturing industries. The companies in the survey include medium- and large-scale manufacturing enterprises. The correlations between various DP practices and sustainable development parameters are evaluated and validated using various numerical methods and tools. The focus of the paper is on the distinguishable contributions made by DP practices like stringent implementation of government regulations, transforming capabilities, unionized labor and customer attributes towards achieving sustainable development in manufacturing industries. The inter-relationships between different DP practices with sustainable development parameters have been evaluated, to efficiently manage the objectives of sustainability and growth. However, it is also acknowledged that manufacturing enterprises need to work more actively on managing certain practices of DP. In the present study the contributions of DP practices are investigated to accomplish sustainable development in manufacturing industries. Though, issue-wise independent examination can also be organized to compute the effectiveness of DP strategies towards achieving sustainable development and quality under specific orientations. The research gives priority to enhancement in planning among various DP practices and sustainable development indicators in the industries, to impart DP as an important practice to meet the challenges of competent markets worldwide. It has been exhibited from the observations that adequate DP strategies can efficiently contribute towards recognition of sustainable development to compete in the highly progressive global market. The results of various inter-relationships among DP practices and sustainable development parameters represent the effectiveness of DP practices for accomplishment of social as well as organizational objectives. The paper examines that DP practices are significant initiatives employed by the manufacturing organizations for performance improvement and sustainable development. The paper peeks into the study to find out DP issues that need to be assessed efficiently by companies to avail the benefits of sustainable development to meet the challenges posed by international markets.