Changing the market for a sustainable innovation

Abstract

The development and diffusion of sustainable innovations are of interest to various public and private sector actors. The diffusion of sustainable innovations into value networks facilitates and is facilitated by the change of markets towards sustainability; however, this interaction needs further investigation. We examine how combinations of value network actors' intentions and activities affect market change for a sustainable innovation We empirically explore market change related to introducing bioplastics into plastic food packaging value networks. We increase the understanding of market change for a sustainable innovation by showing how not only the actors with direct intentions to support the innovation but actors and activities indirectly related to the sustainable innovation contribute to market change. Such indirectly supportive activities focus on broader sustainability aims and can, for example, change market representations, practices, and norms in favor of the sustainable innovation. We propose sustainability layers to understand the diverse sustainability focuses of actors and their relation to the market change in question. Specifically, we contribute to market change literature by broadening the examination scope beyond the most active actors driving market change for an innovation.