Corporate Strategies for Sustainable Innovations

Abstract

Rerouting social and corporate activities concerning sustainable change is one of the key challenges for many businesses today and in the near future. Implementing sustainable requirements in corporations necessitates the initiation of corporate strategic change and the development of sustainable innovations. In the light of a wide variation of corporate activities to cope with these challenges, the following questions arise: (1) When and why do companies pursue processes of strategic change to integrate sustainability and develop innovations? (2) Which effects and extents do these sustainable values and innovations have, and (3) what factors promote or inhibit sustainable strategic change? This study highlights integrative strategies for sustainable innovations on the basis of a case analysis of three companies and examines the organisational, the cultural as well as the structural conditions for active sustainable oriented corporate policies. The study analyses internal and external explanatory factors for the occurrence of sustainable strategic change processes, the conditions for a company’s commitment to sustainability, the conditions that result in strategic change, and the capability to generate sustainability-oriented (product) innovations in medium-sized and large companies. Moreover, it develops a framework that integrates both aspects of strategic content and strategy formation processes regarding sustainability. Thus, along with the strategic change literature the study distinguishes between the timing (i.e. proactive or reactive change) and the intensity of strategic change regarding sustainability and innovation strategies. The findings highlight the role of visions and options, the company interactions, the role of change agents and management and their values and norms, the companies’ history, and the history of business fields. It can be shown that proactive companies and companies having a high level of sustainable impact in their strategic changes or innovations depend on different influencing factors.