Emotions and ends matter: Exploring the Practice of Sustainable Innovation Diffusion

Abstract

ABSTRACT Despite practitioners’ and scholars’ increasing awareness of sustainable innovation (SI), studies that integrate sustainability, innovation, practices and supply chains (SCs) are still overlooked in the literature. In contrast to most supply chain management (SCM) research, which has typically focused on the dominant focal companies’ perspective, this qualitative research examines how suppliers’ SIs are diffused along textile and cosmetics SCs. Drawing on practice-based studies and the diffusion of innovation theory, we identify SI diffusion as a practice that comprises three sequential activities (presenting, evaluating and implementing). By conceiving of SI diffusion as a practice, we demonstrate that each of these activities is articulated around practical understanding, ends and emotions. This study contributes to the literature by answering different calls to integrate other theories into the SCM field and to move away from the taken-for-granted meaning of practices. Moreover, it sheds light on suppliers as initiators of SI diffusion. Finally, our main contribution is the focus on emotions in the diffusion process. More specifically, we reveal that sustainability, practices and emotions cannot be dissociated, extending current SCM studies that have focused on the rational dimension.