The journey towards sustainable product development: why are some manufacturing companies better than others at product innovation?

Abstract

Although there has already been some debate over the role of sustainable product innovation in creating a more sustainable society, it is important to further investigate management methods and factors that influence sustainable innovation capacity. Drawing on the concept of complementarity/the complementary effects perspective, this study aims to analyze the influence of management methods (project management and product development processes) on the development of sustainable product innovation. For this purpose, a survey was carried out with automotive metal mechanical organizations in Brazil, involving a total of 1025 enterprises. This research analyzes the dependency relations between the constructs of Project Management Maturity, Product Development Process Maturity, Product Innovation and Sustainable Product Performance, using the multivariate statistical techniques of Cluster Analysis, Exploratory Factor Analysis and Structural Equation Modeling. The results show a mixture of expected and unexpected findings, which can be summarized as follows: i) the most innovative companies utilize the Project Management Maturity and Product Development Process Maturity constructs more effectively; ii) a combination of complementary management methods enhances the use of resources; iii) companies that take advantage of complementary effects become more innovative and achieve better results in terms of sustainable innovation. Implications for end-users and for theory are also presented.