To ally and innovate for sustainability: Food retailers and their external partners

Abstract

Firms ally with various organizations to address social and environmental issues. The existing literature has discussed the success factors for and opportunities arising from such alliances, but few studies have provided a systematic overview of the use of alliances in the context of firms’ sustainability initiatives. This study investigated such sustainability alliances, with a focus on the alliances’ strategic purposes and choices of partner over time. Applying content analysis methods, data was collected from 12 large food retailers in the EU from 2014 to 2018. The analysis showed that, over this period, the frequency of alliances to support philanthropic endeavors declined. At the same time, retailers increasingly leverage their alliances to engage in sustainability-oriented innovation. Retailers allied themselves with sustainability ventures, while the frequency of cross-sector alliances with NGOs declined. These changes in purpose and choice of partner may reflect efforts by retailers to move from providing more passive support for system-wide change to actively engaging with sustainability initiatives related to their core business activities through product and process innovation.