The cultural consensus of sustainability‐driven innovation: Strategies for success

(with Tracy Van Holt, Matt Statler, Tensie Whelan, Mara van Loggerenberg, and James Cebulla), Business Strategy and the Environment

ACCESS THE PAPER HERE and the ungated pre-print version [coming soon]

Abstract

Although sustainability may have previously appeared to business leaders primarily as an additional cost, today there are many signs of a change where sustainability appears to business leaders as a source or driver of value instead. Prior research shows that solving sustainability challenges should lead to innovations, yet we do not see widespread changes across companies. One reason may be that sustainability professionals do not share the same knowledge about the drivers and benefits of innovations that emerge when people solve sustainability challenges. To study this, we ran a cultural consensus analysis with sustainability professionals to test whether those with more sustainability expertise—that is, those with longer work experience in sustainability or to those that worked in companies where sustainability was embedded into core business operations—had different perspectives than those with less expertise. We found an overwhelming agreement among professionals regardless of expertise. We then followed up and conducted interviews with expert sustainability professionals to understand more about the business practices that drive sustainability-driven innovation in their organizations.

Useful things

• Presentation at the 35th EGOS colloquium: Sustainability Paradoxes · slide deck
• A prior version was titled: Sustainability and Innovation: What are Leaders Currently Learning? and Sustainability and Innovation: Signs of an Industry-level Transformation