Corporate social innovation: an Indian moving company drives industry change

Abstract

Purpose This paper aims to understand how emerging economy firms can use the growing emphasis on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability as an opportunity to drive corporate social innovations (CSIs) so as to create shared value and gain competitive advantage. Design/methodology/approach The paper applies a case study design. Building on in-depth interviews with company officials, document analysis and secondary sources, the paper presents a model of CSIs. Findings The case study presents evidence of how Agarwal Packers and Movers Limited – an Indian family managed business firm operating in the fragmented, unorganized and highly competitive household relocation segment of the Indian logistics industry – used socio-environmental sustainability challenges to drive CSIs. These innovations helped it to differentiate itself from competitors and gain competitive advantage, while creating shared value simultaneously. Practical implications Indian firms have been lagging behind on both sustainability/CSR and innovations. Driven by domestic regulatory requirements, as also the need to compete in a globalizing economy, emerging economy firms may strategize to integrate their sustainability agenda with innovations to influence both organizational and societal outcomes. Originality/value Firm innovations, even in advanced countries, have been driven by market triggers, with ideas internal to the firm. The paper contributes to the limited research on innovations in emerging economy firms and shows how they may “leapfrog” their growth pathways by systematically integrating their sustainability agenda with innovation activities.

Social Innovation: Field Analysis and Gaps for Future Research

“…The blue cluster brings together works related to knowledge and learning, education, human aspects, and social change [46][47][48]. Finally, the purple cluster presents studies related to social enterprises, corporate social responsibility, non-profit organizations, and social entrepreneurship [49][50][51]. Table 2 shows the top 10 keywords, including frequency of occurrence and overall link strengths.…”

More cooperative ... more competitive? Improving competitiveness by sharing value through the supply chain

“…Høvring (2017) believes that the creation of SV is closely related to the interdependence of organizational success and social justice, as well as to the identification and development of existing links between business and society. Jayakumar (2017) showed how sustainability-led initiatives can help a firm to differentiate itself from its competitors, creating SV for the stakeholders, which include customers, employees and society. A more inclusive approach to activities in the supply chain and respectful and proactive attitudes toward the other partners have a huge potential to contribute toward higher levels of organizational success, and to the creation of SV that can be enjoyed by all.…”

“…A company's capacity to recognize and respond strategically to opportunities and threats enhances CA (Li and Liu, 2014). The literature suggests that SV increases CA, since firms that move into sustainability-led initiatives, promoting synergies between business partners, are able to differentiate themselves from their competitors, making the access to vitally important resources more asymmetric in comparison with that of their rivals (Jayakumar, 2017). Spitzeck et al (2013) consider that CA are driven by technological growth, industry development and market instability, simplified in turn by favorable features in the company's internal environment, such as organizational culture, resource accessibility and top management support.…”

An Evaluation of Corporate Social Innovation Approaches and Practices of Public and Private Hospitals in Turkey

“…Ayrıca bahsi geçen bu çalışmaların dışında yine teorik düzlemde, kurumsal sosyal inovasyon ve kurumsal sosyal sorumluluk kavramlarının farkını (Jali, Abas ve Arriffin, 2017;Odunlade, 2017;Perello-Marin, Suarez-Rusb ve Susaetac, 2015;Pyszka, 2013;Rexhepi, Kurtishi veBexheti, 2013;Tham, 2010;Vilkė, 2014)ele alan pek çok çalışmayada rastlanmıştır. Uygulamaya yönelik çalışmaların ise oldukça sınırlı sayıda olduğu görülmüştür (Herrera, 2015;Jayakumar, 2017;Mirvis, vd. 2016;Violo, 2018).…”