Developing Sustainable New Products in the Textile and Upholstered Furniture Industries: Role of External Integrative Capabilities

Abstract

Environmental sustainability has become one of the key issues for strategy, marketing, and innovation. In particular, significant attention is being paid by companies, customers, media, and regulators to development and consumption of green products. It is argued that through the efficient use of resources, low carbon impacts, and risks to the environment, green products can be essential to help society toward the environmental sustainability targets. The number of green product introductions is rapidly increasing, as demonstrated by the growing number of companies obtaining eco‐labels or third party certifications for their environmentally friendly products. Hundreds of companies representing most of the industries, such as Intel, SC Johnson, Clorox, Wal‐Mart, and Hewlett–Packard, have recently introduced new green products, underlining the need to develop products that create both economic and environmental values for the firm and customers. A review of the literature shows that academic research on green product development has grown in interest. However, to date, only a few empirical studies have addressed the challenge of integrating environmental issues into new product development (NPD). Previous empirical works have mainly focused on a set of activities for the green product development process at the project level. After years of paying no or marginal attention to environmental sustainability issues, most of the companies now generally realize that it would require knowledge and competencies to develop green products on a regular basis. These knowledge and competencies can be varied, such as R&D, environmental know‐how, clean technology/manufacturing process, building knowledge on measuring environmental performance of products, etc., that may be developed internally or can be integrated through external networks. Adopting a resource‐based view of the firm, this article aims at (1) investigating the role of capabilities useful for companies to integrate knowledge and competencies from outside of the firm on green product development in terms of both manufacturing process and product design and (2) understanding whether green product development opens new product, market, and technology opportunities, as well as leads to better financial performance of NPD programs. To this end, a survey was conducted in two Italian manufacturing industries in which environmental issues are becoming increasingly important, namely textiles and upholstered furniture. A questionnaire was sent to 700 firms, and 102 useable questionnaires were returned. Results show that (1) companies engage in developing external integrative capabilities through the creation of collaborative networks with actors along the supply chain, the acquisition of technical know‐how, and the creation of external knowledge links with actors outside the supply chain; (2) external knowledge links play a key role in the integration of environmental sustainability issues into the manufacturing process, whereas capabilities such as the acquisition of technic...

Integrando sustentabilidade ambiental e gestão de portfólio de projetos: estudo de caso em uma empresa de energia

“…This concern in the project planning stage can be useful for improving the level of companies' responses to diverse internal and external legal requirements, as well as generating internal benefits in terms of technological capacity to develop products and services, always with sustainable processes (Dangelico et al, 2013).…”

“…In response to this question, Dangelico et al (2013) suggest that competencies in this area can be improved by firms through internal efforts in terms of R&D projects focused on the environmental area; by strengthening skills for the development of environmentally sound products and processes; and by the development of transversal skills and knowledge, which can occur through collaboration with diverse actors, such as partner companies, universities, and research centers. Not only was the realization of internal R&D company projects observed for the development of environmentally sustainable technologies, but also the adoption of open innovation practices.…”

“…Porter & Van der Linde (1995) emphasized that the adoption of environmental sustainability practices can represent opportunities to improve the innovation capacity and competitiveness of companies (avoiding the waste of water and energy, for example). Dangelico & Pujari (2010) and Dangelico et al (2013) highlight the fact that in the area of business and operations management, environmental sustainability has become one of the main themes in the areas of strategy, marketing, and innovation. This is because more environmentally sustainable companies tend to reap benefits, such as an increased market share, improved reputation, improved innovative capacity, better compliance with legislation, and increased exports, among others (Dangelico, 2015).…”

Infusing Sustainability: The Role of External Triggers and Internal Actors in Pursuing Change

“…First, they can spot opportunities for product differentiation (e.g., Orsato, 2006). Second, they can create and penetrate new markets or develop new, superior technology (Dangelico et al, 2013). Finally, they can build up networks of important potential partners.…”

“…While many recent studies focus on so-called environmental innovation (e.g., Berrone, Fosfuri, Gelabert, & Gomez-Mejia, 2013;Dangelico, Pontrandolfo, & Pujari, 2013;Dangelico & Pujari, 2010), there is also a call to consider sustainability in a broader sense, i.e., regarding its impact on the triple bottom line of profit, planet and people (e.g., Elkington, Emerson, & Beloe, 2006). Translated to NPD practices 2 , this implies that organizations should explicitly address economic, environmental and social aspects when developing new products so as to create the least harmful innovation outcome (Pujari, 2006).…”