Johan Bouglet, Olivier Joffre and Eric Simon
Sustainable development has first been perceived as a hindrance to economic growth. Today, the opposition between innovation and sustainable development is less evident. The…
Abstract
Purpose
Sustainable development has first been perceived as a hindrance to economic growth. Today, the opposition between innovation and sustainable development is less evident. The purpose of this paper is to explore the potential complementarities that could emerge between innovation strategies and sustainable development.
Design/methodology/approach
As a conceptual paper, this article aims at developing propositions.
Findings
Sustainable development constitutes a new data of the macro‐environmental context, likely to modify the competing industries and systems in which companies evolve. In return, they represent many opportunities that companies can seize to model their strategies. Within the framework of such an approach, innovation and sustainable development constitute engines of development which can get connected and virtuously feed themselves.
Research limitations/implications
Because of the chosen research approach, the results lack generalisability. Therefore, academics are encouraged to further test the propositions developed in the article.
Practical implications
Strategies, and their translation at the organisational level, integrating SD, may provide both a source of competitive advantage for companies and an enhancement of their commitment to society.
Social implications
The practices described in the article are aiming at stimulating the innovation of collaborators, in order to integrate the principles of sustainable development within the company.
Originality/value
This paper fills a literature gap regarding the study of how managers can take sustainable development into account to build their strategies.
Details
Keywords
Joshua Kofi Doe, Rogier Van de Wetering, Ben Honyenuga and Johan Versendaal
The need for context-specific adoption models led to the development of the firm technology adoption model (F-TAM) model. Among small to medium-scale enterprises (SMEs); however…
Abstract
Purpose
The need for context-specific adoption models led to the development of the firm technology adoption model (F-TAM) model. Among small to medium-scale enterprises (SMEs); however, firm-level factors were rather insignificant in engendering SME level adoption of technological innovation. This study aims to examine the effect of firm size and other moderating and mediating factors on the relationships between personal, firm, societal and technological factors proposed in the stakeholder-oriented F-TAM among SMEs.
Design/methodology/approach
A research instrument was developed, reviewed by experts, and pilot tested with a sample of 25 respondents. Data were purposively collected from four hundred (400) SMEs and analyzed with partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).
Findings
The study discovered that employees, societal and technological factors moderate the relationship between firm factors of adoption and firm adoption. Without these moderating effects, firm factors of adoption would have been insignificant at the SMEs’ level of organizational technology adoption. The study further discovered that firm size, as well as risk propensity, also affect the relationships proposed in the model.
Research limitations/implications
Data was collected on voluntary adoption from the most cosmopolitan area of a developing country. It, therefore, needs further contextual validation across the country and different countries.
Practical implications
The engagement of innovations in firms must be planned with employees and society as major stakeholders.
Originality/value
The significance of this finding is the study’s emphasis on an eco-system approach for examining the phenomenon of innovation adoption. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to examine the effect of firm characteristics on is proposed eco-system of stakeholders.