The Impact Of Sustainability Drivers On A Firms' Strategic Decisions Regarding Manufacturing Technologies, New Product Development And Supplychain Initiatives

Abstract

This research seeks to shed more light on the drivers of sustainability that firms are exposed to and their impact on management decisions. We have identified three essential paths of action how firms can react to the sustainability challenge. First, firms reassess their manufacturing technologies. Firms have to identify, evaluate and adopt greener technology options which focus on energy and material efficiency in manufacturing processes. Second, new, eco-friendly products are launched. Third, firms extend green practices from the plant out into the supply chain which is referred to as green supply chain practices (GSCP). In order to understand how manufacturing units are affected by the sustainability challenge, exogenous and endogenous factors are analyzed, which drive a firms' sustainability efforts. Exogenous factors include government regulation, norms and values in society as well as the market forces such as customers, competitors and suppliers. Endogenous factors include a firm's strategy, culture and resources at hand in order to deal with sustainability. Therefore, it is the goal of this work to guide firms' management decisions to address the sustainability challenge.