2011, Hinz, Andreas, Boks, Casper, Scherrer-Rathje, Maike, Skorna, Alexander, Schneider, Anselm

Manufacturing firms are increasingly exposed to pressures coming from the sustainability challenge. A thorough understanding of these drivers is important in order for firms to be able to react to the sustainability challenge. Since the sustainability challenge creates dynamic market conditions, dynamic capabilities are believed to be a key for firms in dealing with that dynamism. Knowledge-related dynamic capabilities appear to be particularly important in supporting firms to find solutions to the challenge. However, to the best of our knowledge, empirical evidence is rather limited so far. Therefore, it is the goal of this paper to examine these drivers and assess dynamic capabilities in the light of the sustainability challenge. Four case studies with multinational manufacturing firms provide empirical findings.

2011, Hinz, Andreas, Scherrer-Rathje, Maike, Gütter, Saskia

This paper introduces Causal Loop Diagrams (CLD) as an organisational learning tool which should help managers of manufacturing firms to build awareness and understanding of the eco-sustainability challenge. In order to achieve that, the literature and case studies are used to analyse the drivers of the eco-sustainability challenge as well as their impact on innovation in the form of eco-efficiency and eco-effectiveness. Better understanding supports management to deal with this challenge and to sustain competitive advantage. CLD are a useful tool to structure and visualise components of the sustainability challenge and to highlight important cause-effect relations between components.