2013, Schrettle, Stefan, Hinz, Andreas, Scherrer-Rathje, Maike, Friedli, Thomas

This research seeks to shed more light on how manufacturing firms adjust their strategy according to the sustainability challenge. Strategic decisions are influenced by strategic long-term considerations, which take into account aspects that lie within firms' boundaries and beyond. Therefore, the first step of this paper is to operationalise the sustainability challenge by identifying relevant drivers for sustainability that firms are exposed to. Second, we develop a framework showing which dimensions affect decisions concerning a sustainability move and which dimensions are affected by these decisions. A sustainability move can contain initiatives emphasising the adoption of new manufacturing technologies, the development of new, sustainable products or the integration of green practices into the supply chain. Next to the influence of sustainability drivers, we explain firms' decisions concerning a sustainability move with past performance, firm size and current level of sustainability action. Depending on whether initiatives are led by strategic or ad-hoc decisions, firms have to explore new knowledge and/or exploit existing knowledge to realise competitive advantage. The goal of this research is to provide an explanation of how decisions of sustainability moves are motivated and which dimensions in the firm are affected by these moves.

2011, Schrettle, Stefan, Hinz, Andreas, Scherrer-Rathje, Maike, Friedli, Thomas

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.