BUSINESS STRATEGY

Business Strategy Is Technological Innovation For Sustainable Development

Business Strategy

During the last decade, businesses have become increasingly aware of social and environmental pressures facing business. Many management scholars and consultants have argued that these new demands offer terrific opportunities for progressive organizations, and innovation is a major means by which companies can achieve sustainable development growth.1 Companies that ignore these pressures, the argument do so at your own risk. But the reality is that managers have had considerable difficulty coping with the pressures of sustainable development. In particular, their innovation strategies are often insufficient to accommodate the highly complex and uncertain nature of these new demands.

A strategy that integrates the objectives of innovation and sustainable development is necessary. In contrast to conventional innovation, market-driven, innovation, sustainable development (IDS) should incorporate the added constraints of social and environmental pressures, and consider the future generations.2 SDI is therefore often more complex (because is not typically a wide range of stakeholders) and more ambiguous (since many contradictory demands of the parties). Moreover, sustainable development pressures can be driven by science has not yet been fully accepted by the scientific, policy and management. Amid this uncertainty, innovation, sustainable development is often difficult and risky. However, facing increasing pressure to consider sustainable development, many organizations have revised their business models, and these changes are very often in corporate sustainability reporting and web pages.3 For example, DuPont Co. has publicly stated that by 2010, which will reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases by two thirds, while holding its annual energy consumption from 1990 levels.

Achieving these objectives requires investments in innovation, and has been an enticing argument for improving the environmental and economic performance - the so-called win-win situation. Some observers argue that sustainable development can generate a round of what the economist Joseph Schumpeter called "creative destruction", which provides opportunities for new entrants and potential threats to the incumbents. Others have advocated radical new technologies, products, processes, business models and environmental innovations to change this unsustainable industrial models. According to this argument, incremental innovation in improving competition is insufficient to meet the pressures of sustainable development. In contrast, competition that destroys the radical innovation is necessary, and is likely to create new capabilities that ultimately will test the current business practices.

The theme of this series has been carefully chosen: globalization, technology and sustainable development (D) and the challenges and opportunities this represents for future generations. The series aims to explore global perspectives on various issues related to globalization, technology and SD and why they are important and to provoke forward thinking on developing a more coherent approach to solving global problems related to sustainability. Thus, a holistic approach is used to critically examine the interrelationship between the natural, the governmental, economic and social dimension of our world and how science and technology can contribute to solutions. A framework for understanding and acting on these solutions are presented, taking into account a variety of international perspectives, institutional and intellectual. The aim is to address growing concerns about ...