Search results

Improved environmental performance of products and services have lately become one of the main strategic and operational goals of manufacturers. This is due to influences from various stakeholders including government, consumers, societies and the business partners. Evidently, different manufacturers differently implement their environmental practices for sustainable product development depending on various driving factors such as customer awareness, legislation, economic benefits and competitive strategies, etc. In theory, manufacturers can efficiently undertake sustainable product development by implementing life cycle thinking into their system. This way, they can monitor the environment hot spots throughout a product life cycle and be able to minimise the environmental impact effectively. Therefore, several researchers have focused on developing tools and strategies to support the manufacturers in implementing sustainable manufacturing and product development studies. However, in reality, each manufacturer may operate their manufacturing system differently to accommodate different demands and constraints induced by firm characteristics and its regional location. Their attempts to implement the sustainable tools and strategies to their companies would also be different. Thus far, a number of studies have studied the implementation for a specific company. No studies have examined the relationship between their decisions and implementation for different characteristics of firms and different manufacturing locations. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to comprehensively investigate the practices of manufacturers towards sustainable product development.

A detailed statistical analysis was conducted on the survey data gathered from 330 manufacturing organisations in 13 countries. The research questions mainly cover implementation approaches, decision tools and techniques used and main driving forces at the strategic and operational levels concerning environmental practices in sustainable product development. This is to bridge the gaps between the research outputs and implementations in practice for the developed sustainable strategies and tools. Results highlighted interesting relationships of the implementations across different geographical regions (locations) as well as types and sizes of manufacturers. They can be used to shed some light for future research direction, the dominant driving forces of consumers and regulations importance towards the manufacturer practices to improve not only the environmental performance but also their social responsibility. In total, 12 null hypotheses were formulated to test the relationships as well as the correlations between the manufacturing characteristics and the research questions which cover several driving forces in implementing the environmental strategies.

The results of this large-scale global research highlighted that different geographical/manufacturing regions are driven mainly by legislation, competition and consumer pressures whilst manufacturers of different sizes utilise various decision tools. Design tools such as LCA, DFE and ECQFD methods are likely to be utilised in the medium-and high-complexity product development by OEM and ETM manufacturers. Environmental responsibility plays an important role and also enhanced by other driving forces such as the economic benefits, the long-term survival in the market and the company image.

Future work may include some or all of the following; such as respondents of this survey may be re-contacted and comparative data can be gathered from these manufacturers to capture the changes over the years. Further investigation of the sustainable supply chain management approaches, influences of dynamic driving forces and the environmental practices towards cleaner production practices such as improving energy efficiency, minimising waste, recycling scraps and reusing product as well as the product recovery practices for used products would be beneficial to gather and evaluate. This would support to address the current trends and emerging practices.

Results highlighted interesting relationships and thus provide some answers on strategies adopted by many manufacturers for the sustainability approaches and implementations across different geographical regions (locations) as well as types and sizes of manufacturers. The wave of change towards sustainability is clearly on enterprises, industries, communities and governments for thinking about solutions to increase the awareness in environmental sustainability thus reduce carbon footprint. In some areas there is clear progress but for many, this process is just beginning.

There is an overwhelming amount of information, methods and opinions, and proliferation of initiatives. It is in this climate that not only manufacturers but society must provide a practical and effective way to develop and disseminate the skills and knowledge required to fuel an environmentally sustainable economy. To achieve this, results of global surveys like this paper may support manufacturers who need to work with communities and stay well connected to their stakeholders. This may lead to developing training packages that accurately reflect industry needs and provide leadership in communities and workforce development.

There is generally an understanding of the sustainable product development and the use and role of tools and techniques to improve environmental performance of manufacturers at micro-level (within companies based on selected product, process, environmental tools and manufacturing characteristics). Whereas, a large-scale research like this paper, to present the status of sustainable product and process development approaches used by manufacturers located around the globe, of different sizes, types within existing operational and corporate strategies and eco-design initiatives have not been detailed.

This chapter explores two business and innovation strategies to increase sustainability in a small-medium enterprise. The two strategies, one addressing the improved sustainability of an existing product line and the other addressing the development and implementation of a new product line, employ different supply chain sustainable practices and utilize different dynamic capabilities.

The chapter describes how sustainable supply chain management practices, sustainable new product development processes, and theories of dynamic capabilities interact to support a sustainable and differentiated strategy in the Alcass organization.

The models of sustainable supply chain management and sustainable new product development are applied to “more sustainable” products and “new sustainable” products, by raising different relevant practices as well as different supporting dynamic capabilities.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how big-picture sustainability strategies are translated into tangible product development efforts. The authors assert that most sustainable products currently remain confined to niche markets and do not permeate the mainstream. The authors propose that there is a missing link between strategic sustainability goals and operational product development initiatives. The authors establish a path to bridging this gap.

The manuscript is based on a qualitative research design with a sample of 32 companies. Data were collected from semi-structured interviews with product developers as well as secondary data analysis.

The authors delineate three empirically derived approaches firms from the sample pursue to develop sustainable products. The authors identify a phenomenon that the authors’ call the fallacy of trickle-down product sustainability. The authors find that only one of the three approaches – codification – is equipped to successfully turn strategic sustainability targets into authentic sustainable products.

This study provides an actionable guide to executives and product developers with respect to bridging the gap between often elusive sustainability aspirations and tangible product improvements via the process of rigorous codification.

This study provides a novel and unique perspective into strategy, sustainability and product development. The authors synthesize the extant literature on sustainable product development, juxtapose the emergent structure with primary interview data, and elaborate the resource-based view (RBV) to provide theoretical and practical implications. The authors establish scalability as the missing RBV capability of many attempts toward mass–market compatibility of more sustainable products.

This study aims to understand the culture of excellence by examining the role of entrepreneurial culture in shaping how firms achieve sustainable competitive advantage (CA). This study takes into consideration the firms’ capability to transform the entrepreneurial culture into a sustainable CA by generating product development and adapting the information technological turbulence.

This study first gathers evidence from literature then carries out a detailed study to propose a structural equation model followed by an online survey that supports empirical evidence. This empirical test involves a data set with 782 usable responses following the 4,000 emails sent to the respondents and removed data due to the missing values. The population data are taken from the firm directory in Surabaya City that the Indonesian Ministry of Trade and Industry published.

There is a strong tendency that entrepreneurial culture is imperative for firms to attain sustainable CA by supporting new product development. The results show that product development provides a partial mediating effect, which indicates that entrepreneurial culture may affect the sustainable CA directly and with the product development support. This study also touches on dynamic capability by proposing a scenario approach that suggests that firms should refine the entrepreneurial culture to adapt to the information technological turbulence.

This study extends the understanding of the culture of excellence by underpinning the dynamic capability theory, which argues that entrepreneurial culture is a valuable resource, which helps firms achieve sustainable CA by promoting product development.

Industry 4.0 with artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things, and automation are giving way to Industry 5.0 which places emphasis on workers' well-being, people, and society. The new era accentuates interaction between humans and smart machines to drive prosperity and induce sustainable contribution of industry to society. It must build a resilient economy to cope with future uncertainties or external shocks. Moreover, the sustainability effort of companies demanded by consumers, employees, shareholders, governments, and civil society requires sustainability transformation of business strategies. Applying sustainability principles in product design implies the consideration of a product's entire life cycle. Technologies accelerate sustainable production and support using natural resources efficiently taking into consideration planetary boundaries. This condition also makes for a novel perception of products, including financial products. Under the current circumstances of a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous environment, the focus on consumers and recognition of their dominance play a pivotal role in business models to maintain customer relationships. Thus, the digital, sustainable, human-centric industry is emerging. This chapter deals with digital products to enable twin transition and accomplish a sustainable business strategy simultaneously. It examines the reciprocal reinforcement of sustainability and digitalization and discusses the impact of digital sustainability on products. In this sense, this chapter also outlines the business contribution to sustainable development through digitalization. Finally, a holistic model for a hypothetical financial remittance product is offered to demonstrate how a digital product can contribute to sustainable development.

As emphasized in the previous chapter, sustainability marketing entails activities that include all levels of management in small and medium enterprises; that is, strategic, operational and tactical. The role of marketing activities of a sustainable nature involves building customer satisfaction and generating profit for an enterprise, while simultaneously taking into consideration the impact of such activities on society and environment as a whole. Combining all those areas poses a serious challenge to contemporary SMEs. Nevertheless, an effective use of sustainability marketing principles enables companies to achieve the above-specified tasks and gain a strong position in the market over the long term. The nature of the relationship established with various market entities ensures that strong position, because the use of sustainability marketing is equivalent to adopting a relationship-oriented attitude.

Fulfilling the tasks of sustainability marketing requires the employment of tools from the sustainability marketing mix, which comprises the following: sustainability in product, price, distribution, promotion and personnel. The adoption of sustainable development principles by SME marketing departments does not fundamentally change the basic properties of the tools in the mix, that is their complementarity and the resultant synergy effect, but it expands the scope of their impact on the society and environment. This chapter presents a discussion on the nature and specificity of individual tools in the sustainability marketing mix.

This paper reviews recent developments in marketing-related sustainable business practices (SBP) that macromarketing scholars have researched and debated for four decades. Such SBPs should be regarded as positive steps toward a future where business does more good than harm in society.

Using the approach of a literature review, this paper highlights the actions of entrepreneurs and firms to implement SBPs resulting from analysis of the interplay between markets, marketing and society. Such analysis is in the tradition of macromarketing scholarship.

The study identifies important developments about an important shift toward adopting SBPs among many firms, as well as among consumers − especially, in developed countries of the world.

The study suggests that taking a macromarketing view offers scholars a broad lens on current complex marketplace phenomena that will prove effective in better understanding sustainability issues.

The results of the study underline the value of macromarketing scholarship through the last four decades. By being daring enough to consider other stakeholders other than marketers and owners of firms, macromarketers have provided scholars a more holistic understanding of business’ role in society.

Today, enlightened practitioners who utilize knowledge from macromarketing scholarship can gain a competitive advantage as they navigate markets increasingly influenced by a wider set of stakeholders. Such influential stakeholders include partner firms, employees, society and local communities, NGOs, media, government, as well as the environment and future generations. Scholars can gain perspective on the phenomena they investigate with such a macromarketing lens.

Scarcity of resources, ecological imbalance, global warming, rising energy prices and the ever-changing need for variety have attracted the government and manufacturers for sustainable development of the industries. The integrated sustainable-green-lean-six sigma-agile manufacturing system (ISGLSAMS) provides a solid platform for meeting both the customers’ variety needs and business sustainability requirements. Many organizations opted for ISGLSAMS, but still due to various barriers organizations are not able to fully implement ISGLSAMS. The purpose of this paper is to identify the barriers to the ISGLSAMS, so that a more sustainable industrial manufacturing system and industrial symbiosis can be developed.

A literature review, from the Web of Science and Google Scholar database, has been carried out to identify the various barriers to the implementation of ISGLSAMS in the entire value chain. A total of 168 research papers have been reviewed for identifying the ISGLSAMS barriers.

This paper elaborates the concept of the ISGLSAMS, its attributes and various barriers and contributes to a better understanding and successful implementation of ISGLSAMS to meet business’ sustainability and market performance goals in the entire value chain. The paper also projects the future research framework and directions for the ISGLSAMS, integrated sustainable-green-lean-six sigma-agile (ISGLSA) product and ISGLSA supply and value chain.

The study contributes to a better understanding of ISGLSAMS’ barriers. The government, stakeholders and policymakers may plan the policy, road map and strategies to overcome the ISGLSAMS’ barriers. In-depth knowledge of subclauses of ISGLSAMS’ barriers will help the practitioners to overcome the ISGLSAMS’ barriers strategically. By overcoming the ISGLSAMS barriers, a more sustainable 7 Rs based market focused manufacturing system can be designed. This will also increase the opportunities to enhance the industrial ecology, industrial symbiosis and better recovery of the product, process and supply chain residual value. This will reduce the waste to the ecosystem.

This work has been carried out in search of a more sustainable manufacturing system, i.e. ISGLSAMS (which is 7 Rs based, i.e. 6 Rs of sustainability with 7th R, reconfiguration) to meet the customer variety needs along with sustainability in the ever-changing customer market. This study adds value to the practitioners to identify and prioritize the ISGLSAMS’ industry-specific barriers and design the solution for the more sustainable development of (1) industries, (2) the industrial symbiosis system and (3) the ISGLSA product, process, system and supply value chain with minimum resource consumption and environmental impact. The research also contributes to the (a) ISGLSAMS (b) ISGLSA supply chain (c) reconfigurable, sustainable and modular products and (d) redesign, recovery and refurbishing of the product to increase the product life cycle.

Tourism product designing is a process of integrating all the components of a tourism product, i.e., the 5 A's: Attraction, Accommodation, Accessibility, Amenities, and Activities. The lack of awareness and unaccountability of mass tourism has demanded the need for “Responsible and Accountable Tourism, calling for better places to live and visit.” However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions on mass travel, “Mother Earth” got the opportunity of environmental restoration. The tourism business was badly hit by the pandemic and created an introspection phase for the tourism stakeholders to control and check their activities for a better global recovery. The responsible tourism product development in this VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous) world needs controlled planning and a duty-bound PPP (Public–Private Partnership) model. A scoping review was done to analyze the planning process of the responsible sustainable tourism product. It was observed that all the stakeholders involved in tourism product development need to understand their accountability. Local host communities and tourists visiting the destinations should be culturally and environmentally sensitive. They should be involved in decision-making during the tourism product development and be pride bearers. The responsibility of the various tourism agencies, organizations, and individuals toward minimizing the impact of carbon footprints is evident from various research.

This paper focusses on the factors to sustainable product development (SNPD) projects success. More specifically, it aims to explore and understand the role of supplier involvement (SI) within SNPD. Additionally, it investigates how effective project leaders can facilitate effective supplier involvement and enhance focal firm's ability to successfully carry out sustainable achievement in product development.

A theoretical framework among SI, SNPD, project leader's personality and leadership style has been established. Six interviews collected from different industries are used to further explore the relationship among SI, SNPD, leader's personality and leadership style.

The difficulties in managing suppliers, the timing and extent of supplier involvement, communication method and frequency, as well as supplier contribution and challenge in SNPD has been summarized. The interviews also confirmed that effective leaders who possess certain personality traits enable appropriate supplier involvement, promote prosperous SNPD and enhance the relationship between SI and SNPD performance by allowing individual members, teams and organizations to function well.

Sustainable new product development (SNPD) has been recognized as one of the key factors to achieve environmental and economic success. The paper explores the role of supplier involvement in SNPD project and emphasizes the role of project leaders in the process.