TY - JOUR

T1 - CULTURAL TENSIONS AND VALUES-ACTION GAPS IN SUSTAINABILITY-ORIENTED INNOVATION

T2 - AN ETHNOGRAPHIC INQUIRY

AU - Breuer, Henning

AU - Ivanov, Kiril

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2024 World Scientific Publishing Europe Ltd.

PY - 2024/2/1

Y1 - 2024/2/1

N2 - European companies have widely adopted sustainability goals as part of their strategy and normative guidelines but struggle to facilitate organisation-wide cultural transformation towards more sustainable development. Despite the rapid development of theoretical concepts and methods for values-based and sustainability-oriented innovation (SOI), we still do not understand the discrepancies between sustainability-oriented values and strategies on the one hand and their insufficient translation into innovation-related practices on the other. In order to advance our understanding of the cultural tensions and values-action gaps that constrain SOI at the organisational level and to derive corresponding measures for building values-based innovation cultures, we conducted ethnographic research at a leading technical inspection company in Germany. The resulting insights reveal tensions and gaps between espoused values of corporate sustainability and everyday practices with regard to innovation culture, vertical and horizontal integration, external interfaces, practices and methods and personal alignment. Their discussion enriches our theoretical understanding of values-based and sustainable innovation practices and identifies areas and entry points for managerial intervention to promote a sustainable innovation culture.

AB - European companies have widely adopted sustainability goals as part of their strategy and normative guidelines but struggle to facilitate organisation-wide cultural transformation towards more sustainable development. Despite the rapid development of theoretical concepts and methods for values-based and sustainability-oriented innovation (SOI), we still do not understand the discrepancies between sustainability-oriented values and strategies on the one hand and their insufficient translation into innovation-related practices on the other. In order to advance our understanding of the cultural tensions and values-action gaps that constrain SOI at the organisational level and to derive corresponding measures for building values-based innovation cultures, we conducted ethnographic research at a leading technical inspection company in Germany. The resulting insights reveal tensions and gaps between espoused values of corporate sustainability and everyday practices with regard to innovation culture, vertical and horizontal integration, external interfaces, practices and methods and personal alignment. Their discussion enriches our theoretical understanding of values-based and sustainable innovation practices and identifies areas and entry points for managerial intervention to promote a sustainable innovation culture.

KW - innovation practices

KW - organisational culture

KW - rapid ethnography

KW - Sustainability-oriented innovation

KW - tensions

KW - values-action gaps

KW - Sustainability sciences, Management & Economics

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85194919027&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/558ee98c-ceb5-3fe2-95ab-672dac29cf81/

U2 - 10.1142/S1363919624500051

DO - 10.1142/S1363919624500051

M3 - Journal articles

AN - SCOPUS:85194919027

VL - 28

JO - International Journal of Innovation Management

JF - International Journal of Innovation Management

SN - 1363-9196

IS - 1-2

M1 - 2450005

ER -