Systematic Review - Network for Business Sustainability

• Experimenting with more environmentally sound
process innovation
• Speculative development of greener products
(Bowen, 2002)
6. Extend search activities into unfamiliar fields: use
peripheral vision to search for weak signals
Organizational Transformation firms extend their search
activities into unfamiliar fields to search for indications
of future sustainability concerns. Metaphors such as
“using peripheral vision” or “searching for weak signals”
emphasize that such searching extends beyond
conventional market intelligence activities.
Weak signals, which are precursors to significant trends
and change mechanisms, emanate from a diversity of
sources, including community action groups, social
entrepreneurs, lobbyists and activists (Mulgan, Tucker,
Ali & Sanders, 2007). Hart and Sharma (2004) propose
a similar concept, “radical transactiveness,” a dynamic
capability which seeks to systematically identify, explore
and integrate the views of stakeholders on the “fringe”
or in the “smart mob” specifically in order to manage
disruptive change and create competitive imagination.
Firms need to be alert to, pick up and use such weak
signals (Aschehoug, Boks & Støren, 2012; Holmes &
Smart, 2009; Joshi, 2010) by investing in the absorptive
capacity of the firm (Cohen & Levinthal, 1990), reaching
out and bridging new communities of stakeholders
(Hollander, 2003) and through entrepreneurial
“bricolage” — in other words, creatively using scarce
resources (Halme, Lindeman & Linna, 2012).
In a study of pioneering technological innovation directed
to low-income markets, entrepreneurial bricoleurs acting
at the peripheral edges of the organization were able
to pick up signals in the potential market through their
membership of community organizations (Halme et al.,
2012). They then built new networks and influenced key
stakeholders to mobilize resources to promote pro-poor
business models. Such “institutional entrepreneurs” act
at all levels, both inside and outside the organization,
helping to build trust, broker solutions, secure resources
and promote change. They create opportunities and
dissipate resistance while building capacity, momentum
and resilience of new approaches.
7. Unlearn outdated capabilities
For Organizational Transformation, firms must collaborate
with and learn from diverse stakeholders. Firms dealing
with bottom-of-the-pyramid markets and innovating in
resource-constrained environments may find that their
R&D processes, which are accustomed to working with
large resource inputs, become a core rigidity. Firms
may need to unlearn outdated capabilities and, instead,
draw on local talent pools to develop and implement the
appropriate product designs and help reduce costs (Ray
& Ray, 2010). In the case study of the development of
the so-called people’s car, the Tata Nano (see page 39),
Tata mined suppliers for innovative ideas for reducing
the costs of design and manufacturing by leveraging and
exchanging knowledge (Ray & Ray, 2011).
Innovating for Sustainability 44