Brand owners' perceptions of sustainability-oriented co-innovation - insights from the packaging industry

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School of Business | Master's thesis

Date

2023

Major/Subject

Mcode

Degree programme

Creative Sustainability

Language

en

Pages

82+8

Series

Abstract

We were once again reminded of how unsustainable our current economic model is when the Circularity Gap Report revealed that we are using ever more virgin materials without being able to circle them back to the system. In the packaging industry, material use cannot be completely reduced to zero because the packaging is needed to ensure product safety and reduce wastage. Therefore, innovations are needed to reduce the amount of required material and minimise the negative environmental and social impacts caused by packaging. In the scientific literature, innovation is seen as an important company effort to impact sustainability positively. Collaboration is seen as a must in sustainable innovation due to the systemic nature of sustainability challenges. Despite the increased attention that the need for collaboration, innovation and sustainability has received in academia, and the packaging industry, knowledge about how companies can successfully combine these three aspects is still scarce. Thus, this study will research the perceptions and experiences of value chain actors on sustainability-oriented co-innovation in the packaging industry. This study was commissioned by a manufacturing company, and therefore, it will focus on understanding the perceptions that downstream value chain actors, that could be partners of a packaging manufacturer company, have. The theoretical framework was built by reviewing the literature on collaborative innovation and sustainability-oriented innovation. Empirical data was gathered from eight interviews with packaging industry experts. The findings revealed that even though sustainability-oriented innovation has become the new norm and co-innovation is perceived as highly important, both of these aspects are still increasing the complexity of the innovation process. This study offers an understanding of the factors behind the complexities and the factors that can make sustainability-oriented innovation successful. I encourage actors to collaborate with multiple actors, develop their internal collaboration capabilities, build a shared sustainability vision with partners before the project, and ensure that sustainability goals come from scientifically proven best practices rather than consumer wishes only. This thesis contributes to the emerging literature field of sustainable open innovation by providing insights from the practice on how sustainability-oriented co-innovation between companies is perceived and working in the packaging industry supply chains. It provides knowledge of the obstacles that still hinder companies from innovating together for sustainability and creates initial understanding for companies on the actions that can be done to make the success of the projects more likely.

Description

Thesis advisor

Patala, Samuli

Keywords

sustainability, corporate sustainability, sustainability-oriented innovation, co-innovation, packaging industry, brand owners, manufacturers

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