Abstract

The development and diffusion of sustainable innovations are of interest to various public and private sector actors. The diffusion of sustainable innovations into value networks facilitates and is facilitated by the change of markets towards sustainability; however, this interaction needs further investigation. We examine how combinations of value network actors’ intentions and activities affect market change for a sustainable innovation We empirically explore market change related to introducing bioplastics into plastic food packaging value networks. We increase the understanding of market change for a sustainable innovation by showing how not only the actors with direct intentions to support the innovation but actors and activities indirectly related to the sustainable innovation contribute to market change. Such indirectly supportive activities focus on broader sustainability aims and can, for example, change market representations, practices, and norms in favor of the sustainable innovation. We propose sustainability layers to understand the diverse sustainability focuses of actors and their relation to the market change in question. Specifically, we contribute to market change literature by broadening the examination scope beyond the most active actors driving market change for an innovation.

Introduction

Sustainable development and the need to protect the possibilities of the present and future generations to meet their needs have created a great societal interest in supporting the development and diffusion of sustainable innovations. Such innovations, including products, services, processes, and organizational and marketing methods, seek remarkable sustainability impacts (Aka, 2019). Sustainable innovations are complex and uncertain due to their systemic and multipurpose nature (Pellegrini, Annunziata, Rizzi, & Frey, 2019), and they engage different stakeholders (Longoni & Cagliano, 2018). Even though involving such stakeholders is seen as essential to promote sustainable innovations (Ayuso, Rodriguez, Garcia-Castro, & Ariño, 2011), these actors may have differing views and interests regarding value created through the innovation, as well as on the division of risks and responsibilities (Vleter, Bitzer, Bocken, & Kemp, 2020).

Conclusions

۵-۱- Theoretical contributions
The present study has examined how the value network actors’ intentions and activities affect the market change for a sustainable innovation. To answer the research question, the study first identified the relevant actors, their primary intentions (offensive or defensive) regarding the market change, and ten major activities contributing to the market change. It was analyzed whether the activities are driven by individual or collective, and present or future intentions. Then, the market changes resulting from those activities were presented.

This study offers three significant contributions to the existing literature. First, the study contributes to research on market change (Baker et al., 2019; Flaig et al., 2021; Kindström et al., 2018; Kjellberg et al., 2015; Nenonen et al., 2021; Ottosson et al., 2020) by revealing the importance of actors and activities that only indirectly support the market change for the sustainable innovation. The present study identified that there might not be many actors in the value network whose primary intention is to directly support the market change for a particular sustainable innovation. However, many actors indirectly support the market change by focusing on broader sustainability aspects than those represented by the specific innovation. This supports our study’s basic assumption that it is important to look beyond the “active shapers” with a direct link to the innovation. Also, the study revealed that indirectly supportive activities create various kinds of market changes, quite similar to changes created by directly supportive activities. The set of only indirectly supportive activities is small (educating and changing offerings and operations to be more sustainable) but crucial for changing the market in favor of the sustainable innovation. Especially we identified these indirectly supportive activities to change practices, norms, and representations towards sustainability, thus also supporting the market change for the sustainable innovation. It has been noted that networks of varied actors and activities can contribute to the commercialization of innovations (Aarikka-Stenroos, Sandberg, & Lehtimäki, 2014). We extend that examination to the sustainable innovation context and look at market change.