In the current Era, a new approach to Corporate Sustainability (CS) based on social media strategies called, Corporate Sustainability 2.0, emerged as a global phenomenon in the academic literature (Capozucca and Sarni, 2012; Shrivastava, 2011). Corporate sustainability generate “social value” in the circumstances that the development of innovative solutions spread out through forms of collaboration between the organization and the customer involved in the value co-creation process.What are and how works the links between sustainable activity and innovation process?
No matter if 1.0 or 2.0, sustainability may demand innovation (in some perspectives) and innovation may contribute to sustainability. Yes, co-creation as a process for innovation and/or sustainability involves stakeholders and their creative insights.
Good point Farley...'co-creation as a process for innovation'...
Carmela: A recent research study (Biggemann, Williams, & Kro, 2014) addressed the question of how value can be created through social responsibility programs or other means, so that sustainability is achieved through increasing stakeholders' participation in the process of design and selection of such programs, so that transparency is maximised and trust can be built with the lasting benefits of co-creation of value. The authors argued that the relationship between sustainability, corporate social responsibility, and value co-creation based on qualitative research data gathered from two embedded case studies. The first case study in a large mining company operating in New Zealand and the second case study is based on the New Zealand Merino Company.
The authors also suggested that sustainability is built with the participation of many interconnected entities, that is, suppliers, manufacturers, retailers, or more generally stakeholders whose actions are fostered by social responsibility that fuels the pride, trust, and consistency of the members of the value chain. Value in all forms – functional value, hedonic value, symbolic value and cost value – is a recurrent theme in this research data; however it is value co-creation, working together, living up to the values that their products and services promise that ultimately supports sustainability.
Moreover the authors showed that the scope of sustainability has broadened from environmental matters to include other topics such as good corporate citizenship, business relationships and the value that is created and shared, not only with shareholders, but also within a wider community of stakeholders!
- Biggemann, S., Williams, M., & Kro, G. (2014). Building in sustainability, social responsibility and value co-creation. Journal Of Business & Industrial Marketing, 29(4), 304-312.
Hope this helps!
Nadeem
I agree that the missing link is about involving stakeholders in (social / environmental / financial) value creation. This points to a link to stakeholder theory and corporate sustainability, e.g.
Horisch, J.; Freeman, R. & Schaltegger, S. (2014): Applying Stakeholder Theory in Sustainability Management: Links, Similarities, Dissimilarities, and a Conceptual Framework, Organization & Environment, Vol. 27, No. 4, 328–346.
http://oae.sagepub.com/content/27/4/328.short?rss=1&ssource=mfr
You also point to a link between innovation and (social / environmental) value creation. A recurring and broadly discussed theme. Maybe this conceptual overview helps:
Hansen, E.; Große-Dunker, F. & Reichwald, R. (2009): Sustainability Innovation Cube – A Framework to Evaluate Sustainability-Oriented Innovations, International Journal of Innovation Management, Vol. 13, No. 4, pp. 683-713.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1142/S1363919609002479
http://www.worldscientific.com/doi/pdf/10.1142/S1363919609002479
The third connection you highlight is value co-creation happening in firm-customer interaction (do you want to focus on customers only, or argue more broadly with regard to stakeholders?). I do not know a current sustainability and customer-focused article yet (but there is definitively something published about it), but here is a very good basic and pragmatic article about this interaction from a conventional perspective which helps to better understand what the co-creation interface between firm and customer looks like, by Prahalad and Ramaswamy:
http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/35225/20015_ftp.pdf
A fourth perspective in your question is about social media ...
Interesting. But to me it looks like the relations between these at least four perspectives need some clarification - looks like a research gap!
Agree with previous comments. In addition, I would like to highlight the potential risks of greenwashing in a new approach "based on social media strategies".
Thomas Lyon and Wren Montgomery has just provided a very exhaustive review of the literature on Greenwashing and it might be useful for you (please find the review attached for your personal convenience):
Thomas P. Lyon and A. Wren Montgomery (2015): The Means and End of Greenwash
Organization & Environment June 2015 28: 223-249.
Best, Alberto
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