Towards strategic sustainability: the barriers and enablers of supplier involvement in product stewardship and clean technology strategies

Many of today’s firms see sustainability as an exercise in cost and risk minimization. Using the Natural Resource Based View this paper calls for a more strategic approach to sustainability; one that involves suppliers in embedding product stewardship and clean technology strategies in new product development efforts. A case study of a high technology firm is used including forty-two interviews, eight focus groups and secondary data. Theoretically, the paper isolates the effects of technological uncertainty on supplier involvement in product stewardship and clean technology strategies. Practically, the paper advances a matrix for identifying appropriate levels of supplier involvement for each strategy.