The Evolution of a Sustainability Leader: The Development of Strategic and Boundary Spanning Organizational Innovation Capabilities in Woolworths

By Methner, N., Hamann, R. and Nilsson, W. • 2015

Abstract

How and why do business organizations make strategic commitments to sustainability and develop the organizational capabilities for achieving them in innovative ways? We seek to contribute to the debate by exploring the development of Woolworths’ relational approach to sustainability innovation. Woolworths is an illustrative case study because of its far-reaching commitments, sustainability management system, and boundary-spanning work, specifically in its supply chain. The company’s “Farming for the Future” programme offers a particularly sharp illustration of how sustainability leaders can come to identify their own long-term interests as inter-dependent with the broader social-ecological system, and how novel organizational and relational capabilities are necessary to conceive and implement such innovations.

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