A dynamic view of strategic innovation for sustainability: A longitudinal case study of a luxury fashion engineering company

In this article, we study how a luxury fashion engineering company strategically intro- duced sustainability-oriented innovations (SOIs) over time through an in-depth longi- tudinal analysis of a leading Italian business-to-business (B2B) firm. We apply a strategic management perspective to this first-tier engineering manufacturer to bring new insights into how upstream firms deploy SOIs and to what effect, thus determin- ing long-term technological choices in the industry. We observe that such innova- tions evolved dynamically from the process dimension to the supply chain and, lastly, to the product dimension, thereby spanning explorational, procedural and communi- cational practices. We find that the company sustained significant growth over a decade while implementing its sustainability transition, thanks to three elements: a broad and wide-ranging experimentation in all areas of the company, a continuous dynamic process of learning-by-doing and a commitment of the top management to prioritize new sustainable practices. The propositions developed from this case study can inform future strategic analysis and management of SOIs in other firms/industrial sectors.