Driving organizational sustainability-oriented innovation capabilities: a complex adaptive systems perspective

• Published in: Current opinion in environmental sustainability 2017-10, Vol.28, p.71-79
• Main Authors: van de Wetering, Rogier, Mikalef, Patrick, Helms, Remko
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1877-3435; 1877-3443
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cosust.2017.08.006

•Complexity science provides a fitting lens to cope with business and IT challenges.•IT is an adaptive vehicle that co-evolves with organizational capabilities.•IT facilitates fluid forms of cooperation: a cornerstone of sustainable innovation.•Innovation capabilities depend upon various clusters of contingency elements. Innovation capabilities are considered a crucial ingredient for organizations in order to drive sustainable organizational transformations in turbulent business environments. The impact of information technology (IT) as a force of sustainability and innovation received a renewed interest as a means of achieving boundary-spanning arrangements. This interplay between the changing competitive landscape, collaboration forms with partners, and IT as a facilitator, are considered the cornerstones of sustainability in organizations. The aim of this study is to understand how IT flexibility, partner collaborations, and environmental business factors lead to enhanced sustainability-oriented innovation capabilities. Outcomes suggest that IT should be approached as an adaptive vehicle in the process of creating social and economic value to relevant stakeholders in the business ecosystem.