The Business of “Behaviour Change”: Analysing the Consumer-Oriented Corporate Sustainability Journey of Low-Temperature Laundry

This article contributes to the literature on corporate sustainability management by investigating a corporate-led consumer “behaviour change” initiative designed to promote sustainable consumption. This is done through an in-depth longitudinal case study of Procter & Gamble’s low-temperature la...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Organization & environment 2017-12, Vol.30 (4), p.283-303
Main Author: Mylan, Josephine
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Behavior change
Behavior modification
Campaigns
Case depth
Case studies
Consumer behavior
Consumers
Consumption
Identity
Information technology
Innovations
Institutional aspects
Laundry
Legitimacy
Low temperature
Mental models
Organization theory
Organizational aspects
Organizational culture
Sustainability
Sustainability management
Sustainable consumption
Sustainable use
Technology
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:This article contributes to the literature on corporate sustainability management by investigating a corporate-led consumer “behaviour change” initiative designed to promote sustainable consumption. This is done through an in-depth longitudinal case study of Procter & Gamble’s low-temperature laundry initiative as it unfolded over a 10-year period to become an industry-wide campaign with broad societal acceptance and institutional support by 2013. The analysis is guided by insights from three prominent organizational theories used in the study of corporate sustainability (stakeholder theory, institutional theory, and the resource-based view of the firm). The case demonstrates that a successful behaviour change initiative involves far more than providing information or incentive for consumers, entailing changes in regulation, technology, organizational identity, mental models, and legitimacy. Procter & Gamble’s management strategy can be viewed as an emergent and open-ended innovation journey that took time, required resources, and involved adjustments in goals as mental models evolved.
ISSN:1086-0266
1552-7417
DOI:10.1177/1086026616677169