Organizational Learning for Environmental Sustainability: Internalizing Lifecycle Management

Abstract

Implementing a substantial environmental strategy that addresses all phases of the product lifecycle is a complex and demanding challenge that most organizations fail to convincingly overcome. Based on a case study of five frontrunner companies located in Italy and Norway, this study explores the factors that promote, or hinder, the learning process underlying the implementation of substantial measures for lifecycle management and how this can contribute to further internalizing environmental sustainability throughout the organization. The article contributes to the literature on organizational learning and environmental sustainability by showing, from a dynamic perspective, the enablers of organizational learning required for internalizing lifecycle management in organizations. A new framework for environmental sustainability based on the 4Is (intuiting, interpreting, integrating, and institutionalizing) organizational learning model is put forward in line with the concept of lifecycle management. Managerial implications are also discussed.

How to embed environmental sustainability: The role of dynamic capabilities and managerial approaches in a life cycle management perspective

“…More and more companies, operating in several sectors, have started to adopt LCAs for computing the environmental footprint of their products and communicate it to external stakeholders (Bianchi et al, 2021). However, the simple adoption of an LCA is not sufficient At the policy level, it is manifest that LCA methodologies are becoming the cornerstone of the European strategy on supporting a green single market and the transition towards a circular economy (Sassanelli et al, 2019).…”

“…While reconfiguring requires an organization to change its assets, these firms may have already had some experience with environmental initiatives; therefore, they did not require to change their asset base. This being said, in the long run, changes at the organizational level may be required (Fortis et al, 2018) in order to fully integrate the logics and interests of other stakeholders, such as suppliers and consumers to name some, in the business routines and strategy (Bianchi et al, 2021).…”

“…For example, Remmen (2007) noted the importance of adopting environmental criteria when choosing business partners such as suppliers and distributors. Many scholars point to role of collaboration with internal and external stakeholders along a product life cycle as a key success factor of a business strategy (Bianchi et al, 2021; Linnanen, 1995; Remmen, 2007; Seuring & Müller, 2008; Strothmann et al, 2015). Besides, life cycle assessment (LCA) was recently acknowledged as a practice for its fundamental contributions to move efficiently and sustainably towards more responsible consumption and production patterns (Life Cycle Initiative, 2020).…”

“…While trying to be as comprehensive and general as possible with a reasonable amount of items, our items does not focus on the adoption of specific tools, such as LCA, in several life cycle stage as product design or communication. Despite it could be argued that such a practice is mainly employed in virtuous organizations (see Bianchi et al, 2021) and still limited in the study's context (Testa et al, 2016), future research could address this shortcoming and develop an encompassing measure for lifecycle management practices mainly focused on LCA tools in order to capture the forthcoming progress also on the pushes from institutional pressures (i.e., the European New Circular Economy Action Plan COM/2020/98). In addition, our study is based on the assumptions tied to our multinomial model.…”

“…. Firms now recognize that they do not operate in a vacuum and are required to assess their environmental performance beyond organizational boundaries, where environmental impacts really matter (see, e.g., Bianchi et al, 2021;Jourdaine et al, 2021;Nilsson-Lindén et al, 2019). As a result, a holistic approach to environmental sustainability is now part of strategic management choices (Elias Mota et al, 2020;Primc & Čater, 2016).…”