Identifying and Prioritizing Barriers to Implementing a Strategic Innovation Ecosystem Based on Corporate Sustainability in the Food Industry (Including a Case Study)

Abstract

Strategic innovation leading to corporate sustainability is a difficult, continuous and challenging process in business. Corporate sustainability plays an important role in establishing a balance between social, economic and environmental goals, as well as improving the competitive position by using opportunities; therefore, many businesses seek to innovate their processes and actions in line with corporate sustainability. The main objective of this research is to identify and prioritize the obstacles to the implementation of a strategic innovation ecosystem based on corporate sustainability in the food industry (case study: confectionery and chocolate sector). The present research is of an applied-developmental purpose, descriptive in terms of data collection and quantitative in terms of the nature of the data; and it includes four main parts. In the first part, using the research literature, the obstacles to the implementation of a strategic innovation ecosystem based on corporate sustainability were identified. To obtain the indicators, after reviewing the theoretical literature, 3 main criteria and 8 sub-criteria were identified, which were finalized after two stages of surveying supply chain experts in Shahd Arang Food Industries Company using the fuzzy Delphi method. Finally, 3 suitable criteria for intra-organizational barriers, 3 suitable criteria for extra-organizational barriers, and 2 criteria for environmental barriers were identified. Then, the fuzzy Savaray method was used to weight and prioritize the criteria. The results of the research showed that the criterion of lack of networking and strategic communication with a weight of 0.249 has obtained the first rank. The lack of internal and external stakeholders with a weight of 0.2 and the lack of a purposeful organizational culture with a weight of 0.160 have obtained the second and third ranks, respectively. Finally, the influence of each factor has been investigated using a one-sample t-test. Based on the results of this method, it was shown that intra-organizational, extra-organizational and environmental barriers are effective barriers in the implementation of the strategic innovation ecosystem based on corporate sustainability in the food industry. It is also worth noting that the sub-components of intra-organizational, extra-organizational and environmental barriers also have a significant impact on the implementation of the strategic innovation ecosystem based on corporate sustainability in the food industry. Considering the barriers to the implementation of the strategic innovation ecosystem based on corporate sustainability in this study, managers and owners of various industries and businesses can take steps to select appropriate factors and benefit from its benefits, according to the findings of this study.