3rd TransitionLab Insight Event on October 8, 2021
The 3rd TransitionLab Insight Event on SUCCESS FACTORS IN SUSTAINABLE INNOVATION was hosted again by Prof. Dr. Daniel Baier (University of Bayreuth) on October 8, 2021 and featured a 15-minute talk about the results from a comprehensive study of sustainable product innovation projects at the University of Bayreuth. For this purpose a database with 159 companies and 176 sustainable product innovations was built from 1634 newspaper and magazine articles as well as websites including expressions like “substantial” or “breakthrough”. Experts then rated the innovation success according to a variety of criteria for every single case.
The key takeaway messages can be summarized in the following way:
- Product managers tend to overestimate the new product success across all success aspects (economic, image, environmental)
- Success aspects of sustainable product innovations (economic, image, environmental) up to now show overall low correlations
- The most important success factor across all textile innovations is customer expectation fulfillment
- Other but less important factors are the existence of a learning culture, qualified human resources, and investments in R&D
- Green creativity and external collaboration (with NGOs) is correlated with environmental but not necessarily with economic success
Especially the low correlations between the different forms of success needs to be emphasized, as well as the overestimation of success by involved innovation managers. The TransitionLab Insight Event Series will continue to share results regarding the social environment for innovations across the textile value-chain and thereby help to spark new ideas and broaden perspectives on societal issues associated with bio-based products across BIOTEXFUTURE.
Please enjoy reading the full report here. Or enjoy watching the recording of the presentation here.
