An Architectural Innovation Approach to Re-designing Businesses and Products for Sustainability

Abstract

Business practices that exploit earth's resources without limits for production and consumption are unsustainable and result in the global crisis of climate changes. A pressing need is to re-design businesses and products for sustainability. Social responsibility and environmental sustainability have thus emerged as a core element in business strategy and an important source of managerial and product innovation. To contribute to the quest for sustainable business economy, the study analyzed a Taiwan-based tea-manufacturing firm that successfully transformed its mission toward environmental sustainability through innovatively re-designing its product architecture and effectively aligning the internal processes, marketing, and mission governance with product development. It is argued that, at the organizational level, such a transformation can be achieved through a radical change in mission and core values but not necessarily rely on technological breakthrough. The study illustrated how a business used an architectural innovation approach to achieve such product innovation and business re-direction for sustainability.

Keywords: architectural innovation, re-directing business, sustainability, product development.