Integrating global challenges into organizational innovation strategies – ECO-INNOVATE

In the face of global challenges, organizations must proactively integrate corporate social responsibility into their innovation strategies, necessitating a paradigm shift. ECO-INNOVATE is at the heart of this transformation. With the dynamic capabilities theory, it explores how organizations can effectively and sustainably incorporate global challenges into their innovation strategies and manage them. The three work packages (WPs) focus on the balance between innovation, profitability, and sustainability. They complement each other by examining these issues from various angles, with specific applications in the fields of industry and healthcare. We analyze how organizations navigate a complex environment with ambivalent goals while contributing to global challenge resolution.

WP1: Fostering Innovations to Address Global Challenges. Combining dynamic capabilities theory and open innovation approaches, this work package examines the incentives for developing collaborative innovations to address global challenges.

WP2: Strategic Management and Coordination of Ambiguous Objectives. This work package explores how organizations manage their strategies when they must reconcile seemingly contradictory goals, such as immediate profitability, disruptive innovation, and addressing global challenges. To study these two axes, we conduct a case study involving three organizations in Europe, Japan, and the United States.

WP3: Specific Cases in Healthcare. We investigate how organizations can innovate while preserving planetary resources. The healthcare sector, pioneering in paradigm shifts, serves as an illustration and can inspire other industries.

ECO-INNOVATE leverages various management sub-disciplines with an international team, aiming to create both scientific and societal impact.