Adapting to sustainability: Reorchestrating collective eco-innovation in project-based shipbuilding networks

Abstract

Adapting a business network to mitigate climate change builds on the collective creation of eco-innovations. This qualitative case study explores the reorchestration of an established supplier network toward an eco-innovation net in the project-based shipbuilding industry. Focusing on the network's orchestration adaptation needs and challenges, we identify reorchestration mechanisms and their respective orientation dimensions, and unveil the multifaceted challenges confronted by a network actor attempting to reorchestrate its surrounding network for collective eco-innovation. This study contributes to the literature on network orchestration by revealing the complexity of steering an existing project-based business network to collectively advance its environmental sustainability. It also offers empirical insights into the generation of strategic nets for collective innovation. Moreover, it identifies avenues for future research on reorchestrating eco-innovation in project-based industry networks and offers managerial recommendations for actors attempting to adapt their interactions and others' for sustainability advancement.