Determinants of Sustainable Vision Strategy

Abstract

Sustainability vision strategy of a firm shall prepare a road map to the future markets, to deliver products and services in sustainable manner to compete successfully in natural resources constrained economies. This article presents important attributes of sustainable vision strategy and helps in developing a construct to measure it. A measure has been developed and tested for its validity and reliability. Further, the determinants of this strategy are identified based on a detailed empirical study of sixty Indian firms which have demonstrated some action in direction of sustainability. These firms have been chosen from several industrial sectors responsible for deteriorating the condition of the natural environment. The result shows that top management’s vision of natural environment constraints and subsequent reconceptualization for unserved market based on new set of products/services and, building new alliances to penetrate unserved markets are important aspect of this strategy. Firms must explore new benchmarks of price-performance relationships to match expectations and aspirations of ‘poorest of poor’. Sustainable development will likely require a collaborated effort and shared vision among stakeholders to explore, develop new markets, and then exploit them. So, firms shall initiate necessary action to develop, build and accumulate required resources to address uncertain future markets.