Both the ecological and social system are systematically degrading, resulting in decreasing capacities to support human civilization. Product development and manufacturing companies play a key role in driving society’s transition towards a sustainable path. Besides moral arguments, the motivation for companies can be expressed as a matter of smart risk management, i.e. avoiding threats and exploiting opportunities. Such sustainability risks can be related to, for example, brand and reputation, legislative change, or attracting top-talented employees. But, more importantly, it is about understanding changes that are inevitable on markets to come. Based on Maxwell’s interactive qualitative research approach and following the structure of the Design Research Methodology, this thesis aims to contribute (i) to knowledge by increasing the conceptual understanding of what sustainability risks are; and (ii) to practice by researching decision-support for how sustainability risks can be managed in a product development company context. The first study reviewed existing literature and identified characteristics of sustainability risks, which make them particularly difficult to manage. A following exploratory and descriptive study investigated companies’ current risk management practices and preconditions for sustainability integration. It showed that the effects of uncertainty from the sustainability transition need to be identified, assessed, and managed in relation to how they can affect objectives anchored in both internal and external stakeholder value creation. In parallel, the Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development was applied as a lens to understand the implications of the sustainability transition for company risk management. This resulted in a new definition, stating that sustainability risks are threats and opportunities that are due to an organization’s contribution or counteraction to society’s transition towards strategic sustainable development. A questionnaire study then investigated some case companies’ challenges and preconditions to build sustainability capabilities. Finally, a workshop method is proposed that aims to support design teams in early sustainable product development. Future research will leverage on the findings to develop and test decision support for how product development companies can manage sustainability risks on different organizational levels in practice to increase competitiveness, while taking leadership in the transition towards a sustainable society.

Purpose: The study primarily aims to examine the effect of internal innovation in determining the firm performance for the textile industry of Pakistan by testing the research framework of innovation diffusion theory. Additionally, the study also explores the moderating role of collaborative innovation in explaining the relationship between internal innovation and a firm’s performance in the target population. Methodology: The study used a self-administrative questionnaire-based survey technique to collect data from the participants. Due to the prevailing Covid-19 pandemic situation globally, the data was collected online using the Convenience sampling approach. The outcome variable of the study was firm performance, while the explanatory variable is internal innovation, which is measured by product and process innovation. Additionally, collaborative innovation was used as the moderating variable of the study. The population of the study was the textile sector of Pakistan. The unit of analysis was managerial employees (at all levels) working in the textile industry of Pakistan. The online questionnaire was shared with approximately, 100 target people successfully and completely provided their unbiased responses using online means. The researchers analyzed the collected data using SPSS software. The analysis techniques include descriptive statistics, correlation, reliability analysis (using Cronbach alpha), convergent reliability & validity (using outer loadings, composite reliability, and average variance extracted), VIF, and regression for testing the hypotheses. Findings: The study found that product innovation and process innovation both serve as critical drivers for the firm performance in the textile industry of Pakistan. Moreover, collaborative innovation plays a complementary role as the significant moderator between the internal innovation process and the firm’s performance in the target population. The results concluded the acceptance and support of the required hypothesis of the study, including the acceptance of innovation diffusion theory for the textile industry of Pakistan, and finally the consistency of results with existing literature. Implications:  Contribution of Study: Existing literature lacks to provide the mechanism and understanding that how internal innovation (product innovation and process innovation) collaborative innovation shapes the effective and efficient performance of the firms in the textile industry of Pakistan. Therefore, the lack of research work and clarity in the existing literature makes this study meaningful. Moreover, the contributions of the study are multifaceted as the first time this study is being conducted in an emerging economy Pakistan. Novelty: The findings of the study add the literature for the domain of innovation and performance, especially, in the case of the textile sector of Pakistan with the partially moderating impact of collaborative innovation. The study also contributes towards the acceptance of innovation diffusion theory in the textile industry of Pakistan. Limitations & Recommendations: The findings of the study apply to the Textile sector only due to the specific nature of their operations. The prospective researchers in this domain can consider further dimensions of innovations to examine their impact on a firm’s performance. Additionally, innovation performance can also be considered for future studies. Furthermore, cross-sector analysis can be performed for understanding how innovation works in different sectors.

Organizações têm de lidar com um ambiente dinâmico em que a inovação é essencial para o sucesso dos negócios. Além disso, a capacidade de inovar em produto de qualquer organização está diretamente relacionada a um fluxo contínuo de novas ideias capazes de atender às oportunidades de novos produtos e tecnologias. Apesar do seu papel importante no início do processo de inovação, ao contrário de tentar gerenciar o surgimento de novas ideias, a abordagem mais comumente preconizada pelas empresas é de incentivar a geração de um grande número de ideias. No entanto, o sucesso do desenvolvimento de novos produtos requer mais do que gerar ideias, outras características do processo devem ser consideradas. Para ajudar na compreensão dessas características, essa pesquisa tem como objetivo analisar como o processo de gestão de ideias de produtos é realizado nas empresas. Para atingir esse objetivo, primeiramente, é proposto um modelo conceitual síntese da gestão de ideias baseado nas características identificadas literatura. Em seguida, para compreender o comportamento dessas características na prática, é realizado um estudo de casos múltiplos em 15 empresas reconhecidas como inovadoras e de diversos setores da indústria. Por fim, baseado nos dados levantados nas empresas, as características do processo de gestão de ideias são analisadas e confrontadas com as informações obtidas na revisão da literatura. A partir do estudo é identificado que a condução do processo de gestão de ideias pode seguir diferentes lógicas conforme as características das empresas. Certos fatores, tais como: definições estratégicas, formas de condução do processo e fatores organizacionais devem ser levados em conta na definição da melhor forma de gerenciar o processo. Considerando, que os estudos identificados na literatura concentram-se em analisar características específicas do processo, tornando difícil obter uma visão completa do processo, esta pesquisa apresenta uma importante contribuição para a teoria acadêmica por meio da análise das principais características que compõem o processo. Este trabalho apresenta ainda uma contribuição para empresas, pois pode ser utilizado como referência de como o processo vem sendo desenvolvido e fornece uma visão prática de como pode ser estruturada a gestão de ideias. / Organizations have to deal with a dynamic environment in which innovation is essential for success of businesses. Additionally, the product innovation capability of any organization is directly related to a continuous flow of ideas capable of raising opportunities for new products and technologies. Despite the primary role of ideas, instead of managing the ideation process, the most common approach is the generation of a large number of ideas. However, launching new products requires more than just generating ideas, many other characteristics of the process need to be addressed. Thus, to explore these characteristics, this research has as main objective analyze how the product ideation process is carried out in companies. To achieve this goal, firstly, is proposed an ideation conceptual model, based on the synthesis of the characteristics identified in literature. Then, to understand the behavior of these characteristics in practice, is conducted a multiple case study in 15 companies recognized as innovative and from different sectors of industry. Finally, based on data collected, the characteristics of the ideation process are analyzed and compared with the information obtained from the literature review. Based on the results of the study is identified that the conduct of the ideation process may follow different logics according to the characteristics of companies. Certain factors, such as: strategies, ways of conducting the process and organizational factors should be taken into account in defining the best way to manage the process. Considering that the studies identified in the literature focus on analyzing specific characteristics of the process, making it difficult to get a complete overview of the process, this research presents an important contribution to academic theory by analyzing the main characteristics that impact the process. This work also presents a contribution to companies, as it can be used as a reference of how the process is being developed and provides a practical overview of how it can be structured.

Organizações têm de lidar com um ambiente dinâmico em que a inovação é essencial para o sucesso dos negócios. Além disso, a capacidade de inovar em produto de qualquer organização está diretamente relacionada a um fluxo contínuo de novas ideias capazes de atender às oportunidades de novos produtos e tecnologias. Apesar do seu papel importante no início do processo de inovação, ao contrário de tentar gerenciar o surgimento de novas ideias, a abordagem mais comumente preconizada pelas empresas é de incentivar a geração de um grande número de ideias. No entanto, o sucesso do desenvolvimento de novos produtos requer mais do que gerar ideias, outras características do processo devem ser consideradas. Para ajudar na compreensão dessas características, essa pesquisa tem como objetivo analisar como o processo de gestão de ideias de produtos é realizado nas empresas. Para atingir esse objetivo, primeiramente, é proposto um modelo conceitual síntese da gestão de ideias baseado nas características identificadas literatura. Em seguida, para compreender o comportamento dessas características na prática, é realizado um estudo de casos múltiplos em 15 empresas reconhecidas como inovadoras e de diversos setores da indústria. Por fim, baseado nos dados levantados nas empresas, as características do processo de gestão de ideias são analisadas e confrontadas com as informações obtidas na revisão da literatura. A partir do estudo é identificado que a condução do processo de gestão de ideias pode seguir diferentes lógicas conforme as características das empresas. Certos fatores, tais como: definições estratégicas, formas de condução do processo e fatores organizacionais devem ser levados em conta na definição da melhor forma de gerenciar o processo. Considerando, que os estudos identificados na literatura concentram-se em analisar características específicas do processo, tornando difícil obter uma visão completa do processo, esta pesquisa apresenta uma importante contribuição para a teoria acadêmica por meio da análise das principais características que compõem o processo. Este trabalho apresenta ainda uma contribuição para empresas, pois pode ser utilizado como referência de como o processo vem sendo desenvolvido e fornece uma visão prática de como pode ser estruturada a gestão de ideias. / Organizations have to deal with a dynamic environment in which innovation is essential for success of businesses. Additionally, the product innovation capability of any organization is directly related to a continuous flow of ideas capable of raising opportunities for new products and technologies. Despite the primary role of ideas, instead of managing the ideation process, the most common approach is the generation of a large number of ideas. However, launching new products requires more than just generating ideas, many other characteristics of the process need to be addressed. Thus, to explore these characteristics, this research has as main objective analyze how the product ideation process is carried out in companies. To achieve this goal, firstly, is proposed an ideation conceptual model, based on the synthesis of the characteristics identified in literature. Then, to understand the behavior of these characteristics in practice, is conducted a multiple case study in 15 companies recognized as innovative and from different sectors of industry. Finally, based on data collected, the characteristics of the ideation process are analyzed and compared with the information obtained from the literature review. Based on the results of the study is identified that the conduct of the ideation process may follow different logics according to the characteristics of companies. Certain factors, such as: strategies, ways of conducting the process and organizational factors should be taken into account in defining the best way to manage the process. Considering that the studies identified in the literature focus on analyzing specific characteristics of the process, making it difficult to get a complete overview of the process, this research presents an important contribution to academic theory by analyzing the main characteristics that impact the process. This work also presents a contribution to companies, as it can be used as a reference of how the process is being developed and provides a practical overview of how it can be structured.

Companies that strive for implementing a more holistic sustainability perspective, i.e. a socio-ecological sustainability perspective with a system view, need to recognize the integration ofsustainability methods into the product innovation process as a project in itself. To achieve thisan efficient method must be available to guide companies towards sustainable productdevelopment i.e. implementation of a strategic sustainability perspective in the early phases ofthe product innovation process, including a lifecycle thinking. To meet this challenge this thesisseeks to answer how a sustainability perspective can be integrated into product development to;facilliate a design team to identify critical areas in a products life cycle during the productinnovation process and with the help of sustainability methods guide the companies to a moresustainable future.The results is based on a literature study, interview- and workshops all conducted at a case-company were several barriers on why sustainability methods havn’t successfully been appliedwithin the companies were identified. The thesis identified the importance of having a morestructured and strategic product innovation process to enable a more holistic sustainabilitymindset within the company. The work contributed to a new product innovation process at thecase-company that allowed adapted sustainability methods to conveniently be integrated intothe working process. The process identified a handful of suitable sustainability methods thatfocus on the three sustainability dimensions (social, economic, ecological) to broaden thecompany’s understanding of sustainability. Selected methods were adapted, applied andvalidated at the case-company to ensure that they fulfilled their intended goals and can used toprovide a more holistic mindset and to identify hotspots in the product innovation process. / Företag som strävar efter att implementera ett bredare hållbarhetstänk, dvs ett socio-ekologiskthållbarhetsperspektiv med systemsyn, inom hela sin organisation behöver se integrationen avhållbarhetsmetoder och arbetsprocesser som ett projekt i sig. För att möjliggöra detta måste etteffektivt ramverk finnas för att hjälpa företagen i arbetet mot en hållbar produktutveckling. Föratt möta den här utmaningen söker den här uppsatsen svaret hur ett hållbarhetsperspektiv kanintegreras i produktutvecklingen inom industrin för att; underlätta för ett design team attidentifiera kritiska punkter på en produkts livcykel under produktinnovationsprocessen samthur hållbarhetsmetoder kan implementeras i processen för att navigera mot en mer hållbarindustri.Resultatet är baserat en litteraturstudie, intervjuer samt workshops på ett samarbetsföretag därett flertal barriärer vilket hindrar företag att mer effektivt navigera mot ett hållbar industriidentifierades. Studien identifierade vikten av att en strukturerad och strategiskproduktinnovationsprocess finns tillgänglig på företaget för att lättare välja och applicera ettstörre hållbarhetstänk inom företaget. Arbetet hjälpte samarbetsföretaget att ta fram en nyproduktinnovationsprocess för att på sådant sätt möjliggöra att hållbarhetsmetoder enklarekunde integreras på företaget. Processen identifierade ett flertal potentiella hållbarhetsmetodervilket fokuserade på att få med de tre olika hållbarhetsdimensionerna (social, ekonomisk,ekologisk) för att bredda samarbetsföretagets förståelse kring hållbarhet, hållbarproduktutveckling och hållbar utveckling. Intressanta hållbarhetsmetoder valdes ut för attanpassas och verifieras på företaget för att säkerställa att syftet av dem säkerställdes.