Corporate social innovation: an Indian moving company drives industry change

This paper aims to understand how emerging economy firms can use the growing emphasis on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability as an opportunity to drive corporate social innovations (CSIs) so as to create shared value and gain competitive advantage.

The paper applies a case study design. Building on in-depth interviews with company officials, document analysis and secondary sources, the paper presents a model of CSIs.

The case study presents evidence of how Agarwal Packers and Movers Limited – an Indian family managed business firm operating in the fragmented, unorganized and highly competitive household relocation segment of the Indian logistics industry – used socio-environmental sustainability challenges to drive CSIs. These innovations helped it to differentiate itself from competitors and gain competitive advantage, while creating shared value simultaneously.

Indian firms have been lagging behind on both sustainability/CSR and innovations. Driven by domestic regulatory requirements, as also the need to compete in a globalizing economy, emerging economy firms may strategize to integrate their sustainability agenda with innovations to influence both organizational and societal outcomes.

Firm innovations, even in advanced countries, have been driven by market triggers, with ideas internal to the firm. The paper contributes to the limited research on innovations in emerging economy firms and shows how they may “leapfrog” their growth pathways by systematically integrating their sustainability agenda with innovation activities.