An innovative business model and strategic decision making for sustainable development: A case of coca-cola ltd.

Most of the companies realize the need for making their teams more innovative and creative for achieving competitive advantage. Innovations are sought from users, employees and also R&D experts within and outside the corporation. The signatures of sustainability can only be noticed in conditions where the criteria for evaluating utility of an idea include contribution of a product or service towards environmental and social sustainability. The transformation in the innovation model is required because the existing model stresses far too much the utility of the product or service for the people who can afford the same. If the people cannot be clients of the products and services, they are sought to be reached, sometimes through the window of corporate social responsibility (CSR). The concept of innovation has been primarily related to economic issues, but environmental and societal pressures have spurred the rethinking of innovations in the context of sustainable development. In the political arena, increasingly stringent economic competition, unequal access to scarce natural resources, and aging workforce and environmental degradation have motivated Indian corporate to go beyond a traditional understanding of innovation, which focuses mostly on technological solutions and scientific innovations linked to market developments. New innovation concepts such as “eco-innovation”, “social-innovation”, “open innovation”, or institutional, governance and organizational innovation are increasingly regarded as a “window of opportunity” for the markets and society to move towards societal progress with an equal, low-carbon and knowledge economy. As innovations are regarded as a means towards this transition, an integrated prospective between social, economic, and environmental dimensions should be held in the centre of attention. This paper therefore aims to frame the discussion on innovation and sustainable development by outlining various recent concepts, approaches, and paradigms, as well as assessing recent innovation initiatives and some examples of good practices at the national level, in the understanding and vision of innovation with special reference to Coca Cola ltd.