Strategic Choice And Responsible Innovation: Integrating Approaches To Foster Sustainable Business Development

The study focuses on addressing businesses' growing need to integrate sustainability into their decision-making processes, given the recognized worldwide environmental impacts derived from industrial and technological growth. The study proposes a decision-support artifact that aligns with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In light of the principles of Design Science Research (DSR), it combines the Strategic Choice Approach (SCA), which helps manage uncertainties, with Responsible Innovation (RI) principles to guide the socially and environmentally conscious innovation process. As another novel, this artifact adopted the Borda voting system to select the best sustainable development courses of action. Data from a Brazilian solar energy company were considered to demonstrate the artifact’s application. Our results deliver a decision-making support artifact whose results serve as inputs for strategic planning for the business. These artifacts highlight the importance of collaborations for decision-making within the scope of sustainable development. This paper proposes a novel and holistic approach that recognizes peculiar aspects of managerial commitment to advancing sustainability within a business context, contributing to the literature. Managers also can apply this decision artifact to improve sustainability performance.