Navigating Organizational Resistance Towards a Sustainable Shift : A case of bio-inspired innovation in the transportation and heavy construction industries

Abstract: Background: The world is facing environmental issues such as pollution, natural disasters, and climate change. A main cause of this is human activities such as urbanization and mining of materials. As the understanding of sustainability increases, new regulations from governments arise along with a surge in demand for sustainable solutions from customers. These factors will trigger a technological shift that companies need to tackle in order to stay competitive. Objectives: The aim of this research is to examine the barriers towards implementing bio-inspired methods for innovation. This will be done by studying innovators in relevant industries. Research question: What are the challenges with a large scale implementation of bio-inspired methods for innovation? Method: This study will be carried out by interviewing people working within the transportation and heavy construction industries. The candidates will, on a daily basis, work with innovation and thus contribute with their knowledge and reflections. The study will use semi-structured interviews followed by a thematic analysis to get results and draw conclusions. Results: The study shows that using methods for innovation is a common act. Furthermore, the candidates were asked how they integrate sustainability into their development. In general, the candidates had no unified answer to this question. However, several examples, such as lowering emissions, not buying from corrupt suppliers, and maintaining profitability, were mentioned. Moreover, the candidates states that the company works with identifying new methods for innovation. When asked about bio-inspired methods, most candidates were positive about an implementation. From another perspective, some candidates who work with biomimicry state the opposite. Conclusions: Using bio-inspired methods for innovation might be of interest, however, such an implementation takes long time due to organizational resistance. To understand this further, more industries and perspectives has to be studied.