The Business of “Behaviour Change”: Analysing the Consumer-Oriented Corporate Sustainability Journey of Low-Temperature Laundry

Abstract

This article contributes to the literature on corporate sustainability management by investigating a corporate-led consumer “behaviour change” initiative designed to promote sustainable consumption. This is done through an in-depth longitudinal case study of Procter & Gamble’s low-temperature laundry initiative as it unfolded over a 10-year period to become an industry-wide campaign with broad societal acceptance and institutional support by 2013. The analysis is guided by insights from three prominent organizational theories used in the study of corporate sustainability (stakeholder theory, institutional theory, and the resource-based view of the firm). The case demonstrates that a successful behaviour change initiative involves far more than providing information or incentive for consumers, entailing changes in regulation, technology, organizational identity, mental models, and legitimacy. Procter & Gamble’s management strategy can be viewed as an emergent and open-ended innovation journey that took time, required resources, and involved adjustments in goals as mental models evolved.