Approaches to sustainability decision making in product development projects and portfolios

Decisions in product development deal with finding the products and services with the best potential on the market. There is a need to understand how firms can take sustainability into account in their decision making of product development projects. This chapter explores sustainability-related decision-making in three companies that increase environmental sustainability in their business. The findings reveal two main approaches, here written into vignettes of strategy and compliance guiding sustainability decision making. The two approaches are combined and together cover four decision domains of sustainability decision making in product development projects: direction, scope, content, and changes. Sustainability needs to be treated holistically in all phases of the decision-making process and adds a powerful external and regulatory connection to managing product development projects and portfolios. The institutional embeddedness of product development generates a need to integrate regulatory issues and aggregate customer and stakeholder voices as part of the decision-making processes.