Environmental sustainability in sporting goods companies

: the case of tennis equipment

Abstract

Recently, a greater focus has been on developing more sustainable sports equipment, as
its considerable environmental impact has come under increased scrutiny (Becker et al., 2022).
But how can actors from sporting goods companies manage tensions when implementing a
sustainability strategy alongside their existing strategy? This study aims to explore the tensions
that arise with implementing a sustainability strategy and uncover opportunities to work
through these tensions to manage its implementation effectively. To answer my research ques tion, I employed the conceptual process model by Hengst et al. (2020) as my theoretical lens. I
opted for a qualitative method and conducted a multi-case study on tennis companies, including
Dunlop Sports, Wilson Sporting Goods, HEAD, and Babolat. The findings show that actors
working on sports equipment with greater sustainability experience tensions between the de mands of their sustainability strategy and their existing one in specific tasks. Actors must ad dress these tensions by (1) trading off demands of both strategies in the choice of product fea tures, (2) prioritizing sustainability values over existing values, (3) combining demands of both
strategies within their overall strategic goals and (4) continuously adapting to dynamic changes
in their environment to effectively implement their sustainability strategy alongside their exist ing strategy.

Date of Award	29 Jun 2023
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Laure Leglise (Supervisor)