The Integration of the Supply Chain as a Dynamic Capability for Sustainability: The Case of an Innovative Organic Company

Numerous research projects have demonstrated that a firm’s ability to integrate, build, and reconfigure internal and external competencies to adapt to changes in its environment is a key capability for its competitiveness. However, in the case of developing the capabilities needed to implement innovation, we have found that the ability to integrate knowledge into the supply chain is also crucial since it is an essential requirement for bringing in technological change and product innovation. The purpose of this chapter is to understand the role of supplier integration in the implementation of radical innovation. First, we propose a theoretical model to connect supplier integration as a dynamic capability to ordinary routines. Second, we study the connection between supplier integration and radical innovation through a case study in an innovative firm in the organic agro-food industry. Our analysis reveals that Herbes del Moli, the case under study, would be unable to survive and develop without the integration of the knowledge generated in the company and its painstaking and ongoing partnership with its suppliers to assimilate this knowledge throughout its supply chain. This discussion is relevant in management literature as it involves applying the dynamic capabilities approach to supply chain integration in order to understand the limitations and demands of radical innovation.