Sustainability and differentiation: Understanding materiality from the context of Indian firms

Managers do not see all environmental sustainability practices as equally important. Thus, this study seeks to integrate the natural resource based view (NRBV) and materiality perspective to explore environmental sustainability practices that firms in India deem material. The findings resulting from text mining using centering resonance analysis (CRA) reveal that Indian firms see prevailing industry practices such as reverse logistics, product recycling, and/or improving supplier environmental performance as immaterial. Instead, these firms focus on water, energy, resource efficiency, supplier integration, and, to some extent, improving work conditions at supplier sites. Thus, the focus of Indian firms regarding these issues is different from their global counterparts.