Resumo

Innovation is one of the fundamental premises for a firm's longevity. Firms that have more flexibility to operate and take risks have more developed internal capabilities. Likewise, firms that are concerned with sustainability issues have a competitive advantage. In this sense, how do companies that use the sustainability pillars in their business model integrate these concepts in their capability for innovation? What capabilities need to be changed to achieve all these requirements?

The problem in this study is to understand the relationship between innovation and sustainable impact businesses.The purpose of this paper is to analyze the role of the innovation capabilities in businesses that have sustainability pillars as central to their value propositions, through the economic, environmental and social pillars, having as a fundamental guideline.

Firms, however, have to deal with both - technological set of products and processes that must succeed under specific business models allowing these firms to transact with and profit from the market (Alves et al., 2017). Therefore, every firm to some extent has the following general capabilities: development, operations, management, and transaction (Zawislak et al., 2012; Reichert et al., 2016; Alves et al., 2017). For Elkington (2001), the three pillars of sustainability are divided between the economic, the environmental and the social.

Qualitative research has a connection as a direct source of data. A multiple case study was conducted as a research strategy (Creswell, 2010), resulting in a comparative analysis between the cases adopted here as a way to better analyze the characteristics (similar or discrepant) they had. The data collection instrument chosen in the study was the interview. To apply the in-depth interviews, a semi-structured script was developed, based on the theoretical concepts presented in the previous chapter, which guided the flow of the interviews.

The business conception, in one way or another, approaches to what Stubbs(2019, p.1063) say “Transformative sustainable innovation involves a radical shift in thinking, radical (re)design of products, cutting?edge technologies, new forms of value creation, and the development of new business models”. This fact is evident in the business concepts themselves presented in this section: it is innovativeness.

We identified that the companies studied have a high capacity for innovation and the profiles show the companies are small but with a high level of knowledge, both by the profile of business owners and by the type of business that requires this high level of knowledge. Moreover, we identified that all pillars end up being worked out, either directly or indirectly, which shows the great relationship they have and an interdependence - so that they work well.

Elkington, J. (2001). Canibais com garfo e faca (p. 444). São Paulo: Makron Books. Zawislak, P. Alves, A.; Gamarra, J.; Alves, C. A.; Barbieux, D. & Reichert, F. (2014) The different innovation capabilities of the firm: further remarks upon the Brazilian experience. Journal of innovation economics & management.13 .129-150. Zawislak, P. Alves, A.; Gamarra, J.; Barbieux, D. & Reichert, F. (2012) Innovation Capability: From technology development to transaction capability. Journal of technology management & innovation.