Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Sustainability Strategies at Walden Paddlers, Inc

Paul H. Farrow, Richard R. Johnson and Andrea L. Larson
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Paul H. Farrow: Walden Products, Inc., 1303 Old Marlboro Road, Concord, Massachusetts 01742
Richard R. Johnson: Darden Graduate School of Business Administration, University of Virginia, PO Box 6550, Charlottesville, Virginia 22906-6550
Andrea L. Larson: Darden Graduate School of Business Administration, University of Virginia

Interfaces, 2000, vol. 30, issue 3, 215-225

Abstract: Walden Paddlers, a market leader in popularly priced recreational kayaks, used a simple, inexpensive guide to evaluate decisions against a parameter of environmental responsibility. This guide was applied across Walden's virtual corporation structure to yield quick innovations and economic, strategic, and environmental advantages. The guide enabled Walden and its network of partners to produce light, strong, inexpensive kayaks with superior performance characteristics made from 100-percent-recycled plastic, the only such kayaks on the market. Walden also employed the guide to create a nearly waste-free product-packaging-and-shipping system. Walden's decision guide succeeded within a network of collaborative alliances because it was applied comprehensively, it helped to clarify common goals, it created benefits for all participants, and it was implemented by a skilled entrepreneur-leader who coordinated decision making in the network.

Keywords: ENVIRONMENT; INDUSTRIES—RECREATION-SPORTS; MANUFACTURING—STRATEGY (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2000
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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