Diffusing sustainability: Towards a framework for adopting sustainable procurement

Abstract

Rogers (2003) presented a Diffusion of Innovations (DOI) framework which has been used to examine the factors influencing the rate of adoption of various types of innovations in a wide variety of organisational contexts. However, this has had limited application in sustainability studies. The results of a survey of Australian organisations indicate that items related to corporate attitudes and values, under Rogers¿ category of compatibility, were more strongly predictive of the level of adoption of sustainable procurement. Compared to previous findings in other disciplines and settings, the results of this study suggest that greater consideration should be given to issues addressing existing culture for the successful implementation of sustainability programs in organisations.