Developing a framework to motivate consumers and other stakeholders into becoming agents of sustainable development

Even though the concepts of sustainable development and sustainability are more than 30 years old, the success of these ideas still lags behind expectations of what promise sustainable futures held for progress by the second decade of the 21st century. Involving consumers in the development of new sustainable products could be the key to the success of sustainability; sustainable brands adding value via engaging consumers in product journeys and leading the way in sustainable education could be the solution.
This paper proposes a theoretical and practical framework to facilitate the exchange of such information and improve the interaction between companies, consumers and other stakeholders in matters of sustainability. A model was designed based on a thorough review of the literature and a comparison of propositions on consumer involvement approaches described in detail in the previous work of Moreira et al (2015). From the analysis of 29 different approaches on consumer involvement a new product development framework is proposed, providing indicators for the development of sustainable products and services more likely to succeed in today’s competitive market. Finally, to ease the framework’s implementation, three activities are proposed for future applications: workshops, an educational programme and an internet based system consolidating the relationship between companies and consumers.