From startup to sustainable: A roadmap for adopting sustainable operations for a commerce Philippines (an insider action research)

• Main Author: Aure, Patrick Adriel H.
• Format: text
• Published: Animo Repository 2015
• Subjects: New business enterprises; Electronic commerce; Business Administration, Management, and Operations; E-Commerce
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/faculty_research/11967
• Institution: De La Salle University

The purpose of this action research study is to explore the propensity of an e-commerce startup in the Philippines to adopt sustainable business operations. To do so, this study built a comprehensive literature review on local and foreign information on sustainability and the e-commerce industry.The objectives of this paper was achieved through the use of an insider action research methodology that covered the following action research cycle steps: context and purpose, constructing, and planning action. By grounding this paper on a qualitative action research study through the researcher's insider experiences and an interview with an e-commerce startup's (Commerce Philippines) Head for Operations, there is rich insight in meshing sustainability with e-commerce startup dynamics.The limitation of the study is time constraint and its limit to one company. As such, the study cannot accomplish the whole action research cycle. I invite other researchers and practitioners to test the proposed 4Es roadmap for its validity and ability to represent actual dynamics in a startup situation, particularly in the e-commerce industry.As a contribution to both scholarship and practice, this paper endeavoured to provide a roadmap for startups that aim to adopt sustainable business practices. This action research study is valuable not only to the company, but to the academic and practicing community as well. This can develop to generate desirable impact to the research and startup communities that desire to understand how sustainability can be embedded int he operations of a business.