Abstract
Sustainable luxury not only requires social and environmental performance of real excellence throughout the value chain in organisations but also, local cultural contents such as the craftsmanship and local innovation. Today brands that will be considered luxury labels in the future are being created through innovation and entrepreneurship. More than simply observing reduced negative impacts of operations, entrepreneurs and innovators seek to solve social and environmental problems through the development or acquisition of new capabilities that are directly related to the challenge of sustainability. Anthyia is an organisation created by Ying Luo and Nicolai Nielsen. This company is a pioneer in the use of Ramie, a vegetable fibre from China. While it was founded in 2011 in the United States, it currently operates in Germany. This paper studies Anthya from the model of sustainable value creation developed by Professor Stuart L. Hart that integrates the environment, innovation, stakeholder management and potential for growth. Anthyia is focused on Ying’s personal values and beliefs and on innovation. Ying and her partners develop the abilities that enable to position (and reposition) the firm for the future. Sustainable competences arising from ramie research is the key to the company’s value creation. Anthyia is the combination of Ying’s personal values and the Eastern perspective of ramie in a continuous creativity and innovation process. This is essential for the company’s long-term existence and, since it is a dynamic concept, it requires managerial and organisational leadership that are typical of both Ying and Anthyia.
First and foremost, the author would like to thank Ying Luo and Nicolai Nielsen—Anthyia founders—for their valuable contribution to this case.
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Notes
- 1.
Ehrenfield JR (2002) Sustainability by Choice, unpublished.
- 2.
For Kozlowski et al. (2005a) Chinagrass, Ramie and Rhea are two plants. One of them, Chinagrass—Boehmeria nivea—raised confusion with the use of different terms, Chinagrass, Ramie and Rhea. This is the so called “white ramie”. The other plant is likely a variety of the same species (Boehmeria nivea var. Tenacissima), though sometimes considered as a different species (B. Tenacissima). This is Ramie (Malay zanf) from Malaysia Island and Rhea from Assam.
- 3.
95% ramie grows in China due to its right temperature and humidity.
- 4.
- 5.
Nm is Number metric. It means the number of kilometres of yarn per kilogram of weight (Cohen and Johnson 2014).
- 6.
- 7.
Anthyia had discussions with companies such as Hess-Natur (Germany).
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Gardetti, M.A. (2018). Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Luxury: The Case of ANTHYIA. In: Gardetti, M., Muthu, S. (eds) Sustainable Luxury, Entrepreneurship, and Innovation. Environmental Footprints and Eco-design of Products and Processes. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6716-7_4
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