Sustainable Development and Value Co‐Creation in International Business‐to‐Business Contexts: An Empirical Analysis in the Nonwoven Industry

ABSTRACT Regulations and the collective influence of the value chain compel business‐to‐business (B2B) actors within the nonwoven (NW) manufacturing industry to drive sustainable development. However, the literature rarely addresses how B2B actors aim to align with sustainable development to co‐create value and what challenges they face. Therefore, this study brings clarity to this question within the context of an international NW value chain that constitutes a significant part of technical textiles. The qualitative data were collected through two workshops ( n = 31) and 18 interviews comprehensively representing the NW value chain actors from a global perspective. Using abductive reasoning, we analyzed the data through the service‐dominant logic (SDL) lens. Our findings show that value creation comprises internal and external systemic‐level value co‐creation practices and challenges. This study contributes to the value creation literature by linking sustainable development to SDL, taking a systemic perspective on value creation and delineating the practices of value co‐creation.