Abstract
Water scarcity has emerged as a critical sustainability challenge for water-intensive
industries, particularly in regions experiencing climatic variability, infrastructure
constraints, and growing regulatory and social pressures. The South African beverage
industry is especially exposed, given its reliance on water as both a production input
and a strategic resource. Despite increasing corporate commitments to water
stewardship, limited empirical research exists on how beverage firms in developing,
water-stressed contexts integrate water adaptation strategies into their core
operations and long-term strategies. Furthermore, the Natural Resource-Based View
(NRBV) has been applied predominantly at a conceptual level, with insufficient
empirical examination of how its strategic capabilities manifest in practice within such
contexts.
This study adopted a qualitative interpretivist approach to explore how South African
beverage companies respond to increasing water scarcity and how these responses
reflect NRBV capabilities. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine
sustainability and operations practitioners across beverage firms, and the data were
analysed thematically. Four key themes emerged: water scarcity awareness and
operational vulnerability; cleaner production and process innovation; wastewater
treatment and reuse; and stakeholder collaboration and community engagement.
The findings indicate that water scarcity has shifted from a compliance-driven concern
to a strategic driver of organisational behaviour. Beverage companies increasingly
treat water as a strategic asset, embedding risk assessment, efficiency planning,
technological innovation, and collaborative governance into daily operations.
However, the development and depth of sustainability capabilities vary across firms,
influenced by organisational resources, infrastructure reliability, and institutional
context.
The study contributes to sustainability strategy literature by demonstrating how
pollution prevention, product stewardship, and sustainable development are
operationalised as interrelated capabilities in a developing-country context. By
empirically applying the NRBV, the research shows that water adaptation strategies...