Från sidoaktivitet till en organisations DNA - En kvalitativ studie om hållbarhetsstrategi i praktiken

Abstract

Corporate social responsibility, CSR, has in the last couple of years been researched as an important part of the organizational research area. Previous research has shown difficulties and conflicts within the organizations with regard on integrating sustainability into the business models. Therefore, this thesis aims to study how an organization work with their sustainability strategy. A selected company will be studied through a qualitative case study to see which factors that have had an impact on the development of the sustainable strategy. Further, the thesis will illustrate if the importance of sustainability has grown over time and if sustainability has become the core of the organization. In addition, the thesis will show the importance of communication when implementing a new sustainability strategy. Different departments of the organization have been studied in order to get different points of views regarding how the strategy has been organized and if contradictions and conflicts have occured during the developing and implementation process, as for example the contradiction between profitability and sustainability, particularly in the short term perspective. Additional empiric material consists of interviews with two of the organization’s resellers and reports from Svensk Handel between the years of 2012 to 2017. The reports contribute to the thesis with a wide perspective from a number of companies and consumers. Further, the reports give an insight of the consumer experiences of the sustainability work in the sports and fashion industry. The theoretical starting point is based on strategy as practice and the thesis shows that the organization has worked in a dynamic manner while forming the strategy. It is noticeable which and how external factors have an impact on the strategy formation and how they can contribute to a change that results in an organizational strategy emergence. The thesis gives an illustration of how organization’s work with strategy, get influenced by and influence their context, and the importance of internal and external communication. Previous research has shown how strategy as practice is developed in the business to business industry. This thesis shows a similar case but in a business to consumer industry and can therefore show both differences and similarities between these two industries.