Preventing the environmental impacts of economic growth is an important goal in today’s marketplace. This concern for a sustainable future incentivises marketing based around sustainability. The food and beverage industry had its fair share of criticism as its production uses more natural resources than most industries. One industry that has been ahead of other food processors in adopting environmental practices is the wine industry. The close relationship between wine and places is undisputable and so strong that people frequently visit places of wine production in the form of wine tourism contributing significantly to regional economies. For wine to be associated with sustainability, regional stakeholders would be required to represent similar values. The branding of places is far more intricate than branding of products and needs the support of those stakeholders involved. Such support is often discussed as a shared place identity. Only limited previous research has addressed whether the communication of sustainability enhances business performance. No research to date has empirically tested whether a shared stakeholder identity influences the relationship between sustainability branding and business success. To close this gap, a sequential mixed methods procedure was specified using quantitative questionnaires with 420 subjects and 20 qualitative interviews. A model with consequences of sustainability branding and a shared place identity was established using extant research. Mostly existing scales were adapted to fit this research context and tested with a structural modelling approach among Australian and German wineries. It was found that practicing and communicating sustainability significantly influences performance on an individual winery and regional destination level. Furthermore, a shared place identity has been established as a critical success factor in the relationship between sustainability branding and place performance. Both theoretical and practical implications can be drawn from this research. The results have provided empirical evidence on the direct relationship between sustainability and performance, in addition to the moderating role of a shared place identity. These findings extend the tourism literature which states that businesses practicing sustainably, enhance their own performance as well as the overall regional performance. It also extends stakeholder theory by establishing that a shared place identity strengthens this relationship even further, highlighting the need for regional management to initiate a shared sense of identification. Practically, regional managers who are eager to enhance economic performance should be actively involved in developing relationships between the individual wineries and the regional management in order to foster a shared place identity. Furthermore, it is of major importance to establish positive attitudes toward sustainability among winery owners. This can be done by building the confidence of winery owners by offering infrastructures for learning and support about sustainability.

Much has been written on the subject of sustainable development and the urgent need for society to understand and address human impacts on socio-ecological systems. Emerging from this broad context, the concept of sustainable product development (SPD) represents an important strategy to steer human society towards sustainability. This thesis investigates strategies for integrating sustainability concepts, through organisational learning and stakeholder management, into a new product development tool entitled ‘Touchpoint’. Built on prior research, specifically Methods for Sustainable Product Development(MSPD) and Templates for Sustainable Product Development (TSPD), this could help to eliminate product development approaches that lead to reductionism and ensure that SPD is adopted rapidly and widely.

The Sub-Saharan African country of Ghana is growing at a rapid pace. The construction industry is striving to keep up with the increasing demand for housing and commercial and industrial space while simultaneously protecting the physical environment and social well-being of the country – a challenge becoming known in the industry as ‘sustainable construction.’ This paper proposes a strategic approach to manage these twin challenges, consisting of two parts: a building rating system and a participatory method called multi-stakeholder dialogue. The combination rating system and MSD process was presented to the industry to determine its potential effectiveness in assisting the industry to move towards sustainability. The industry’s response indicates that the proposal could be of value to the industry, with certain noted limitations. This paper describes the rating system-MSD proposal, the industry’s response, and implications for the construction industry in Ghana moving forward

The stakeholders for requirements elicitation need to be identified at an early stage and their knowledge is the basis for what is to become a requirements specification. Just because a stakeholder holds a lot of expertise and knowledge it does not mean that the stakeholder can communicate the knowledge in a clear way. Validation of knowledge means that knowledge is valued and recognized in a structured way. People and organizations can evolve by exchanging knowledge, experience and skills.   The purpose of this study is to increase the understanding of knowledge management between requirement elicitation and external stakeholders. The following report is written based on requirements elicitation and stakeholders, knowledge, and validation of knowledge. This study has been carried out at one company as a case study to examine the context of the requirement elicitation, Nonakas knowledge model and validation of knowledge. The theories that support this study are about explicit and implicit knowledge, Nonakas knowledge model and validation of knowledge.   What emerged from this study is that communication and understanding are perceived to be key elements in the case study. The company that participated in this case also has a willingness to develop the internal knowledge and reduce the problems of knowledge. It has also emerged that the respondents perceive that there is a correlation between skills, qualifications and Nonaka's knowledge model. / Vid en kravinsamling ska intressenter identifieras i ett tidigt skede, det är deras kunskap ligger till grund för vad som sedan blir till en kravspecifikation för att utveckla en produkt. Bara för att en intressent innehar mycket kompetens och kunskap behöver det inte innebära att intressenten kan förmedla det på ett tydligt sätt. Validering av kunskap innebär att kunskap blir värderad och erkänd på ett strukturerat sätt. Människor och organisationer kan utvecklas genom att utbyta kunskap, erfarenheter och kompetens.   Syftet med studien är att öka förståelsen för kunskapshantering mellan kravinsamlare och externa intressenter. Följande rapport är skriven med utgångspunkt i kravinsamling, intressenter, kunskap och validering av kunskap. En kvalitativ studie har genomförts på ett fallföretag för att undersöka samband med mellan kravinsamling, Nonakas kunskapsmodell och validering av kunskap. Teorierna som stödjer denna undersökning handlar om explicit och implicit kunskap, Nonakas kunskapsmodell och validering av kunskap.   Vad som framkommit av denna studie är att kommunikation och förståelse upplevs vara centrala delar i fallföretagets arbete. Företaget har även en vilja om att utveckla den interna kunskapen och reducera kunskapsproblem. Det har även framkommit att respondenterna uppfattar att det finns samband mellan kompetens, kvalifikation och Nonaka’s kunskapsmodell.

The research’s intent is improvement in governance and strategic management initially by comparing Shareholder Theory and Stakeholder Theory and making results useful for both Practitioner and Academic audiences. A conceptual model for how a society establishes and evolves the roles it legitimizes for a business to support reasoning about those roles and the process originating the expectations, responsibilities, obligations, contributions and freedom to act in the roles is proposed. Understanding this process would enable better governance and strategic management of a firm while avoiding unintended consequences when fulfilling the role and consequences for failing the role. The model becomes a basis for comparing Shareholder and Stakeholder Theories. Context for the model comes from practitioner narratives around changes occurring in business and their themes around the relationship of a business with its ecosystem. To incorporate both the societal and business relationship components, the model building process was based upon concepts and ideas from General Systems, Economics, Sociology, Neuroscience, Philosophy, Evolution, Complexity and Complex Adaptive Systems, Semiotics, as well as Business. This was an iterative abductive, inductive, deductive process with each iteration compared to relevant theory, integrated across the subject domains, then tested against other academic research on the issue, evidence of the model in practice, and a culturomics study across social and industry literature. These results are exploratory, descriptive, directional, and suggestive for future research opportunities. Problems with Stakeholder Theory are identified but potentially addressed with the conceptual model, in turn suggesting a systemic approach to governance and strategic management. It was determined that Shareholder Theory results in many unintended consequences detrimental to society and the firm. The conceptual model provides points of intervention in the process and suggests potential tooling for governance and strategic management. A side effect of the research was a perspective on the practitioner / academic divide as the research grappled with the “wicked problem” nature and transdisciplinary nature of process being described. By introducing systems and complexity paradigms in the model, potential ways to address the divide are suggested, such as 3 level analysis (micro, meso, macro).

Abstract This study examines stakeholder interactions in the context of cross-functional software productization. This research aims to increase theoretical and empirical understanding of interactions in software productization. The theoretical framework consisted of the stakeholders of software productization, their key functions and the elements of interactions such as communication, collaboration, and integration. The empirical data was gathered through interviews, company documentation and participant observation in the case organization. The research strategy is a qualitative case study including some elements of action research. As the main finding of this study, a model was developed of organization internal stakeholder interactions in the context of software productization. The model consists of identified stakeholders, the elements of interaction and their intensity. In order to create successful software products, it is increasingly important to acknowledge, consider and meet stakeholders’ views, needs and expectations. According to the findings, the stakeholders are divided into two groups. The first consists of stakeholders who are responsible for decisions related to the company product portfolio. The second group of stakeholders is focused on software product development and implementation. Within the groups, interaction is intensive, including communication, collaboration and integration. According to the data, interactions between groups are one-way only and often carried out via documentation. The stakeholder group responsible for product-related decisions bases its interaction on communication which is perceived by the other group as one-way and unreciprocated. This does not promote dialogue between stakeholders, which is essential for achieving common understanding. This study contributes and adds to the limited empirical research on software productization. The new knowledge of stakeholder interactions in cross-functional productization supports project managers in the development of approaches in the understanding of stakeholders’ needs and expectations. From a managerial viewpoint, this study discusses a number of means which can be used in software productization. / Tiivistelmä Tämä tutkimus käsittelee sidosryhmien vuorovaikutusta ohjelmiston tuotteistamisen kontekstissa. Tutkimuksen tavoitteena on lisätä teoreettista ja empiiristä ymmärrystä sidosryhmien vuorovaikutuksesta ohjelmiston tuotteistamisessa. Tutkimuksen teoreettinen viitekehys rakentuu ohjelmistotuotteistamisen sidosryhmistä, niiden funktioista sekä vuorovaikutuksen elementeistä, joita ovat kommunikointi, yhteistyö ja integrointi ja joiden vuorovaikutusta tarkastellaan. Empiirisenä tutkimusaineistona käytetään haastatteluita, tutkimuskohteena olevan organisaation sisäistä dokumentaatiota sekä osallistuvan havainnoinnin tuloksia. Tutkimus on laadullinen tapaustutkimus, jossa on tiettyjä toimintatutkimuksen aineksia. Tutkimuksen päätuloksena kehitettiin malli organisaation sisäisten sidosryhmien vuorovaikutuksesta ohjelmiston tuotteistamisen näkökulmasta. Malli sisältää tunnistetut sidosryhmät sekä vuorovaikutuksen elementit ja intensiteetin. Sidosryhmien mielipiteiden, näkemysten ja odotusten selvittäminen sekä niihin vastaaminen on onnistuneen ohjelmistotuotteen kannalta yhä tärkeämpää. Aineiston perusteella sidosryhmät jakautuvat kahteen erilliseen ryhmään. Ensimmäiseen kuuluvat ne, jotka päättävät yrityksen tuotevalikoimasta. Toinen ryhmä puolestaan kehittää ja toteuttaa ohjelmistotuotteen. Ryhmien välinen vuorovaikutus on jokseenkin yksisuuntaista ja tapahtuu usein dokumenttien välityksellä. Tuotevalikoimasta päättävän ryhmän vuorovaikutus perustuu kommunikointiin, jonka ohjelmistotuotteen kehittäjien ryhmä kokee yksisuuntaiseksi. Siksi se ei käytännössä useinkaan mahdollista vuoropuhelua, jota tarvitaan yhtenäisen ymmärryksen saamiseksi. Tutkimus paljastaa, että sidosryhmien vuorovaikutus on monimutkaisempaa kuin kirjallisuudessa on kuvattu. Se täydentää vielä varsin harvalukuisia tuotteistamiseen liittyviä tutkimuksia. Käytännön suosituksena tutkimus esittää joukon keinoja, joita ohjelmistojen tuotteistamisessa voidaan hyödyntää.

An emerging consensus in the academic literature explicitly recognises large corporations as political actors. Against this background, this research investigates how corporate power operates through political practices in international multi-stakeholder governance processes and how it is legitimised. The central focus of research is the EITI, a sophisticated and well regarded international standard for natural resource governance in which corporations from the extractive industries and institutional investors have been granted decision-making rights at the Board level. Moreover, the research aims at understanding the consequences of corporate power on the Standard's design and performance. Relying on a conceptual framework based on the writings of French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, this thesis proposes a refined theoretical approach to corporate power by introducing the concepts of corporate symbolic authority and corporate political practice. This research was undertaken using a mixed-methods approach consisting of content analysis, interviews and participant observation. The findings suggest that companies are privileged partners in the EITI while members from resource-rich countries are effectively disadvantaged. The companies' privileged status is legitimised through taken-for-granted-assumptions portraying them as positive, responsible and exceptional agents. It rests on possession and deployment of various forms of resources, and is enshrined into EITI's principles and procedures. Thus, despite EITI's emphasis on transparency, inclusion and equality (in decision-making), the Standard ultimately reflects and perpetuates the existing power asymmetries which cause disempowerment and poverty of people in resource-rich countries in the first place. This effectively undermines EITI's impact and outcome. In conclusion, the argument is presented that by including corporations into international governance processes already influential actors not only gain direct access to decision-making, but additionally to symbolic authority. This further enhances and consolidates corporate power with substantial consequences for legitimate and effective governance at the international level. Therefore, this thesis enhances our understanding of corporate power and its deployment in multi-stakeholder governance at the international level.

The purpose of this study was to observe and analyze the process of regional climate adaptation planning and the role of stakeholder deliberation in decision making about adaptation actions. It employed a case study approach based on one of three total study sites of an international, multidisciplinary grant titled, “METROPOLE: An Integrated Framework to Analyze Local Decision Making and Adaptive Capacity to Large-Scale Environmental Change”. The purpose of the case study of this project was to analyze stakeholder deliberation at two workshops at the grant’s Broward County, Florida site regarding two adaptation options: elevation/floodproofing and voluntary buyouts. Analyzing stakeholder deliberation about these two options allowed for the identification of specific barriers to adaptation for stakeholders in this region. These barriers were then used to suggest values regarding adaptation priorities and planning. The primary idea driving this project was that deliberation provides a pragmatic approach to determining stakeholder values and preferences – which ought to be used to inform planning and decision making about climate policy. The ultimate goal of this project was to demonstrate how the rhetorical concepts of situated judgment, persuasion, and deliberation can be applied in adaptation planning processes and therefore, how applied rhetoric contributes to the production of “usable” science, or science that takes decision makers’ preferences and needs into account when making policy decisions. The problem that this project responds to involves three interrelated parts: framing, communication, and policymaking. Currently, climate change framing in the US is largely characterized by “debate” and emphasizes only one aspect of the climate change problem: cause. The second part of the problem pertains to communication and in particular, the way in which scientific and economic data about climate change/adaptation is typically delivered to non-scientific audiences. The third part of the problem as it is addressed in this project pertains to policymaking, or what enables or prevents progress toward effective policymaking. Data collected for this project include: surveys, 10 in-depth interviews, and field notes. The first layer of analysis was facilitated through Decision Explorer, a qualitative software commonly used in strategic management and decision sciences. For this project, Decision Explorer was used to cognitively map and analyze data from the 10 in-depth interviews. The second layer of analysis used NVivo, a qualitative coding software, to organize and code data collected from all sources. The findings of this project concluded that for stakeholders in this region, the four primary barriers to adaptation were: leadership, resources, invisibility/timing, and the limitations of modeling processes. Stakeholders’ primary values about climate adaptation reflected their strong sense of place attachment. These values were expressed in terms of altruistic values, or concerns about how the local implications of climate may affect humans (e.g., how vulnerably located critical infrastructure and weakening transportation infrastructure will affect citizens’ safety and community resilience) and “scientific” values, such as the inclusion of regional scientific factors in climate modeling and adaptation planning. One of the most significant contributions of this project was the development of an approach that leverages the application of rhetorical concepts in science policy planning/decision making. This unique strategy embedded the rhetorical components of deliberation, situated judgment, phronesis and persuasion within the three framing tasks of collective action framing (i.e., diagnostic, prognostic and motivational framing) to illustrate a unique approach for engaging stakeholders in adaptation planning. More broadly, this project responded to calls for social science research to provide useful recommendations about how to facilitate more effective stakeholder engagement and communication about climate adaptation planning and policy.

Organisationers sociala ansvarstagande har på senare tid blivit allt mer uppmärksammat, speciellt inom detaljhandeln. CSR-arbete har blivit viktigt för samhället vilket påverkar verksamheters arbete med detta. Således har även medierapporteringen beträffande deras sociala ansvarstagande ökat. Hur kan detta påverka organisationerna och deras rapportering kring socialt ansvarstagande? I samband med att CSR har blivit ett välkänt begrepp som allt fler verksamheter arbetar med har även begreppet CSI vuxit fram. Det handlar om att organisationer arbetar på ett ansvarslöst sätt i syfte att uppnå legitimitet. Företag är beroende av sina intressenter som i sin tur kan påverkas av media. Det ligger alltså i deras intresse att förmedla en positiv bild till sin omvärld och kan göra det genom att bland annat upprätta hållbarhetsredovisningar. Syftet med denna studie var att bidra med kunskap kring hur ett publikt företag med många intressenter arbetar med socialt ansvarstagande och hur de påverkas av medias rapportering angående det. Vi har utfört en kvalitativ studie där vi analyserat 15 hållbarhetsrapporter som upprättats av H&M mellanåren 2002–2016. Det har vi gjort med hjälp av en innehållsanalys där vi utformat ett kodningsschema. Vi valde att söka på centrala begrepp och undersökte hur många gånger dessa förekom i H&Ms hållbarhetsrapporter. Vi har även analyserat medias rapportering gällande företagets sociala ansvarstagande. Vår teoretiska referensram består av forskningsom behandlar begreppen CSR, CSI, intressenter, legitimitet, hållbarhetsrapportering samt media. Vi presenterar en analysmodell som fungerade som en utgångspunkt då vi med hjälp av denna satte vår empiri i förhållande till den teoretiska referensramenoch har därefter fört en diskussion kring detta. Empirin består av vårt utformade kodningsschema samt material som är hämtat från media och H&Ms hemsida. Tillsammans med den teoretiska referensramen utgör dessa grunden för vår diskussion och slutsats. Vår huvudsakliga slutsats är att organisationens hållbarhetsrapportering främst påverkas av intressenternas krav och önskemål. Vi har inte kunnat identifiera en större påverkan från medias sida på verksamhetens rapportering gällande CSR vilket styrker detta påstående. / Corporate social responsibility has recently become increasingly important, especially in the retailing sector. It has also become more important to the society which affects how organisations choose to work with this. Therefore, media reporting on corporate social responsibility has also increased. How can this affect organisations and their CSR-reporting? Corporate social responsibility has become a well-known concept that corporations have adapted, a consequence of this is that the concept of CSI has emerged. This means that corporations are working in an irresponsible manner to achieve legitimacy. Organisations are dependent on their stakeholders, which in turn may be affected by the media. Thus, it is in the interest of businesses to convey a positive image to the society, which can be done by producing sustainability reports. The purpose of this essay was to contribute with knowledge about how a public organisation with many stakeholders workswith CSR and how they are affected by the media's reporting regarding this. We have conducted a qualitative study where we analysed 15 sustainability reports produced by H&M between 2002-2016. We have done this by conducting a content analysis where we developed a coding scheme. We searched for key concepts and examined how many times these occurred in the sustainability reports. We also analysed the media reporting on H&M's corporate social responsibility. Our theoretical framework consists of research that addressed the concepts CSR, CSI, stakeholders, legitimacy, sustainability reportingand media. We also present an analysis model that served as a starting point, with this weput our empirical data in relation to the theoretical framework and afterwards we conductedan analysis based on this. Our empirical study consists of our coding scheme and material from media and H&M's website. This, together with the theoretical framework, forms the basis of our discussion and conclusions. Our main conclusion was that the corporations' sustainability reporting is primarily influenced by the demands of stakeholders. We have not been able to identify a greater impact from the media regarding the organisations sustainability reports, which reinforces this statement.

The raising awareness of sustainable strategies within businesses has resulted in corporations becoming more conscious of sustainable development. As concerns about the environment and global climate change increases with carbon emissions as a cause, companies are now considering the extent of their emissions, their so-called carbon footprint. Due to the fact that organizations are starting to recognize the need to engage in sustainability initiatives; it is integral to success to communicate that they are doing so. This research therefore attempts to provide a better understanding of how international corporations communicate their carbon footprint to key stakeholders. To reach this purpose, three research questions was stated. Based on these questions, a literature review was conducted, resulting in a conceptual framework which guided the data collection. Methodologically, a cross-case analysis has been conducted on three international corporations, LKAB, DIAB Group AB and BillerudKorsnäs. The case study included qualitative semi-structured interviews with sustainability- and communication managers and a content analysis of information available through the corporations’ communication channels.  The analysis showed that neither of the three corporations have a clear strategy for their carbon footprint communication. The corporations have implemented sustainability and carbon emissions well within the organization, but they only communicate this to a small extent externally. Through this, there is a difficulty in involving stakeholders in questions regarding the corporations’carbon footprint and allowing this dialogue to be included in the communication. The findings indicate that it is important to let sustainability be a part of the overall communication and to focus on what the company see value in. Finally, we have come to the conclusion that better strategies are needed in order for corporations to communicate their carbon footprint more effectively to stakeholders, as well as methods for how companies can report their carbon footprint to a greater extent.