This thesis is a qualitative case study on how Swedish companies operating in global valuechains percieve their level of transparency concerning social- and environmental aspects, andhow they manage this work. The thesis contributes to existing literature since it draw attentionto the role of transparency concerning social- and environmental aspects and study howcompanies operating in global value chains actually perceive their level of transparency. Theanalysis and results in this thesis is based on interviews with sustainability experts within fivedifferent Swedish companies operating in global value chains. The companies in this studydiffer in size and belong to different industries. The result shows that companies in this studydo not perceive transparency as an issue in itself; rather the ability to control the chains has animpact on the level of transparency. The level of control seems to depend on resources andstakeholders pressure, and differ depending on industry and size of the company. In thisstudy, the larger companies have more resources to control their chains than the smallercompanies and therefore they have a higher level of transparency.

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The Additive Manufacturing (AM) technology, known as 3D printing, is regarded as the ‘next generation of manufacturing’. It is classified as a disruptive technology and AM has attracted scholars worldwide and received extensive attention in various industries, which is significantly changing the way we design, produce, distribute and consume. This paper reviews how the AM development can be explained as a process of technological transition from a radical technological innovation to a social level technology, through integrating the technological innovation and the multilevel perspective (MLP) theories. In this way, we present a conceptual framework that provides a foundation for discussing AM trajectory and discover a development prediction of AM technology in the lens of MLP theoretical perspective. Secondly, the paper elaborates how AM is impacting businesses within the scope of open innovation through a case study on Adidas, to provide empirical support for similar industrial players to better predict the innovation trajectory through AM applications.