Increasing evidence of the positive correlation between sustainability performance and financial performance of companies has motivated the proliferation of tools that seek to assess corporate sustainability performance and provide guidance to companies on sustainable business practices and sustainability reporting. Despite the growing number of tools for evaluating, rating and ranking the sustainability performance of companies, the assessment methodologies and frameworks of these tools have not been fully disclosed, leaving both (socially) responsible investors and companies with little publicly available information and understanding of the sustainability issues that are relevant to business practices. This research is an exploratory study seeking to gain greater insight into corporate sustainability assessment as it is practiced within the capital markets. The research specifically examines the extent to which three prominent stock market sustainability indexes, the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes, the FTSE4Good Index Series and the Jantzi Social Index, represent the sustainability performance of companies. The study involves a comparative analysis of sustainability criteria, and an examination of the extent to which the concept of sustainable development and the theoretical perspectives on sustainability assessment are reflected in the assessment frameworks of the indexes. Furthermore, a secondary question addressed in this study is the extent to which the Global Reporting Initiative’s G3 Guidelines and the ISO 26000 standard influence the sustainability criteria used in the indexes’ assessment frameworks. The significance of this secondary question is to understand the extent of alignment between tools which provide guidance on sustainable business practices and tools which assess corporate sustainability performance. A significant finding of this research is the lack of standardization amongst the assessment and guidance tools on the core sustainability issues that are relevant to businesses across all industry sectors. While all of the tools generally follow the same model of organizing sustainability criteria according to environmental, social and economic themes, within each of those themes, a wide spectrum of issues are covered, with poor consensus amongst the tools on the core indicators that are relevant to business practices. An additional finding is that while the theoretical perspectives on sustainable development and sustainability assessment are evident in the indexes, there is significant margin for improvement in terms of developing indicators which are future-oriented and focus on a long-term perspective, as well as incorporating the notion of context in performance metrics.

Increasing evidence of the positive correlation between sustainability performance and financial performance of companies has motivated the proliferation of tools that seek to assess corporate sustainability performance and provide guidance to companies on sustainable business practices and sustainability reporting. Despite the growing number of tools for evaluating, rating and ranking the sustainability performance of companies, the assessment methodologies and frameworks of these tools have not been fully disclosed, leaving both (socially) responsible investors and companies with little publicly available information and understanding of the sustainability issues that are relevant to business practices. This research is an exploratory study seeking to gain greater insight into corporate sustainability assessment as it is practiced within the capital markets. The research specifically examines the extent to which three prominent stock market sustainability indexes, the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes, the FTSE4Good Index Series and the Jantzi Social Index, represent the sustainability performance of companies. The study involves a comparative analysis of sustainability criteria, and an examination of the extent to which the concept of sustainable development and the theoretical perspectives on sustainability assessment are reflected in the assessment frameworks of the indexes. Furthermore, a secondary question addressed in this study is the extent to which the Global Reporting Initiative’s G3 Guidelines and the ISO 26000 standard influence the sustainability criteria used in the indexes’ assessment frameworks. The significance of this secondary question is to understand the extent of alignment between tools which provide guidance on sustainable business practices and tools which assess corporate sustainability performance. A significant finding of this research is the lack of standardization amongst the assessment and guidance tools on the core sustainability issues that are relevant to businesses across all industry sectors. While all of the tools generally follow the same model of organizing sustainability criteria according to environmental, social and economic themes, within each of those themes, a wide spectrum of issues are covered, with poor consensus amongst the tools on the core indicators that are relevant to business practices. An additional finding is that while the theoretical perspectives on sustainable development and sustainability assessment are evident in the indexes, there is significant margin for improvement in terms of developing indicators which are future-oriented and focus on a long-term perspective, as well as incorporating the notion of context in performance metrics.

With a triple-bottom-line lens on sustainability, this study examines the effects of culture on companies' economic, social, and environmental sustainability practices. Drawing on institutional theory and project GLOBE, we delineate cultural practices dimensions that consistently predict sustainability practices related to each of the three domains. Based on a sample of 1924 companies in 36 countries and nine cultural clusters, we find that future orientation, gender egalitarianism, uncertainty avoidance, and power distance practices positively, and performance orientation practices negatively, predict corporate sustainability practices. Further, our findings suggest that these effects might vary according to the country vis-à-vis cluster level of analysis.

Significant literature on sustainable supply chain management exists but there is a lack of theory explaining diffusion of sustainability practices within the supplier base led by manufacturing firms. In particular diffusion theory is insufficiently developed to characterise the development of sustainability practices in suppliers. The purpose of this research is to establish the conditions for enhancing the diffusion of environmental and social sustainability practices across the supplier base from the buying firms’ perspective. The research design is based on a theory building strategy. The data analysis was carried out based on a triangulation of different sources of data (e.g. 30 interviews with directors or managers of four sustainability leading manufacturing firms from the beverage, cosmetic and textile sector, and an extensive array of documents) and cross-case analysis and application of diffusion of innovation theory (DoI). This research identified environmental and social practices diffused through supplier selection (implementation of requirements), performance assessment and development. This map of sustainability practices provides a unique perspective; hence it distinguishes practices diffused across different supply chain tiers, as well as the mechanism/initiatives employed to diffuse them. The findings suggested that more emphasis was given to environmental practices than social practices. In general, social practices were more related to compulsory level (e.g. human rights) and were evaluated (selection), monitored (performance) and diffused through development (especially educating initiatives) in both 1st tier and 2nd tier. Critical materials suppliers in the 2nd tier were more likely to be engaged by specific procurement teams through the selection, performance and development activities, especially with the aim of meeting compliance and improving performance. The findings also suggested that joint initiatives with critical industrial suppliers focused more on environmental practices. Diffusion of innovation theory was applied to consider different elements that have not been covered in the literature, for instance, emphasis on communication channels and social system elements. The rate of adoption of sustainability practices was directly affected by supporting suppliers in measuring and collaborating in implementing improvements plans, as well as intense educating initiatives. DoI provides a powerful lens to help explain the role of buying firms in the diffusion of sustainability practices. The research provided a more comprehensive view on how sustainability practices were diffused through the supplier selection, performance assessment and development. This work is the first instance of considering intra- and interorganisational factors in the same model for enhancing the diffusion of sustainability practices. Overall, this depicts patterns of the factors and points out the most critical variables influencing the implementation of sustainability practices across the supplier base. This research has the potential to serve as an analysis tool to uncover gaps in activity that could lead to greater adoption of sustainability practices by suppliers, as well as gathering good practice in a structured way.

Different stakeholders are now showing a higher interest in organisations’ social responsibility than ever before, creating an increased pressure on organisations' sustainability performance. Various researchers (e.g. Emerson, 2003; Lingane & Olsen, 2004) stress that in order to meet this pressure and to achieve a true sustainable development, organisations need to fully incorporate social values through social accounting. Although numerous organisations report on their social impacts (Hahn & Kühnen, 2013), it is often said that small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs) are lagging behind in terms of sustainability performance (Cassells & Lewis, 2011). A few studies have addressed this by investigating difficulties for social enterprises to conduct social accounting but a research gap is evident regarding practical implications for SMEs in the for-profit sector. Through an embedded case study design of a sustainability network of for-profit SMEs on Gotland, we sought to explain SME managers perception of difficulties and benefits associated with social accounting, and how such attitudes relate to their sustainability practices. Through a triangulation design, surveys and qualitative interviews were applied to determine the relationship between attitudes and actions. A theoretical framework by Thomas and Lamm (2012), based on Ajzen’s (2005) theory of planned behaviour and Suchman’s (1995) typology of legitimacies was used for analysis. The SME managers were found to have a neutral attitude towards social accounting and they all engaged in practical actions rather than social impact measurement or social reporting. Thus, the results reflect consistency between attitudes towards social accounting and actions, i.e. the intention to perform social accounting. The SME managers perceived the difficulties of social accounting to outweigh the benefits of it, and were insecure about their abilities to perform social accounting. The findings of this study could confirm previously found implications of social accounting and further found that the SME managers expected additional difficulties for companies in the service sector and for those without employees.

abstract: Research on government innovation has focused on identifying factors that contribute to higher levels of innovation adoption. Even though various factors have been tested as contributors to high levels of innovation adoption, the independent variables have been predominantly contextual and community characteristics. Previous empirical studies shed little light on chief executive officers' (CEOs) attitudes, values, and behavior. Result has also varied with the type of innovation examined. This research examined the effect of CEOs' attitudes and behaviors, and institutional motivations on the adoption of sustainability practices in their municipalities. First, this study explored the relationship between the adoption level of sustainability practices in local government and CEOs' entrepreneurial attitudes (i.e. risk taking, proactiveness, and innovativeness) and discovery skills (i.e. associating, questioning, experimenting, observing, and networking) that have not been examined in prior research on local government innovation. Second, the study explored the impact of organizational intention to change and isomorphic pressures (i.e., coercive, mimetic, and normative pressures) and the availability and limit of organizational resources on the early adoption of innovations in local governments. Third, the study examines how CEOs' entrepreneurial attitudes and discovery skills, and institutional motivations account for high and low sustaining levels of innovation over time by tracking how much their governments have adopted innovations from the past to the present. Lastly, this study explores their path effects CEOs' entrepreneurial attitudes, discovery skills, and isomorphic pressures on sustainability innovation adoption. This is an empirical study that draws on a survey research of 134 CEOs who have influence over innovation adoption in their local governments. For collecting data, the study identified 264 municipalities over 10,000 in population that have responded to four surveys on innovative practices conducted by the International City/County Management Association (ICMA) in past eight years: the Reinventing local government survey (2003), E-government survey (2004), Strategic practice (2006), and the Sustainability survey (2010). This study combined the information about the adoption of innovations from four surveys with CEOs' responses in the current survey. Socio-economic data and information about variations in form of government were also included in the data set. This study sheds light on the discovery skills and institutional isomorphic pressures that influence the adoption of different types of innovations in local governments. This research contributes to a better understanding of the role of administrative leadership and organizational isomorphism in the dynamic of innovation adoption, which could lead to improvements in change management of organizations. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Public Administration 2013

Stakeholder interaction has been recognised as one of the main principles to advance organisational sustainability. However, there is only limited knowledge on how organisations interact with their stakeholders to develop sustainability practices from an overarching perspective. There is also only fragmented research on the role of stakeholders when developing a sustainable business model (SBM). The purpose of this thesis is therefore to explore the role of stakeholder interaction for developing organisational sustainability practices and SBMs. Three research questions drive this thesis which compiles three papers based on three individual studies. The first study concentrates on stakeholder interaction as an organisational sustainability practice applying quantitative methods. The second study is a systematic literature review analysing the role of stakeholder interaction to develop SBMs. The third study explores how organisations implemented stakeholder interaction efforts, using qualitative methods. The results reveal that stakeholder interaction implemented as organisational sustainability practices and part of the SBM includes multiple stakeholders and different interaction degrees, potentially leading to new value opportunities and virtuous cycles of sustainable value creation. However, while organisations recognise the importance of stakeholder interaction, most organisations focus on low-to medium interaction degrees related to specific sustainability activities. This may limits the potential of stakeholder interaction for developing organisational sustainability practices and SBMs. This thesis contributes to sustainability, stakeholder and SBM literature by systematically exploring the role of stakeholder interaction, highlighting different degrees and extents practices are implemented in organisations. For practitioners, insights are offered how to foster stakeholder interaction practices and with that move towards organisational sustainability.

Although Sustainable Public Procurement (SPP) is often seen as a powerful tool to drive sustainability across its supply chain, there is little available research in terms of how SPP actually influences its suppliers’ sustainability practices and what challenges are being faced during the process. In this study, we shed light on both issues by exploring SPP using Institutional and Power Dependence Theory in the context of the surgical instrument industry in Sweden. Methodologically, the study is grounded in an exploratory design and employs in-depth interviews with multiple stakeholders to gain a holistic understanding of the phenomena being studied. The study revealed that SPP mainly influences suppliers by requiring them to evaluate their own sustainability practices, engage in collaborative actions and make alterations when they fail to comply with the contractual terms.The most significant challenge resulted to be the lack of resources, resulting in the inability to perform sufficient follow-ups, engage in meaningful conversations with suppliers and procurers having to buy unsustainable products because of their tight budgets. Another major challenge was Sweden’s forerunner position when it comes to SPP on an international level, resulting in reluctancy on the part of international suppliers to alter their sustainability practices.

In order to fulfill stakeholder requirements whilst aspiring for long term competitiveness, industrial firms are aiming for increased incorporation of sustainability practices in their operations, set up by lean practices. At the same time, there is a potential inconsistency when working in accordance to lean practices whilst applying a sustainable approach, given e.g. the end-user focus of lean and post-consumption focus of sustainability (Machado et al., 2014). With performance measurement being the tool for evaluating the impact of sustainability practices, the purpose of this study is to increase the knowledge of performance measurement for incorporating sustainable practices in a lean production organization. With the intention of fulfilling the objective, the research is based on empirical evidence gained through a single case study of a leading product company in the industrial tools and equipment industry. The case study comprised multiple sources of data collection methods (e.g. interviews and observations), for identifying variables and conflicting interests among priorities, processes and people. It was found that the performance measurement structure does not support the incorporation of sustainable practices in operations in some of the dimensions studied due to i) misalignment between organizational placement of the measure and the power of the resources, ii) supplier feedback neglecting and iii) limited maturity level regarding the differences between sustainability and lean practices. The contribution to research and practitioners accentuates that while there are differences between lean and sustainability practices in some performance dimensions, some of the differences have limited impact on the performance measurement level, but more on a performance management level given their strategic prominence. / I  syfte  att  uppfylla  intressenters  krav  och  uppnå  en  långsiktig  konkurrenskraft   eftersträvarindustriföretag att inkorporera hållbarhetsprinciper i sin operativa verksamhet. Den operativa verksamheten präglas i sin tur präglas av lean metoder. Det finns dock en inkonsekvens när man arbetar både i enlighet lean metoder och hållbarhetsprinciper. Exempelvis fokuserar lean metoder på slutanvändaren medan hållbarhetsprinciper också beaktar vad som händer efter konsumtionen av en produkt (Machado et al., 2014). Med prestationsmätning (performance measurement) som ett verktyg för att utvärdera effekterna av hållbarhetsprinciper, syftar denna studie till att öka kunskapen om prestationsmätning för att stödja inkorporeringen av hållbarhetsprinciper i en produktionsorganisation som arbetar enligt lean metoder. För att uppnå syftet, baserades denna studie på empiriska bevis från en fallstudie på ett ledande produktbolag som tillverkar industriverktyg. Fallstudien omfattade olika datainsamlingsmetoder som t.ex. intervjuer och observationer, för att identifiera variabler och motstridiga intressen bland prioriteringar, processer och människor. Studien visade att resultatmätningsstrukturen (performance measurement structure) inte stödjer inkorporeringen av hållbarhetsprinciper i den operativa verksamheten i ett antal olika dimensioner på grund av i) förskjutning mellan placering av mätetal (performance measure) och resurskontroll,ii) försummad återkoppling från leverantör och iii) begränsad insikt att det råder skillnaderna mellan hållbarhetsprinciper och lean metoder. Bidraget till forskning och utövare understryker att även om det råder skillnader mellan lean metoder och hållbarhetsprinciper i vissa prestationsaspekter, har några av dessa skillnader en begränsad inverkan på prestationsmätningen. Desto större är deras inverkan på performance management nivå, givet den strategiska betydelsen av skillnaderna.

Sustainability is increasing in importance nowadays and Sweden is one of the most sustainability- focused countries in the world. Environmental sustainability is considered to be a key factor for business growth and companies incorporate this aspect in their brand marketing strategies. The purpose of this study is to get a broader understanding of the field of environmental sustainability work in connection to brand equity in Sweden. The main contribution of this study derives from studying how companies work with environmental sustainability to improve brand equity from a company’s perspective in Sweden. A qualitative approach was chosen, which included semi- structured interviews with seven companies that operate in Sweden. This paper develops an analytical model in order to analyse the findings from the interviews. The findings suggest that companies can work with environmental sustainability to improve their brand equity in Sweden by using strategies and practices that fit the company. It is important to consider the local context of Sweden, the market demands and requirements of its stakeholders and adopt a holistic approach in order to improve brand equity. Companies can choose to incorporate environmental sustainability work as an add-on to their brand or base the core of the brand around their work.