The purpose of this study is to gain better understanding of the role of leadership in achieving sustainable business. I inquire how sustainability might be more embedded in the day-to-day operations of business beyond the rhetoric of strategic plans, vacuous mission statements and technological fixes. I am exploring how leadership might be embodied in behaviour to promote sustainable business practice. What approaches to leadership might we adopt that are more commensurate with the cyclical and relational nature of natural systems? How can we root discussions about leadership and sustainability in an understanding that both are socially constructed phenomena? This is the field to which my research aims to contribute an empirical study. What constitutes sustainable business practice remains unclear, and due to its very situated nature this is likely to remain the case. My research is prompted by reports in the literature suggesting that approaches taken to date to promote more sustainable ways of doing business have been limited and slow. Furthermore the mainly techno-centric approaches that have been applied in some cases are reputed to exacerbate the continued dualism between human activity and the environment. The leadership literature is swamped with books, conferences and workshops on the subject of sustainability. Despite this, a ‘how’ gap exists between the rhetorical ideals of sustainable business practice and their working application, which this situated inquiry addresses. This inquiry centres on a small to medium size service sector company comprising two hotels located in a small sea-side resort in the South West region of the UK. The philosophy of the company – known here for the purpose of anonymity as The Hotels – is to maintain a successful luxury hotel business whilst at the same time minimising its negative ecological impact. Undertaking a longitudinal ethnographic study, I witnessed first-hand the leadership challenges posed by working to uphold this philosophy. In conclusion, my findings do not highlight any one action, way of being or simple stepped approach. Instead they combine ways of thinking and behaviours, some of which run contrary to the dominant positivist paradigm; daring to do things differently enables a successful business to minimise its negative ecological impact.

永續經營企業之研究 / The purpose for this case study was to educate the writer and readers about sustainability in business with an analysis of sustainability as it relates to some business topics like marketing, economics, accounting and entrepreneurship. The aim for the paper is to provide examples of SME’s and major corporations use of sustainability to increase value for stakeholders and society. The process involves looking at companies in Taiwan and around the world through lenses of sustainability reports, company websites and interviews. The paper also includes a local perspective of sustainability by looking at Taiwan’s AUO Optronics and the BCSD in Taiwan. (Business Council for Sustainable Development). The outcome: improved understanding of basic actions companies take to address sustainability to improve business success.

Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) represent about 90% of global businesses. SMEs account, on the average, for about 50% of gross domestic product (GDP) of all countries and up to 60% of employment. In South Africa, SMEs account for about 91% of all formally registered business entities, contributing to about 57% of the GDP and providing about 60% of all formal employment. However, SMEs are said to contribute up to 70% of all industrial pollution globally. SMEs individually perceive little or no impact on the environment and may attempt to relieve themselves of environmental responsibility. Although, the environmental footprint of individual SMEs may be small, collectively they contribute substantially to environmental damage globally. Research on environmental activities of SMEs is rare and mostly neglected. This research attempts to close this gap by exploring the understanding, practices, barriers and motivation for environmental practices by SMEs in South Africa. This research was realised through semi-structured interviews of nine SMEs located in Eastern Cape, Western Cape, Gauteng and KwaZulu Natal. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / pagibs2014 / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / MBA / Unrestricted

In light of a stronger recognition of the need for sustainable business practices as “business as usual” no longer presents itself as a viable option, this study aims to cast light on the current work of Swedish SMEs with integrative sustainability. Within the academic field of sustainability in business, the latest years have seen the emergence of multiple frameworks that promote a holistic sustainability approach to conducting business. The single firm becomes a connecting member of an extensive stakeholder network and by operating in an economically, environmentally and socially sustainable manner, the business seeks to create value for a variety of stakeholder groups, rather than focusing on monetary objectives set by shareholders. These new integrative frameworks shift the understanding of a firm from a profit-maximiser to that of a value-creator that acts sustainably to cater to the needs of all its stakeholders. However, as the models have only recently featured across academia, their real-life applicability and viability are contested, and in some ways, remains under-researched, particularly in the context of SMEs. With Sweden as a leading example in sustainability implementation, this study attempts to provide insight into how SMEs work with the elements of these frameworks and which opportunities and challenges they encounter during implementation. Through conducting detailed, qualitative and personal semi-structured interviews with the CEOs of six sustainability-minded Swedish SMEs of different industrial backgrounds, this research gauges the current organisational efforts being made in terms of sustainability and relates them to the integrative value-creating frameworks to identify congruences, divergences and room for improvement in line with latest theories. The main conclusions drawn as part of this process include the continued, at least partial, unfamiliarity of businesses with the frameworks, despite a large degree of compatibility of current practical efforts and existing academic theory. Value creation is moving closer to being included in the core of the business model, yet while absolute profit maximisation receives less attention, hesitation towards implementing sustainability more integratively is driven by concerns of losing grounds for profitability. The establishment of clusters and strong relationships leading to mutual synergies is found as a potential way to provide firms with the structural support to shift fully towards value-creation as envisioned by the investigated frameworks.

Sustainability and the penetration of new markets beyond developed industries are two topics that are gaining increasing attention both in research and in business practice. As Western industries are becoming saturated, companies are looking for further business alternatives and are focusing on North-South opportunities, among others. Therefore, bottom-of-the-pyramid markets are often mentioned as promising mass markets. However, market access remains a challenge, as bottom-of-the-pyramid contexts are characterized by low incomes, resource constraints, and infrastructural barriers. In addition, sustainable practices are a challenge. Since the introduction of the Sustainable Development Goals by the United Nations, which apply to all countries, companies are required to address aspects of sustainability in their business practices. However, they have to cope with conflicting dimensions inherent to sustainability such as improving economic and social aspects, which are usually accompanied by higher resource demands and environmental degradation. Previous literature started to address these issues by focusing on innovative approaches such as frugal innovation, social innovation, or resource-constrained innovation. In the last decade, research on frugal innovations has particularly focused on how to address the challenges of low-income and resource-constrained contexts, often with aspects of sustainability in mind. However, to address these low-income contexts, having a suitable innovation is not enough; businesses must actually reach the target group, such as by overcoming accessibility issues in rural areas. Initial research has examined the value chains of frugal innovations and ways to engage the consumer, which also leads to social improvements. Building on this research, this dissertation combines four themes – frugal innovation, sustainability, inclusive business, and Scrum – to illustrate how innovations can address the needs of target groups in bottom-of-the-pyramid contexts and how these innovations can be implemented by engaging target customers. The first paper illustrates the links between frugal innovation and sustainability based on a new sustainability evaluation framework. All cases considered contribute to sustainability, with social improvements being most notable. New employment and income opportunities are key social improvements. They reflect inclusive business approaches, which are the focus of the second paper. The case examples of the second paper show how frugal innovation can be implemented in accordance with inclusive business, which leads to customer involvement and thus mutually supports frugal innovation. The Inclusive Business Link Model for Frugal Innovation was built to show connections of frugal innovation and inclusive business and to provide application possibilities. A key finding was that for the cases considered a high level of customer integration can be achieved through frugal innovations with modular designs and is supported by knowledge transfer and partnerships. To address knowledge transfer and partnerships in particular, the last paper applies Scrum as an agile approach at the execution level for inclusive business. In developing the conceptual model Inclusive Business Scrum Approach, inclusive business is considered as the 'what' and Scrum as the 'how' in engaging low-income consumers. With regard to all three papers and the four included topics, this dissertation achieves several outcomes and contributes to a broader view of how low-income consumers can be addressed. First, each paper illustrates benefits of combining the concepts that could be valuable when addressing the bottom-of-the-pyramid context. Thereby, the papers build on each other and include previous results. Second, aspects of social sustainability are addressed mainly by combining frugal innovation and inclusive business. Third, each paper develops a model or framework intending to support practical applicability. Finally, an outline is provided for how combining frugal innovation, inclusive business, and Scrum positively could impact partnerships, knowledge transfer, and the empowerment of the target group, which could culminate in an approach that addresses challenges experienced when entering the Bottom of the Pyramid that also considers sustainability. The new management options developed begin at a general level and end at an execution level and thus contribute to holistic perspectives on innovations, approaches, and implementation options for organizations intending to address the Bottom of the Pyramid.:Abstract 1 Table of Contents 3 List of Abbreviations 6 List of Tables 7 List of Figures 8 1 Introduction 9 2 Theoretical background 15 2.1 Defining sustainability 15 2.2 The BoP as target group 18 2.3 Frugal innovation 20 2.4 Inclusive business 22 2.5 The agile approach Scrum 25 2.6 Contribution of the investigations and the current relevance of topics 28 3 Methodology 30 4 Papers 32 4.1 Publication 1: Introducing a Sustainability Evaluation Framework based on the Sustainable Development Goals applied to Four Cases of South African Frugal Innovation 32 4.1.1 Introduction 33 4.1.2 Theoretical background and research context 34 4.1.3 Methodology 38 4.1.4 Developing an evaluation framework 40 4.1.5 Limitations 44 4.1.6 Introducing the frugal cases 44 4.1.7 Findings 45 4.1.8 Discussion 48 4.1.9 Conclusion 49 4.2 Publication 2: How Frugal Innovation and Inclusive Business Are Linked to Tackle Low-income Markets 51 4.2.1 Introduction 51 4.2.2 Literature review 55 4.2.3 Methods 62 4.2.4 Results 66 4.2.5 Cross case analysis 75 4.2.6 Inclusive business integration stair model 77 4.2.7 Development of propositions 82 4.2.8 Discussion 84 4.2.9 Research implications 86 4.2.10 Managerial implications 87 4.2.11 Concluding remarks and future research 88 4.3 Publication 3: Boosting Inclusive Businesses’ Opportunities Through the Adoption of Scrum: an Execution Strategy to Enter Low-end Markets 91 4.3.1 Introduction 92 4.3.2 Theoretical background 94 4.3.3 Conceptual model: Inclusive Business Scrum Approach 99 4.3.4 Challenges 106 4.3.5 Summary of key facts and propositions 108 4.3.6 Conclusion 111 4.3.7 Research implications 112 4.3.8 Managerial implications 113 4.3.9 Limitations and future research ideas 114 5 Discussion 116 5.1 Social sustainability 117 5.2 Partnerships 118 5.3 Knowledge transfer 118 5.4 Empowering the target group 119 5.5 Context challenges 119 6 Critical considerations and additional thoughts 121 6.1 Definition and contributions of frugal innovation 121 6.2 Sustainability of initiatives at the BoP and inclusive business 122 6.3 Aspects of leadership theories in Scrum 124 7 Methodological limitations 126 8 Research implications and future research ideas 128 9 Managerial implications 131 10 Conclusion 133 11 References 135 11.1 List of interviews 171 11.2 Further references used in Publication 2, anonymized form 171

Nachhaltigkeit als Leitidee bedingt einen Diskurs, mit dem Ziel eine Balance zwischen den Dimensionen Ökologie, Ökonomie, Soziales und Kultur (je nach herangezogenem Modell) herzustellen. Um die dazu not-wendigen nachhaltigen Aktivitäten, Ziele, Werte usw. umsetzen zu können ist ein fortlaufender Kommunikationsprozess erforderlich. Im Rahmen dieses Diskurses spielt Design eine bedeutende Rolle vor allem in Bezug auf das kommunikative Wirkziel: Glaubwürdigkeit schaffen. Ins-besondere in Systemen wie Unternehmen und Organisationen, denen eine Mitschuld an den Problemen der Erde und der Menschheit gegeben wird, ist die Kommunikation ihrer Verantwortung und damit verbundenen Aktivitäten für eine nachhaltige Entwicklung unerlässlich, um ihre Legitimität zu sichern. Die Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Kommunikation von Unternehmen und Organisationen manifestiert sich hauptsächlich in Form eines Rechenschaftsberichts (Nachhaltigkeitsbericht, CSR-Report) wobei dieser als gestaltetes Medium sowohl auf der textlichen als auch auf der visuellen Ebene argumentiert und mittels Glaubwürdigkeit das Vertrauen der Stakeholder und Leser gewinnen soll. Glaubwürdigkeit ist in Zeiten von Greenwashing und ‚Fake News‘ das wichtigste Qualitätskriterium auch für die visuelle Kommunikation.

v Abstract This thesis proposes a theoretical framework for application of ethics in banking and analyses effects of such application on financial performance of banks. A sentiments-adjusted economic motivation enables employment of ethical concepts, such as universality and humanity, in economics as well as banking. Then, using Bankscope data of more than 80,000 bank-year observations for the years 2003-2013, it is shown that banks applying ethics have higher exposure to real economy and less volatile Return on Equity. A consequent analysis revealed that in comparison with their closest peers those banks have lower profitability caused by higher relative costs that conversely result in lower loan losses. JEL Classification A13, B12, B16, G21, Q56 Keywords banking, ethics, economic motivation, Smith, self-interest, sentiments, Kant, sustainability, Bankscope, banking business models, within- between model, profitability, volatility, ethical, sustainable, values-based, social Length 115 862 characters Author's e-mail radek.halamka@gmail.com Supervisor's e-mail teply@fsv.cuni.cz

No description available.