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.

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The integration of innovation and sustainability has become important aspects for firms to consider in order to remain competitive. To address these issues and/or opportunities, firms need to have or acquire the knowledge and skills in order to have the capabilities necessary to implement and develop sustainable innovations. In a fluctuating market, the dynamic capabilities of a firm becomes important to address possible threats and opportunities prominent for sustainability-oriented innovations (SOI). In current literature, there is a lack of understanding on how the dynamic capabilities of a firm affect their ability to develop and implement SOI. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis was to explore how firms’ dynamic capabilities affect their ability to develop and implement SOI. To gather more in-depth insights about this phenomenon, this thesis conducted a single-case study on a firm operating in the greenhouse farming industry. The thesis concludes that the dynamic capabilities facilitate their abilities to develop and implement SOIs. Furthermore, eight microfoundations enabling dynamic capabilities were unveiled as key enablers of dynamic capabilities for firms ability to develop and implement SOIs. This thesis contributes to existing literature by acknowledging that the dynamic capabilities of a firm facilitate the development and implementation of SOI.

Both the ecological and social system are systematically degrading, resulting in decreasing capacities to support human civilization. Product development and manufacturing companies play a key role in driving society’s transition towards a sustainable path. Besides moral arguments, the motivation for companies can be expressed as a matter of smart risk management, i.e. avoiding threats and exploiting opportunities. Such sustainability risks can be related to, for example, brand and reputation, legislative change, or attracting top-talented employees. But, more importantly, it is about understanding changes that are inevitable on markets to come. Based on Maxwell’s interactive qualitative research approach and following the structure of the Design Research Methodology, this thesis aims to contribute (i) to knowledge by increasing the conceptual understanding of what sustainability risks are; and (ii) to practice by researching decision-support for how sustainability risks can be managed in a product development company context. The first study reviewed existing literature and identified characteristics of sustainability risks, which make them particularly difficult to manage. A following exploratory and descriptive study investigated companies’ current risk management practices and preconditions for sustainability integration. It showed that the effects of uncertainty from the sustainability transition need to be identified, assessed, and managed in relation to how they can affect objectives anchored in both internal and external stakeholder value creation. In parallel, the Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development was applied as a lens to understand the implications of the sustainability transition for company risk management. This resulted in a new definition, stating that sustainability risks are threats and opportunities that are due to an organization’s contribution or counteraction to society’s transition towards strategic sustainable development. A questionnaire study then investigated some case companies’ challenges and preconditions to build sustainability capabilities. Finally, a workshop method is proposed that aims to support design teams in early sustainable product development. Future research will leverage on the findings to develop and test decision support for how product development companies can manage sustainability risks on different organizational levels in practice to increase competitiveness, while taking leadership in the transition towards a sustainable society.

Achieving the balance between the three sustainability aspects i.e., environmental, social, and economic has been a problem for many companies, where many of them still prioritize the economic aspect over the environmental and social aspects. Currently, many companies and energy utilities are going through major changes in their energy systems, and to be able to stay in the market and be competitive, they need to have clear and effective policies and a clear purpose. To examine the challenges that energy utilities are going through and are restraining them from balancing between the three pillars, a qualitative method has been used. Additionally, the solutions to these challenges and which organizations can help were also examined by interviewing two Swedish companies. The findings revealed that the challenges energy utilities were going through were related to knowledge (e.g., customer acceptance, cost, waste reduction, and consuming energy without exhausting the earth's resources). On the other hand, the solutions were knowledge, educating customers, citizens, and companies, getting help from the governments and politicians, such as encouraging the implementation of CSR, laws, and financial incentives. Knowledge has been perceived as the biggest challenge and solution for almost all companies, where increasing awareness and education campaigns would play a big role in solving the problems that companies are going through.

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abstract: Human connection is fundamental for a shift toward sustainable societies. Small groups of people working in response to their unique conditions and environment can find joy in the co-creation of a shared existence. A collaborative network of related efforts can contribute to a broader understanding of resilience and adaptation, aiming toward a regenerative relationship with the Earth and all species. Such an approach ameliorates both pervasive loneliness and extreme inequity that have grown from modern consumerist individualism, through a strong focus on trust, respect and authenticity. I have created a structure to pursue these goals as an applied Sustainability researcher and artist. First, I present a tool that measures and guides community-based work to support the values of equity, justice, transformation and connection. I follow this with an in-depth process of qualitative inquiry grounded in an applied participatory design project to gain insight on the act of building connection across perceived divides. Finally, I share “The Building Community:” the group and process I formed with formerly homeless individuals who are co-designing a tiny home ecovillage of transitional supportive housing for homeless human beings in the Skid Row neighborhood of downtown Los Angeles. The Building Community method combines Council-style talking circles with elements of Action and Design research in which equal co-learners embark on a fun and challenging journey to nurture housing security, interconnectedness, and sustainability. The results of this research indicate an opportunity for community-based researchers to further incorporate support for the rights of nature, decolonization efforts and preservation of the commons into their projects. Flexible structure, consistency, balanced effort and shared decision making proved to build a strong foundation for group processes centered on trust. Finally, The Building Community showed that intimate local groups can produce abundant and creative sustainability solutions when partnered with academic guidance and resources. Sustainability scholars have the chance to balance power, amplify voices and make collective visions manifest if they immerse themselves in efforts on the ground. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Sustainability 2019

This Bachelor thesisis  a  comparison  of  two  different  concrete  forms  viewed  from  a sustainable perspective by using a Multi Criteria Decision Making(MCDM)method. Sustainability  is  a  broad  concept,  often  degraded  in threepartswhich  are  financial-,environmental-and  socialsustainability. This Bachelor thesisstrives  to  determine what sustainability is when it comes to monolithic concrete casting in Sweden. In this Bachelor thesissustainabilityhas   been   degraded   in threeparts,   financial-,environmental-and work environmental sustainability.Although,the  two  different  forms  fill  the  same  function,  they  differ  in  many  areas. The first one, TRIO,is made of steel and plywoodand is heavy, loud, with a big area and in need of a crane to be able toassemblethe form. The second one, DUO,is made from the composite  materialPolytech  and  isalmost  soundless,  with  a  smaller  area and lightweight tobe able to be used without crane.    The purpose of the MCDM-methodis to create a tool with the purpose of facilitating the  choice  of  concrete  forms  for  monolithic  casting  while  taking  sustainability  into account.   The   tool   is   to   ease   the   decision   in   building   production   for   both  the contractor and for designers. The Bachelor thesisis a case study with both qualitative and quantitative methods.To make  a  fair  comparison  between  the  two forms  in  this Bachelor thesis,a  fictitious project  is  created toevaluate  different  criteria  for  sustainability  in  design  and production. This is doneunder the same premises to be able to obtain an equivalent result.In the fictitious project it turned out that TRIO was the best choice from work environment and economic sustainability, from environmental sustainability it turned out that DUO was the best. Furthermore, it has been difficult to obtain full validity in the MCDM method, all criteria have not been fulfilled inthe environmental field. The environmental area has been the most difficult to investigate and to obtain relevant data in.MCDM has good opportunities to provide great benefit if there were more standardized data to put into it. In this work, very much work was done for a small result.

ii Abstract The topic of his thesis, "Social Sustainability", arising from the social sciences, specifically sociology, has naturally its core focus on society and its functioning. To be more exact, the functioning of society in context of integration, which is an ever more growing topic in the globalised world we live in. In relation to this thesis, an integrational project/workshop has been carried out at a folk high school, Brandbjerg, in Denmark, with the purpose to practically test, the methodological measurability of change in subjectivity. Worth mentioning, that the hosting community, in terms of immigration, was in focus and its perception on variation of habitus. Hereto, Q-Methodology from William Stephenson functioned as the foundation for the development of the workshop, as well as it aided the analysis of the therefrom taken data, to determine a change in the participants subjectivity. The aim of this practical implementation, was to put the findings into perspective of the theoretical framework of sustainability, specifically social sustainability. The findings served in combination with face to face interaction as part of social integration, to underline the need for sustainable integration and an alteration of social sustainability upon further research. A tendency was determined as being the...

Today's organizations have an important societal responsibility to engage in sustainabledevelopment to ensure that future generations can fulfill their needs. It makes it crucial foremployees, as a central part of the organization, to be involved in the sustainability work toachieve the sustainable development goals. The purpose of this study is to examine howemployees in an organisation experience the sustainability work and what strategies they candistinguish for the sustainability work. We have chosen to investigate this at MAX burgersAB because they are known for their sustainability work. Based on this, four questions havebeen formulated regarding what employees know about what sustainability work consists ofin the organisation, how they experience the sustainability work, what strategies they candistinguish for sustainability work in the organisation and if there is a common perception ofthese strategies. Previous research has shown the importance of implementing sustainabilitywork in the organizational culture and how this is done by practical and theoretical learning.The theoretical framework of this study consists of Schein's (2010) theory of organizationalculture. This case study is based on seven qualitative interviews of employees at differentMAX burgers AB restaurants in Sweden and shows that employees mainly experiencesustainability work through an environmental perspective. The study also shows that theemployees can not distinguish strategies for sustainability work in the organizationthemselves, however the strategies we distinguish are formal education, staff meetings andcertain routines in the performance of work tasks. / Organisationer har idag ett viktigt samhälleligt ansvar att arbeta med hållbar utveckling för attsäkra en framtid för kommande generationer. Det blir då särskilt viktigt att medarbetare somen central del av organisationen involveras i hållbarhetsarbetet så att hållbarhetsmålen kanuppnås. Syftet med denna studie är således att undersöka hur medarbetare i en organisationupplever detta hållbarhetsarbete, samt vilka strategier medarbetare kan urskilja förhållbarhetsarbetet. För att undersöka detta har vi valt MAX burgers AB då de betraktas somledande inom hållbarhet både i Sverige och internationellt. Utifrån detta har fyrafrågeställningar formulerats som handlar om vad medarbetare vet om vad som ingår ihållbarhetsarbetet, hur medarbetare upplever hållbarhetsarbetet i organisationen, vilkastrategier för hållbarhetsarbete som går att urskilja utifrån medarbetares perspektiv, samt omdet råder en gemensam uppfattning hos medarbetare kring dessa strategier. Tidigare forskninghar lyft vikten av att implementera hållbarhetsarbete i organisationskulturen och hur detta görsgenom praktiskt och teoretiskt lärande. Studiens teoretiska ramverk består av Scheins (2010)teori om organisationskultur. Fallstudien baseras på sju kvalitativa intervjuer med medarbetarefrån olika MAX restauranger i Sverige och visar bland annat att medarbetare främst uppleverhållbarhetsarbete ur ett miljöperspektiv. Studien visar även att respondenterna inte själva kanurskilja strategier för organisationens hållbarhetsarbete, men de strategier som vi urskiljer medutgångspunkt i det insamlade materialet är utbildningar, personalmöten och rutiner kring vissaarbetsuppgifter.