Background: Corporate Social Responsibility has been studied since the 1970s, but was originally controversial and met opposition from e.g. Milton Friedman who viewed a company’s responsibility as being strictly economic. Since then, CSR has grown in scope and importance, especially within the fast fashion industry, and is now a central part of academia and business operations. However, the debate whether companies’ responsibilities are only economic or also include responsibilities such as social, environmental, and transparency- related is still ongoing, and it is therefore interesting to study how companies view their own responsibilities. Purpose: Our research aims to fill the existing research gap regarding how companies view their responsibilities by providing an overview of how the CSR work has changed over time in fast fashion companies. Research Question: How has the focus of the CSR work changed over time in large, international, fast-fashion companies? Methods: A qualitative content analysis inspired by grounded theory was used to answer the research question. The data material consisted of H&M’s sustainability reports from 2002, 2005, 2008, 2011, 2014, 2017 and 2019. The material was categorized into social, environmental or transparency dimensions, along with several under-categories. A simpler analysis of news articles regarding sustainability during the period 2002-2019 was also performed. Results: The results suggest that the fast fashion industry has increased their sense of responsibility as the expectations of stakeholders in the area has grown, and that CSR work increasingly is seen as a possible competitive advantage. The results also show that the most difficult parts to fulfill is the ethical level of the CSR pyramid, due to the difficulty of comprehending and fulfilling the stakeholders’ different expectations and demands, and the social dimension, because of its profound complexity, especially within fast-fashion.

Nowadays, businesses are considering implementing sustainability and using it as a strategy. Many corporate are focusing on the sustainability of their business, hence how do small businesses or entrepreneurs approaching sustainability? Is sustainability essentialfor them as well? This study focuses on young entrepreneurs' perspectives towards sustainability implementation and theirmotivation on opening a business in the F&B industry. The youngentrepreneurs' backgrounds, beliefs, and characteristics willinfluence their perspectives on sustainability implementation. The aim of this study is to know young entrepreneurs’ perspectives on implementing sustainability in the F&B business. This study uses a qualitative research method and focuses on five young entrepreneurs from Indonesia and Malaysia. The theoretical framework is targeting the F&B industry, entrepreneurs' actions in the business,sustainability as strategy, last but not least sustainability, andbusiness. The data collection uses structured interviews andqualitative interviews. The result of the study is shown as thecombination of theoretical frameworks and interviews; thus, it wasdivided into young entrepreneurs' actions in the business andperspectives of sustainability implementation.

To assess sustainability of privately owned rangeland, a questionnaire was used to gathered data from ranches in Cooke, Montague, Clay, Wise, Parker, and Jack counties in North Central Texas. Information evaluated included: management philosophy, economics, grazing practices, environmental condition, quality of life, and demographics. Sustainability indices were created based on economic and land health indicator variables meeting a minimum Cronbach‘s alpha coefficient (α = 0.7). Hierarchical regression analysis was used to create models explaining variance in respondents’ indices scores. Five predictors explained 36% of the variance in rangeland economic sustainability index when respondents: 1) recognized management inaction has opportunity costs affecting economic viability; 2) considered forbs a valuable source of forage for wildlife or livestock; 3) believed governmental assistance with brush control was beneficial; 4) were not absentee landowners and did not live in an urban area in Texas, and; 5) valued profit, productivity, tax issues, family issues, neighbor issues or weather issues above that of land health. Additionally, a model identified 5 predictors which explained 30% of the variance for respondents with index scores aligning with greater land health sustainability. Predictors indicated: 1) fencing cost was not an obstacle for increasing livestock distribution; 2) land rest was a component of grazing plans; 3) the Natural Resource Conservation Service was used for management information; 4) fewer acres were covered by dense brush or woodlands, and; 5) management decisions were not influenced by friends. Finally, attempts to create an index and regression analysis explaining social sustainability was abandoned, due to the likely-hood of type one errors. These findings provide a new line of evidence in assessing rangeland sustainability, supporting scientific literature concerning rangeland sustainability based on ranch level indicators. Compared to measuring parameters on small plots, the use of indices allows for studying replicated whole- ranch units using rancher insight. Use of sustainability indices may prove useful in future rangeland research activities.

This study aims to establish an understanding of corporate sustainability and how companies communicate their sustainability. It also evaluates how sustainability reporting is addressed by various corporate companies by using GRI reporting guidelines and ISO standards, and also how these standards and guidelines are helping the companies to achieve Sustainable Development Goals. A literature review was conducted to understand the various approaches to developing a sustainability report. A theoretical relationship matrix was carried out to establish the relationship of ISO standard (clauses are the section in ISO standard which defines the action or requirements to be carried out, ISO in this research is used to represent the various important areas in a company) with the GRI guidelines (disclosure, are the section used to report contextual information about an organization and its sustainability reporting practices), and a list of the number of SDGs which each GRI disclosure and ISO standard achieves was developed. Four industrial sectors were selected and one company in each sector was used as a case study. The SDG impact assessment web-based tool was used to represent the information provided by the companies in their sustainability report/annual report. From the case studies, it was understood that, out of 4 companies, two companies employed GRI reporting guidelines i.e 2 companies used twin approaches for reporting their sustainability and 2 companies used inside-out reporting approaches. Whereas all the companies had ISO 14001:2015 certification, 3 out of 4 companies had ISO 9001:2015 certification and 2 out of 4 had companies ISO 45001:2018 certified. With this, we can understand a broad picture of corporate sustainability, and in-depth sustainability analysis of one industrial sector from the companies point of view has to be carried out in future.

Begreppet Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) innebär att företagen har ett ansvar för den påverkan dess verksamhet har på samhället. Ansvaret består i att identifiera problemområden och frågor som berör företagets intressenter, d.v.s. kunder, anställda, leverantörer, aktieägare samt lokalsamhällen och sedan aktivt agera på att ansvarsfullt sätt gentemot dessa. Det finns ett tydligt gap mellan teorier kring vad CSR är och bör innefatta och hur företagen använder sig av CSR som strategi i sin företagsverksamhet. Det finns ingen entydighet kring vad företagsansvar är och bör vara. Det är troligt att olika branscher, trots stora skillnader, också har gemensamma nämnare vad gäller identifierade utmaningar. Det är av intresse att kartlägga dessa skillnader och likheter i en branschöverskridande jämförelse för att kunna förstå hur företag bäst bör arbeta med sina CSR- strategier. Syftet med denna studie är främst att undersöka hur svenska företag inom olika branscher implementerar strategiskt hållbarhetsarbete i sin affärsverksamhet. Studien ämnar kartlägga hur företagen kommunicerar sitt arbete inom områdena miljö och socialt ansvarstagande, samt identifiera gemensamma faktorer och skillnader som är kopplade till implementering av strategisk CSR. Studien omfattar fyra svenska företag som är börsnoterade och ledande inom sin bransch: ABB, Electrolux, H&M och SEB. Denna studie utgörs av dels en litteraturstudie i syfte att undersöka den vetenskapliga forskningen kring CSR-området och dels har en rad intervjuer genomförts med de företag som ingår i studien. Litteraturstudien visar att den akademiska utvecklingen av CSR helt stannat av då nutida forskning inom området uteslutande hänvisar till tidigare studier. På grund av förvirringen kring begreppet CSR så har svenska företag helt valt övergå till att använda hållbarhet när de beskriver sitt strategiska arbete inom CSR. Resultatet visar att det har skett en branschspecifik anpassning av konceptet CSR både vad gäller tolkning och praktisk tillämpning. Det finns inga egentliga skillnader i hur företagen strategiskt arbetar med CSR eftersom samtliga företag i denna studie tillämpar samma riktlinjer och metoder för intressentanalys, materialitetsanalys osv. Den största skillnaden är vilka aktiviteter som strategierna resulterar i. Här ser man skillnader mellan olika branscher eftersom specifika prioriterade områden är nära kopplade till den egna verksamheten. Det är inte självklart att företag ska ta ett samhällsansvar. Det går inte heller att fastställa hur stort och vilken typ av samhällsansvar företagen bör ta utöver den egna verksamheten. Vad som däremot går att avgöra är att ett företag oundvikligt påverkas av samhället eftersom ett företag utgörs av människor. Slutsatsen är att ju större ett företag är, desto med ansvar kan och bör de ta. / The concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) means that companies have a responsibility for the impact its activities have on society. The responsibility is to identify problem areas and issues affecting the company’s stakeholders, that is, customers, employees, suppliers, shareholders, and local communities and then actively acts in a responsible manner towards them. There is a clear gap between theories about what CSR is and should include and how companies use CSR as a strategy in their business. There is no clarity about what corporate responsibility is and should be. It is likely that different industries, despite major differences, also have common denominators in terms of identified challenges. It is of interest to identify these differences and similarities in a cross- industry comparison in order to understand how companies should work with their CSR strategies. The purpose of this study is primarily to investigate how Swedish companies in various industries implement strategic sustainability work in their business. The study intends to identify how companies communicate their work in the areas of environmental and social responsibility, and to identify common factors and differences linked to the implementation of strategic CSR. The study comprises four Swedish companies that are listed and leading within their respective industry: ABB, Electrolux, H&M and SEB. This study consists of both a literature review in order to examine the scientific research in the area of CSR and also includes a series of interviews conducted with the companies. The literature review shows that the academic development of CSR as a concept has come to a standstill since modern research in the field exclusively refer to previous studies. Because of the confusion about the concept of CSR Swedish companies are using the term sustainability when they describe their strategic work in the field of CSR. The results show that there has been an industry- specific adaptation of the concept of CSR in terms of both interpretation and practical application. There are no real differences in how companies are working strategically with CSR, as all companies in this study apply to the same policies and guidelines for stakeholder analysis, materiality analysis etc. The main difference is which activities the strategies result in. Here you see the differences between different industries, since the established areas of priority are closely linked to the companies’ own operations. It is not obvious whether companies should take social responsibility. Nor is it possible to determine how much and what kind of social responsibility companies should take in excess of its own operations. However, it is possible to determine that a company is inevitably influenced by society, since a company consists of people. The conclusion is that the bigger a company is, the more responsibility can and should it take.

This research leads to investigate the response of French companies through their corporate sustainability policies as a result of the different types of pressure that stakeholders can bring. The influence of stakeholders is increasingly significant towards ethical and environmental issues. Stakeholders do not hesitate to set up actions to make themselves heard. Social and environmental concerns facing this polluting industry make food companies exposed to more and more pressures that they must manage.  The academic literature necessary for the understanding of this study was carefully selected from online academic libraries. The literature review defined the objective of balancing Profit, People and Planet in corporate sustainability policies and its implementation through the Triple Bottom Line model. Also, the pressure groups are defined according to the academic literature and associated with Freeman's theory on stakeholders. This literature was coupled with collected primary data. Interviews were conducted with three French companies of different sizes to guarantee a realistic representation of the market. The interest of the inductive method used is to be able to apply the observations made on a larger scale.   The results obtained are grouped under five themes to facilitate their identification: Quality, Ethics, Environment, Consumer's power, and Well-Being. Under each of these themes, one or more stakeholders exert pressures to achieve the same objective. The strategies adopted by companies vary according to the type of pressure they face. Each company adapts its corporate sustainability policies to the pressures according to its size. Large companies will be better resourced than small ones. All corporate actions have two objectives: the satisfaction of their stakeholders and the improvement of the company in terms of sustainability.   This thesis contributes to the Stakeholder's theory and Triple Bottom Line model. The combination of these two theories is essential to explain the two converging phenomena of this thesis: pressures and sustainable responses.

Sustainability reporting is something that has gained much ground lately, and there is no sign of it decreasing. The purpose of a sustainability report is to disclose the non-financial information between a company and its stakeholders. To present a sustainability report is mandatory for larger companies, many smaller companies do also provide its stakeholder with one voluntarily. In the last decade there has been a steadily increasing trend when it comes to being environmentally friendly. More companies need to take responsibility for their actions in the world, in order for it to sustain and last longer. There have been some scandals throughout the years when it comes to sustainability reporting which has made a negative impact on the reliability of the reports. Previous research and literature have shown that there are a lot of uncertainties when it comes to what exactly transparency means and how it can be interpreted from different perspectives and situations. The purpose with this study is to collect information and analyze the interpret transparency of a sustainability report from an investors perspective. The information collected can then be addressed to answer the research question “How is the transparency in a sustainability report perceived by an investor?.” The thesis is using a qualitative methodology consisting of semi-structured interviews and has an inductive research approach. The theories connected to the conceptual framework in this thesis is signaling theory and legitimacy theory. The semi-structured interview was made with people who own stocks in a company that presents a sustainability report, also called investors. Twelve investors were interviewed and provided good information to create a comprehensive answer for the research question. The result of this study shows that the investors do not think a sustainability report is transparent enough. They believe that companies do not show the whole truth in a sustainability report. The information is not fully complete, one hundred percent truthful, as objective as it can be/not angled, and the information is used in other purposes rather than just disclose non-financial information. These answers do not match up with a general definition of transparency which then means that a sustainability report is not interpreted as transparent by the investors participating in this particular study. The investors do also believe that one general definition of transparency or area specific definition would be better. They do also advocate for more external interference of the reports.

Background:  The introduction of the EU-taxonomy for sustainable activities in 2020 aims to create a shift in investments to foster sustainable growth. It classifies an organisation as “green” or not based on a predetermined set of categories and criteria. However, not all organisations are included. Small to medium enterprises are not included, and do not need to report on their activities. However, there exist SMEs which decided to still, to the extent possible, voluntarily comply with the EU-taxonomy. This form of voluntary compliance has not been explored in the prior literature.    Purpose:  The purpose of this study is to investigate the “Why” and the “How” of SMEs voluntarily compliance with the EU-taxonomy sustainability regulation.   Method:  In order to fulfil the purpose an interpretive qualitative approach has been adopted in this study. A comparative case study is used to develop an understanding of the individual cases but also their comparative aspects through a cross analysis. The information from the cases was collected through semi-structured interviews as well as from secondary data such as annual reports.    Conclusion:  This study concludes that while there are a multitude of reasons why an SME voluntarily complies to the EU-taxonomy, such as reputation and environment. “How” an organisation voluntarily complies is highly dependent on the industry and resources of an organisation.

Companies all over the world are seeking ways to address sustainability related issues, both to meet external expectations and as a way to find opportunities for growth and innovation. Many attempts have been made in providing descriptions and guidance in how sustainability can be adopted within corporations. However, much of earlier research has focused on the manufacturing industry where materials and production processes are central in the concept. How sustainability can be incorporated in service industries, more specifically by IT service providers (ITSPs), is a somewhat unexplored area even though the potential for sustainability related risks as well as opportunities are high. Previous research in this area that has set out to construct models of this phenomenon has not managed to consider the characteristics of  ITservice providers to the fullest. This study has investigated how ITSPs can incorporate sustainability into business practices through a multiple-case study with four ITSP and one technical consulting company. The data has been collected through interviews and document analysis, and analyzed both separately nd by comparison. Additional interviews were held with experts and professionals with relevant knowledge to strengthen the findings. This study resulted in model that can serve as an analytical tool and presentation format  hen incorporating sustainability in business practices within the IT Professional service industry. The results showed that incorporation of sustainability in practices needs to be divided in two main categories; incorporating sustainability in internal operations and incorporating sustainability in customer offerings. Within these categories the study identified a number of activities that ITSPs can undertake to incorporate sustainability and what outcomes they may have. It was concluded that the activities in within internal operations were primarily focused n building trust towards customers. The study also showed that incorporating  ustainability in customer offerings can be done to different extent with different outcomes. The critical activities to successfully incorporate sustainability in customer offerings has been described in the study and visualized in a 3-level map to further provide guidance. A main finding within this category was that interaction with the customer is crucial to successfully deploy service offerings that incorporate sustainability. The results can be generalized to other ITSPs in similar settings and parts can also be argued to be adoptable to other companies in the professional service industry that rely on intense technology.

Research questions                How do different cultural perceptions of sustainability affect the consumer behavior towards EVs? Purpose:                                         To inductively explore some different perceptions of sustainability in comparison between Sweden, Germany, United Emirates, and Saudi Arabia, as well as to investigate how these perceptions influence consumer behavior towards the EV industry with Tesla leading the way. Method:                                           This research was conducted with an exploratory qualitative approach. The empirical data was obtained through online interviewing using WhatsApp. Findings were thematically analyzed.  Conclusion:                                 The focus of this exploratory study is to gain a deeper knowledge and understanding the different perceptions of sustainability and investigate the factors behind the related consumer behavior to be taken into consideration when perceiving sustainability development in business. The comparison between Sweden, Germany, United Emirates, and Saudi Arabia sheds light on how these differences contribute to a better understanding for the EV marketing in general and Tesla in particular.