The demand for sustainability initiatives is increasing by both consumers and organizations (Gittell, et al. 2013). It changes the way businesses are operating and communicating, hence the interest for sustainable marketing has increased. Sustainable marketing should not only be about initiatives to appear more environmental friendly or socially conscious, but rather about a more substantive and meaningful levels of commitments (ibid). Alongside these practical ideas of sustainable marketing, consumers’ requirements for sustainability have sometimes been used as a strategy to create sustainable communication, although companies are lacking initiatives of sustainability. The idea of marketing as a strategy to create desire and needless spending along with sustainability goals has been criticized as being in direct contradictories (Meller & Magaš 2014, Pettie 2001, Pettie & Belz 2010). Thus, the problematics compose of the discussed oxymoron between sustainability and marketing together with the difference between sustainable communication and communicating sustainability.   This qualitative study has been done with a starting position from the idea of addressing how sustainable marketing is practiced, why it is practiced and how the future outlook of the concept is perceived from a company perspective. The chosen theories for this study compose mainly of basic marketing theories and models with a sustainability adaption. A qualitative study addressing this issue from a company perspective has not been discovered in previous researches, which resulted in the idea of highlighting different companies’ opinions and practices of sustainable marketing. The findings have discovered the usage of sustainable marketing today and potentially in the future, together with reasons for why it is practiced. Sustainability has become a well-known concept with a lot of business scandals associated to it, which has been mentioned in this study as one of the reasons for the predictions of a future demand of real sustainable marketing practices.

It is increasingly evident that human development is proceeding in an unsustainable manner, and that large business organisations are significantly complicit in this process. In this context, the purpose of this study is to explore the possibilities by which business organisations could come to support sustainable development, with a particular focus on related barriers and how they may be overcome. Literature on business and sustainable development is dominated by managerialist, organisation-centric perspectives, where the focus is on business profitability rather than planetary sustainability. This study seeks to challenge this mainstream literature, engaging with more critical perspectives and exploring the subtleties of the contradictory arguments presented by these two literatures. Empirical investigation involved two major steps. First the thesis employs a) a content analysis and b) a “close reading” of corporate public utterances on sustainability. Secondly, and more substantively, the thesis comprises a series of semi-structured interviews with individuals in organisations. To obtain a range of perspectives on the sustainable development-business relationship, a number of “different types” of organisation are sampled, in the form of social enterprises, large PLCs, SMEs and co-owned businesses. Based on the research findings, it is argued that the most significant barriers within the business-sustainable development relationship in fact concern the nature of modern international financial capitalism, and the nature of business itself. Certain characteristics, such as growth, competition and self-interest, essential to both the nature of the “system” and the nature of business, are fundamentally incompatible with sustainable development. In recognising this dissonance, a blank canvas is created where new imaginings of “sustainable business” can begin to take place. Through detailed engagement with the critical and managerialist literatures, and drawing insight from the different types of organisations sampled, the thesis identifies a number of characteristics, such as collaboration, compromise and consideration of the common good, which may have the potential to enable an alternative, more “human”, and ultimately more “sustainable” form of business organisation.

This thesis explores the environmental and social responsibilities being increasingly shouldered by cement manufacturing sector and outlines a new approach for these companies to accept their responsibilities and to utilise professional approaches to address the economic, environmental and social dimensions of sustainable business. Managing these three dimensions in business translates corporate responsibility into an integrated responsibility for doing business profitably, ethically and in sustainable manner. This three-pronged approach is sometimes called the Triple Bottom Line. It helps companies to fulfil their more holistic Corporate Social Responsibility. A critical review of the literature led the thesis author to develop the theoretical framework for environmental and social reporting to proceed on TBL/CSR journey within the cement industry. Data were collected from TBL/CSR reports from cement companies on key environmental and social performances. Based upon those data, a questionnaire was developed to obtain more information from the leading worldwide cement companies. The combined results of the responses to the questionnaire and the quantitative data derived from the TBL/CSR reports were used to establish best practice benchmarks to serve as performance targets for the author's case study company, Oman Cement Company (OCC). The contribution to knowledge of this research is the summarisation and prioritisation of the cement industry's implementation of TBL/CSR management systems, which integrate the elements of TBL/CSR into their strategic plans and daily operational procedures. Guidelines were derived from the Global Reporting Initiative, the United Nations Global Compact and the new ISO 26000 standard, which promotes a new way of working towards innovation, value creation and incremental actions for transforming businesses to become more responsible. The contributions to practice of this research are the practical and procedural insights, gained by quantitative analysis of environmental and social indicators, into how cement companies are making improvements in their processes and products in response to climate change, economic, governmental regulations and social pressures for improvement. Based upon the findings, recommendations and timetables were developed and are being implemented within the OCC as it progresses on its TBL/CSR journey.

Ett hållbart företagande berör tre olika dimensioner: sociala dimensionerna, ekologiska dimensionerna och de ekonomiska dimensionerna.  För att arbeta mot ett hållbart företagande behöver ett företag kunna balansera dessa tre dimensioner samtidigt. Detta examensarbete syftar till att utifrån ett hållbart företagande undersöka de sociala, ekonomiska och ekologiska dimensionerna för att fastställa Bra miljötekniks befintliga hållbarhetsarbete. Studien analyserar hur de tre hållbarhetsdimensionerna integrerar med varandra. Detta för att få en ökad förståelse kring hur företaget bättre ska kunna anpassa sin verksamhet mot ett hållbart företagande.   För att skapa en djupare förståelse kring ämnet genomfördes en litteraturstudie. Litteraturinsamlingen består av avhandlingar och akademisk litteratur. Studien innehåller kvalitativa intervjuer med en semistrukturerad utformning. Syftet med intervjuerna var att skapa ökad förståelse kring hur företaget arbetar med sina sociala åtaganden. Både en direkt-intervju och en telefonintervju genomfördes.   Sociala aspekter och förhållanden vid företaget undersöks i studien genom en semistrukturerad intervju. De ekonomiska aspekterna undersöks genom viktning av tung lastbil, drivmedel, utsläpp och kostnader. Den ekologiska dimensionen undersöks med hjälp av verktyget livscykelanalys (LCA). Detta verktyg används för att öka förståelsen kring hur företagets aktiviteter påverkar i form av kostnader och miljöavtryck.   I den ekonomiska dimensionen kunde det tydligt utläsas att ingen av investeringarna var relativt stor i jämförelse med företagets resultat. Byte av bränsle till hydrerad vegetabilisk olja är det bästa alternativet taget ur ett perspektiv för hållbart företagande. De sociala dimensionerna undersöktes i form av aktiva val, etik, moral och inställning. Det framgick att stort ansvar har lagts på moderföretaget i Norge där all produktion sker. Inställningen var att; det sköter dem. Slutsatsen blev att företaget saknade kunskap kring vad de sociala dimensionerna innefattar, vilket är inte ovanligt enligt tidigare forskning. De sociala delarna består av mjuka delar och kräver därför en mer demokratisk och öppen process för att utvecklas framgångsrikt.     Att aktivt arbeta med hållbart företagande är resurskrävande för hela organisationen och dess processer. Ständig uppdatering och kontroll är ett måste. Då lönsamhet kan vara svårt att utläsa i ett kortsiktigt perspektiv finns en förståelse för att företag väljer att lägga resurser på annat.   Fördelar när det kommer till arbete med hållbart företagande är att det i det långa loppet genererar både ekonomisk lönsamhet och kompetensutveckling. Dock bör tilläggas att det främsta incitamentet till ett hållbart företagande är att kunna ge framtida generationer förutsättningarna att leva av och på vår planet precis som vi själva gjort. / Sustainable entrepreneurship involves three different dimensions in sustainable development: social dimensions, ecological dimensions and economic dimensions. In order to work towards sustainable entrepreneurship the firm needs to balance these three areas of responsibility simultaneously. This study examines the social, economic and ecological dimensions of sustainable enterprise, based on sustainable entrepreneurship. The study analyses how the three sustainability dimensions integrates with each other in order to gain a better understanding of how to better adapt their business to sustainable entrepreneurship.   In order to obtain a comprehensive base a literature study was first conducted. The literature reviews consists of dissertations and literature studies. The study is also based on qualitative interviews with a semi-structured design. The purpose of the interviews was to get a better understanding of the present social commitment within the firm. Both a direct interview and a telephone interview were conducted.   Social aspects and conditions at the company were examined in the study through a semi-structured interview. In the economic aspects, heavy truck, fuel, emissions and costs for sustainable entrepreneurship were weighted. The ecological dimension is investigated through using the Lifecycle Assessment (LCA) as a tool. When using a LCA a company can get a greater understanding of how their activities affect the environment and where the effect has the most impact.    In the economic dimension, it was clear that none of the investments were relatively large in comparison to the company's earnings. Changing the fuel to HVO is clearly the best option taken from a perspective for sustainable entrepreneurship. The social dimensions were examined in terms of active choices, ethics, morals and attitude. It was very clear that great responsibility lies with the mother-company in Norway where all production takes place. The company lacked knowledge in how to affect the social dimensions and what they included. The social dimensions consist of many soft parts, a more democratic and open process is needed to create a successful result.   Working actively with sustainable entrepreneurship is demanding resources for the entire organization and its processes, as well as continuous updating and control. Since profitability in numbers can be difficult to read in a short-term perspective many companies choose to put resources on other things.    Advantages for organizations that work with sustainable entrepreneurship are that it generates both economic profitability and competence development in a long-term perspective. But most importantly, future generations must be given the conditions to live on and off our planet just as we did.

Despite the growing consensus on the importance of an extended responsibility for business, both the conceptual and practical understanding of “corporate responsibility” has remained limited. Corporate responsibility is still often understood as an add-on to business-as-usual or as a strategy to enhance business performance. In fact, in recent years, the concept of corporate responsibility has become associated with corporate deceit instead of corporate contributions to society, and tends to engender cynicism rather than a sense of hope. In this study I sought to explore a more hopeful and more “radical” conceptualisation of corporate responsibility. By looking at an international sample of “exemplary” values-driven businesses, this study provides insight into corporate responsibility not primarily as a means towards commercial ends but as an expression of a desire to “do good” and create social and/or environmental value. This study paints a picture of the rich, responsible reality of values-driven businesses. It describes their generous, human-centred approach to employees and the internal environment. It explores their deep sense of interdependence with the wider community in which they find themselves, and their extensive engagement with a wide variety of external parties, many of which are not “naturally” connected to business. It creates an understanding of the iterative, emerging and evolutionary nature of the CSR implementation process and the inherent impermanence of CSR “solutions”. While this study gives a comprehensive insight into various, generous and progressive practices, it shows that the essence of a “responsible existence” is not the implementation of certain practices alone, but relates to the willingness and ability to continuously question the established ways and practices of business in light of the higher business aspirations, which, for many, leads to a fundamentally different way of organising, managing and governing the business. At the same time, this study does not provide a glorified account of some kind of “utopian” responsible existence. Instead, it shows the “messy” reality of trying to implement social and environmental values, while faced with multiple demands and when embedded within a social and business context that does not necessarily hold the same values. The thesis describes the various conflicts and compromises related to the implementation of multiple, conflicting commitments and demands, and the different ways in which the sample businesses approach such situations. While the sample businesses are quite capable of gracefully navigating these conflicts in creative and pragmatic ways, the research also indicates that significant compromises are seemingly inevitable, and can, almost imperceptibly, move a company away from its envisaged values and commitments. Finally, this study argues that the currently dominant approach to corporate responsibility in organisational studies, which reflects a rationalised and economic perspective on CSR and business, will be insufficient to describe the rich reality found within these businesses, as it will edit out some of its most essential elements. I conclude this dissertation by proposing an alternative, human existential lens through which corporate responsibility in values-driven businesses can be understood. Through a review of the research findings in relation to three existential themes, I show that a human existential perspective is better suited to explore both the beauty and the struggle of values-driven businesses.

Žmonija naudoja žemės išteklius bei teikiamas paslaugas kur kas greičiau, nei natūralūs procesai gali juos atkurti. Globalios ekonominės sistemos pereksploatuoja natūralius išteklius, nesumoka tikros atliekų bei taršos tvarkymo kainos. Tuo pat metu socialinis ir ekonominis atotrūkis tarp turtingųjų ir vargšų platėja, o sveikatos ir skurdo problemos tampa opesnės visoje planetoje. Tai tik keletas didžiausių globalių problemų, dėl kurių taip padidėjo mokslinės ir akademinės visuomenės susirūpinimas. Norint išspręsti šias problemas pradėta pasaulyje diskutuoti apie darną, darnų vystymąsi bei įvairias darnos strategijas. Jos įgyvendinamos įvairiuose lygiuose: tiek atskirose įmonėse, nepelno organizacijose, tiek savivaldybėse, valstybėse ir globaliniame lygyje, kur pasirašomi įvairūs tarptautiniai susitarimai. Literatūroje galima surasti daug ir įvairių įmonėms skirtų priemonių, strategijų, modelių bei koncepcijų, kurias jos yra skatinamos taikyti siekiant darnos. Tačiau vis didėjant šiai įvairovei trūksta visas šias koncepcijas apjungiančio požiūrio, kuris sukurtų bendrą vaizdą apie atskirų koncepcijų tarpusavio ryšius. Literatūroje dažniau kalbama apie vieną ar keletą koncepcijų, išryškinant kiekvienos jų naudą įmonėms, tuo tarpu neatkreipiamas dėmesys į atskirų koncepcijų ryšius. Šiame darbe ir bandoma sujungti visas darnaus verslo koncepcijas panaudojant pokyčių strateginio valdymo procesą. Problemos ištyrimo lygis: Lietuvoje teoriniu lygiu apie darnaus vystymosi koncepciją... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / GRUNDA, Rokas. (2007) Strategic Management Process of Business Transformation into Sustainable Business. MBA Graduation Paper. Kaunas: Kaunas Faculty of Humanities, Vilnius University. 70 p. Humanity is using the Earth’s services in a way, that they cannot renew naturally, economic systems are overexploiting the natural resources, the gap between the poor and the rich is widening, and these are the main global and local problems, fostering the discussion of business role in the world’s sustainable development. As these global issues become more and more significant, the number of business sustainable development tools, strategies, models, methods and concepts is constantly increasing, while the researchers tent to focus only on the limited number of these tools. Because of this, there is a need to develop a holistic approach, which would try to embrace all the available solutions for businesses to move towards sustainable development, in other words an approach to help business manage transformation towards sustainable business. Object: applicability of business sustainable development tools, strategies, models, methods and concepts in business strategic change management process. Aim: to structure business sustainable development tools, strategies, models, methods and concepts according to business strategic change management process. Tasks: 1. To reveal the essence of sustainable development. 2. To define the conception of sustainable business. 3. To form a broad-brush... [to full text]

The economic development of the world in the last centuries has brought manypositive things, but also some new problems. The linear approach long used isbased on a long-term, unsustainable approach to economic activity and newmodels are required. The purpose of this report is to investigate newsustainability requirements that drive innovation with regard to business modelsand product development.A case study was carried out at the company Ecostrate, which is launching anew product with clear sustainability ambitions. A Triple Layered BusinessModel Canvas (TLBMC) is made for their product and from this case the roleof Circular Economics (CE) and sustainability in the formation of new businessmodels is evaluated. The case study was based on interviews made withcompany employees and other people in a focus group and on secondary dataprovided primarily from Ecostrate, but also other organizations and companies.From the case study, it can be seen how the business model of the product was,from start, designed in accordance with circular economic principles and with afocus on sustainability, where the starting point was a used material that wasthen altered to once again provide the consumer with a value offer. Accordingto profitability estimates, the product will competitive while significantenvironmental and social savings are possible. General conclusions can bedrawn that CE and sustainability are an important part of future business modeldesign, without which companies will not be competitive in the future andfuture markets with increasing raw material prices, stricter regulations and moreaware and sustainability-prioritizing customers.The primary limitation has been the calculations, which were not carried out asexhaustively as would have been needed in order to give the case study a morestable empirical foundation. In this study, they have been used as approximativevalues to draw generalizable conclusions so to understand the product, itsimpact and in order to get more precise implications for the rest of the market,there exists possible future research.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-15T19:31:00Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Marcia Juliana dAngelo.pdf: 3114723 bytes, checksum: 40dc597a87c08131e38596ebde64222f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-05-07 / Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie / The search for solutions for environment, economic and social complex issues in organizations rely on coordinated actions among several social actors involved in the sustainable development web and demand they learn a new way to do business. In this scenario which involves multiple social actors, relations, contexts and interests, the social learning has emerged as a hybrid approach to environment and social complex problem solving. It is a different situation for organizations whose focus is not only support such problem solving, but transforming crisis into opportunity to generate sustainable products and services. Therefore, this study discussed how a large organization on chemical segment is socially learning to deal with the dialectic between the return on investments for your shareholders and the benefits for the others stakeholders. It was conducted a qualitative research on Boje s antenarrative analysis orientated. The research assumed, therefore, a postmodern approach, supported by social constructivism assumptions. The data, built on through interviews, informal conversations, textual and audiovisual and documents, and non-participant observation, were analyzed according to antenarrative analysis. The results describe how the social learning process for sustainability (in this case, for a sustainable agriculture) in a for-profit organization encompass a strategy based on developed competencies by the organization; systemic management and implementation model; strong and strategic partnerships; a huge articulation capability to manage multiple social actors, interests, contexts, learning spaces, partners, conflicts and power relations. Finally, the thesis discuss the concept meaning of social learning process for sustainability in a for-profit organization. / Um processo de busca de soluções para as complexas questões ambientais, econômicas e sociais nas organizações depende da ação coordenada entre diversos atores sociais envolvidos na teia do desenvolvimento sustentável e exige que estas reaprendam uma nova maneira de fazer negócios. Neste cenário que envolve múltiplos atores sociais, relações, contextos e interesses, a aprendizagem social tem emergido como uma abordagem híbrida para a resolução de problemas ambientais e sociais complexos. Trata-se de uma realidade diferente para as organizações cujo foco não é somente apoiar a resolução de problemas socioambientais, mas também a transformação de crises em oportunidades de geração de produtos e serviços sustentáveis. Assim, este estudo discutiu como uma organização de grande porte do setor químico está socialmente aprendendo a lidar com a dialética entre a busca pelo retorno sobre os investimentos para os acionistas e pelos benefícios para os seus outros públicos de interesse. Para tanto, foi conduzida uma pesquisa qualitativa orientada pela proposta de análise de narrativas de Boje. Assume a pesquisa, desta forma, uma abordagem pós-moderna, suportada pelos pressupostos do construtivismo social. Os dados, construídos por meio de entrevistas, conversas informais, documentos textuais e audiovisuais, e observação não participante, foram analisados seguindo a orientação da análise de antenarrativas. Os resultados descrevem como o processo de aprendizagem social para sustentabilidade (no caso, para uma agricultura sustentável) em uma organização com fins lucrativos contempla uma estratégia com base em competências desenvolvidas pela organização, um modelo de implementação e gestão sistêmico, parcerias estratégicas robustas; e uma grande capacidade de articulação para gerenciar os múltiplos atores sociais, interesses, contextos, espaços de aprendizagem, parceiros, conflitos e relações de poder. Por fim, a tese discute o significado do conceito de aprendizagem social para sustentabilidade em organizações com fins lucrativos.

This research is aimed at studying the business strategies of young small businesses in Finland and Ireland. Needless to say those young small businesses are critical to many economies despite their size. Studying their operational strategies and finding ways to re orient them to attain and sustain their business goals despite being faced with economic challenges, is therefore of scholastic interest To carry out this study, a qualitative method was used. The primary data used was interview of the manager of four young small firms; two from Finland and two from Ireland. To achieve geographical spread and diversity of information 4 firms were selected: 2 each from Finland and Ireland. And to avoid management bias in information delivery; we interviewed selected employees to help cross check information gathered from the latter. Some randomly selected employees of these firms were also interviewed. Secondary data such as literature collected from books, journals and previous researches were also used. Findings on strategies that the businesses applied during their operation were qualitatively analyzed and recommendations made to help re-orient such businesses. The analysis of the collected data revealed that products and service offerings, strategic marketing and communication, operational costs effectiveness, business educational background as well as commitment of the entrepreneur coupled with the corporate social responsibility affects the goals and for that matter the success of young small businesses. In Recommendation, it is therefore that if young small businesses would not consider their size and scale of operation but objectively adhere to strategy formation principles, they would experience swift strategy implementation guidelines and be in a better position to monitor and control their progress to be able to effect appropriate changes on time in order to sustain their business goals in the long run notwithstanding the economic challenges they face.

This thesis attempts to formally connect the fields of sustainability and responsibility. It considers first the larger context of business sustainability and responsible leadership, and evaluates the value and need for a common transformative space for these fields and what such a space might look like. As such, the thesis investigates the relation between sustainability and responsibility from an organizational and personal development perspective. This developmental perspective emerges from research in the domain of business education and the role of business schools in terms of educating responsible leaders for a sustainable world. The research suggests a concrete approach, the ‘Collaboratory’ for such a common space of transformation and critically evaluates its effectiveness to develop responsible leaders. The key contribution of this thesis lies in the interconnection of two fast evolving fields of research: the development of responsible leadership and business sustainability, providing a model for practitioners and scholars to reflect on and debate the larger forces and dynamics at play. Most research to date has focused on considering personal and organizational transformation separately. On the one hand, research scholars have studied effective learning environments to enable responsible leadership, and on the other hand, we have studied if and how organizations can advance from their current mode of operations to become “truly sustainable”. The thesis contributes a model to describe the interdependency of these two, and proposes the ‘Collaboratory’ as a means to realize this interdependency in practice. Chapter 1 is a new article theorizing the whole argument; subsequent chapters are previously published articles in these inter-connected fields and addressing methods and approaches to connect personal and organization development, drawing from a body of literature that considers the human spirit in large social change; and using the ‘Collaboratory’ as an illustrative and timely example for such methods.