This thesis seeks to explore the importance of sustainability within start-up organisations and investigate the sustainability transition within selected ventures. The research conducted applies a multiple case study design, combined with a literature review to answer the research question: ‘How Important is Sustainability for Start-ups?’. Six case studies are conducted from various industries, in order to obtain a purposive sample. The sample comprises start-ups that are technology focused, of a size below ten people and located in Stockholm, Sweden. Within this investigation, the concept of sustainability is defined through the triple bottom line approach; social, environmental, and economic, and supported by the 17 Sustainable Development Goals developed by the United Nations. Further concepts of Social Economy are applied, while the basis of the research questionnaire is the Social Economy Canvas. Moreover, the Multi-Level Perspective theoretical framework is applied to provide structure and support to the developed theories, placing sustainability within a broader perspective. As a result of the data collection and analysis, the following findings are presented. Firstly, digital start-ups struggle to have an impact on environmental sustainability when not working directly within this area. Secondly, in the ideation stages, start-ups have the intention of becoming sustainable according to the triple bottom line. However, when start-ups evolve, their sustainability goals may come into conflict with other factors that add layers of complexity in decision making. Thirdly, it is evidenced that a sustainability transition occurs in the observed case studies, as start-ups adopt more sustainable business practices and entrepreneurs are inspired to pursue new businesses or sustainability-oriented business models. Lastly, Sweden proves itself as a sustainability enabler, offering significant sustainability advantages to organisations based in Sweden. / Denna avhandling undersöker vikten av hållbarhet inom nystartade företag och undersöker hållbarhetsövergången inom utvalda företag. Den genomförda forskningen tillämpar flera fallstudier i kombination med en litteraturöversikt för att besvara forskningsfrågan: "Hur viktigt är hållbarhet för start-ups?" Sex fallstudier har genomförts från olika branscher för att få till en ändamålsenlig provstorlek. Urvalet omfattar nystartade företag som är teknologifokuserade, av en storlek under tio personer och som ligger i Stockholm, Sverige. Inom denna utredning definieras begreppet hållbarhet genom den tredubbla strategin: social, miljömässig och ekonomisk, och stöttas av de 17 hållbarhetsmål som utvecklats av FN. Ytterligare begrepp om social ekonomi tillämpas, medan grunden för forskningsundersökningen är en socialekonomisk canvas. Dessutom tillämpas det teoretiska ramverket på flera nivåer för att ge struktur och stöd till de utvecklade teorierna och placera hållbarhet i ett bredare perspektiv. Som ett resultat av datainsamlingen och analysen presenteras följande resultat. För det första har digitala nystartade företag svårigheter att påverka miljöns hållbarhet när de inte arbetar direkt inom detta område. För det andra, i ideationsstadierna har nyetablerade företag avsikter att bli hållbara enligt ”triple bottom line”-modellen. Men när nystartade företag utvecklas kan deras hållbarhetsmål komma i konflikt med andra faktorer som komplicerar beslutsfattandet. För det tredje framgår det att en hållbarhetsövergång inträffar i de observerade fallstudierna när nystartade företag använder mer hållbara affärsmetoder och entreprenörer inspireras att bedriva nya företag eller hållbarhetsinriktade affärsmodeller. Slutligen visar Sverige sig vara en hållbarhetsfaktor som erbjuder betydande hållbarhetsfördelar till organisationer med bas i Sverige.

When collective action for community is defined as local development or as a struggle for survival different understandings are in focus. Politically, this kind of community action is defined as local development and understood in terms of growth and economics. An economic approach to community action is also emphasised in the EU-programmes that support local development groups and projects. On the other hand local groups describe their activities as a struggle for community and community survival. Inspired by feministic research approaches and with an interest in human aspects and values this study investigates meanings of community action as experienced and expressed by rural inhabitants and activists. The study is based on fieldwork that was carried out in a small rural community in the northern inlands of Sweden: Trehörningsjö. Since the middle of the 1990s, the women in Trehörningsjö have driven collective action to uphold the community. With its point of departure in the community and expanding into the arenas of reserach and politics, the study takes on the form of a reflexive research process in which the researcher's former knowledge and new understandings are made visible and discussed parallel with the interpretations made. The main focus of the study is the activist's demand of voice, visibility and worth. The first chapter presents the local community and provides a background to the study. The chapter includes an account of the reflexive approach that widened the field of research from a local to a translocal study of community action. In chapters two, three, four and five the struggle for community is reflected through fieldwork experiences in Trehörningsjö and other arenas beyond the village. Situated events and instances of collective action such as the fight for the local health care centre, are analysed as symbolic expressions of community values and rural importance. From chapter two and onwards, the study follows the footsteps of the leading female activist in and beyond the community itself; that is, the day-to-day work, meetings, conferences and other places where community action is acted out. The struggle for community is proven to focus on translocal rather than local action. In chapter six the fieldwork experiences - that tell about resistance and a struggle for community values and perspectives - are placed in the wider context of the rural development movement, local development research and governmental rural policy in Sweden. On all these arenas community action tend to be interpreted as local development in line with a growth perspective, rather than as community protests and struggles that expresses other meanings. Chapter seven takes the analyses and discussion further, and relates community struggle to concepts such as civil society and social economy. Anthony Giddens concept of life politics and Alberto Meluccis concept of collective action are used to deepen the analysis on how humane meanings and relation based aspects of community action are made invisible on the political "growht and development" agenda. Community struggle presents a possibility for rural inhabitants to (re)define and reclaim their community and themselves as important and valuable. However, to be able to understand what the concept of community struggle expresses, and demands, it needs to be acknowledged as a form of action that has the potential to challenge established bureaucratic and political defintions, which, in practice, proves to be difficult.