Due to various ongoing environmental crises, there is an urgent need for sustainable solutions and initiatives, as it has become an imperative criterion for businesses to include in their operations. Further, the hospitality sector is a multibillion-dollar industry and has a great impact on not only the economy, but the environment as well. Therefore, the industry is transitioning increasingly fast, and incorporating greater actions to operate sustainably. It should be imperative for businesses to operationalise all facets (environmental, economic, and social) of sustainability within the organisation. However, previous literature has indicated that over the last decade, one solution has been presented to achieve this goal: the creation and implementation of the Sustainable Business Model. It is a concept, which would allow for the planning and organising, delivering, and obtaining value of a business in a sustainable structure. Whilst this concept has been adopted and applied in the business sector, there are still some uncertainties about how Sustainable Business Models are practised, and what makes them successful or not. In addition, there also still appears to be a lack of application in the hotel industry, and whether the implementation of this concept is viable and efficient towards operating sustainably. Therefore, this study addresses the lack of research by investigating the processes and implementation of a Sustainable Business Model in the context of a small luxury hotel group, through the perspective of Strategy-as-Practice as the main theory. The theoretical framework is this study, includes three theories (Strategy-as-Practice, Supply Chain Management and Green Supply Chain Management), however, Strategy-as-Practice is considered the main theory that serves as a foundation, and is also a branch of Practice Theory. With this theoretical framework, studying how individuals perceive Sustainable Business Models, and the activities performed within the industry, allows for this research to reveal the significance, skills, and competencies that enable the implementation of a Sustainable Business Model. This study was conducted through a qualitative approach, and gathered empirical data from three semi-structured interviews and a non-participant observation conducted in the hotel. The findings and analysis, backed by one case study, uncovered six themes, indicating that passion and personal interest along with the involvement of the practitioners (managers), time and allocation of financial investments are all key elements towards the practices related to the implementation of Sustainable Business Models in the context of a luxury hotel.

In an increasingly digitalized society, including raising concerns about the emerging climate crisis, the awareness of sustainable business models has increased. Businesses play a dual role in the context of climate change. While they can contribute to environmental challenges, they also have the potential to drive sustainability forward. Additionally, there is an increasing expectation for companies to adopt sustainable practices. This study investigates the integration of sustainability into the business model of software companies, focusing on the case of Org X, a leading Swedish provider of digital solutions for municipalities and private sector. The research explores the challenges and opportunities associated with implementing sustainability initiatives within the IT sector, highlighting the potential for digital solutions to contribute to sustainable development. Utilizing a combination of interviews, workshops and secondary data analysis, the study employs the framework value mapping to assess the impact of sustainability on Org Xs value proposition, creation and capture. The findings indicate that while digital solutions offer significant opportunities on sustainable development, challenges such as measuring indirect benefits, addressing customer demand, stakeholder engagement and managing cyber security risks must be navigated. The study concludes that a proactive and integrated approach to sustainability is necessary, comprehensive stakeholder engagement and robust measurement frameworks are crucial for realizing the full potential of sustainable digital transformation. / I ett alltmer digitaliserat samhälle, och en ökad oro över den framväxande klimatkrisen, har medvetenheten om hållbara affärsmodeller ökat. Företag spelar en dubbel roll i sammanhanget för hållbarhet. Medan de kan bidra till miljöutmaningar, har de också potential att driva hållbarhet framåt. Dessutom finns det en ökad förväntan på företag att anta mer hållbara metoder. Denna studie undersöker integrationen av hållbarhet i affärsmodellen för mjukvaruföretag, med fokus på fallet Org X, en ledande svensk leverantör av digitala lösningar för kommuner och privat sektor. Studien undersöker utmaningarna och möjligheterna med att implementera hållbarhetsinitiativ inom IT-sektorn och lyfter fram potentialen för digitala lösningar att bidra till hållbar utveckling. Genom att använda en kombination av intervjuer, workshops och sekundärdataanalys tillämpar studien ramverket Value mapping för att bedöma hållbarhetens påverkan på Org X:s värdeerbjudande, värdeskapande och värdefångst. Resultaten visar att även om digitala lösningar erbjuder betydande möjligheter för hållbar utveckling, måste utmaningar som att mäta indirekta fördelar, hantera kundernas efterfrågan, engagera alla intressenter och hantera cybersäkerhetsrisker navigeras. Studien drar slutsatsen att en proaktiv och integrerad hållbarhetsansats är nödvändig, och att omfattande intressentengagemang och robusta mätramar är avgörande för att realisera den fulla potentialen av hållbar digital omvandling.

The Circular Economy (CE) represents a transformative approach to sustainable development, aiming to replace the traditional linear "take-make-waste" model with a regenerative system that minimizes waste through the continual use of resources. This thesis provides an up-to-date examination of the adoption of CE principles within a selection of Swedish companies, exploring how these principles are integrated into their business models and the challenges and opportunities that arise from their implementation. Through a comprehensive analysis, including literature reviews, document analysis, comparative analysis, and thematic analysis, this study provides a detailed insight into the operationalization of CE in Sweden and a hypothetical case study scenario with recommendation on implementing CE practices. Companies such as IKEA and H&M are highlighted for their robust CE practices. The findings suggest a positive trend toward sustainability, driven by a combination of regulatory support and strong corporate commitment to environmental stewardship, although challenges related to operational and regulatory constraints persist. This thesis contributes to the broader discourse on sustainable economic practices by outlining actionable strategies for enhancing CE adoption across industries.

[pt] A criação e o gerenciamento de novos de modelos de negócios exige, cada vez mais, estratégias atreladas a indicadores e a resultados sustentáveis. Na busca pela geração de valor de longo-prazo nestes modelos - calcada nas dimensões sociais, ambientais e econômicas -, e de modo a garantir também maiores níveis de competitividade para as empresas, pesquisadores e praticantes têm voltado esforços para alcançarem estas metas por meio do uso constante de inovação. Inovações que possibilitam altos índices de sustentabilidade encontram-se, sobretudo, na integração de organizações em ecossistemas de inovação. Consequência desta união entre inovação e sustentabilidade gera o que se convenciona chamar de inovações em modelos de negócios sustentáveis. O surgimento de tais modelos levanta um interessante debate: os fatores que compõem a orquestração de ecossistemas - conhecidos como capacidade absortiva, apropriabilidade da inovação e estabilidade da rede (que aglutina as firmas) - são capazes de moderar positivamente a relação entre a integração de empresas em ecossistemas e as inovações em modelos de negócios sustentáveis? Por meio do referencial teórico e de dados primários de 302 empresas de manufatura brasileiras analisados por meio de modelagem de equações estruturais, a presente dissertação reúne subsídios para responder a este questionamento. Como resultado da investigação realizada, é possível perceber a interferência positiva da capacidade absortiva e da apropriabilidade da inovação no vínculo existente entre a integração de firmas em ecossistemas e um maior grau de inovação em modelos de negócios sustentáveis. / [en] The creation and management of new businesses demands, more and more, strategies connected to sustainable indicators and results. In the search to generate long-term value in these models - based on social, environmental and economic dimensions -, and in order to also guarantee greater competitive levels for businesses, researchers and practitioners have been making efforts to reaching these goals through the constant use of innovation. Innovation that enables high standards of sustainability are located, specially, in the incorporation of organizations of business ecosystems. As a consequence of this union between innovation and sustainability is the generation of what is conventionally called innovation in sustainable business models. The advent of such models rises an interesting debate: are the factors that compose the ecosystems orquestration - known as absorptive capacity, innovation appropriability and network stability (which binds the firms) - capable of positively tempering the relationship between the integration of businesses in ecosystems and the innovation in sustainable business models? Through the theoretical reference and the primary data of 302 companies of the Brazilian manufacturing sector analyzed by the modeling of structural equations, this dissertation combines subsidies to answer this question. As a result of the investigation performed, it is possible to notice the positive interference of the absorptive capacity and the innovation appropriability on the existing bind between the integration of firms in ecosystems and a greater level of innovation in sustainable business models.

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]