<p>This thesis aims to investigate perceptions of sustainability in relation to business</p><p>strategy within the Swedish chemical industry. To this end, a survey was</p><p>distributed with the assistance of industry organization Plast- och Kemiföretagen</p><p>to companies that are part of the Responsible Care® program.</p><p>A second purpose of the study is to explore critical factors when implementing an</p><p>integration of sustainability with business strategy. To do this as well as dig deeper</p><p>into a couple of questions raised in the survey, a qualitative study was carried out</p><p>at Akzo Nobel business unit Pulp and Paper Chemicals (operating under the brand</p><p>name of Eka Chemicals). Semi-structured interviews were performed with seven</p><p>company representatives from different organizational levels, to explore critical</p><p>factors identified in a literary study.</p><p>From the survey, it could be concluded that the studied companies considered</p><p>sustainability as an important issue today and with growing importance for the</p><p>future. It was also observed that sustainability is currently not an issue at the core</p><p>of business strategy, as 35% of respondent companies did not think that top</p><p>management handled issues related to sustainability. Enhanced reputation and</p><p>cost reduction/resource efficiency were seen as the primary creators of business</p><p>value when addressing sustainability. Additional top motivating forces to consider</p><p>sustainability were legislative demands and company core values.</p><p>From the literary study a model of critical factors when implementing changes in</p><p>strategy was developed. Four different aspects identified were explored in the</p><p>semi-structured interviews at Eka Chemicals: change leadership, shared vision,</p><p>sense of urgency and aligning goals. In that specific setting, the critical factors of</p><p>having a shared vision and aligning individual, organizational unit and corporate</p><p>goals were found to exist to a high degree, while the critical factor of change</p><p>leadership was only partially existent, and a sense of urgency not existent.</p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA/oai:DiVA.org:su-7826 |
| Date | January 2008 |
| Creators | Larsson, Robert |
| Publisher | Stockholm University, Stockholm Resilience Centre |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, text |
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