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Managing Change towards Corporate Sustainability : A case study of Finnish SMEs

Sustainability and corporate responsibility appears to be spoken topics in the business world. Due to this, companies may have to reconsider the way they operate their business. The previous studies within this field are mostly done for large companies and leave SMEs with limited focus. Therefore, this study investigates how SMEs manage their change towards corporate sustainability. The literature used in this study includes theory about change management in general, change management process towards corporate sustainability, and SMEs’ special characters. Based on the knowledge of the existing literature four case companies were investigated and analysed. These chosen SMEs have moved through a successful change process towards sustainable business. The findings revealed that an external pressure such as image, is often the reason for the change. However, when planning and implementing the change, SMEs usually lack knowledge and expertise about sustainability, which hampers the change process. Commitment from employees and especially the management is vital for the change to succeed. Moreover it is crucial that company culture changes in order to complete the change process. Additionally, continuing to evolve is important in order to maintain the change process, and avoid the risk of taking steps back.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:uu-228155
Date January 2014
CreatorsErander, Mirka, Hetemäki, Nicholas
PublisherUppsala universitet, Företagsekonomiska institutionen, Uppsala universitet, Företagsekonomiska institutionen
Source SetsDiVA Archive at Upsalla University
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeStudent thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text
Formatapplication/pdf
Rightsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

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