Conducting sustainability target-driven business
Manninen, Kaisa (2022-03-25)
Väitöskirja
Manninen, Kaisa
25.03.2022
Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology LUT
Acta Universitatis Lappeenrantaensis
School of Engineering Science
School of Engineering Science, Tuotantotalous
Kaikki oikeudet pidätetään.
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-335-804-1
https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-335-804-1
Tiivistelmä
The world is facing many macro-level sustainability challenges, including poverty, climate change, inequality, and the finance gap. To solve these challenges and to contribute to sustainable development, effective actions and efforts are needed from companies working with other societal actors. Although companies are increasingly interested in sustainability issues, many sustainability related innovations and strategies do not reach their full potential, and sometimes even fail because companies tend to focus on internal and incremental improvements that mainly benefit its own interests and neglect the macro-level requirements of sustainable development. Sustainable development refers to processes that promote solutions to macro-level sustainability challenges over time. In this thesis, the target of sustainable development is called “system-level sustainability”. From the macro-level perspective, system-level sustainability refers to a state of the Earth which would offer the possibility of supporting the well-being and survival of humans and other life forever. System-level sustainability is based on the paradigm of strong sustainability – which acknowledges social-ecological resilience – whereby humans and nature are studied as an integrated whole and not as separate parts, given that humans and their well-being fundamentally rest on the capacity of the biosphere to sustain life.
From the company perspective, therefore, contributing to system-level sustainability requires that companies understand the wider ecological and social systems within which they are operating, take responsibility for sustainability challenges by aligning their core business with sustainability principles, and incorporate environmental and social concerns into their business models and, ultimately, business practices. However, it is still unclear how system-level sustainability requirements may be integrated into business strategies and implemented in practice. The notion of sustainability target-driven business (STDB) is conceptualized in this thesis as encompassing a way of conducting business whereby a company integrates and operationalizes scientifically defined macrolevel sustainability targets and principles into its strategy and business practices, with the aim of contributing to system-level sustainability.
Thus, the purpose of this thesis is to increase understandings of how for-profit companies can conduct business that is driven by sustainability targets. This is divided into two subtopics: the first focuses on planning and implementing sustainability target-driven strategies, and the second on creating and assessing system-level sustainable value. The objectives of the thesis are addressed through four individual publications. Case study research strategy was used in Publications I, III (single in-depth case study) and IV (multiple case study). In publications I and III, the data was collected through semistructured interviews from European horticulture company, while in publication IV data was collected through unstructured interviews from three companies working toward a circular economy. Publication II is a conceptual study and it combined existing approaches into new sustainability management framework. The sustainable development research field offers macro-level and scientific perspectives on sustainability which individual companies should operationalize. The corporate sustainability management field brings the macro-level perspective on sustainability to the business level, while the literature on sustainable business models provides the theoretical background for the linkage between individual company and system-level sustainability from the sustainable value creation point of view. Ultimately, a framework that includes managerial activities for conducting STDB is proposed.
From the company perspective, therefore, contributing to system-level sustainability requires that companies understand the wider ecological and social systems within which they are operating, take responsibility for sustainability challenges by aligning their core business with sustainability principles, and incorporate environmental and social concerns into their business models and, ultimately, business practices. However, it is still unclear how system-level sustainability requirements may be integrated into business strategies and implemented in practice. The notion of sustainability target-driven business (STDB) is conceptualized in this thesis as encompassing a way of conducting business whereby a company integrates and operationalizes scientifically defined macrolevel sustainability targets and principles into its strategy and business practices, with the aim of contributing to system-level sustainability.
Thus, the purpose of this thesis is to increase understandings of how for-profit companies can conduct business that is driven by sustainability targets. This is divided into two subtopics: the first focuses on planning and implementing sustainability target-driven strategies, and the second on creating and assessing system-level sustainable value. The objectives of the thesis are addressed through four individual publications. Case study research strategy was used in Publications I, III (single in-depth case study) and IV (multiple case study). In publications I and III, the data was collected through semistructured interviews from European horticulture company, while in publication IV data was collected through unstructured interviews from three companies working toward a circular economy. Publication II is a conceptual study and it combined existing approaches into new sustainability management framework. The sustainable development research field offers macro-level and scientific perspectives on sustainability which individual companies should operationalize. The corporate sustainability management field brings the macro-level perspective on sustainability to the business level, while the literature on sustainable business models provides the theoretical background for the linkage between individual company and system-level sustainability from the sustainable value creation point of view. Ultimately, a framework that includes managerial activities for conducting STDB is proposed.
Kokoelmat
- Väitöskirjat [1038]
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