Towards sustainable growth : A case study in OOH industry
Rantamäki, Nelli (2019)
Rantamäki, Nelli
2019
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2019092719345
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2019092719345
Tiivistelmä
This thesis is a case study of an association representing Out of Home (OOH) industry in Finland. The objective of the research is to investigate the current level of environmental responsibility in the member organizations of the association, and to provide recommendations on how the industry can grow sustainably and communicate about it.
The theoretical framework covers sustainability, corporate responsibility (CR) and the dimensions of corporate responsibility, with an emphasis on environmental responsibility. In addition, topics such as reputation, stakeholders and stakeholder engagement, responsible supply chain, standards of environmental responsibility, CR communication and how associations can influence their members, will be discussed. These topics will help to understand the concept of CR and what other issues have a strong impact on CR.
The empirical part of the thesis is conducted by using qualitative research methods. Both the member organizations of the association, and board members of the association are interviewed. The aim of interviewing the member organizations is to discover the current level of environmental responsibility, and by interviewing the board members it is intended to understand what the association considers important and how they perceive the topic.
The interviews reveal, that in all member organizations they value the environment and care about the future of our planet, but the practices are still mostly on personal level. There are some practices on business level as well, like recycling, but it can be concluded that a more strategic touch is lacking from most organizations due to few resources.
Recommendations on how to improve towards more sustainable performance are based on the interpretations of the interviews and the literature provided in the theoretical framework. The recommendations have been introduced to the association with a positive feedback, and it is assumed that this thesis project is a starting point at least to the point where environmental issues are discussed more within the industry.
I confirm the consistency between this abstract and in the research paper.
The theoretical framework covers sustainability, corporate responsibility (CR) and the dimensions of corporate responsibility, with an emphasis on environmental responsibility. In addition, topics such as reputation, stakeholders and stakeholder engagement, responsible supply chain, standards of environmental responsibility, CR communication and how associations can influence their members, will be discussed. These topics will help to understand the concept of CR and what other issues have a strong impact on CR.
The empirical part of the thesis is conducted by using qualitative research methods. Both the member organizations of the association, and board members of the association are interviewed. The aim of interviewing the member organizations is to discover the current level of environmental responsibility, and by interviewing the board members it is intended to understand what the association considers important and how they perceive the topic.
The interviews reveal, that in all member organizations they value the environment and care about the future of our planet, but the practices are still mostly on personal level. There are some practices on business level as well, like recycling, but it can be concluded that a more strategic touch is lacking from most organizations due to few resources.
Recommendations on how to improve towards more sustainable performance are based on the interpretations of the interviews and the literature provided in the theoretical framework. The recommendations have been introduced to the association with a positive feedback, and it is assumed that this thesis project is a starting point at least to the point where environmental issues are discussed more within the industry.
I confirm the consistency between this abstract and in the research paper.