Corporate Sustainable Strategy within Bravida: Constituents, Challenges, and positive outcomes

Abstract

The focus on sustainability has received a lot of attention in recent years in business practice. In the past, businesses only focused on achieving the greatest possible profit. Today, the focus on social and environmental issues is just as important. With all the changes taking place around the planet, and increased pressure from business stakeholders, businesses are being forced to prioritize sustainability in their operations. In this way, businesses are constantly formulating strategies for sustainability that are actively worked towards in their business plan. These strategies are called Corporate Sustainability Strategies (CSS) and are about businesses focusing on strategies to balance economic, environmental, and social aspects considering both the company and society's best interests.

Through existing empirical data, it is explained that there is limited research that accounts for what CSS is about, its process model, challenges and outcomes faced by the development and implementation of CSS. Through previous empirical data, it is explained that there exists a gap between CSS development and implementation based on limited existing knowledge from businesses. Another gap exists between top-level managers and other employees, where previous empirical data mainly focuses on top-level managers and ignores ties with other employees with no managing experience in the implementation of CSS.

This study unfolds through a qualitative approach, consisting of an inductive research method. The study is based on the business, Bravida, answering the study's research questions. The data collection consists of conducted semi-structured interviews with both top-level management and employees with no managing experience in the development and implementation of CSS. The business's interesting surveys and their sustainability report are used as secondary sources in the data collection through content analysis. The theories used in this study are strategic management, organizational behavior, and stakeholder theory. In the discussion part, the empirical data are discussed in context of theory regarding CSS, challenges, motivations, positive outcomes, and stepby-step model. Furthermore, the study's research questions are answered, before the proposed framework are explained. The study concludes that successful CSS requires not only financial investment and strategic planning, but also a committed effort for internal communication, employee engagement, and adaptability to changing external conditions.