Exploring the challenges of implementing a sustainable strategy : A case study

Abstract

Sustainability has become the defining challenge of our time and companies have started to realize the many benefits that lie within this field. However, sustainability is known for its complexity and implementing sustainability is an intricate process. The purpose of this thesis is to provide an empirical study on what kind of challenges that may arise in corporate sustainability implementation. In order to explore such challenges, we conducted a single case study on a company within the financial industry. This financial institution has gained international recognition for its sustainability work, and claims to have implemented a sustainable strategy throughout the organization. We found that an important contributing factor in the company’s sustainability work was engaged top management. However, they had faced several challenges in their implementation process. These challenges were related to complexity consuming the concept of sustainability, as well as challenges within decisionmaking processes, company mission, resource allocation and sustainability procedures. Furthermore, our findings suggest that engaged and educated middle managers could potentially play a vital role in terms of holistic sustainability implementation. Managers in the pursuit of a more sustainable business may benefit from addressing the challenges discussed in our thesis. Our research aims to fill a gap in the existing literature, and we also suggest other unexplored areas which could benefit from future research.