Abstracts Category : Other

Sustainable Business : A Case Study of Oatly and Salt Kvarn

by Josefina Jonsson

This case study presents the factors that define a sustainable entrepreneurship in theory and how a sustainable business can be presented in practice. The questions that will be answered are: (1) How do Oatly and Salt Kvarn implement sustainable practices within their organisations? (2) How do the representatives of Oatly and Salt Kvarn perceive the impact that sustainable practices have on business results? (3) How do the representatives of Oatly and Salt Kvarn use sustainability to create innovation? (4) How are attitudes and values related to the organisation of sustainable practices in Oatly and Salt Kvarn? Also, I will present how different practices of sustainable business is related to each other and how it can be implemented in theory. To retrieve as much useful information as possible I have collected material by conducting a literature study and semi-structured interviews with one representative from Oatly ab and one representative from Salt Kvarn ab. The interviews aim to give the reader of this thesis an in-depth and detailed perspective of the chosen organisations. I conduct a qualitative research method where my aim is to present an exemplification of the subject and provide the reader with a deep analysis of the chosen companies in the paper. There are several motives behind why a company choose to move in a more sustainable direction and therefore engage in some practices. There might be a strong value based core at the foundation of the business or it can be a reaction of the trends in society. The reasons are many, and it is possible to see the different engagements in different levels of socio-economic management thinking. Businesses that are engaged in single issues can be defined as mere philanthropy or a compliance issue. Corporations that have taken their engagements one level further see their responsibilities related to their core business. That is, it is integrated within their business model. These firms can engage in explicit responsibility management or integrative business models. The thesis is concluded in the definition of sustainable entrepreneurship where the business itself contributes to urgent societal as well as ecological challenges by having it in their core competences. By having this new innovative approach, the sustainable entrepreneurship at its finest would increase value for business as well as increased value for society by fostering social innovations.