https://www.mdu.se/

Date:2022-06-02

Level:Master Thesis in Business Administration, 15cr

Institution:School of Business, Society and Engineering, Mälardalen University

Authors:Agostina Romano(92/08/23) Olivia Gurås (98/01/21)

Title:Fashion shouldn’t cost the Earth: an exploratory study on small businesses driving sufficiency in the Swedish fashion industry

Supervisor:Edward Gillmore

Research Questions:RQ1: How do small firms management develop and implement strategies to promote sufficient consumption? RQ2: How do small firms implement stakeholder management to minimize the challenges caused by the promotion of sufficient consumption?

Purpose:To provide a better understanding of the processes, factors and forces that enable companies to promote sufficient consumption, and how they manage to overcome challenges with internal and external stakeholders that are created by the implementation of sufficient consumption practices

Methodology:Being an exploratory qualitative research, this study uses primary data collected through 6 semi-structured interviews with management roles of 4 sustainable companies, as well as secondary data obtained from official data bases, books, and websites.

Conclusion:Small businesses in the fashion industry implement different sustainable strategies that promote sufficient consumption among others. Whether they are designed and implemented with sufficiency as a goal or not, these strategies bear challenges with multiple stakeholders that firms must face. Some of the main challenges are related to consumer and supplier resistance, as well as lack of awareness, challenging governance, and the internal sustainability vs. profitability debate. This study empirically contributes to past literature in terms of strategies and challenges, and it contributes theoretically in terms of solutions put in place through stakeholder management.

Keywords:CSR, Stakeholder Management, Sustainability, Sufficiency, Sufficient Consumption, Sustainable Fashion