The move towards an integrated sustainability and business strategy - A case study of four large Swedish companies

Abstract: This study explores how far companies have come with the integration of sustainability into the business strategy. In a multiple case study, four listed Swedish companies' pursuit to integrate sustainability into their core business was investigated. Gond et al.'s (2012) framework, which builds on the two concepts of the use and integration of management control systems (MCSs) and sustainability control systems (SCSs), was used for the evaluation of data output. The findings from the study showed that all four companies work on integrating sustainability into the business strategy but are at different stages of the integration process. Both MCSs and SCSs are mobilized to deploy both business and sustainability strategies, as a response to increased external pressure, which successively have created business opportunities. The findings show that external reporting on sustainability data is not just "window dressing" or "greenwashing", but that sustainability is becoming an emerging strategy for long-term competitiveness for all companies in the present study. Thus, the companies are moving away from a risk management perspective with focus on compliance, to rather focus attention on finding business opportunities within a sustainability agenda.