Succeeding with corporate sustainability strategies in multi-business organizations : Drivers and challenges in strategy formulation and implementation

Abstract: Purpose - The purpose of the current study was to gain a broader understanding of corporate sustainability strategy formulation and implementation in multi-business organizations. Specifically, regarding how to succeed with efficiency, alignment and consensus across strategic levels. Method - The study was conducted through a single case study in a multi-business organization operating in the defense sector globally. A qualitative method with 18 semi-structured interviews to collect data was used to gain a broad contextual understanding of the research questions. The data was inductively analyzed through thematic analysis. Findings - The primary findings of the study are 18 themes of drivers and challenges for successfully formulating and implementing corporate sustainability strategies in multi-business organizations. Considering the drivers and challenges, distinctions between the strategic levels were outlined, and predominantly indicated that the role of the corporate level enables the success. Additionally, a visual understanding of four contradictions that needs to be managed by the corporate level was provided - autonomy and compliance, cooperation and competition, exploitation and exploration, communication bottom-up and top-down. Theoretical and practical implications - The study has contributed theoretically by increasing the knowledge regarding drivers and challenges for formulation and implementation of corporate sustainability strategies in multi-business organizations. Further, the study contributes with managerial support by illustrating distinctions of the key drivers and challenges between the strategic levels, and by visualizing the strategic contradictions that needs to be balanced by the corporate level, to manage corporate sustainability strategies in multi-business organizations successfully. Limitations & Future research - The research concerned the strategic management process, with a focus on the internal organization, whereas the findings revealed the significance of incorporating an external perspective. Thus, future research could further investigate the exchange with external stakeholders. Moreover, this research was limited by being a single case study, and in future research it would be interesting to investigate other industries.