The journey towards Creating Shared Value: benefits and drawbacks : A qualitative study on how Swedish companies’ sustainability work changed while applying the CSV framework to their business strategy

Abstract: There is a growing trend that businesses are expected to address economic, social, as well as environmental issues and operate in a manner that contributes both to the organisation as well as the society (Elkington, 1998), which commonly is referred to as Corporate Social Responsibility. Porter and Kramer (2006) highlight that the business’s primary concern is to run a profitable business, and therefore developed the framework Creating Shared Value.  This study examines how Swedish companies that changed from working with Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to working with Creating Shared Value, experience differences in their sustainability work and what advantages and challenges the change emerged in.  The methods used are semi-structured interviews together with content analyses of four Swedish companies’ sustainability reports.  This thesis argues that companies’ sustainability work changed between 2010-2018 from focusing on philanthropy to a focus on sustainability through profitability. Also, the change to CSV for these companies resulted in an increased focus on the environmental aspects, and a decreased focus on the major social aspects. The companies spent more resources on innovation related to environmental issues, which generated profit, and on beneficial collaborations. An advantage of adopting CSV is that a focus on profitability may drive change regarding environmental issues, which in turn leads to long-term economic sustainability. However, shared value can be problematic in some ways, especially when it comes to gaining profit from social value, and thus social global issues might be overlooked for activities within their own business environment.