Dela Hållbarheten! En kvalitativ studie av hållbarhetsvarumärkning i en delningsekonomisk kontext

Sammanfattning: This study intends to explore how and with what intentions organisations within a sharing economy context choose to integrate and implement the concept of sustainability. It further aims to contribute to the field of sustainability branding, where very limited research has been carried out in regards of sustainability branding within a context of sharing economy. Twelve semi-structured interviews with CEO’s and marketing directors were conducted in order to attain a holistic perspective on how strategic decisions regarding sustainability are made. The analysis show that organisations have different intentions with applying sustainability, which include pressure from society, a growing conscious group of consumers and the founders genuine concern for sustainability. Furthermore, the results show that most organisations choose to integrate sustainability at the core of the business, which positively affects the authenticity of their sustainability branding. The analysis indicates that several organisations are apprehensive about implementing explicit sustainability messages in their communication. Also, a majority of the respondents claimed that a lack of resources shaped their communication strategies. These reasons could explain why the organisations mainly used the attention of media and word-of-mouth to communicate their sustainability focus. Furthermore, a discussion about how the status of sustainability branding is intertwined and affected by different aspects is carried out. Based on the results, a discussion about the present situation and status of sustainability branding is carried out.