Styrning för att hantera hållbarhetsarbete i SMF : En intervjustudie av MCS i små & medelstora företag

Sammanfattning: Title: Management control to support sustainability practices in SMEs - An interview study of  MCS in small and medium-sized enterprises Authors: Isac Arvidsson & Oscar Dahl Supervisor: Josefine Rasmussen  Background:  Most companies today employ some sort of sustainability strategy, and those who do not are facing increasing demands to shift focus towards sustainability in wake of the evolution of society. MCS is a key contributor to a company's ability to work towards sustainability, and large parts of current research within the field is solely focused on large companies. As management control for sustainability is just as important for smaller companies it is relevant to study how it tends to be used in SMEs. Aim: The aim of this study is to examine how Swedish SMEs with a sustainability strategy uses MCS to support and manage their work towards sustainability. The study will be based on Simons LOC. Method: The study is based in the qualitative field of research and is performed in the form of an interview study, where nine interviewees from nine different companies have been interviewed. The companies and the interviewees have been selected through a goal-directed selection in order to identify interviewees in relevant company positions. The collected empirical data has been compared to prior research in the analysis in order to be able to draw conclusions, find similarities and differences between the companies. Conclusion:  The conclusion of this study shows that there are several similarities between the SMEs regarding how they employ their MCS in order to handle their work towards sustainability. The study shows that the identified differences stem from two main factors: the size of the company and whether the company has sustainability at its core or not. Lastly, it can be established that the biggest opportunities for SMEs are connected to their growth, and their ability to adopt a structured MCS at an early stage.