ENGAGEMANGSNIVÅN HOS SMÅ FÖRETAGI ARBETET MED HÅLLBAR UTVECKLING

Sammanfattning: Our earth has finite resources. In order to respect this and not exceed its limits, sustainable development is required. If we cannot realize this, there is a risk that the earth will lose the ability to, for example, provide us with food or provide us with natural resources, something people today take for granted. Sustainable development is defined through three dimensions, economic, social, and ecological sustainability, the triple bottom line framework. Achieving true sustainability requires a balance between these three. Not as the trend in the world has been, that economic development has come at the expense of environmental development (Dyllick & Muff, 2016). This study focuses on companies, specifically small businesses, and their level of commitment to sustainable development. Today, several large companies conduct extensive sustainability work. The problem is that they only consist of 0.1% of the total companies in Sweden, according to European commission (2003) which means that their effort will not be enough. Previous research suggests that the reason why small companies do not work with sustainable development is because they have scarce resources, lack of knowledge, and find it difficult to see their own environmental impact and responsibility (Cassell & Lewis, 2017, Kumar Singh et al, 2021, Simon & Ettl, 2019, Isensee et al, 2020).   The ambition of this study is to investigate the level of commitment of small companies in sustainable development. What influences this and how do small companies work with sustainable development and is there any difference in how you work with these issues depending on which industry you are active in? As support, the author has used two theories, the Triple bottom line (TBL) and the Theory of planned behavior (TPB). The study is largely quantitative with a qualitative component. The method used is questionnaire survey. The qualitative element consists of pilot interviews conducted with decision-makers from each participating industry. The data that comes from the surveys have been analyzed partly through ANOVA Post Hoc test and partly through regression analysis with the different dimensions of sustainable development as dependent variables. The results show, firstly, that there are differences between different industries when it comes to commitment level in sustainable development. Secondly, the results show that the component of TPB that affects how small companies work with sustainable development is the subjective norm. For the other two components, attitude and perceived behavior control, no significant evidence has been found to prove that they affect small companies’ work with sustainable development. Finally, this study, in accordance with criticism directed at TBL, argues that small firms have difficulty finding a balance between the three dimensions of the theory. That it can be difficult for companies to have three focuses at the same time. This can cause one dimension to become dominant over another, which, according to TBL, in the long run means that small companies cannot become truly sustainable.