Strategic Acquisition of Innovative Companies Moving Corporations towards Sustainability

Sammanfattning: Innovation has been powering industrial development for 200 years. Today, in times of social and environmental pressures, it is even more needed to support the transition towards a more sustainable society. Multinational corporations are potential systemic change agents by their global presence and impact magnitude on economics. However, a combination of short-termism and technological inertia rather favours incremental innovation. Meanwhile, some smaller companies have quickly integrated the value of doing ‘better’ rather than doing ‘less bad’, making innovation go hand-in-hand with sustainable development. Therefore, acquisitions represent an opportunity to spread a solution to addressing sustainability challenges faster, but the corporate decision-makers need concise, constructive guidelines for selecting and integrating these external opportunities. This thesis describes how a Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development (FSSD) helps to identify the gaps in the current practices and supports the creation of guidelines for corporations acquiring innovative companies in order to move towards sustainability.