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This thesis addresses the relationship between sustainability action and firm competitiveness. Through the analysis of literature and by conducting a survey on consumer demands and preferences, the question whether sustainability action can help companies in the consumer electronics sector gain a competitive advantage is answered.
This thesis comes to the conclusion, that sustainability action can yield many advantages for companies, when executed properly. In general, companies with a strong sustainability performance reduce their production cost, have easier access to capital and labor, show financial and stock performance on the same level or higher than less sustainable companies, reduce stakeholder risk and gain consumer goodwill which can materialize into a competitive advantage. Regarding the consumer electronics sector,
this thesis shows that most consumers would prefer more sustainable products over less sustainable ones and would be willing to pay a price premium. What seems to be a big issue in the consumer electronics market is, that even though companies like Apple already act on the issue of sustainability, they are either doing a bad job or having a hard
time communicating their sustainability initiatives to consumers.
Abstract
The large-scale impact of the climate change on all regions and industries of the world underlines the need for action in the logistics sector. Despite literature in this field has matured fast since the last 5 years, it neglects the consideration of digital tools or measures to introduce sustainability in the sector. Consequently, precise recommendations on how to manage digital disruptions in order to reach sustainability goals in Logistics are lacking.
The objective of this thesis is to develop those recommendations and to facilitate their implementation for practitioners in the truck container transportation sector. To do so, the impact as well as the evolution of digitalization must be determined. Besides, factors for managing digital change successfully and measuring their impact in this sector shall be ascertained. Finally, a holistic framework to support the implementation process for becoming more sustainable by using digitalization should be presented.
A single-case study at the Logistics Start-Up “driveMybox” intends to fill the identified gap in knowledge. Particularly, it is studied how the organization manages to use digital tools to offer CO2-neutral truck container transports on their platform. Thereby, the different approaches are being looked at. Besides, data is gathered through qualitative interviews and other internal documents.
The first outcome of the thesis is an overview that illustrates the role of digitalization in Logistics. It increases the awareness of the digital impact and helps practitioners to take useful actions. Furthermore, a clear set of success factors to forward sustainability in the transportation sector was developed. Finally, a holistic result depicts which steps can lead to a more sustainable transportation process. Summarising, the thesis contributes to extant literature by combining digitalization with approaches to sustainability. The given recommendations consider the particularities of Start-Ups and support practitioners in this field with valuable guidelines and a holistic framework.
Key factors sustainability and digitalization – an analysis of countries performance and actions
(2022)
Climate change is an extremely relevant topic nowadays in everyday life, politics and even economy. Therefore, it is important to understand the dimension of this topic and be conscious about how it is affecting everyone’s life. Many people’s base of living is fading through for example crop failure or natural disasters. Next, businesses must also adapt since many governments have implemented emission caps which force organizations to restructure business processes to meet those goals. Adapting to new circumstances or ways of working is crucial to fight back menacing environmental changes and without coherent enforcement, the goal of combating global warming and tackling climate change can’t be achieved.
But how can these challenges be fought against in a meaningful way and matter in a long-term perspective? There were already some attempts made like setting a maximum for global warming worldwide. On the other hand, there is no country which can meet those in the required period of time. Next to battle the problem of global warming every country in the world has to take part and work together, or else the goals can’t be fulfilled, which can occur to be difficult and hard to execute in reality. If there is no coherency in enforcement the aim of fighting the global warming and climate change can’t be attained.
The essential query I want to obtain with this thesis is what the possibilities for countries through sustainability and digitalization to live and operate in a more renewable way are. Part of this work will be assessing Sweden’s progress and development in this field since they are pioneers in both key areas. Afterwards there will be a comparison to Morocco and Singapore which at first glance differ completely from each other to work out differences and common ground.
In the end contrasting key factors like climate and geography, politics or economy etc. will give insights about opportunities and unused potential in making the world more sustainable with the help of digitalization.
The technique of acquiring the data is mainly focused on news articles, tech, and business publications as well as governmental proclamation and reporting of environmental portals. The reasoning for this is that the topic is very up to date and the source of information needs to be as recent as possible.
The intention of the project is to generate understanding and awareness about how sustainability and digitalization can be drivers and work together in a complex sphere like environmental change.
The aim of this research is to investigate the impact of potential change in consumer behaviour on the carbon footprint in the beverage industry.
This research comprises two fundamental components. The first component establishes a scientific basis through an in-depth literature review by referring to the main concepts. The second component comprises a research study based on the hypothesis of whether consumers who engage in climate-neutral behaviours also demonstrate conscious beverage consumption. The findings of the literature review illustrate that the beverage industry contributes to high levels of emissions and global plastic pollution. Not only does this endanger marine and terrestrial ecosystems, but also humans. For example, through microplastics that enter organisms and contribute to illnesses. The results imply that the impact of human activities will influence environmental development. The nature of consumer behaviour is considered to be the key to society's impact on the environment. Findings obtained through the research study emphasise that environmental awareness exists among the respondents. Furthermore, it is indicated that a statistical relationship exists between climate neutral consumption patterns and conscious beverage consumption. By fundamentally changing the way beverages are consumed, emissions can be mitigated and consequently the goal of achieving climate neutrality in the beverage industry can be achieved. This furthermore contributes to the achievement of global climate neutrality and supports sustainable development.
Over many decades, greenhouse gas emissions caused by human activity have been increasing and negatively impacting the environment and promoting climate change. One sector that contributes heavily to these emissions is the food industry.
With the aim of reducing these environmental impacts, climate labeling has been introduced as one possible approach to target emissions related to consumer purchasing behavior. This thesis investigates consumer responses to the possible introduction of climate labeling of food products. Moreover, necessary criteria for such an implementation and the potential consequences in terms of increasing sustainability in the food industry are evaluated.
Findings indicate that a label can be effective and change consumer behavior if food labels meet specific label criteria such as an attractive design and little but comprehensible information. Moreover, other factors such as pricing of products can influence the success of food labels.
Regarding the overall food industry, a label could have positive effects but is dependent on changes on both consumer and producer sides following the label introduction. However, it is difficult to exactly evaluate the impact of a label on an entire industry, as green-house gas reductions caused by a label would be hard to measure specifically. Due to the lack of data, it is impossible to predict the actual impact of a climate label on the food industry, but it is possible to assume a positive tendency towards more sustainability.
The following bachelor thesis was written in cooperation with the company GF Automotive AG located in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. It is a worldwide recognized development and serial production partner of the automotive industry. The thesis covers the topic ‘The potential of gaining competitive advantage through Green Marketing’. The purpose of this thesis is to research if sustainability within the automotive supply industry is of high importance and can be used to gain competitive advantage. The thesis offers possible measures to implement successful practices that were detected in the conducted benchmark. It points out that green marketing in the B2B business can support companies to differentiate and it illustrates how marketing communication of the company GF Automotive AG can be adapted in order to succeed and remain leader in the highly competitive automotive supply market
This research study will analyze the flourish and outcomes of the sharing economy nowadays. The sharing economy has raised controversy in our society, rising significant importance on ecological and economic matters, thus it is imperative to evaluate its total effects. It is intended to discover the issues of the sharing economy model and its impacts towards sustainability and economic development. Who is being benefited by the sharing economy? A broad and deep analysis and breakdown of the structure involved by the sharing economy was made in order to clarify the overall positive and negative effects of such a model. Upon the examination of the influences and drivers of the sharing economy concerning the economy, society and ecology, awareness and insights of sustainable and economic enhancements are built. A distinctive perspective of the sharing economy is obtained based on evaluations of the relevant evidence collected.