Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

It has been 40 years since the 1972 Stockholm conference and 20 years since Rio de Janeiro, Earth Summit in 1992. Since then the world of business has changed dramatically with the growth of NGOs environmental social movements, and globalisation has affected every industry in huge way. To cope with the ever changing demands on an organisation both from internal and external stakeholders companies have become more aware of their environment and their impact within it. To guarantee their products were up to standard, organisation started to reassure their consumers through certification schemes and developing internal values like code of conduct and CSR. These changes in strategies also had and are still having a huge effect on the timber industry especially now that globalisation has facilitated the growth of retailers’ power within the supply chain. As companies engage further into CSR strategies it spread outside the borders of their organisation into their supply chain.

This research was intended to comprehend the individual managers’ to better understand their attitude, knowledge and behaviour when it comes to SD and CSR aspects. Also to further determine if there is a unilateral adaption of sustainability practise along the timber supply chain and how it is being communicated. To study adaptation of sustainable business practices, specific emphasis on CSR and certification in the timber industry focusing on British hardware chain back to Swedish timber producers. A number of concepts and theory were applied to this research specifically sustainable development, corporate sustainability, corporate social responsibility, inter-organisation theory, social network theory, and theory of planned behaviour.

The research approach was qualitative interviews done face to face over the distance by telephone and email from representative organisation within the timber supply chain. The outcome of this research was that practitioners do have a positive attitude to CSR and SD and have shown a high level of knowledge around certification with in the chain. Furthermore, the participants also indicated a high willingness to continue working with CSR and certification more. However the research indicated that there was no unilateral adaption of sustainability practise or values along the timber supply chain as the each individual and their organisation addressed the problem in their own way. Furthermore the research did indicated that CSR is not following the supply chain directly but is being focused in specific areas by NGOS such as FSC, which is creating a stimulating power dynamics within the chain that could be interesting research for further studies.