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Sustainability Management Control in Social Business Hybrids: A multiple-case study of three B Corps
Södertörn University, School of Social Sciences, Business Studies.
2022 (English)Independent thesis Advanced level (degree of Master (Two Years)), 20 credits / 30 HE creditsStudent thesis
Abstract [en]

Implementing sustainability objectives into day-to-day activities and decision-making can present a major challenge for some organisations. Management control is believed to play a crucial role in aligning the behaviours of employees with the organisation’s social and environmental objectives,alongside its commercial ones (Epstein et al., 2014). Especially in traditional for-profit organisations, these objectives often come into conflict and new solutions are needed to effectively manage their implementation. 

The purpose of this study is to explore the role of sustainability management controls in the context of social business hybrids, such as B Corps. They are organisations that run commercial operations as a vehicle to address societal issues (Santos et al., 2015) and thus insightful settings to study processes of managing of multiple missions. This multiple-case study explores how three certified B Corps use different types of control mechanisms to enforce their social and environmental missions, using Malmi and Brown’s (2008) framework of management controls as a package. It further investigates their role in navigating these multiple objectives. 

The study finds that all three companies use complete packages of formal as well as informal control mechanisms to direct internal efforts towards achieving their missions. The empirical examples reveal similarities and differences in the ways these companies use and combine different mechanisms to achieve their goals. The findings show that management control can play an important role in balancing and navigating multiple missions. This paper offers examples and food for thought on the many innovative ways of using management controls in organisations to manage multiple objectives and incorporate sustainability in a holistic way.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2022. , p. 66
Keywords [en]
Sustainability, Sustainable Development, Management Control Systems, Hybrid Organizing, Social Business Hybrid, B Corp
National Category
Business Administration
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-49491OAI: oai:DiVA.org:sh-49491DiVA, id: diva2:1680550
Subject / course
Business Studies
Supervisors
Examiners
Available from: 2022-07-05 Created: 2022-07-04 Last updated: 2022-07-05Bibliographically approved

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CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • harvard-anglia-ruskin-university
  • apa-old-doi-prefix.csl
  • sodertorns-hogskola-harvard.csl
  • sodertorns-hogskola-oxford.csl
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf