Integrating sustainability in companies’ business models

: a qualitative analysis of the fast fashion industry

Abstract

This thesis examines how companies inside the global fast fashion industry change their business models to embrace sustainability. Drawing on a comparative case-study design, I analysed a sample of eight leading multinational companies in the fast fashion sector. My findings suggest that all eight sample companies embrace sustainability mainly symbolically, leaving it to the periphery of their business models. This implies, that the core elements of the companies’ business models are not subject to significant change. Moreover, my findings suggest, that the sample companies face multiple tensions in addressing sustainability across all its three dimensions (economic, social, and environmental). Finally, my data shows that, in general, the business model of the analysed fast fashion industry is in its current structure inherently inconsistent with sustainable development. By providing insights on how a firms’ business model can be applied and adapted to embrace sustainability across the firms’ structures and business practices, my study enriches the understanding on sustainability and its integration in the business context. Additionally, my research adds value to the literature on tensions in corporate sustainability and challenges the dominant focus on the win-win paradigm in sustainability research. And, finally, my findings reinforce the fact that sustainability often is limited to the periphery of organisational functioning.

Date of Award	18 May 2018
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Tommaso Ramus (Supervisor)