En studie om konflikten mellan företags affärsstrategi och CSR-arbete i lågprishandeln
A wish for a higher standard of living has driven the rate of consumption in Sweden. Mainfocus in business is on a higher growth and profitability where some companies use a lowprice strategy to win competitive advantage. The positive consumption pattern spiral is oftendiscussed in media, while criticism is limited and often refers to the environment. In order toreduce our ecological footprint we should consume more sustainably. More and morecompanies implement CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) in their business strategy tobecome more sustainable. Everything from global warming to working conditions in thesupply chain are discussed.The purpose of the thesis is to highlight the conflict that exists between a company's businessstrategy and CSR work. In order to answer the problem we used an explorative researchapproach where we used a case study with an in-depth interview. We have also usedsecondary sources such as social media and the company's website as the basis for theempirical data collection.The empirical data were then analyzed based on the theories of strategy, stakeholders, GRI(Global Reporting Initiative) legitimacy and trade-offs in order to find similarities anddifferences from a real case.The results of the study show that if the company had been more open about the shortcomingsof their CSR work they had been able to create more credible CSR initiatives. That wouldhave led to a higher value of legitimacy. If the company does not succeed in convincing thesociety that their actions are credible, the conflict between business strategy and CSR can notbe solved. Although the studied company makes more efforts to become a greenerorganization with CSR sometimes CSR is overlooked to increase turnover in front of acomprehensive sustainable business. This must be seen as a trade-off between businessstrategy and CSR, the organization must sometimes ignore CSR to increase growth within thecompany. There are some paradoxes in the case business sustainability efforts, but in generalthe case shows many ongoing projects that reduce the company's environmental impact.Keywords: trade-off, greenmuting, greenwashing, low price strategy, green strategies, CSR.