Öppen Innovation för hållarhet

Sammanfattning

There is a rising pressure from society, consumers, and stakeholders that a firm should start to act more sustainable towards the society and the environment. The goal is that every business should act according to the “Triple Bottom Line,” which is about the consequences a firm's actions have on society as well as on the environment. From this, the UN has created 17 global environmental goals within Agenda 2030 that firms should work with. It is difficult for a firm to understand how to work with these goals on their own, so cooperation between firms and society, as well as between firms, is necessary. One way of doing this is through open innovation which means that a firm has an open flow of information and knowledge towards external actors. An advantage with using open innovation is that if more firms share their experiences, knowledge, and information, they can work together to solve the sustainable challenges that exist today. A lot speaks for that the use of open innovation makes it easier for firms to conduct a more sustainable business, but there is a lack of empirical data that show how a firm does this. Hence, the purpose of this study is to create an understanding of how firms use open innovation to become more sustainable. To research/examine this a qualitative research approach was chosen and interviews with employees at Löfbergs were conducted. To collect more data, a literature study was made. The collected empirical data painted a picture of how firms use open innovation to become more sustainable. From the answers the respondents gave, as well as the conducted literature study, there were a few ways Löfbergs use open innovation to become more sustainable that could be seen. They do this by including stakeholders through their networks, as well as a being transparency throughout the whole innovation process. This study creates a deeper understanding of how open innovation relates to sustainability and how this can be used to solve different sustainability challenges there are. Keywords: Sustainability, open innovation, sustainable innovation, sustainable open innovation.