Sustainable strategy formation at a Swedish industrial company: bridging the strategy-as-practice and sustainability gap

Scholars stress that firms need to integrate sustainability into their strategies, calling for more research into how sustainable strategies are formed in practice. This has led to convergence of the fields of sustainability and strategic management, though sustainability scholars have so far neglected the influential strategy-as-practice (s-as-p) movement that has shaped the strategic management field over the last decade. Based on a detailed longitudinal case study of a Swedish industrial company, we are starting to rectify this neglect. In doing so, we are contributing to the s-as-p literature by challenging its top-management bias and identifying previously overlooked strategic activities and practitioners. We are also contributing to the sustainability literature by outlining a novel theoretical framework for studying sustainable strategy formation and demonstrating that certain activities, and their associated practitioners, are particularly likely to shape sustainable (versus “regular”) strategies. Finally, the paper outlines the managerial implications of these findings.