Translating Sustainability Ideas A Case Study of a local Sustainable Sourcing Concept within the Food Industry

Abstract

This paper investigates how individuals of an organisation are influenced by concepts and ideas in their daily work. In particular, this study examine how purchasing managers are dealing with, and in which ways they are influenced by, the local organisational sustainable sourcing concept. The paper uses a qualitative method based on an in-depth case study of a Swedish organisation within the food industry. Data has been collected by conducting 16 interviews, analysis of 10 documents and recurrent observations. By analysing using actor-network theory and the concept of translation also present in Scandinavian institutionalism, this study shows that the local sustainability concept has been interpreted and translated differently by different purchasing managers in various contexts. This paper also shows that when purchasing managers engage with the non-human actors of the sustainable sourcing concept, processes of punctualization and depunctualization are triggered. Consequently, purchasing managers experience ambiguity which is mitigated through the various acts of translations. The acts of translation was found to be mainly done in two ways, subsequently leading to four different main actions. This paper contributes to new insights on how sustainability is enacted in organisations, highlighting how organisational members can shape entire concepts and ideas as they encounter them in their daily work.