Sustainability Pressure - A field study investigating the Real-estate and Construction industry

Abstract

Introduction and Purpose: One of the major challenges within most industries today is the increased sustainability-related pressure. The Swedish real-estate and construction industry is furthermore deemed as a significant polluter, both domestically and internationally. Sprung, primarily, from the European Union's action plan and the Paris agreement, increased pressure from a variety of stakeholders has emerged that firms subsequently have been forced to adhere to. To cope with the increased pressure firms are positioned with the choice of either actively or proactively approach the pressure. Congruent with the real-estate and construction industry’s financially driven approach, which historically has been rather reluctant of adopting non-core activities, suggest a reactive approach has been the predominant one. However, in line with the emerging trend of digitalization, opportunities of adopting a more reactive approach are perhaps possible. Methodology: The initial step of this report was to conduct a pre-study, which aimed to provide the authors with general information about the industry to efficiently construct a scope and structure. A series of interviews were subsequently conducted to gather empirical data related to the different sustainability-related pressures along with the industries strategic responses to the various pressures. Theoretical Framework: The theoretical framework of this report revolves around the two well-researched areas of institutional theory and stakeholder theory. These two theoretical concepts are used in tandem to explain the pressure within the real-estate and construction industry. The Wang et al. (2020) model is furthermore used to investigate the response related to the pressure by characterizing various responses as either reactive or proactive. Empirical Findings and Analysis: From the empirical findings it was found that pressure of sustainable transformation originates from a variety of sources, such as Internal stakeholders, Customers, Suppliers, Regulators and Capital Providers. The pressure has also seemingly increased during recent years, which has subsequently positioned firms within the real-estate and construction industry to make strategic decisions to adhere to the pressures. Digital tools have been found to be an important aspect for firms to adopt a more proactive approach towards managing the increased pressure. A limiting factor was, however, that a proactive approach was often associated with high costs and being resource consuming. Conclusion: The concluding remark of this investigation is contextualized through an alteration of the Wang et al. (2020) model. Pressure from internal stakeholders and market pressure (supplier and customers) has been deemed to be managed through proactive strategies. Finally, Coercive (regulative) and Capital Providers strategic responses were generally characterized as being reactive.