Benjamin Prick

How Does Sustainability Affect the Organization Internally?: a Study of Dutch Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Benjamin Prick

Sustainability is currently a hot topic in the media, business world and academic literature. Wrongly, most attention is fixated on large multinational organizations, while small and medium-sized enterprises are mostly ignored. In fact, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are estimated to account for 70% of total pollution and carbon dioxide emissions, and thus it is crucial to examine these organizations more carefully. This thesis therefore takes a specific look at Dutch SMEs and the problem statement of this thesis is as follows: "How does sustainability affect the organization internally?". The goal of this thesis is therefore to identify how the organization itself is impacted by the presence of a sustainable strategy. This will be investigated in terms of the innovation focus of the company, the organizational goals and rewards, and the organizational culture. Also, drivers and barriers to engage in sustainability will be identified.