| dc.description.abstract | The pursuit of sustainable development has become one of the most important challenges and
consequently a central concern for companies. Often, that concern is addressed via an outsideoriented
approach, focusing on communication and sustainability disclosure. This thesis aims
to shift the focus from an external perspective to the internalization of sustainability into
decision-making. Specifically, we examine the integration of sustainability into management
control systems (MCS). Through a comprehensive analysis of 166 Norwegian companies that
participated in a ‘state of sustainability’ survey of S-HUB Norway, we assessed the extent of
sustainability integration and developed patterns of formal and informal controls. The patterns
reflect that controls are not isolated tools but interplay in a diverse manner. Our findings
suggest that sustainability is only moderately integrated into the MCS, with a focus on a longterm
strategic perspective and a lack of concrete measures and actions. Moreover, we
examined the relationship between integration depth and financial performance, considering
the tension between sustainability and profitability in academia and practice. By
supplementing the sustainability data with archival financial data in a regression analysis, we
found a short-term negative relationship – especially in the case of financially bad performing
companies and for the integration into formal controls. This negative relationship could be
attributed to a restriction effect, in which an excessive number of formal or irrelevant
sustainability controls are counterproductive to the financial optimization of management
decisions. Another explanation for the negative relationship might be the short-term nature of
our study, representing its major limitation. The potential for positive long-term effects,
coupled with the inevitably growing importance of sustainability, underscores the need for
proactive measures and for the adaption of internal processes. | en_US |
