Sustainable E-commerce : How to integrate the dimensions of sustainability within the e-commerce sector

Purpose: The purpose of the study is to investigate how the three dimensions of sustainability (environmental, economic and social) can be integrated within the e-commerce sector to make it more sustainable. Methods: Firstly, a literary research was conducted to get an overall picture of the chosen topic for the study, which later was elaborated into a literature framework. Secondly, two case studies were conducted in order to collect empirical data. The data was collected through interviews, where a total of three interviews was conducted. The literature framework and the multiple case studies were then cross-analyzed with each other. Findings: Throughout the thesis several trade-offs regarding the three dimensions of sustainability have been identified and evaluated, and they are all clearly presented in a compiled table. The findings also indicates that the sustainable actions a company may make needs to be thoroughly communicated through their websites since the e-commerce disables the face-to-face interactions. It is of great importance for companies to increase the consumer awareness and knowledge in order to motivate them in to being sustainable. Theoretical Contribution: This thesis contributes to science by the unification of the e-commerce and the three dimensions of sustainability. The study thus merge science with empirics to create a deeper knowledge and contribute to the body of literature with a compiled table of trade-offs. Practical Contribution: Practitioners will be enlightened of the importance of all the three dimensions of sustainability, and they will understand the concept and events of trade-offs for sustainability when working within e-commerce. The thesis also provides insight for companies to learn how very important it is with better communication about sustainability factors to its consumers. Limitations: This study is delimited to the e-commerce connected to business to consumer (B2C). The study will only involve Swedish companies and will not investigate them on an intra-organizational level. They will be treated as “black boxes”, as the focus only will be on the three dimensions of sustainability in relation to e-commerce, and not any organizational structures or consumers in detail.