For a better day : A study on the environmental motives of Swedish micro, small- and medium-sized fashion companies

Background: The fashion industry has been extensively regarded as one of the most environmentally harmful industries. There is an increasing market for fast fashion and short lifespan, resulting in the fact that environmental impact is a growing concern. Micro, small- and medium-sized enterprises currently stand for 70% of the global pollution. Further, in Sweden, this category is not as regulated as large companies regarding environmental sustainability activities. Problem: With the fashion industry being a major factor for global environmental impact, discussions regarding the sector have emerged. Attention on companies’ environmental sustainability has increased in past years and more companies have adopted new operations. Although studies regarding motives have been done in other countries, generalization cannot be made across different nationalities, sizes and sectors. Purpose: The purpose of the study is to investigate the influence of motives to adopt environmental sustainability within micro, small- and medium-sized businesses in the Swedish fashion industry. It aims at using previously found theories and findings to explore and create an overview of company motivations. Method: This research was performed by a qualitative research design and 6 semi-structured interviews were conducted. Results: The findings present the influence of several different motives. Among those were ethics and societal pressure more common than financial performance, competitiveness and brand image. There are different motives to engage in environmental operations. The ones found and presented in the theoretical summary all seemed to have a significance to some degree to the various interviewed companies