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Purpose: A good description, explanation, and claim about the fact/reality/truth/dependent variable/effect and a piece of complete knowledge about reality are only possible if such a reality is explained using many possible research approaches/reasoning. Owing to such importance the key purpose of this article is to explain the essence of ‘research approach/reasoning’ and various available research approaches/reasoning in doctoral-level research and recommend an ideal model that would enable Ph.D. scholars in India to carry out doctoral-level research that is aimed at improving knowledge about a reality using different research approaches/reasoning. Design/Methodology/Approach: Postmodernism philosophical paradigm; Inductive research approach; Observation data collection method; Longitudinal data collection time frame; Qualitative data analysis. Findings/Result: As long as the Ph.D. scholars can understand all the available research approaches and make mindful choices of approaches to answer their research question they will be able to determine (on their own) all the other choices in succeeding steps of doctoral-level research such as i) data collection method; ii) data collection time frame; iii) sample size; iv) sampling technique; v) data collection instrument; vi) data analysis techniques. Originality/Value: There is a vast literature about reasoning in research. However, there are only a few stakeholders in the research education system who encourage Ph.D. scholars to choose a research approach/reasoning that is uncommon in a discipline. Through this article, we have attempted to explain the purpose of reasoning in doctoral-level research in addition to recommending a decision framework that enables Ph.D. scholars to choose an appropriate research approach during Ph.D. Paper Type: Conceptual model.

International audience; Care coordination is a major health system issue, in particular for cancer patients where a lack of coordination may impact quality of care, lived experiences, and care costs. Consequently, new roles facilitating Patient Pathway Coordination (PPC) have been created (nurse coordinators, NC). However, despite their importance, core PPC activities remain unclear. Practices are often heterogeneous and may be far removed from coordination roles, thus posing issues for implementation of PPC policies.To address this, we generated an analytical framework to investigate the Activity of PAtient PAthway Nurse Coordinators in Oncology (APANCO) from an organizational perspective. We adopted an abductive approach, characterized by two phases: the first involved a preliminary theoretical framework confronted with empirical data from two ethnographic fieldwork scenarios. In the second, we confronted the updated framework with data from a care coordination literature review.The final APANCO framework comprised three main categories at micro-level and three at meso-level. The first categories were used to analyze real NC activity at the micro-level and accounted for activities related (or not) to PPC. Meso-level categories considered organizational contexts that might have influenced NC work content.APANCO provided invaluable information on NCs activities. The framework may be used for clinical and managerial skills training and for standardizing job descriptions. These elements are key for decision-makers and managers who implement PPC programs.

Copyright © 2019 The Authors. Çalışma hayatında liyakat, kurumların sürdürülebilirlik, kalite ve rekabet güçleri için önemli bir değerdir. Liyakatın olduğu yerde yağcılığın, dalkavukluğun veya yaranmanın olması beklenilmediği gibi yağcılığın liyakat sistemini aşındırdığı kabul edilmektedir. Bu çalışmada liyakat sisteminin öncüsü kabul edilen yükseköğretim kurumları odak noktasına alınarak, akademik yaşamda yağcılığın nedenleri, süreçleri ve sonuçları üzerine nitel bir araştırma yapılmaktadır. 88 kişiden elde edilen bulgular, yağcılığın akademik yaşamda tüm paydaşlar arasında yaygın, kültürel olarak kabul gören bir uygulama olduğunu, yağcılığın yapısal olarak göz ardı edildiğini ve hatta kanıksandığını göstermektedir. Sunulan gerçek yaşam öyküleri ve incelenen boyutlar, yağcılığın kavramsal olarak irdelenmesi anlamında akademik söylemlere katkıda bulunmaktadır. Araştırma ayrıca yağcılıkla mücadele sürecinde yükseköğretimin modernizasyonunda karar vericiler için örnek teşkil etmeyi hedeflemektedir. Copyright © 2019 The Authors. Merit is an important value for sustainability, quality, and competitiveness of institutions. In a context of meritocracy, it is often assumed that sycophancy, flattery or ingratiation would not exist, since sycophancy corrodes the merit system. In this study, the higher education institutions, which are regarded as the pioneers of the merit system, are taken as the focal point and the reasons, processes, and results of the sycophancy in the academic life are investigated through a qualitative analysis. Findings from 88 participants indicate that in addition to its widespread and culturally accepted practice among all stakeholders, sycophancy is structurally ignored and even tacitly condoned in academic life. The real life stories and the dimensions of sycophancy that are presented in paper contribute to the theory of sycophancy. In addition to this, the study also aims to serve as a reference for decision-makers in their fight against sycophancy in the modernisation of higher education.

This research is aimed at understanding firms' different types of ‘networking behaviors’, i.e., how and why firms affect their strategic network position by activities/routines/practices aimed not just at their business partners, but beyond such direct relationships. Thus, we adopt a network perspective to examine how firms exploit their webs of direct and indirect business relationships in order to assess and embrace the potential opportunities and constraints in the network. Based on the industrial network approach (INA), this exploratory research specifically focuses on networking behaviors in the UK manufacturing sector. Thirty-one semi-structured interviews with executive managers from fifteen firms were conducted. We identify four types of organizational networking behaviors by the way in which firms utilize their web of relationships to achieve certain goals. By using the concept of networking behaviors based on the INA as well as the strong-and-weak-tie argument in economic sociology, purposeful networking behaviors can be categorized into the following: information acquisition , opportunity enabling , strong-tie resource mobilization and weak-tie resource mobilization . These four ‘types’ of organizational networking behaviors provide a deeper understanding of how firms operating in business-to-business exchanges relate to and exploit their webs of direct and indirect relationships, taking into consideration the embeddedness and interconnectedness of the network context.

One of the fundamental problems in building engineering is to ensure conformance between the planned and the actual course of construction works. What may help solve this problem is a database with examples of performance of similar processes in analogous environmental conditions that enables estimating the basic process parameters (time, cost, quality, etc.). Case-based reasoning in a hybrid advisory system may play an important role between the rule-based reasoning and the machine learning when the data that has been gathered enables inference based on analogies with the completed processes, but their number is still inadequate for application of machine learning. Introduction of the abductive approach is intended to enable a detailed analysis of causes of nonconformances – a limited number of examples facilitate this. This is an example of cooperation between a human (search for causes based on intuition) and a computer (systematic gathering of examples). The authors also plan to use simulations to verify the abductive hypotheses. In the final part of the article, an example of application of case-based reasoning in the process of delivery of ready-mix concrete is presented.

Cet article interroge l’accompagnement à partir d’une réflexion de fond sur la prise de décision et de risque en entrepreneuriat. En adoptant une approche abductive et pragmatique basée à la fois sur notre expérience dans l’accompagnement et sur une articulation approfondie de trois corpus théoriques distincts, nous présentons une vision dynamique du processus de création d’entreprise dans laquelle un porteur de projet accompagné doit prendre des décisions face à l’incertitude et à son évaluation du risque, et cela malgré les limites de sa rationalité. Les décisions et les actions qui en découlent auront des conséquences, dont une partie sera imprévisible et non intentionnelle, mais qui auront tout de même un impact sur les dialogiques porteur/projet, projet/accompagnateur et porteur/accompagnateur. À partir de cette mise en perspective nous discutons trois dérives possibles des systèmes d’accompagnement sur la prise de décision et de risque en création d’entreprise : le retrait face à l’expertise de l’accompagnateur, la soumission aux contraintes imposées par les systèmes d’accompagnement même aux dépens du projet et de son porteur et la possible altération temporelle inadéquate du processus entrepreneurial. Nous concluons en évoquant quelques pistes de réflexion pouvant aider à éviter ces dérives et pouvant constituer d’intéressantes voies de recherche futures., This article questions the role of entrepreneurial support systems from a thorough examination of decision making and risk taking in entrepreneurship. Adopting a pragmatic and abductive approach based both on our experience in coaching entrepreneurs and an in-depth articulation of three distinct theoretical corpuses, we present a dynamic view of the business creation process in which a mentored entrepreneur must make decisions under risk and uncertainty, within the boundaries of her rationality. The decisions and resulting actions have consequences that can be unpredictable and unintentional, but that will still impact the dialogic entrepreneur/project, project/mentor, and entrepreneur/mentor. From this perspective we discuss three possible drifts of support systems on entrepreneurial decision making and risk taking : retreat to the mentor’s expertise, submission to the constraints imposed by the support systems even at the expense of the project and the entrepreneur, as well as a possible temporal alteration of the entrepreneurial process. We conclude by suggesting some potential solutions to help prevent these drifts, which may constitute interesting areas for further research., En este artículo se cuestiona el papel de los sistemas de apoyo a la creación de empresa a partir de un examen detallado de la toma de decisiones y de la asunción de riesgos. Adoptamos un enfoque pragmático y abductivo basado en nuestra experiencia y en una articulación de tres corpus teóricos distintos, para ofrecer una visión dinámica del proceso de creación de empresas en el que un emprendedor acompañado debe tomar decisiones frente a la incertidumbre y a su evaluación del riesgo, a pesar de los límites de su racionalidad. Las decisiones y acciones resultantes tienen consecuencias que pueden ser impredecibles y no intencionales, pero que todavía tendrán un impacto en las dialógicas emprendedor/proyecto, proyecto/mentor y emprendedor/mentor. Desde esta perspectiva se discuten tres posibles derivas de los sistemas de apoyo a la creación de empresas : la retirada a la experiencia del mentor, la sumisión a las demandas y restricciones impuestas por los sistemas de apoyo, incluso a expensas del proyecto y del emprendedor, así como una posible alteración temporal del proceso de creación empresarial. En conclusión, sugerimos algunas soluciones que pueden ayudar a evitar estas derivas y que constituyen pistas interesantes para futuras investigaciones.

‘Corporate social responsibility’ (CSR) and ‘socially responsible investment’ (SRI) have become predominant frameworks connecting business to society that have spread across the globe. They comprise a shared set of ideas and practices, such as those promoted in global reporting standards and by international organisations such as the UN Global Compact. Nonetheless, both are constructed and reproduced by companies in relation to context-specific social institutions, including norms and conventions shaping company engagement in social issues. Using a neo-institutionalist theoretical framework, the thesis examines constructions of social responsibility in discourse and within institutional contexts, across regions that are not often compared in the research terrain: two West European welfare states (Sweden and the UK) and two emerging African economies (South Africa and Mauritius). The purpose of the thesis is to add to the literature on CSR and SRI with a sociologically informed perspective that is comparative and connects institutional theory with social constructionism and a Foucauldian perspective on power. The thesis analyses how perceptions of CSR and SRI are constructed in relation to the social institutions that encase companies’ engagement with social issues, such as national level welfare configurations and the institution of financial investments. The main argument in this thesis is that CSR and SRI need to be seen as contextually constructed, in discourse and practice, in ways that draw the boundaries and set the conditions for company engagement with social issues. The thesis comprises three articles. Article 1 is a content analysis of company self-reporting on CSR and the article examines how the content given to CSR relates to broader welfare configurations and as such differs in four national settings across the divide between emerging African economies and Western welfare states. Article 2 is a discourse analysis that examines interpretative repertoires occurring in company self-reporting across the same set of four countries. The interpretative repertoires are analysed as discursive practices where power intersects with the production of knowledge on CSR. Article 3 focuses on SRI and examines responsible investing as a form of institutional work that institutional investors engage in. Based on an interview study with institutional investors in Sweden, the article analyses institutional work as a process that has the effect of both institutional creation and maintenance and it connects these institutional processes to the construction of meaning on SRI. In its entirety the thesis contributes a sociological perspective on how prevailing understandings of corporate social responsibility come into being and are reproduced. Uppfattningar om företags samhällsansvar har begreppsliggjorts i huvudsak genom idéer om ’corporate social responsibility’ (CSR) och ’ansvarsfulla investeringar’. Under de senaste decennierna har dessa begrepp utvecklats till att bli vanligt förkommande och har spridits över världen. Som globala koncept medför de en gemensam uppsättning av idéer och metoder, såsom de som förs fram i internationella standarder för företags CSR rapportering, och utav internationella organisationer såsom FN:s Global Compact. Ändå skiljer de sig åt mellan olika kontexter och är konstruerade och återges av företag i förhållande till sociala sammanhang. Begreppen ges mening i relation till sociala institutioner i form av normer och konventioner som redan omger företag och sociala frågor. Baserat på nyinstitutionell teori undersöker avhandlingen konstruktioner av samhällsansvar och ansvarstagande, i diskurs och i institutionella sammanhang, över regioner som inte ofta jämförs i forskningen kring skillnader i företags samhällsansvar: två Västeuropeiska välfärdsstater (Sverige och Storbritannien) och två tillväxtekonomier i södra Afrika (Sydafrika och Mauritius). Syftet med avhandlingen är att bidra till litteraturen kring CSR och ansvarsfulla investeringar med ett sociologiskt perspektiv som är jämförande och för samman institutionell teori med social konstruktionism och Foucaults perspektiv på makt. Avhandlingen analyserar hur föreställningar om CSR och ansvarsfulla investeringar konstrueras i förhållande till de sociala institutioner som omger företags engagemang i samhällsfrågor, och belyser speciellt vikten av samhällets välfärdssystem och konventioner kring finansiella investeringar som betydelsefulla för dessa begrepp. Huvudargumentet i denna avhandling är att CSR och ansvarsfulla investeringar måste ses som kontextuellt skapade, i diskurs och praxis, på ett sätt som drar gränserna och skapar förutsättningarna för företags engagemang i samhällsfrågor. Avhandlingen omfattar tre artiklar. Artikel 1 är en innehållsanalys av företags självrapportering om CSR och artikeln undersöker hur innehållet som ges till CSR i självrapporteringen relaterar till hur samhället i övrigt hanterar välfärd och sociala frågor. Artikeln visar på hur CSR på så sätt skiljer sig åt mellan fyra olika länder där två är tillväxtekonomier i södra Afrika och två är Västeuropeiska välfärdsstater. Artikel 2 är en diskursanalys som undersöker språkliga repertoarer (interpretative repertoires) som förekommer i företags självrapportering om CSR, i samma uppsättning av fyra länder. Repertoarerna analyseras som tillämpandet av diskurs och de synliggör hur makt är av betydelse i skapandet av diskurser kring CSR. Artikel 3 fokuserar på ansvarfulla investeringar och undersöker detta som en form av aktivt skapande och återskapande av samhällsinstitutioner. Baserat på en intervjustudie med institutionella investerare i Sverige analyseras ansvarfullt investerande som en process som på samma gång innebär både skapande av en ny social institution, ansvarsfulla investeringar, och återskapande av en existerande institution, finansiella investeringar. Skapandet av nya idéer inom ramarna för en existerande institution påverkar innebörden i ansvarsfulla investeringar. I sin helhet bidrar avhandlingen med ett sociologiskt perspektiv på hur uppfattningar om företags samhällsansvar skapas och återskapas. At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 1: Manuscript. Paper 2: Manuscript. Paper 3: Manuscript.

Mellanchefer intar en allt mer central roll i organisationer vilket resulterar i ökat ansvar både operativt och strategiskt. Huruvida mellanchefer bör rekryteras internt eller externt är svårt att fastställa. Då arbetsmarknad och samhället kräver en ständig utveckling och förnyelse av organisationer bör ledning arbeta strategiskt med att främja en ständig utveckling. Syftet med denna studie blir därför att öka kunskapen om hur intern respektive extern rekrytering av mellanchefer kan påverka organisationers innovationsförmåga och hur mellanchefsrekrytering, ur en strategisk synvinkel, kan bidra till innovation.Vi har genomfört en kvalitativ analys med semistrukturerade intervjuer där respondenter med erfarenhet av chefsrekrytering i organisationer från tre olika branscher har deltagit. Branscherna som studerats är industribranschen, servicebranschen och detaljhandelsbranschen för att fastställa eventuella skillnader i synen på innovation och mellanchefens roll i strävan mot denna i de olika branscherna. Studien har en komparativ design med ett målstyrt urval. Totalt deltog sex respondenter i studien med sina berättelser och erfarenheter kring chefsrekrytering. I analysen har vi arbetat utifrån en abduktiv ansats inspirerat av ett hermeneutiskt perspektiv. Den teoretiska referensramen har utvecklats med hjälp av tidigare litteratur kring mellanchefsrekrytering, innovation samt intern och extern rekryteringens för- och nackdelar som sedan används som utgångspunkt för att kategorisera de textavsnitt som identifierades i respektive analys.Vår forskning om hur intern respektive extern rekrytering av mellanchefer kan påverka organisationers innovationsförmåga leder till resultatet att majoriteten av respondenterna förespråkar karriärsutveckling genom intern rekrytering. Detta skulle leda till ökad innovation i högre grad än den externa rekryteringen. Att värna om befintliga medarbetare och låta dem växa och utvecklas gynnar organisationens innovationsförmåga och anses vara en mer effektiv rekryteringsmetod i strävan efter innovation. Något avvikande från detta är resultatet från analysen av serviceorganisationen som är medvetna om fördelarna med intern karriärutveckling men anser att den externa rekryteringens fördelar ändå väger tyngre utifrån innovationssynpunkt. Detta då de utifrån innovationsperspektivet ser nyskapande som resultat av att rekrytera externa individer som bidrar med nya idéer och tankesätt. Vår forskning bidrar med att öka kunskapen om hur intern respektive extern rekrytering av mellanchefer kan påverka organisationers innovationsförmåga. Middle managers today have an increasingly central role in business organizations resulting in increased responsibility both operationally and strategically. Whether it is advisable to recruit middle managers internally or externally is a debated topic and seemingly a situation driven decision. As the labor market and society requires a continuous development and innovation of organizations the management should work strategically to promote a continuous development. The purpose of this study is therefore to increase the knowledge of how internal and external recruitment of middle managers can affect organizations' ability to pursue innovation and how recruitment of middle managers, from a strategic point of view, can contribute to innovation.We have conducted a qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews where respondents with experience of executive recruitment in organizations from three different sectors participated. The sectors studied were; the industrial sector, the service sector and the retail sector in order to determine the possible differences in views on innovation and the manager's role in pursuing this in their respective industries. The study has a comparative design with a purposive sampling. A total of six respondents were interviewed and their stories and experiences were included in this study. In the analysis, we have worked with an abductive approach inspired by a hermeneutic perspective. The theoretical framework has been developed by using previous literature on middle management recruitment and innovation and the internal and external recruitment advantages and disadvantages which later on have been used as the basis for structuring the text in the analysis.Our research of how the internal and external recruitment of middle managers can affect organizations' ability to pursue innovation leads to the result that most respondents advocate career development through internal recruitment. This would lead to greater innovation, to a greater extent than the external recruitment. Our results suggests that by retaining existing employees and allow for them to grow and develop, the organization promotes innovation and could be assumed to hold a more effective recruitment method in the pursuit of innovation. In contrast, the result of the analysis of the service organization shows that the respondents are well aware of the advantages of internal career development however despite these benefits they still debate that numerous advantages do prevail from an innovation perspective when recruiting middle managers externally. This due to, from an innovation perspective, the external recruitment would allow for the organization to host new objective individuals contributing with innovative ways of working and perhaps new sought after perspectives previously unknown to the organization. To summarize this study shall aim to contribute to an increased knowledge of how internal and external recruitment of middle managers affect organizations' ability to pursue innovation.This paper is written in Swedish.

Denna studie behandlar begreppet mångfald på arbetsplatsen i en svensk kontext. Begreppet har diskuterats i Sverige sedan slutet av 1990-talet, men det råder fortfarande en förvirring kring vad mångfald på arbetsplatsen innebär och vilken påverkan det har på enskilda organisationer. Vidare förknippas begreppet i Sverige med en hög grad av statlig inblandning, som på senare år fokuserats på att påverka organisationer i riktning mot en multikulturell modell. Dock hävdas att det finns liten erfarenhet i av den multikulturella modellen i den svenska praktiken. De företag som arbetar med mångfald gör det ofta inte integrativt, utan mer av ekonomiska skäl för att lättare kunna söka externt kapital.Syftet med studien är att utreda vilka perspektiv av mångfald som finns i olika svenska organisationer och hur dessa skiljer sig från, eller liknar, den multikulturella modell som förespråkas av samhällsdiskursen. Med hjälp av institutionell teori som referensram diskuteras sedan resultatet för att kunna förklara varför eventuella diskrepanser i diskursen kring mångfald på arbetsplatsen mellan olika nivåer i samhället uppstår. Kvalitativ analys av diskurser över flera nivåer av samhället genomförs utifrån en tvärsnittsdesign med urval av offentliga dokument såsom hemsidor, policydokument hållbarhetsredovisningar och årsredovisningar hos relevanta institutionella arrangemang i ett makroperspektiv, de allra största svenska företagen och ett slumpvis genererat urval av stora svenska företag i ett mikroperspektiv. Totalt analyseras 70 företag och sex institutionella arrangemang. Vi arbetar utifrån en abduktiv ansats där analysen inledningsvis görs med hjälp av en referensram kring mångfaldsperspektiv som senare utvecklas vid adderandet av institutionell teori och i ljuset av våra resultat.Vi finner att tre perspektiv på mångfald; förstärka homogenitet, det färgblinda perspektivet och rättviseperspektivet kan sägas vara institutionaliserade i den svenska kontexten med en stark fokusering på könsdimensionen av mångfald. Accessperspektivet och integration-lärandeperspektivet kan vi inte säga är institutionaliserade i den svenska kontexten. Istället kan de sägas vara på modet. De institutionella arrangemang som vi kan koppla till den svenska staten påverkar svenska organisationer genom tvingande institutionellt tryck till att anamma de institutionaliserande perspektiven. Det finns även en ambition till att regeringen skall agera förebild för mångfaldsarbete genom företag med statligt ägande. Dock sträcker sig texter från dessa institutionella arrangemang inte längre än till det färgblinda perspektivet och rättviseperspektivet. Istället finner vi de flesta uttrycken för accessperspektivet och integration-lärandeperspektivet, där vi även återfinner den multikulturella modellen, framför allt i diskursen som utgörs av texter hos de största svenska företagen. Studien bidrar, genom adderandet av institutionell teori, till en ny, mer pluralistisk syn på mångfaldsperspektiv än vad tidigare litteratur har illustrerat. This study is addressing the concept of workplace diversity in the Swedish context. The concept has been discussed in Sweden since the late 1990´s, but still there are confusions about what workplace diversity really is, and what impact it has on particular organizations. Further, the concept is in the Swedish context associated with a high degree of governmental involvement which, as of late, has been focused on influencing organizations toward a multicultural model. However, some argue that there is little experience of a multicultural model in the Swedish practice. Those companies that work with diversity do so mostly out of economic reasons, in search of external capital and not in an integrative way.The purpose of this study is to investigate which perspectives on diversity there are in different Swedish organizations and how these can resemble, or differ from, the multicultural model that is advocated by the societal discourse. By means of institutional theory as a reference, the results are then discussed to explain why possible discrepancies in the discourse around workplace diversity between different levels of society may arise. Qualitative analysis of discourses throughout several levels of society is conducted with a cross-sectional design with a sample of public documents such as websites, policy documents, sustainability reports and annual accounts from relevant institutional arrangements in a macro-perspective, and in a micro-perspective; from the largest Swedish companies and a random sample of large, Swedish companies. A total of 70 companies and six institutional arrangements are analyzed. We have an abductive approach, where the analysis is initially conducted by means of a frame of reference around perspectives on diversity, which is further developed with the addition of institutional theory in light of our findings.We find that three perspectives on diversity; reinforcing homogeneity, the color-blind perspective and the fairness perspective can be said to be institutionalized in the Swedish context, with a strong focus on the gender dimension of diversity. The perspectives of access and integration-learning cannot be said to be institutionalized in the Swedish context, but can instead be seen as fashionable. The institutional arrangements we can associate with the Swedish government influence Swedish organizations by means of coercive institutional pressure to adapt to the institutionalized perspectives. There is also an ambition to act as a role model concerning diversity management through companies owned by the State. However, the texts we analyze deriving from these institutional arrangements stretch no further than to the color-blind perspective and the fairness perspective. Instead, we find the most expressions for the access perspective and the integration-learning perspective, where we also find the multicultural model, in the discourse consisting of texts deriving from the largest Swedish companies. The study contributes, by the addition of institutional theory, to a more pluralistic way of describing the perspectives on diversity, than illustrated by previous literature.The thesis is written in Swedish.

Hållbarhet är ett begrepp som har skiftande innebörd, både inom vetenskap och populärvetenskap. Forskning kring hållbarhet har ett särskilt fokus på kartläggning av orsakssamband och enbart ett fåtal studier fokuserar på att kartlägga och utforska hur begreppet hållbarhet konstrueras genom företags kommunikation. Inom redovisning efterfrågas ofta ett mer principbaserat och konceptuellt angreppssätt, och då detta enligt vår litteraturöversikt ges begränsat utrymme inom forskning kring hållbarhet, finns det möjligheter till att bidra med förståelse på området. Syftet med denna studie är att utforska hur begreppet hållbarhet kommuniceras och därmed konstrueras av företag med affärskonceptet fast fashion. Det finns en distinktion mellan handling och kommunikation och den här studien behandlar enbart kommunikationsaspekten. Vi har genomfört en kvalitativ innehållsanalys av hållbarhetsredovisningar för företag med affärskonceptet fast fashion. Studien har en tvärsnittsdesign med ett teoretiskt urval och top of mind-associationer. Totalt inkluderades tre företag i studien och deras respektive hållbarhetsredovisningar för rapporteringsåret 2013. I analysen har vi arbetat utifrån en abduktiv ansats inspirerat av ett foucauldianskt perspektiv. Den teoretiska modellen utvecklades med hjälp av tidigare litteratur om hållbarhetsdefinitioner och användes som en utgångspunkt för att kategorisera de textavsnitt som identifierades i respektive analys. Vår utforskning av företagens kommunikation av hållbarhet leder till slutsatsen att begreppet snarare konstrueras som produktiv aktivitet än handlingsklokhet i och med företagens tydliga fokus på stegvis anpassning och efterlevnad av såväl koder som specifika regler. Weak sustainability är mer framträdande än strong sustainability i företagens hållbarhetsrapportering, men det finns även en glidande skala mellan dessa. Till skillnad från övriga studier kring konstruktion av hållbarhetsbegreppet riktar denna studie in sig på företag med ett visst koncept (i.e. fast fashion) i utforskningen av hur hållbarhetsbegreppet kommuniceras och konstrueras. Studiens bidrag är utvecklandet av den teoretiska modellen i form av en glidande skala samt ökad konceptuell förståelse för konstruktion av hållbarhet. Vi argumenterar således för en glidande skala mellan de teoretiskt definierade hållbarhetskategorierna, medan andra studier enbart presenterar sina resultat enligt dikotomier. Considering both science and popular science, sustainability is a concept of diverse meanings. Scientific research concerning sustainability has a particular focus on plotting causal links. Only a few studies focus on plotting and exploring the concept of sustainability as it is being conveyed by businesses via communication in corporate sustainability reports. Within the accounting field, there is a common demand for a principles-based and conceptual approach. Thus, while our literature review shows scientific research on sustainability has given limited attention to this approach, there are vast opportunities to contribute to this field by enhancing the comprehension of this issue. Consequently, the aim of this study is to explore the way in which the concept of sustainability is communicated and hence constructed by fast fashion businesses. As there is a distinction between practice and communication, this study merely focuses on the communication aspect.We have conducted a qualitative content analysis based on corporate sustainability reports issued by fast fashion corporations. The study applies a cross-sectional design and a theoretical sampling technique coupled with top-of-mind associations. In total, three corporations were included in this study, resulting in a sample of three corporate sustainability reports from the reporting year of 2013. During the analysis, an abductive approach inspired by a foucauldian perspective was applied. The theoretical model was elaborated on the basis of previous research and academic literature on the definition of sustainability and it served as an initial structure for categorization of the empirical observations.Our findings indicate that companies portray a clear focus on gradual adjustment and conformity to various codes as well as regulations, which leads to the conclusion that companies included in this study construct sustainability in terms of skills rather than wisdom. Furthermore, our findings point to the conclusion that elements of weak sustainability are more prominent than elements of strong sustainability in corporate sustainability reports. However, a notable finding is the existence of a sliding scale between these paradigms. As opposed to other studies regarding the construction of sustainability, this study focuses on a certain business concept (i.e. fast fashion) exploring the communication and construction of the concept sustainability. The contribution of our study is an evolution of the model in terms of a sliding scale and increased conceptual understanding of the term sustainability. We argue a sliding scale between weak and strong sustainability should be taken into account, while previous studies have presented their findings solely as dichotomies.This paper is written in Swedish.