Exploring how Swedish Banks Communicate Sustainable Marketing

Abstract

The Swedish banking industry has been forced to implement green banking in their business practices due to increased attention towards communicating sustainability. The purpose of this research was to explore managers sensemaking process in Swedish banks sustainability communication. A conceptual model was created based on the theoretical framework to explain three stages of communicating sustainability in an environment of greenwashing. Empirical data was collected through semi-structured interviews with a thematic data analysis. Results of the findings was presented based on the sensemaking process three stages, sensing, interpreting, and responding. Firstly, findings show how managers filter and gather internal and external sustainability information. Secondly, the managers interpretation process was complex and affected by sustainable information, which tend to be difficult for managers to interpret. Lastly, the responding stage resulted in Swedish banks being too careful in their sustainability communication since managers are aware of the critical consequences greenwashing accusations causes. This thesis has contributed to valuable insights on how managers in Swedish banks make sense of communicating sustainability in an environment of greenwashing.

Date of Award	2022-Jun
Original language	English
Supervisor	Christian Koch (Supervisor), Karin Alm (Assessor) & Heléne Tjärnemo (Examiner)