Exploring “Company Personas” for Informing Design for Sustainability Implementation in Companies

Faheem Ali, Raphaëlle Stewart, Casper Boks and Niki Bey
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Faheem Ali: Department of Design, Faculty of Architecture and Design, NTNU Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 7491 Trondheim, Norway
Raphaëlle Stewart: Department of Design, Faculty of Architecture and Design, NTNU Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 7491 Trondheim, Norway
Casper Boks: Department of Design, Faculty of Architecture and Design, NTNU Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 7491 Trondheim, Norway
Niki Bey: Division for Quantitative Sustainability Assessment, Department of Management Engineering (DTU MAN), Technical University of Denmark (DTU), 2800 Kongens Lyngby, Denmark

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 2, 1-30

Abstract: The need for understanding the context of the case company during Design for Sustainability (DfS) implementation has been a long identified need among the researchers in the field. Yet, studies on company context have primarily focused on studying, enlisting, and prescribing standardized solutions for companies or clustering companies based on similarities. Such approaches have not been able to overcome the organizational “soft side” challenges that have been long addressed in DfS literature. This explorative paper takes insights from 20 case interviews conducted in Norwegian and Danish manufacturing companies and with sustainability experts and uses the concept of persona from design studies to explore the potential of defining “company personas” to better define the context of the company. The interview analysis produced 14 dimensions, including both hitherto identified factual needs of companies and soft-side elements required to create a company persona, thereby informing practitioners and researchers to take a DfS implementation approach tailored to the company context.

Keywords: Design for Sustainability (DfS), eco-design; persona; case study; implementation; industry; Nordics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:2:p:463-:d:198403

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