Findings

The main finding of this case study is that the management of KLS PurePrint created an ongoing strategic change process towards circularity by cumulatively adapting their strategy. This cumulative process began as the management of KLS PurePrint first applied the CO2-strategy. This implied an internal change process, as the employees of KLS PurePrint became urged to engage themselves with sustainability by suggesting different means to reduce the overall CO2-emissions. These means where created by both top management and the employees, which thereby created commitment and the creation of a common narrative. This narrative was based on becoming the greenest print house in Scandinavia.

Later in 2013, in order to embrace circularity, KLS PurePrint implemented the cradle-to-cradle strategy. This was perceived as an incremental advancement, rather than a major change in strategy, as the employees were familiar with the ongoing CO2-strategy. This perception allowed the employees of KLS PurePrint to adapt both their processes and their commitment to the new strategy.

By cumulatively adapting their strategies, the management of KLS PurePrint enabled the employees to acclimatize themselves to the new initiatives that the strategies implied. This main finding is illustrated in Figure 17 below.

Figure 17: Cumulative Sensemaking During Strategic Change (Based on Hernes et al., 2015)

The figure above illustrates how time stretches on a continuum from the past towards the future.

Further, it shows how change is an ongoing process without stabilized steps and how sensemaking is continuously developing, leading from one phase to the next. However, the traditional strategy (Phase 1), transitional strategy (Phase 2) and transformational strategy (Phase 3) emphasize how the management of KLS PurePrint broke down the change process. This allowed KLS PurePrint to utilize the narrative from Phase 1 when entering Phase 2, which enabled for interacts and patterns of interacts to generate commitment within KLS PurePrint towards the CO2-strategy. This resulted in a narrative that was brought to influence further interacts in Phase 2. These interact created new patterns of interacts, which generated further commitment and a new narrative going in to Phase 3. Thereby, the cumulative adaptions of the strategy allowed the management of KLS PurePrint to implement the strategies towards circularity via sensemaking.

The second finding concerns the narratives identified in KLS PurePrint. The analysis showed how the concept of narrative within the sensemaking process was influenced by different external settings.

In the beginning of the Phase 2, the narrative was influenced by an external narrative regarding sustainability, as for example the movie “An Inconvenient Truth”, or the UN’s Climate Reports.

Further ahead in Phase 2, the interviewees referred to how changes in internal behaviour of employees

at KLS PurePrint became visible. This was shown via new patterns of interacts, which further demonstrated a commitment to the implemented CO2-strategy. The analysis further showed how KLS PurePrint created an internal narrative as a result of this commitment, which was to become the greenest print house in Scandinavia. This finding is illustrated in Figure 18 below.

Figure 18: External Narratives Influencing Sensemaking (Based on Hernes et al., 2015)

The figure illustrates how an external narrative influences the interacts and thereby the patterns of interacts in KLS PurePrint in Phase 2. This ongoing narrative shall not be seen as strictly connected to the Phase 2 as outlined above, but rather as a flow that kept influencing KLS PurePrint’s strategic change processes. This is a result of how the interviewees in the beginning of Phase 2, referred to themselves as a print house that wanted to engage in a more sustainable way of doing business. This narrative developed into KLS PurePrint referring to themselves as problem solvers where they were engaging in global climate issues in Phase 3. This was shown by how KLS PurePrint for example moved from the Graphic Federation Grakom to Danish Industry Federation as they aligned more with KLS PurePrint’s current view on business. The change in narrative was further exemplified by how KLS PurePrint began to engage with the global issue of plastic, as they are involved in creating food packaging made my paper. This finding will be further developed in the Theoretical Implications, 8.2.

The third finding concerns the concept of cradle-to-cradle. It was found that KLS PurePrint was not focused on engaging customers and other actors down the value chain in continuing the circular approach. The reason for this is that KLS PurePrint did not make sure that the PurePrint products were put back into the value circle, or more precisely, the biological cycle. This finding emphasizes how circular processes need to be supported by holistic systems in order to maintain the value of products and their materials at the greatest value, which enables to generate long-term environmental benefits. The fact that KLS PurePrint lacked an external focus created a flaw in their circular system.

This flaw implies that if KLS PurePrint’s biodegradable products are being disposed as regular waste, they will end up being incinerated, which creates CO2-emissions. However, if KLS PurePrint’s products were composted they would not create the same CO2-emissions. Thus, by not taking the other actors down the value chain in into consideration and creating a full circular system, KLS PurePrint is not fully embracing ecological sustainability.

The fourth finding regards the lack of commitment towards the integration of the SDGs. The analysis showed how the actors in KLS PurePrint both referred to and use the SDGs differently, which signalled an internal misalignment around them. This misalignment originated in how the management mostly referred to the SDGs in their external work towards customers and other industry actors. An internal process for using the SDGs was not implemented to the same extent as the processes regarding the CO2-reduction and the cradle-to-cradle certification, which created a lack of internal commitment. The management was further misaligned around their commitment towards the SDGs. On the one hand, the Chairman questioned if KLS PurePrint utilized the SDGs in the optimal way as the goals could support KLS PurePrint to create an internationalized strategy. This would allow for an international market expansion of KLS PurePrint. On the other hand, the CCO was found as the main driver in KLS PurePrint that actively worked with the SDGs on a regular basis via, for example, the UN Global Compact Academy. Here the CCO got the possibility to develop his knowledge around the SDGs. However, this gained knowledge has not been spread throughout the rest of KLS PurePrint.

The applicability of case studies has previously been argued for in 6.2.2 via the concept of external validity (Eisenhardt, 1989; Flyvbjerg, 2004; Yin, 2003). Thereby, it is important to investigate if another context is suitable for utilizing the findings from this case study before applying them. In order to explore whether the same findings can be found in the other context, the theoretical framework laying the basis for this case study shall first be applied. Furthermore, the management of KLS PurePrint has mentioned how they are interested in supporting other print houses to become

cradle-to-cradle certified and become a part of the PurePrint label. Therefore, the knowledge created from this case study can be utilized to guide those companies if the quality criterion of external validity has been confirmed.