MMTC research Seminar presented by Timur Uman, Miguel Gil and Mart Ots

Integrating Sustainability Control in Retail: An Architecture-Context Fit Perspective

Abstract

This article examines the conditions under which organisations effectively integrate sustainability controls into their broader management control architectures, and the combinations of controls that enable this integration. Drawing on a qualitative, multiple-case study of three market-leading Swedish retailers, we analyse how three architectural linkages – embedding sustainability KPIs in planning and budgeting, connecting targets to incentives or pricing, and routine cross-functional reviews – fit distinct contingency profiles related to strategy and sustainability priorities, ownership and governance structures, regulatory or assurance exposure, and supply-chain or digital complexity. The findings indicate that deeper coupling occurs when sustainability priorities are paired with selective incentive or pricing mechanisms, when regulatory or assurance exposure strengthens administrative anchoring via committees or routine KPI reviews, and when interactive forums translate sustainability indicators into resource allocation decisions in logistics-intensive areas. The cases also reveal recurring limitations, including symbolic adoption, peripheral KPIs, uneven incentive linkages, and measurement-action gaps, suggesting that shortfalls often stem from design-use mismatches rather than missing control elements. Across the three retailers, multiple architectures prove effective when aligned with contextual contingencies. The study advances sustainability accounting by shifting the focus from selecting individual controls to achieving architecture-context fit, and clarifying where reinforcing linkages most effectively support sustainability integration.

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