“Mange bekker små”: Scaling up Norwegian SMEs’ Actions Towards Nature and Biodiversity
(2026) In IIIEE Master Thesis IMEM01 20261The International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics
- Abstract
- While there is a growing academic, regulatory and public focus on the state of nature and biodiversity and how it’s linked to business activities, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) usually fall outside of both the scope and spotlight. Yet, SMEs make up a substantial size of the Norwegian, EU and world economy, and its environmental impact. This thesis seeks to contribute to scaling up SMEs’ action towards nature and biodiversity, through investigating how Norwegian SMEs address nature-related dependencies, impacts, risks and opportunities across their own operations, value chains, investments and strategies (RQ1), what SMEs and other ecosystem actors perceive as drivers and barriers for action (RQ2) and how external actors can better... (More)
- While there is a growing academic, regulatory and public focus on the state of nature and biodiversity and how it’s linked to business activities, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) usually fall outside of both the scope and spotlight. Yet, SMEs make up a substantial size of the Norwegian, EU and world economy, and its environmental impact. This thesis seeks to contribute to scaling up SMEs’ action towards nature and biodiversity, through investigating how Norwegian SMEs address nature-related dependencies, impacts, risks and opportunities across their own operations, value chains, investments and strategies (RQ1), what SMEs and other ecosystem actors perceive as drivers and barriers for action (RQ2) and how external actors can better enable a scale-up of SMEs’ nature-positive practices (RQ3). The research questions have been answered with a qualitative approach, using data gathered through 14 semi-structured interviews and deductive-inductive coding. The results identified actions taken towards all five drivers of biodiversity loss, and across all four decision-making levels. Actions towards climate change dominated, followed by direct and indirect actions towards land use change to different extents. Most work is done in own operations or value chains. A wide range of drivers and barriers for action were identified, with the most frequently mentioned being regulations and enforcement, customer and market demand and knowledge/expertise on the topic. “Capacity and knowledge” was the enabler most mentioned, and many brought up finance and economic. Importantly, SMEs and ecosystem actors differ in their views on drivers, barriers and enablers; more stringent regulations were seen as important drivers and enablers by most ecosystem actors, which SMEs opposed. This study concludes that 1) while more stringent regulations might push for more action, opposing views should be taken into account, 2) capacity and knowledge are the most sought-after enablers overall, and 3) public and private finance can be important enablers going forward. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9245397
- author
- Janols, Sofie Bergset LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- IMEM01 20261
- year
- 2026
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- Nature-related risks, biodiversity, small and medium enterprises (SMEs), biodiversity management, biodiversity policies
- publication/series
- IIIEE Master Thesis
- report number
- 2026:10
- ISSN
- 1401-9191
- language
- English
- id
- 9245397
- date added to LUP
- 2026-08-11 12:49:34
- date last changed
- 2026-08-11 12:49:34
@misc{9245397,
abstract = {{While there is a growing academic, regulatory and public focus on the state of nature and biodiversity and how it’s linked to business activities, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) usually fall outside of both the scope and spotlight. Yet, SMEs make up a substantial size of the Norwegian, EU and world economy, and its environmental impact. This thesis seeks to contribute to scaling up SMEs’ action towards nature and biodiversity, through investigating how Norwegian SMEs address nature-related dependencies, impacts, risks and opportunities across their own operations, value chains, investments and strategies (RQ1), what SMEs and other ecosystem actors perceive as drivers and barriers for action (RQ2) and how external actors can better enable a scale-up of SMEs’ nature-positive practices (RQ3). The research questions have been answered with a qualitative approach, using data gathered through 14 semi-structured interviews and deductive-inductive coding. The results identified actions taken towards all five drivers of biodiversity loss, and across all four decision-making levels. Actions towards climate change dominated, followed by direct and indirect actions towards land use change to different extents. Most work is done in own operations or value chains. A wide range of drivers and barriers for action were identified, with the most frequently mentioned being regulations and enforcement, customer and market demand and knowledge/expertise on the topic. “Capacity and knowledge” was the enabler most mentioned, and many brought up finance and economic. Importantly, SMEs and ecosystem actors differ in their views on drivers, barriers and enablers; more stringent regulations were seen as important drivers and enablers by most ecosystem actors, which SMEs opposed. This study concludes that 1) while more stringent regulations might push for more action, opposing views should be taken into account, 2) capacity and knowledge are the most sought-after enablers overall, and 3) public and private finance can be important enablers going forward.}},
author = {{Janols, Sofie Bergset}},
issn = {{1401-9191}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
series = {{IIIEE Master Thesis}},
title = {{“Mange bekker små”: Scaling up Norwegian SMEs’ Actions Towards Nature and Biodiversity}},
year = {{2026}},
}