In 2018 the RiseB thesis prize was awarded for the fifth time. In total four theses written in 2017 were nominated for the prize. Umeå Energi sponsors the prize money of SEK 25 000.
Winners 2018
The RiseB thesis prize for 2018 was awarded to Matilda Bergman, Lina Håkansson and Moa Dahlbacka for their bachelor thesis "Hushålla med begränsade resurser: Serviceföretagens ekonomiska ansvar för framtiden – Strategisk styrning mot hållbarhet ur ett skandinaviskt perspektiv [The application of scarce resources to unlimited wants: Service organizations economic responsibility for the future. Strategic management towards sustainability from a Scandinavian perspective]".
Prize motivation
In the winning thesis the authors study how a service organization can be governed toward sustainability and profitability. Thus, the thesis explores a relevant topic as the sustainability efforts of service companies are understudied. Instead, service companies have often been assumed to be sustainable per se, for instance in comparison with manufacturing companies. The thesis takes an ambitious approach in relation to the existing literature and extensively reviews previous work concerning sustainability, how it is measured and what responsibility corporations have. The jury stressed the strong rhetoric but also in particular the well-developed analysis that is strongly connected to the presented theories. The thesis is also practically relevant as it can help firms understand how to operationalize their sustainability goals.
In the 2018 jury the following participated: Herman Stål, Umea School of Business, Economics and Statistics (USBE) and Cecilia Mark-Herbert, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala.
The thesis prize was handed out at the USBE graduation ceremony June 1st.
