Sweet, Susanne
Department of Marketing and Strategy
Susanne Sweet is Associate Professor at Stockholm School of Economics, and a Research Director at Center for Sustainability Research (CSR). She has currently finalized a large inter-disciplinary research program Mistra Future Fashion, where she was the research director for eight years. The aim of the program Mistra Future Fashion was to enable a systemic change of the Swedish fashion industry leading to sustainable development of the industry and wider society (www.mistrafuturefashion.com).
She was part of the founding team of Misum, Mistra Center for Sustainability Markets where she led several research projects on Sustainable Consumption and Production 2014-2020. Prior to the establishment of Misum at SSE, Sweet was leading the Sustainability Research Group, SuRe, that she in 2004 founded together with three doctoral students. The group received the Globe Award for "For an outstanding and tangible research in the field of CSR" in year 2007.
Her research covers a broad range of topics on corporate sustainability and responsibility. Her PhD thesis from year 2000 looked at various industries transformation towards improved environmental practices as a result of the Montreal Protocol, a UN treaty regulating the use of chemicals that were harmful to the ozone layer. In the early years after defending her thesis, she studied the potential for market developments for recycled materials and was serving as an expert in a governmental appointed group that evaluated different scenarios and policies for recycling and producer responsibility. She has worked in international research projects such as the collaborative research in the network of researchers of the leading business school in the Nordic region and in the international project on CSR and community engagement in the mining industry in in cooperation with sociologist and environmental scientists from South Africa, Sweden and Australia.
Currently she is leading multiple research projects such as inter-sectoral and collaborative approaches in support of inclusive practises in socially vulnerable areas in Sweden; developing methods for monetization of sustainability investment impacts in global supply chains in cooperation with Cornell University, New York; and transformative business and consumer practices towards more sustainable and circular business models.
She has served as the primary supervisor of seven successfully graduated PhD-students and taught and supervised students at Bachelor, Master of Science, PhD., Master Executive and Master Fulltime levels.
In terms of stakeholder engagement, Susanne has over the years served on multiple boards, advisory and expert groups, relating to sustainability in education, research, policy, consumer affairs and business. Among others the Reference Group for CSR, Globalt Ansvar, Foreign Ministry Sweden (2008-2012); board member of the international Greening of Industry Network and; the Academic Advisory Board of Sparbanksakademin. She has organised several stakeholder outreach big events as well as focused workshops with targeted businesses, ngos and policymakers on topics related to sustainability and CSR. Among others ”Misum stakeholder workshop”, 2015; ”Sustainable Business in a Sustainable World” 2012, and “Climate Change – Business Opportunities” 2008. She has also been an invited speaker on various arenas for example, invited key note speaker on the UN High level Sustainable Development Goals Business Conference 2018 in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina and invited key note speaker on the 5th international research conference New Business Models 2020, Sustainable, Circular, Inclusive.
Her work has been published both in books and in top academic journals, Journal of Cleaner Production, Business and Society, Business Strategy and the Environment, and elsewhere. Susanne has served as editorial member of academic journals, as well as editor of several books.