Hindering Factords for Sustainaibility: Uncovering the Challenge of External Costs for a Start-Up

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to expose how external costs negatively affect sustainable decision-making in a start-up within the packaging industry. For this, an exploratory single case-study was carried out. Four semi-structured interviews were conducted under the interpretivist paradigm using appreciative inquiry techniques to identify sustainability challenges within the business processes of a German start-up. The findings were put into the context of external cost effects, which were discovered through an integrative literature research. Key findings show that external costs are of competitive relevance and that they distort overall market functions. Especially resulting cost effects have a negatively impact on sustainable decision-making processes of start-ups, which already are in a challenging financial position. Future research could focus on overcoming the identified barriers of external costs or investigate how external costs can be prevented and internalised.