Do consumers really care? Challenges aligning identity and image in the context of sustainability at H&M.

I am working on an industrial PhD. project in collaboration with H&M and Business for Social Responsibility (BSR). The topic of the project is organizational identity and image discrepancies in the context of sustainability, investigating the role of the consumers in constructing a sustainability-focused identity.

The following research question is the focus of my project: What role does image amongst consumers play in H&M’s identity construction with sustainability as a core value, and is it at all necessary for consumers to understand that sustainability is part of H&M’s identity in order to construct a sustainability-focused identity? The project is contributing to the field of organizational identity, and is a case study of H&M. Empirical data collection will consist of qualitative interviews with H&M’s corporate management, employees across country offices and consumers, as well as participant observations.