To Örebro University

Sustainability innovation research suggests that when the managers of small and medium-sized enterprises(SMEs) perceive sustainability as strategic, they undertake sustainable innovation. Educationalinterventions are, in turn, suggested to foster such views among these managers. But in the interactionbetween educators and managers, power matters for how knowledge is conveyed and educational interventionsare understudied, especially when they are university-led. This article examines how actors’power affects the translation of knowledge between educators and SME managers. A conceptualframework combining translation and power-dependency theory is introduced and applied to the casestudy of a University-led competence development program offered to construction company managersin Sweden. The analysis reveals how imbalanced dependencies and power within interactions accumulatedover time and came to interfere with the program’s learning objectives. The study contributespractically by suggesting how mutual goals, time management, and relationship building can create abetter context for educator-SME interactions and SME sustainability. The scientific contribution lies inintroducing a new perspective on educational interventions for SMEs and providing a conceptualframework for future studies thereof.