Sustainable business: learning – action networks as organizational assets

This paper develops the concept that sustainable development is a process that centres around a complex series of continuously negotiated business and social projects or experiments. This process involves different parts of the business and industrial system, including many of a firm’s stakeholders in continuous learning, action and change. Processes of this kind can be viewed as multi‐party, learning – action networks that span business organizations and stakeholders in society. This paper presents a case study of a Canadian company, acknowledged as a leader in environmental management. It outlines how the company responded to demands for more sustainable practices. It describes how the company’s approach to strategic planning identified and responded to these issues, how its approach was progressively refined and redefined, and the way that the organization’s culture and strategic processes influenced its willingness to learn and act with a network of internal and external stakeholders. Based on case findings, the paper identifies the critical role for learning – action networks in the transition to more sustainable business organization and the need for these networks to be supported by appropriate organizational culture and processes. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.