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Sustainability Mindsets for Strategic Management: Lifting the Yoke of the Neo-Classical Economic Perspective

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  • Gerard Farias

    (Department of Management and Entrepreneurship, Silberman College of Business, Fairleigh Dickinson University, Madison, NJ 07940, USA)

  • Christine Farias

    (Department of Social Sciences, Human Services and Criminal Justice, Borough of Manhattan Community College, City University of New York, New York, NY 10007, USA)

  • Isabella Krysa

    (Department of Management and Entrepreneurship, Silberman College of Business, Fairleigh Dickinson University, Vancouver, BC V6B 2P6, Canada)

  • Joel Harmon

    (Department of Management and Entrepreneurship, Silberman College of Business, Fairleigh Dickinson University, Madison, NJ 07940, USA)

Abstract

While sustainability has attracted the attention of managers and academicians for over two decades, the macro-level indicators of sustainability are not moving in the right direction. Climate change continues to be an existential threat for humanity and other indicators of sustainability do not fare much better. The logic of the business case and the associated framing of tension between financial outcomes and sustainability have generated a limited and inadequate response to the existential challenges before humanity today. In this essay, we analyze the evolution of sustainability in the business context and call for a recognition that social and environmental outcomes must supersede economic ones in corporate sustainability thinking. We call for a widening of the spatial, temporal, and moral lenses in the formulation and execution of business strategy to ensure that it is in alignment with the needs of current and future generations of humanity and proportionate to planetary conditions.

Suggested Citation

  • Gerard Farias & Christine Farias & Isabella Krysa & Joel Harmon, 2020. "Sustainability Mindsets for Strategic Management: Lifting the Yoke of the Neo-Classical Economic Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-14, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:17:p:6977-:d:404826
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    2. Yuliya Y. Medvedeva & Roman S. Luchaninov & Natalia V. Poluyanova & Svetlana V. Semenova & Ekaterina A. Alekseeva, 2022. "The Stakeholders’ Role in the Corporate Strategy Creation for the Sustainable Development of Russian Industrial Enterprises," Economies, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-12, May.
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    4. Letycja Sołoducho-Pelc & Adam Sulich, 2020. "Between Sustainable and Temporary Competitive Advantages in the Unstable Business Environment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-16, October.

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