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The Viable Systems Approach and its Contribution to the Analysis of Sustainable Business Behaviors
Abstract
This paper aims to propose the contribution of adopting a systemic perspective to researching sustainability in terms of inclusivity and holistic view, going beyond the limitations of a reductionist approach. Among the different systemic approaches, the methodological lens proposed herein is the one of the Viable Systems Approach, according to which sustainability, which can be seen as a process that is dynamic and changing over time, is linked to the notion of systemic viability and connected to some of the most relevant key concepts of Viable Systems Approach.
Through the proposition of the conceptual model of ‘The Viable Systems Cycle’, the authors intend to propose a different approach to the analysis and interpretation of sustainability that concerns the relationship among efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability itself and the way they orient and influence sustainable business behaviors. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
... Against this backdrop, the aim of this research is twofold. The first aim is to provide a framework, based on the combination between the Viable Systems Approach (vSa) (Barile, 2008(Barile, , 2009Barile and Saviano, 2011;Barile et al., 2012Barile et al., , 2014Golinelli, 2010) and the actor engagement theory (Brodie et al., 2019;Storbacka et al., 2016), for the interpretation and management of protected areas. The second aim is to use the case of the Cilento and Vallo di Diano National Park, a well-known tourism destination in Southern Italy, to give empirical evidence of the risks that can occur when the governing body of protected areas does not adopt a systems-based management approach, and therefore cannot handle the complexity of the territory, generate socio-economic benefits for local populations, resolve conflicts with local actors, or advance sustainable tourism goals. ...
... Good governance also depends on the specific approach adopted to managing the territory and its complexity. As confirmed by different studies (Barile et al., 2014;Iandolo et al., 2019;Saviano et al., 2018;Simone et al., 2018), the vSa can provide useful support to the governing body of a specific protected area. ...
... To overcame the limits of the traditional analytical-reductionist model in the study of business and management issues, the vSa approach advances an holistic view to understand complex phenomena rather than focusing on the individual parts (Barile, 2008(Barile, , 2009Barile and Saviano, 2011;Barile et al., 2012Barile et al., , 2014Golinelli, 2010). According to this approach, which bases its conceptual architecture on the Viable Systems Model of Stafford Beer (1984), a specific protected area is a viable system. ...
According to previous research, in several countries, the achievement of the objectives for tourism development and the better functioning of protected areas is affected by bad governance activities. This paper provides a framework based on the combination between the Viable Systems Approach (vSa) and the actor engagement theory for improving the managerial effectiveness of protected areas.
Exploring the case of the Cilento and Vallo di Diano National Park, a well-known tourism destination in Southern Italy, we gave empirical evidence of the risks that can occur when the governing body of protected areas does not adopt a systems-based management approach, and therefore cannot handle the complexity of the territory, generate socio-economic benefits for local populations, resolve conflicts with local actors, or advance sustainable tourism goals.
Findings suggest that the governing body should adopt specific strategies to engage local actors in decision-making and idea-generation processes. Such strategies could help to integrate resources within the system, co-create value and handle conflicts when the goals are not mutually aligned. Hence, actor engagement is necessary for achieving conditions of systemic consonance and resonance.
... The literature, however, lacks studies providing a step-by-step approach to integrating the principles of sustainability into private organizations, and to making their contributions measurable and evaluable. In this research, the process of integration has been read within the theoretical framework of the viable system approach (VSA) (Barile, 2000;Beer, 1985), which interprets the 'firm' to be a viable system capable of surviving over time in a specific context (Barile, Saviano, Iandolo, & Calabrese, 2014;Golinelli, 2010). In particular, the viable system is considered 'sustainable' if it is able to build consonant relationships and develop resonant interactions with all the systemic entities with which it comes into contact, within the specific context defined by its governing body (Barile et al., 2014;Barile, Pellicano, & Polese, 2017; Iandolo, Barile, Armenia, & Carrubo, 2018). ...
... In this research, the process of integration has been read within the theoretical framework of the viable system approach (VSA) (Barile, 2000;Beer, 1985), which interprets the 'firm' to be a viable system capable of surviving over time in a specific context (Barile, Saviano, Iandolo, & Calabrese, 2014;Golinelli, 2010). In particular, the viable system is considered 'sustainable' if it is able to build consonant relationships and develop resonant interactions with all the systemic entities with which it comes into contact, within the specific context defined by its governing body (Barile et al., 2014;Barile, Pellicano, & Polese, 2017; Iandolo, Barile, Armenia, & Carrubo, 2018). In particular, within this framework, this study focused on the analysis of the is carried out: the transition from the 'extended structure' to the 'specific structure', which is the preliminary configuration of a system. 1 'Viability' refers to the ongoing translation of all possible sustainability configurations present in the 'extended structure' into the 'specific structure'. ...
... To say that sustainability implies a proactive attitude is equivalent to saying that the viable system, and in particular its governing body, must transform power into action. In this, the governing body must choose and activate, among all the possible relationships, those that generate the greatest level of consonance-that is, dyadic consonance transforming into context consonance (Barile et al., 2014;Iandolo et al., 2018). It is useful for organizations to return to the 'extended structure', and redefine new 'specific structures', where previous configurations were not able to guarantee the survival of the system. ...
This paper investigates the relationship between the business orientation to sustainability read under the lens of viable systems, and the operational and local dimensions of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The study deals with the experience of an Italian company operating as a monopolist in the energy industry, and it focuses on three innovative power transmission lines built in the 2000s. All the construction processes are analysed in order to explore both the operational effects and local impacts from a sustainability perspective. Embedding sustainability in a company actively contributes to the SDGs and creates a new interpretive model.
... The systems approach is also viewed as especially valuable for BS [31,59,17,22,3,24]. With reference to the concept of Fath [18] 3 , organisation (as a system) is part of a wider natural and social system. ...
... The systems approach is also viewed as especially valuable for BS [31,59,17,22,3,24]. With reference to the concept of Fath [18] 3 , organisation (as a system) is part of a wider natural and social system. When an organisation is dependent on inflows that cannot be maintained (such as non-renewable energy sources or depleting regenerative capacities), it cannot be considered sustainable. ...
... The integrated approach relating to the involvement in social and environmental issues may be caused by instrumental motives (which the authors identify with the orientation on the financial result), and the use of the 'reductionist approach' may be guided by the pursuit of solving key problems in the area of BS (as final/autotelic value and not instrumental). 3 Fath understands "sustainability" as a holistic property of the system and defines it as "a system's capacity to endure and maintain vital functions" [18]. anxieties, injustices and social tensions [55]. ...
The article refers to a valid and current research area, which is the role of information technology (IT) in the formation of business sustainability (BS). The main objective of this article is to identify the role of IT in shaping sustainable organization in the context of different, partly conflicting, approaches to BS and empirical verification of the proposed theoretical framework. The article describes key differences between BS approaches in case cognitive logic (reductionist versus integrative logic) and axiological (individualistic-egoistic versus holistic-altruistic axiology) distinction. Theoretical role of IT in shaping integrative logic for BS is identified and presented. The proposed theoretical concept is empirically verified. The verification is based on empirical studies conducted in 400 SMEs operating in Poland in 2017. (original abstract)
... Furthermore, restaurateurs have embarked on a quest to enhance their capacity to navigate through challenging circumstances (Badinelli et al., 2012;Barile et al., 2014) and exhibit resilience in the face of complexity (Derbyshire & Wright, 2014) and crisis response (Badinelli et al., 2012;Barile et al., 2014). The concept of resilience, as delineated by Camarinha-Matos (2014), has been pivotal in guiding restaurateurs toward reimagining their business models. ...
... Furthermore, restaurateurs have embarked on a quest to enhance their capacity to navigate through challenging circumstances (Badinelli et al., 2012;Barile et al., 2014) and exhibit resilience in the face of complexity (Derbyshire & Wright, 2014) and crisis response (Badinelli et al., 2012;Barile et al., 2014). The concept of resilience, as delineated by Camarinha-Matos (2014), has been pivotal in guiding restaurateurs toward reimagining their business models. ...
The convergence of technology and the restaurant industry has become increasingly critical, especially in the context of the unprecedented challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. Embracing technology has played a pivotal role in enabling restaurants not only to endure but also thrive in these turbulent times. This conceptual paper examines how technology has played a vital role in the survival and adaptation of restaurants during the COVID-19 pandemic. It highlights the importance of swift technology integration for restaurants to remain competitive and navigate the disruptions caused by the pandemic. The study emphasizes the significance of technology in ensuring the restaurant industry's continuity and proposes ongoing investments in technology for post-pandemic competitiveness. This research also explores the positive impact of technology on convenience, efficiency, and customer satisfaction in the foodservice sector, offering valuable insights for restaurant owners, policymakers, and technology developers. While acknowledging its limitations, this study underscores the need for further exploration of technology's role in the survival and success of small and medium-sized restaurants, especially in developing countries, as they strategize for sustainability amid the ongoing global health crisis.
... Taking the above background (see Sects. 2 and 2.1), this work aims at contributing to the research on the transition towards sustainability of the food system, analyzing the effects that the enactment of CE strategies can have on the sustainability the specific sub-sector of the pasta production. To this end, a holistic approach, pointing to merge efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability (Barile et al., 2014), has been embraced. These three elements are essential for assessing the performance of human endeavor, but at the same time they represent a triple target that systems have to meet for the purpose of surviving, also changing or innovating their configuration as well as the way their actors mutually interact (Barile et al., 2014;Faggini et al., 2019). ...
... To this end, a holistic approach, pointing to merge efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability (Barile et al., 2014), has been embraced. These three elements are essential for assessing the performance of human endeavor, but at the same time they represent a triple target that systems have to meet for the purpose of surviving, also changing or innovating their configuration as well as the way their actors mutually interact (Barile et al., 2014;Faggini et al., 2019). In this sense, the activation of CE strategies (Fig. 2) can contribute to pasta supply chain efficiency and effectiveness minimizing the impact of materials removed from the pasta supply chain, which are no more discharged, but used to start new production processes as secondary raw materials (Mihai & Ingrao, 2018;Valenti et al., 2018) (Fig. 3). ...
Over the last decades, circular economy and its implications for sustainability have gained momentum in several socio-economic domains (e.g., academia, industry, politics, society), even though the relationship between them remains poorly understood. This situation has blurred the conceptual definition of both terms, limiting their research and practice effectiveness. To counteract this situation, scholars and policymakers are approaching Circular Economy as able to inspire the development of sustainable development strategies and to increase the sustainability of the current economic system, balancing the need for economic development and the importance of protecting environmental resources and people wellbeing. Drawing on the previous considerations, this study aims to contribute to address this gap, better understanding how a circular economy approach can contribute to challenge the number of sustainability issues that currently affect supply chains. In doing so, the analysis has been focused on the investigation of a specific supply chain, the pasta supply chain. To this end, after a brief theoretical recognition, an interpretative model has been proposed for better recognizing and describing the enhancing actions that—at each supply chain’s stages—can improve process efficiency, output effectiveness and, therefore, the overall sector sustainability. However, it is worth noting that the inherently theoretical nature of the study somewhat limits it; therefore, future empirical research is needed to further test the proposed model, applying it to other real applicative sets.
... 1. The Viable Systems Approach (VSA), as an interpretative and governance methodology for organizations developed within the field of managerial sciences to integrate existing problem solving competences with more general decision making capabilities necessary to address the emerging complexity (Barile, 2000(Barile, , 2008(Barile, , 2009aGolinelli, 2000aGolinelli, , b, 2010Golinelli, , 2022Barile et al., , 2012bBarile et al., , 2014Barile et al., , 2016aBarile & Saviano, 2011). 2. The Information Variety Model, as a general scheme of reference developed within V SA to frame the representation of a system's knowledge structure and dynamic (Barile, 2009a, b). ...
... On these bases, V SA has developed multiple research trajectories both horizontal (enrichment of the paradigm by deepening general level issues such as complexity, sustainability, etc.) and vertical (application of V SA general interpretative schemes to specific problematic contexts). In this sense, the systems approach allows combining research by following both horizontal (dynamic capabilities) and vertical (competences) trajectories in line with the view of "T-Shaped" knowledge (Barile & Saviano 2013a, b;Barile et al., 2014). ...
In the face of an emerging scenario characterized by multiple overlapping trends that seriously question the future of mankind, this contribution envisions the need for a re-founding of human values in which process scholars are required to play a prominent role. Our focus is on the complexity of interdisciplinary thinking required for the development of a new widely shared paradigm. In particular, we believe that systems thinking can support interdisciplinarity as a common denominator of generalizable knowledge useful to build a shared thinking space that cross-cuts the boundaries of various disciplines. Within this context, the bases are delineated of a potential approach, favouring interdisciplinary convergence toward a shared vision of the future, via general systems thinking models developed within the Viable Systems Approach strand of studies.
... Their unique analytical lenses have been refined by inductive and deductive reasoning as part of a wide range of biological and sociological studies that have been carried out in multiple cultural and political contexts, over decades of research. They include critical systems thinking (Jackson, 2006), critical systems theory (Churchman, 1972;Kogetsidis, 2012), open systems theory (Emery, 2000), the applied theory of systems dynamics (Wolstenholme, 1999), and the governance theory of the viable systems model (Barile et al., 2014;Espinosa and Walker, 2011). Arguably, the most important of these theories in relation to the POI, which incorporates the evolutionary principles which define the notion of sustainability, is complex adaptive systems. ...
... This enables a focus upon observation and interpretation of processes of institutional and biophysical self-organisation, emanating from a diverse array of scalar hierarchies, which contribute to the complexity of dynamics relevant to transition and renewal (Francois, 2006;Tainter and Taylor, 2014) The notions of power and incumbency are captured, in systems theory, by concepts of feedback and emergence (Prigogine and Nicolis, 1977). The propensity for stasis and loss of reflexivity is depicted as a corollary of situations where changing socio-ecological conditions arising from dominant dialogues, and associated behaviours, are widely perceived to be enhancing quality of life (Ashby, 1964;Barile et al., 2014). Given the intimate connection between cognition, institutional structures and biophysical systems, the nature of networks and institutions considered important for defining and pursuing innovation drives accumulation of biophysical resources by elites, magnifying their power, and entrenches incumbency and path dependency (Tainter and Taylor, 2014). ...
The emergence of complex global problems and related concerns about ‘sustainability’ are central pre-occupations of discourses concerning innovation and its pursuit. The pressing need to gain fresh insights into the nature of new ideas and collaborative endeavour that can be used to drive societal transitions, is increasingly acknowledged. The objective of this paper is to contribute to these insights by examining and enriching the conceptual foundations of sustainability focused innovation policy. It’s comparative metatheoretical approach enables exploration of the epistemological and political dimensions of the geography of transitions and systems literatures and the implications for the way in which they inform transformational change. The potential for deeper engagement with systems theory to create more holistic representations of complex problems, and the issues which must be addressed to resolve them, is explored. Findings regarding theory development and its implications for sustainability focused policy making provide a vital contribution to the fields of economic geography and the geography of transitions as well as to transition literature more generally. As such it augments the foundations of ongoing empirical study and discourses which address the diminishing returns associated with current growth trajectories.
... Se, infine, tale coesistenza è ritenuta possibile, quali sono le scelte da effettuare e quali le conseguenze? Con l'obiettivo di fornire risposte teoriche a queste domande di ricerca, il documento propone alcune riflessioni sviluppate sotto l'ombrello concettuale dell'Approccio Sistemico Vitale (Golinelli, 2010;Barile, 2009;Barile & Polese, 2011;Badinelli et al., 2012aBadinelli et al., , 2012bBarile & Saviano, 2013;Barile et al., 2014), che propone un'analisi della dinamica evolutiva delle organizzazioni con riferimento alle entità con cui dette organizzazioni si relazionano, in maniera diretta o indiretta. L'adozione di un paradigma sistemico, infatti, consente di porre l'accento sulle dinamiche interattive che caratterizzano l'agire delle organizzazioni ed orientano le scelte dei soggetti decisori che in esse operano . ...
... Il ruolo sociale attribuito all'impresa, che la qualifica come un attore della vita economica la cui attività ha influenze positive non solo in termini di profitto, ma principalmente in termini di valore creato e diffuso, necessita, però, dell'adozione, da parte del soggetto decisore, di un pensiero lungo (Barile et al., 2013(Barile et al., , 2014Saviano 2014Saviano , 2015Iandolo et al., 2018). Esso, in sostanza, consiste nell'utilizzare la sostenibilità, intesa come ampliamento degli elementi considerati dai soli vincoli economici alle dimensioni della socialità e della tutela e preservazione ambientale, come filosofia di governo, ovvero come insieme di istanze composite che orientano i processi decisionali dei soggetti decisori, nel perseguimento della finalità del sistema vitale impresa: la sopravvivenza. ...
Il presente contributo mira a tracciare il percorso evolutivo del concetto di sostenibilità nell'ambito degli studi manageriali di matrice sistemica con particolare riferimento al contributo interpretativo fornito dall'approccio sistemico vitale (asv). L'attenzione è posta sugli effetti sinergici che emergono dall'interazione e contemporanea considerazione delle istanze che provengono da ciascuno degli ambiti della sostenibilità e all'effetto che questa interazione ha sui concetti di vitalità e sopravvivenza delle organizzazioni intese come sistemi vitali. Basandosi sull'analisi delle fasi principali che hanno portato alla definizione del concetto di sostenibilità in uso negli studi manageriali, il contributo traccia possibili evoluzioni interpretative dirette ad evidenziare la necessità di superare i consolidati confini dell'impresa quale attore economico esclusivamente interessato alla generazione di profitto per accogliere una prospettiva ampia in cui la finalità ultima dell'impresa è la sopravvivenza e il percorso
... Sustainability and the related concept of sustainable development are conceptual umbrellas including a wide range of life issues of social, environmental, and economic nature that impact human survival and viability over time [93][94][95][96][97]. ...
... Adopting a sustainability perspective to address healthcare issues provides us with interpretative tools more appropriate to address the reframed orphan drugs issue coherently and effectively. It becomes a matter of sustainable development to promote the universal concept [96] of "ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all at all ages", which is the third of the 17 United Nations SDGs with 13 targets measured through 26 indicators [98]. ...
This work is about how healthcare issues can be reframed from a sustainable and inclusive development perspective. Focusing on the case of orphan drugs and rare diseases, first, a country-based review of the main regulatory approaches to orphan drugs is conducted; then, the main contributions of the literature are reviewed to identify dominant views and the way the problem is more commonly framed. The main findings reveal that the dominant regulatory approaches and theoretical interpretations of the problem are mainly based on economic considerations. However, this does not seem to have led to very satisfactory results. Reflecting upon what the sustainability perspective can highlight with reference to healthcare, substantial connections between the orphan drugs issue and that of neglected diseases are highlighted. These connections suggest reframing the orphan drugs issue as a social equality and inclusiveness problem, hence the need to adopt a sustainable and inclusive development perspective. As a key sustainable development goal (SGD) to be shared by all nations, healthcare should always be approached by putting the principles of sustainable and inclusive development at the core of policy makers’ regulatory choices. Accordingly, we think that the orphan drugs issue, like that of neglected diseases, could be better faced by adopting a social equality and inclusiveness perspective.
... To address this issue, Brandenburg et al. [119] advocate for a more comprehensive approach encompassing all three pillars of sustainability to fully measure its impact on logistics performance. For companies that successfully incorporate sustainability into their logistics operations, the benefits are clear-they enhance their corporate image, achieve cost savings, and secure a competitive edge in markets that increasingly prioritize sustainable practices [120]. ...
Sustainable Logistics Service Quality (SLSQ) has emerged as a critical focus in supply chain management, driven by increasing environmental concerns and consumer demand for responsible business practices. is study conducts a bibliometric analysis of 546 Scopus-indexed documents published between 1994 and 2024, systematically uncovering key research trends, thematic clusters, and gaps in SLSQ. Findings reveal a marked increase in SLSQ research since 2013, spurred by regulatory pressures, advancements in digital technologies, and growing consumer expectations for sustainable logistics. Dominant themes include the integration of cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), big data analytics, blockchain, and sustainable transportation methods, which collectively enhance logistics service quality while reducing environmental impacts. Additionally, a notable trend is the alignment of logistics services with sustainability goals, reflecting both academic interest and industry imperatives to lower carbon footprints and improve resource efficiency, particularly in sectors like e-commerce. Despite these advancements, the study identifies significant gaps, particularly the lack of multidimensional metrics capable of comprehensively evaluating SLSQ across social, environmental, and economic dimensions. is highlights an urgent need for standardized and holistic frameworks to guide logistics providers in achieving operational efficiency and sustainability objectives. By bridging service quality and sustainability, this research addresses an underexplored area and provides a foundation for future scholarly work in SLSQ. Practical implications include guiding logistics providers and policymakers in formulating sustainable practices that align with regulatory requirements and enhance customer satisfaction. For academia, it offers a pathway to develop robust SLSQ metrics and frameworks, advancing sustainable logistics strategies and fostering a more efficient, eco-friendly, and customer-centric logistics ecosystem.
... To address this issue, Brandenburg et al. [119] advocate for a more comprehensive approach encompassing all three pillars of sustainability to fully measure its impact on logistics performance. For companies that successfully incorporate sustainability into their logistics operations, the benefits are clear-they enhance their corporate image, achieve cost savings, and secure a competitive edge in markets that increasingly prioritize sustainable practices [120]. ...
In today's environmentally conscious world, where environmental sustainability and consumer demand for responsible business practices are Sustainable Logistics Service Quality (SLSQ) has emerged as a critical focus in supply chain management, driven by increasing environmental concerns and consumer demand for responsible business practices. This study conducts a bibliometric analysis of 546 Scopus-indexed documents published between 1994 and 2024, systematically uncovering key research trends, thematic clusters, and gaps in SLSQ. Findings reveal a marked increase in SLSQ research since 2013, spurred by regulatory pressures, advancements in digital technologies, and growing consumer expectations for sustainable logistics. Dominant themes include the integration of cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), big data analytics, blockchain, and sustainable transportation methods, which collectively enhance logistics service quality while reducing environmental impacts. Additionally, a notable trend is the alignment of logistics services with sustainability goals, reflecting both academic interest and industry imperatives to lower carbon footprints and improve resource efficiency, particularly in sectors like e-commerce. Despite these advancements, the study identifies significant gaps, particularly the lack of multidimensional metrics capable of comprehensively evaluating SLSQ across social, environmental, and economic dimensions. This highlights an urgent need for standardized and holistic frameworks to guide logistics providers in achieving operational efficiency and sustainability objectives. By bridging service quality and sustainability, this research addresses an underexplored area and provides a foundation for future scholarly work in SLSQ. Practical implications include guiding logistics providers and policymakers in formulating sustainable practices that align with regulatory requirements and enhance customer satisfaction. For academia, it offers a pathway to develop robust SLSQ metrics and frameworks, advancing sustainable logistics strategies and fostering a more efficient, eco-friendly, and customer-centric logistics ecosystem.
... The increasing relevance of a sustainability-oriented paradigmatic change that rethinks the conditions of a true viability of companies (Barile, 2023;Barile et al., 2018Barile et al., , 2014Golinelli, 2010) and the basis of competitive advantage into a more strategic business approach is Marialuisa Saviano is based at the Department of Pharmacy and Pharmanomics Interdepartmental Center, widely agreed upon by science, government and industry (Saviano et al., 2019a). There have been a huge effort to incorporate environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors into the strategies of companies. ...
Purpose
Assuming that knowledge management is a pivotal issue in business to improve and maintain competitive advantages, this paper aims to investigate how knowledge management is useful to face challenges about the integration of environment, social and governance (ESG) factors, filling the gap in the literature regarding knowledge management and ESG in the banking world by considering a real case.
Design/methodology/approach
Starting from the analysis of the more relevant literature on the topic, this paper describes an illustrative real case through interviews with the credit department of an Italian bank that has adopted a specific sustainability approach. This paper discusses this case in the context of the outlined theoretical background to explore the trends and challenges of ESG integration. The case study allows us to evaluate and expand our theoretical framework, leading to a greater understanding of the complex phenomenon under investigation.
Findings
Based on the analysis of the literature combined with the insights that emerged from the experience of the real case, this study shows that there are three primary factors to consider: data issues, competencies and workflow. This study outlines an enhanced knowledge management framework displaying the complexity emerging from the integration of ESG into a bank’s credit department and identify the best practices to pursue.
Practical implications
Given the increasing pressure toward the incorporation of ESG factors into the banking sector, the practical implications of the study are relevant as they provide guidelines for action. Specifically, the practical problems highlighted by the real case, like the priority on themes such as questionnaires, the need for ad hoc commissions and workflow, drive the attention of decision-makers on key aspects to effectively adopt an advanced knowledge management approach aimed at improving the ESG integration. Considering the effect of the banking system on the economy, the best practices this study has identified can also have a positive impact on society as a whole.
Originality/value
The proposed enhanced knowledge management framework offers a guideline to orchestrate ESG integration into banks’ credit departments, considering the increasing need to frame a sustainability-oriented strategic approach that emerges from academic and practical enquiries. This research represents an initial attempt to investigate the integration of ESG factors in the banking system through the lens of knowledge management. The strategic nature of the ESG approach clearly appears in a dynamic environment where stakeholder pressures and regulatory evolutions are strong.
... The embedded connectedness between the dimensions of sustainability and socioeconomic spheres and consequences has progressively involved different scientific fields, going beyond the initially prevailing environmental perspective and increasingly including social and economic dimensions (Gallop ın, 2003;Barile et al., 2014;Sala et al., 2015). ...
Purpose
Sustainability is increasingly at the forefront of the public debate in Europe and the world. However, despite this increased interest, research seems to have partially ignored the importance of its social dimension and the issues related to social equity, people care, protection and personal development at all stages of society and, consequently, of business. Accordingly, this paper aims at investigating the “soft” dimensions of sustainability, integrating its mainstream “technical storyline” with a “human/social storyline”.
Design/methodology/approach
In this paper a taxonomy of the main key drivers of the soft dimension of sustainability is proposed and tested on a sample of Italian companies. Through interviews with their managers, actions and needs in terms of sustainability soft drivers are identified.
Findings
The achieved results demonstrated that the case companies differently integrated the soft dimensions of sustainability within their companies. All the sample companies are aware of the role of social sustainability. According to the proposed taxonomy, the systemic drivers of soft sustainability are the main shared ones.
Originality/value
The paper provides new insights into the essence of the organizational soft dimensions and their centrality in the overall achievement of sustainability for companies. It also offers managerial insights into how to effectively manage these dimensions and policy implications about the need for clearer consideration.
... Consequently, it is up to political, economic, and organisational decision-makers to structure flexible strategies in the face of rapid and continuous changes that modify the needs and expectations of citizens, reallocating available resources [14]. The responsibility of satisfying the needs of citizens and solving relational problems affect the survival of the system in a given context, developing conditions of consonance (in terms of the ability to relate to the outside world) and resonance (as an interactive system able to generate harmony between the parts) with the other entities involved in the basic dynamics of the system [15][16][17]. ...
Background
UN Sustainable Development Goals are part of the political agenda of most developed countries. Being a developing country, Albania has only recently adhered to this trend. Prior research at national level has sporadically focused on environmental sustainability, neglecting a holistic view of the phenomenon. To fill this gap, this study aims to explore preventing and developmental factors of sustainability in healthcare organisations from the perspective of decision makers by relying to a Triple Bottom Line approach.
Methods
Data were collected through a questionnaire administered to healthcare facilities and analysed through the Exploratory Factor Analysis. Findings revealed that the factors influencing the sustainability of the national healthcare system were five: Barriers of Organisational Sustainability; Stakeholders Pressure (regarding sustainable issues); Awareness (knowledge and measures taken for sustainability); Institutional Engagement; and Personal Interest and Involvement. The underlying factors included 19 items suitable for this sample, representing 64.371% of the total variance.
Results
The findings show the existence of 4 factors: Barriers of Organisational Sustainability, Stakeholders Pressure regarding Sustainable issues, Awareness/knowledge and measures taken for sustainability, Personal Interest and Involvement.
Conclusions
It is evident that national health organisations should continuously improve its strategies to be consistent with the sustainable development goals of international organisations, so that their initiatives could reflect the integration of sustainability approaches at the organisational level.
... As the success of any kind of synergy relies on trust, consonance, knowledge, and information sharing (Barile, Saviano, Iandolo, & Calabrese, 2014;Saviano, Barile, Farioli, & Orecchini, 2019;Simone, Barile, & Calabrese, 2018), in the specific case of industrial symbiosis, these conditions are essential for discovering and exploiting industrial synergy opportunities (Ghali & Frayret, 2019;Dounavis, Kafasis, & Ntavos, 2019). ...
... However, there has been little debate in the business and industrial literature on systemic crises. By acknowledging the interrelated dynamics of systems (Barile et al., 2014), this paper extends existing knowledge by questioning how a service system can enhance viability to face systemic crisis. COVID-19 represents a systemic shock in the business world that has lowered systems' viability and forced them to address many different threats and changes by trying to contain the crisis's impacts. ...
Purpose
The COVID-19 wave spread all over the global market, affecting all industries. This paper aims to develop the understanding of how service systems can enhance their viability when facing rapid systemic changes.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors use data from Reddit, and particularly the subreddit r/coronavirus, to identify posts that discuss the impact of coronavirus on business. The authors use an algorithm to scrape the data with business-related search terms and elaborate relevant posts.
Findings
The findings show key topics and related sentiments on the impact of COVID-19 on business. Service systems can enhance viability by identifying alternative paths for emerging opportunities (by being creative), seize opportunities offered by the changing environment (by being opportunistic), not compromise conditions for internal balance (by being resilient), focus attention on critical purposes (by being essential) and perform nonharmful actions (by being responsible).
Originality/value
This paper proposes a framework depicting five possible key enhancers of viability to face a systemic crisis. In brief, companies need to ensure that they are creative, opportunistic, resilient, essential and responsible.
... O retail design apresenta elementos que podem conectar o varejo e o design por meio do design de interiores (MADSEN; PETERMANS, 2020a), cujo resultado são ambientes que funcionam como estratégia para estimular vendas e criar relacionamento.A maneira de desenvolver projetos de retail design é relacionado a uma visão holística do mundo(PETERMANS et al., 2013), que é inerente à disciplina de design (NELSON; STOLTERMAN, 2012) e muito alinhada ao pensamento sistêmico(VARGO et al., 2017). O designer de varejo deve adquirir habilidades e lidar com as necessidades que o permita desenvolver uma estratégia de varejo mais ampla e avaliar as inconsistências em todo o sistema no qual o design está inserido (MADSEN; PETERMANS, 2020b), para assim alternar entre decisões gerenciais vinculadas a rotinas e processos conhecidos com decisões de governança, relacionadas ao contexto das decisões estratégicas(BARILE et al., 2014).Atualmente, a mídia digital, a competição mais acirrada e as mudanças de comportamento do consumidor incentivaram o desenvolvimento de conceitos de varejo que combinam o digital e o analógico(PIOTROWICZ E CUTHBERTSON, 2014; VERHOEF et al., 2015; HAGBERG et al., 2017; GREWAL et al., 2017, 2018. Portanto, considerar o retail design somente no âmbito de espaços físicos se torna inadequado ao conceito que vem cada vez mais se consolidando, como o omnichannel (CHRISTIANNS, 2017). ...
O retail design é reconhecido como uma disciplina recente, iniciada por volta dos anos 1960, num setor que é caracterizado pela intuição, improvisação e imitação, como o varejo. O rápido avanço das tecnologias digitais tem proporcionado ciclos cada vez menores de mudança do comportamento do consumidor, e com isso, custos e riscos maiores para fabricantes e varejistas. Neste processo, que tem ocorrido de maneira muito sensível nos negócios e na sociedade, tem se questionado o papel da loja física e qual perfil, competências e habilidades do profissional que desenvolve esse novo ambiente de varejo. É neste contexto que o objetivo desta pesquisa consiste em configurar um modelo de desenvolvimento e aplicação de conceitos de omnichannel e retail design em ambientes de varejo. Com abordagem de pesquisa qualitativa relaciona-se os processos e fenômenos existentes na loja física e na área de omnichannel, retail design, marketing, branding, varejo, economia e administração. Por meio de pesquisa explicativa, há a investigação da relação entre a estratégia omnichannel, branding, retail design e experiência do cliente com a loja física. O modelo gerado utiliza das ferramentas, conceitos e processo encontrados durante a pesquisa, e tem como intenção orientar arquitetos e designers no desenvolvimento de projetos de ambientes de varejo contemporâneos alinhados à estratégia omnichannel que tragam resultados mais assertivos às empresas considerando seus planejamentos estratégicos.
... In supply chain clusters, firms are geographically proximate and closely linked, where profitably matching of supply and demand requires leveraging of physical proximity between firms (Ji & Gunasekaran, 2014). Yet, such structures form only when firms act to drive the attainment and preserve the viability of the system in dynamic environments (Barile et al., 2014). ...
Supply chain clusters achieve viability by exploiting geographical concentration to gain efficiencies in matching supply and demand. Although the benefits of operating in these environments are understood, little is known about how supply chain clusters form and adapt. From a systems theory perspective, causal events lead to this formation and adaptation and facilitate sustained operation in modern business settings. This paper extends this understanding by theorizing key antecedents responsible for supply chain cluster formation and adaptation, conceptualizing individual firms as agents. Through a characterization of agents as either passive or active, we construct propositions and a conceptual model. The modelling, supported by causal loop diagrams, details the interactions between agents that lead to cluster formation and adaptations to contextual changes in supply chain clusters. These findings can guide policy design that is more effective in enabling the emergence and sustained existence of supply chain clusters through facilitated causal interactions. K E Y W O R D S agents, cluster, self-organization, supply chain
... Even in Italy, the crisis has been a dramatic event, especially for restaurant managers, who have often been subject to restrictions and closures. Restaurateurs have tried to develop the ability to manage difficult situations (Badinelli et al., 2012;Barile et al., 2014), to survive in complexity (antifragility, Derbyshire and Wright, 2014) and to react to the crisis (resilience, Camarinha-Matos, 2014). ...
Purpose
Covid-19 pandemic impacted the tourism industry worldwide. Especially in catering, where restaurateurs have had to reinvent their business models, information and communication technologies (ICTs) play a fundamental role in supporting these changes, transforming barriers into opportunities. The purpose of this study is to investigate how restaurateurs’ perception of ICTs has changed before and during Covid-19 and to detect whether ICTs can be considered a tool to foster antifragility, resilience and value co-creation as ideal outcomes.
Design/methodology/approach
This study presents a longitudinal study on the use of ICT platforms by Italian restaurant managers. The case study analyzed is TheFork. Data collection took place in two different rounds: before Covid-19 (year 2017) and during Covid-19 (year 2020).
Findings
The findings of this study reveal how new rules imposed by the Government changed restaurant managers’ attitudes towards technology. In 2017, restaurateurs showed reticence towards technology, not used in a strategic way; today, everyone uses ICT to improve business.
Originality/value
The study shows that ICT platforms enable antifragility, resilience and value co-creation, creating a service ecosystem supporting restaurant management.
... The following considerations analyze the case study from a systemic point of view, which allows for enclosing the multiple aspects of public transport and urban mobility in a holistic perspective. In particular, reference is made to the principles and tools of the Viable System Model (Beer 1979(Beer , 1981 and the Viable Systems Approach (Golinelli 2010; Barile et al. 2014). The methodology used aims to develop a smart mobility system for sustainable tourism. ...
This work aims to analyze the impact of technological eco-innovation on the modernization and development of a local area. The role of eco-innovation would be to stimulate an innovative environment and spur a development of the territory and economic districts, and the diffusion of said particularities among wider geographic contexts, hence allowing a globalization model more observant of local specificities, and thus an open system able to develop economic and cultural exchange respecting local particularities. In recent years, smart city has asserted itself as a general model for the city of tomorrow, and sustainability has become a focal point in urban development policies. In this paper, we investigate how an integrated and intermodal methodology for the development of smart mobility systems—the European project “Life for Silver Coast”—is impacting the modernization and development of an Italian coastal area in Tuscany. The main focus of our paper is to understand how an integrated mobility network allows a transition toward a sustainable form of social relationship and a new economic pattern and could represent the starting point for a spatial, relational and institutional reorganization process that would lead to a change in the production and management dynamics of the local ecosystem concerning cultural, social and economic issues.
... Policymakers work to achieve the appropriate policy mix (an enabler), while managers, with the help of CE performance indicators, utilise feedback from the output (the CE) to adjust their CBM or their choice of digitalisation technology. Consistent with the VSM, the system learns, adjusts and progresses over time (Barile et al., 2014). It is established that involving stakeholders for CE makes considerable sense with respect to value and opportunities for new CBMs (Chiappetta Jabbour et al., 2020). ...
The circular economy (CE) has the potential to capitalise upon emerging digital technologies, such as big data, artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain and the Internet of things (IoT), amongst others. These digital technologies combined with business model innovation are deemed to provide solutions to myriad problems in the world, including those related to circular economy transformation. Given the societal and practical importance of CE and digitalisation, last decade has witnessed a significant increase in academic publication on these topics. Therefore, this study aims to capture the essence of the scholarly work at the intersection of the CE and digital technologies. A detailed analysis of the literature based on emerging themes was conducted with a focus on illuminating the path of CE implementation. The results reveal that IoT and AI play a key role in the transition towards the CE. A multitude of studies focus on barriers to digitalisation-led CE transition and highlight policy-related issues, the lack of predictability, psychological issues and information vulnerability as some important barriers. In addition, product-service system (PSS) has been acknowledged as an important business model innovation for achieving the digitalisation enabled CE. Through a detailed assessment of the existing literature, a viable systems-based framework for digitalisation enabled CE has been developed which show the literature linkages amongst the emerging research streams and provide novel insights regarding the realisation of CE benefits.
... Systems theory and complexity theory were relatively less used in the literature, but they are relevant to exploring corporate sustainability. Barile et al. (2014) used systems theory in exploring sustainable business behavior and argued that systems theory concerns the possibility of value created by sustainability practices from an enlarged view. Mitleton-Kelly (2011) used complexity theory to demonstrate that the organization is a complex social system so, sustainability problems cannot be addressed only by a single dimension. ...
Purpose
Businesses produce corporate sustainability information in support of the decision-making of their stakeholders through sustainability reporting. However, the use of such information has been limited because of the broadness of sustainability indicators used in sustainability reports. This study aims to identify sector-specific sustainability indicators and priorities based on the material issues of the logistics sector.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted an exploratory study using 64 sustainability reports from the logistics sector. Qualitative content analysis was performed using Leximancer software to identify key themes and material concepts of sustainability reports.
Findings
The results showed that the most important indicators of the logistics sector are economic performance and energy, yet sustainability reports appear to focus more on reporting social sustainability information. Of the several sustainability measures, environmental and social factors dominated the reporting (8 economic, 62 environmental and 58 social). This discrepancy can also imply inconsistencies in sustainability reporting.
Practical implications
Identifying sector-specific indicators enables assessing the impact of sustainability issues on value creation and performance comparison among similar organizations. This is also beneficial in ensuring consistency of sustainability reporting, which is a prerequisite for policymaking in sustainable logistics.
Originality/value
Prior studies emphasized that no sector-specific sustainability indicators were established in the literature and standardized indicators are needed to ensure the comparability of results. This study addresses this gap by identifying sector-specific sustainability indicators based on the material issues of the logistics sector.
... Overall, green policies and green jobs are able to stimulate employment growth. However, local governments should share initiatives among local participants, to increment the interaction between institutions, social parties and civil society representatives (Barile et al., 2014). ...
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the collective perception regarding the future of offshore platforms and frame the main categories of meanings associated by the community with the investigated phenomenon.
Design/methodology/approach
A data driven approach has been conducted. The collection of the peoples’ opinions has been realized on two specific social network communities as follows: Twitter and Instagram. The text mining processes carried out a sentiment and a cluster analysis.
Findings
The sentiment analysis of the most frequent words has been shown. The following four main homogeneous categories of words are emerged in relation to the decommissioning of offshore platforms: technological areas, green governance (GG), circular economy and socio-economic sphere.
Research limitations/implications
The alternative use of the offshore platforms, including tourism initiatives, aquaculture, alternative energy generation, hydrogen storage and environmental research, could improve the resilience of communities by offering the development of new jobs and the growth of local and innovative green businesses.
Practical implications
The adoption of a circular model and GG initiatives aims to limit the input of resources and energy, minimize waste and losses, adopt a sustainable approach and realize new social and territorial value.
Originality/value
The analysis underlines the importance to adopt a systems perspective, which takes into account the social, economic and environmental system as a whole, the different phenomena that occur and the variety of categories of stakeholders, from users to local governments that participate in the territorial development.
... More recently, sustainability has been approached by using a system-thinking framework [21,22]. This helps to appreciate biunivocal or radial synergies originating from a set of sustainable actions intended as a whole [23,24], resource integration from a common and equifinal approach, institutional arrangements deriving from behavioral convergence and cognitive alignment, which all sustain effective decision-making [25][26][27]. ...
Can public–private research favor sustainable economic growth? Can innovation in terms of predictive maintenance (a recently consolidated evolution compared to the more traditional final and preventive maintenance) favor sustainable business balance? Drawing on the Quadruple Helix model and adopting the users’ (fourth helix) perspective, this paper seeks to provide initial answers to these two questions. Following an exploratory approach, it applies case study methodology to present the research outcomes of the D.I.A.S.E.I. Project, a co-financed research and development (R&D) project. Using a mixed-methods approach, narrative and quantitative, the study highlights that investing in predictive maintenance allows companies to reach better profitability ratios and sustainable value indexes. This is possible because of the improved quality of the provided services, higher revenues and the reduction of extraordinary maintenance costs. Furthermore, if companies support investment in predictive maintenance through correct financial decisions, they may create value over time and favor sustainable business balance. The work is the first empirical investigation, which should encourage further explorations. There are numerous implications, including reference to the co-creation of value, the effects on decision support systems and sustainable competitive advantage.
... Sustainability is generally considered a leading factor in building a long-term relationship; this kind of relationship would achieve all entities' targets and induce long-term profitability. Barile et al. [13] mentioned that a company's survival in market competition depends on the relationships and interactions it can manage. Moreover, Cozzolino et al. [14] stated that sustainability should be added to a company's corporate strategy to meet the stakeholders' expectations and consider the long-term impact on the community and related economic and environmental factors. ...
The role of sustainability has made it a vital point to measure companies’ financial performances and sustainability practices along the overall supply chain. Logistics service providers (LSPs) are among the supply chain actors that need to consider sustainability practices to present a better sustainable service. Therefore, we studied LSPs in Egypt, as Egypt has set sustainability goals in the logistics sector to be achieved by 2030. This research proposes a new sustainable logistics service quality (SLSQ) scale through reviewing the literature on sustainable service quality (SSQ) and logistics service quality (LSQ). While additional semi-structured interviews were conducted with LSP companies in Egypt to formulate the SLSQ scale for this specific region, the Q-sorting technique was used to confirm SLSQ measurements. Hence, we present a scale to evaluate Egypt’s overall LSPs’ service quality. Our research thereby contributes to the theory by proposing a new framework that measures the SLSQ in LSP companies in emerging countries and to the practice by tying the framework to accompany Egyptian law. The results are discussed against previous literature and concluded by showing limitations and potential future research avenues.
... In addition, there was a logical shift from environment to context, that is the product of an initiative that involves and makes a subset of these resources effectively interact through combining them with external resources and / or new internal resources (Barile, S., Quattrociocchi, B., Calabrese, M. y Iandolo, F., 2018). In the proposed conceptual model of "The Viable Systems Cycle", the authors considered the process of contextualization and determined that the ability of the system to survive depends on its ability to establish harmony relationships with the relevant entities in that context (Barile, S., Saviano, M., Iandolo, F. y Calabrese, M., 2014). But these studies did not sufficiently account for the impact of various environmental factors on the development of VSM. ...
Abstract The article is devoted to the actual problem of ensuring the enterprises viability on the basis of the methodical apparatus of cybernetic modeling of viable systems. On the basis of structural-level and systematic approaches, the basic levels and structure of a viable enterprise system are determined. Taking into account the influence of external and internal factors of environment the multilevel spherical model of ensuring the viability of the enterprise is proposed. key words: enterprise viability, viable system model, recursive structure, spheres model
Resumen El artículo está dedicado a la cuestión apremiante de garantizar la viabilidad de las empresas basándose en el aparato metódico de la simulación cibernética de sistemas viables. Utilizando el enfoque sistemático, escalonado y estructural, se determinan los niveles básicos y la estructura de un sistema viable de la empresa. Se propone un modelo esférico multinivel para garantizar la viabilidad de la empresa, teniendo en cuenta la influencia de los factores del ambiente externo e interno.
Palabras clave : viabilidad de la empresa, modelo del sistema viable, estructura recursiva, modelo de esferas
... They show a further characteristic of the cluster, represented by the thesis that the viability can be explained by a harmonization of the resources, skills and abilities existing in the supply system with the expectations and interests of suppliers and users. Barile, Saviano, Iandolo, and Calabrese (2014) summarize this aspect with the introduction of the concepts of consonance and resonance, which respectively represent the potential and the consequent effects of harmonic interactions between two or more systemic entities. The consonance identifies a condition of compatibility and/or complementarity between interacting entities. ...
The aim of this paper is to trace the scientific landscape (authors, scientific papers, topics most frequently dealt with, relationships between them) of the studies concerning the viable system model (VSM) and the viable system approach (vSa), carried out in the period 1990–2018 within the scientific framework of systems thinking by scholars in business, management and accounting (BMA). The methodology adopted herein is based on a scientometric approach, bibliographic mapping and clustering. The analysis was carried out following a three‐step procedure: bibliographic coupling of scientific contributions (153 articles recorded in Scopus in the considered period), co‐occurrence of the main author keywords and analysis of co‐citations. This paper examines for the first time the entire scientific body of knowledge about viable system theories (VSTs) in BMA areas using recent joint mapping and clustering tools.
... In particular, after conducting a thorough literature study and interviews with highly innovative professionals and entrepreneurs [10], we decided to move the work in this field forward by adopting a perspective-taking framework [11][12][13]. Perspective-taking is one of the drivers of sustainable business behaviors and organizational sustainability [14,15]. To understand how innovative work behaviors can be enhanced, predictor variables that all refer to the ability to relate to others (for instance, one's supervisor), in particular, the ability to perceive someone else's thoughts, feelings, and motivations (e.g., perspective-taking), and to engage with one another in the day-to-day practice, were hypothesized. ...
In this mixed methods study, a moderated mediation model predicting effects of leader-member exchange (LMX) and organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB) on innovative work behaviors, with employability as a mediator, has been tested. Multi-source data from 487 pairs of employees and supervisors working in 151 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) supported our hypothesized model. The results of structural equation modelling provide support for our model. In particular, the benefits of close relationships and high-quality exchanges between employee and supervisor (LMX), and fostering individual development as a result of employees’ OCB have an indirect effect on innovative work behaviors through positive effects on workers’ employability. Innovative work behaviors depend on employees’ knowledge, skills, and expertise. In other words, enhancing workers’ employability nurtures innovative work behaviors. In addition, we found a moderation effect of organizational politics on the relationship between employability and innovative work behaviors. Secondly, qualitative methods focusing on experiences of the antecedents and outcomes of employability were used to complement our quantitative results. All in all, this study has important consequences for managerial strategies and practices in SMEs and call for an awareness of the dysfunctional effect of perceived organizational politics.
... In questo quadro, la disponibilità di big data e di strumenti per la loro elaborazione incrementa la probabilità di generare risonanza. Tramite una rilettura in chiave sistemico vitale, si rileva la responsabilità di un' organizzazione nei confronti delle diverse entità con le quali si relaziona, direttamente o indirettamente (sovrasistemi e subsistemi), nella prospettiva soggettiva dell'Organo di Governo (OdG), il quale, sulla base del principio di rilevanza, agisce sulle condizioni di sopravvivenza dell' organizzazione ( Barile et al., 2014). ...
... Businesses are part of society, and, as Rüdiger (2011) wellbeing has been increasingly assigned to companies. Barile et al. (2014) claim that for businesses to fully do this; they need to holistically take account of all the different aspects that affect and interact with each other and consider the whole system that they are a part of. That is-according to Arnold and Wade (2015) to move away from linear thinking and instead adopting a systematic approach to better understand and predict possible outcomes of their decisions. ...
Civil society organizations in Sweden are facing new challenges and opportunities in a rapidly changing context. Demographical changes, a new political climate and a broad professionalization of the sector demand a transformational shift in business. In the project Tailwind, four leading CSOs in Sweden develop new strategies and policies to navigate the new landscape. The project explores the question of how these organizations will have to transform to be able to thrive in the future. Using positive psychology and appreciative inquiry as a method for this piece of research, key insights found include: the CSOs need to draw on the strengths of the organization when strategically developing the operations, to build their operations on empathic meetings with the target group, and to step up to claim an expert position in the public eye, sharing knowledge and insight with decision-makers about the needs of the target group.
... Thus, viability refers to systems' disposition to adapt to environmental changes, adjusting the role they perform in each context or the way they respond to the expectations of other entities or systems (Barile et al., 2016). Therefore, focusing on the contribution of inter and intra-systems' relationships to the achievement of long-lasting systems' viability, the vSa emphasised the influence that consonance -or the structural contiguity existing between the different entities of a system -that evolving in resonancea spread harmony that drives the aforementioned entities towards a common goal -can have on it (Barile, 2009; Barile et al., 2014). ...
This study aims to propose the contribution of adopting a systems perspective to researching sustainability in terms of inclusivity and holistic view, by means of the experience of action research carried out in a big Italian retailing cooperative. Among the different systemic approaches, the one proposed herein is the Viable Systems Approach, according to which sustainability, which can be seen as a process that is dynamic and changing over time, is linked to the notion of systemic viability and, as a consequence, to the survival of the system itself
... The methodology used, although a heuristic type, refers to the positive method, as practices and occurrences are used to delineate a precise research path. In particular, in our work we intend to refer to the VSA (viable system approach), an interpretative model that was born and developed as explanatory support for the dynamics of business organizations and that appears to be increasingly able to explain sociocultural phenomena (Barile, Saviano, Iandolo, & Calabrese, 2014;Saviano, Bassano, & Calabrese, 2010). In the following, starting from the definition of sustainability with a broader scope, some initial critical positions are exposed, from which we then arrive at the prospect of useful elements leading to the introduction of a working hypothesis aimed at producing a possible itinerary for the development of our research project. ...
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has become one of the most hotly debated issues in the business world. The reason is that while some companies readily fulfill their obligations to society, others either under-declare their profits so as to keep back a substantial part of it, or fail to do so outright, despite reaping so much from their host communities. These obligations, as little as it may be, goes a long way in ameliorating the suffering, poverty and underdevelopment of the populations rendered vulnerable by the activities of the corporate world. These businesses and their co-conspirators, rather than fulfill their CSR, even extract more from the people by underpaying its labour force, subjecting it to unconducive mining environment, and promulgating dehumanizing and obnoxious policies. This deprives the people of their socio-economic, political and environmental rights, and exacerbates the conditions of these vulnerable populations, among which are women and children, girls, the elderly, the sick, and the malnourished. Against this backdrop, this study examines how the activities and inactivity of the Marange mines have affected these groups. This is carried out through the review of extant literature, online and telephone interviews, as well as local and international media reports. The study revealed, among other things, the issues of human right abuses which although the government and other stakeholders, including the international community, are aware of, there is lack of political will to address these issues, as a result of which there has been continual suffering among these vulnerable groups of people. Finally, the paper suggests some plausible ways of meeting this plethora of challenges.
... The methodology used, although a heuristic type, refers to the positive method, as practices and occurrences are used to delineate a precise research path. In particular, in our work we intend to refer to the VSA (viable system approach), an interpretative model that was born and developed as explanatory support for the dynamics of business organizations and that appears to be increasingly able to explain sociocultural phenomena (Barile, Saviano, Iandolo, & Calabrese, 2014;Saviano, Bassano, & Calabrese, 2010). In the following, starting from the definition of sustainability with a broader scope, some initial critical positions are exposed, from which we then arrive at the prospect of useful elements leading to the introduction of a working hypothesis aimed at producing a possible itinerary for the development of our research project. ...
The steadily rising global demand for luxury gems and the simultaneously growing attention of public opinion towards sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) issues have been exerting an impact on the mining industry and have become a challenge for the diamond supply chain’s management. Multiple associations, the African Diamond Producers Association (ADPA), the International Diamond Manufacturers Association (IDMA), and the Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC), standards, and frameworks developed by the industry could constitute evidence of the progress made. This study, through an in-depth investigation, having explored the concept of corporate social responsibility in the mining industry, provides a detailed overview of sustainable supply chain management and proposes an examination of the initiatives currently being undertaken by the members of the RJC in their supply chain in the field of social and environmental responsibility. In this way, we offer an original conceptualization based on the viable system approach (VSA). The research outcome will help managers of the producing firms to identify important practices and to improve the environmental issues of traditional supply chain management through the adoption of sustainable supply chain management.
... Furthermore, this paper adds to the continuation of a new line of contributions applying systems theory to social and environmental sustainability concerning the relationships among efficiency, effectiveness, and sustainability (Barile, Saviano, Iandolo, & Calabrese, 2014). Previous work has shown the potential contribution of this theory to sustainability, focusing on social (Porter, 2008) and/or environmental problems (Hielscher & Will, 2014;Valentinov, 2014;Valentinov & Chatalova, 2016). ...
The earth and the natural world have physical limits. Thus, industries or firm systems operating on this planet have limits as well. Infinite growth is intrinsically impossible. Some firms have integrated these principles into their management methods while struggling to survive in a traditional competitive environment with short‐term economic constraints. This paper explores the managerial practices that help firm systems address these paradoxical tensions of being responsible for the environment and having a long‐term degrowth orientation while also successfully competing in traditional capitalistic markets. Using a social system approach, the paper applies functional differentiation focusing on the internal aspects of the management of the firm. The paper highlights that the role of each subsystem can be crucial for integrating the survival of the firm system and the natural system's limits. Each subsystem has a potential effect on the natural system that can be analysed and managed in a specific way.
... However, the difficulty to identify management models for the territory as a complex system, able to explain their potential in terms of usability (tourism attractiveness, residents' well-being, sustainability), recognized by Ehlinger et al. (2015), is generally addressed through the proposal of new management models aimed at ensuring effectiveness, efficiency and sustainability to support the decisions of the governing bodies (Saviano et al., 2010;Barile et al., 2014). Other contributions are dedicated to specific aspects related to the governance of subsystems existing in the territory. ...
The aim of the paper is to propose a view of territory based on a systems perspective, in order to identify the levers on which to act to improve, particularly, a tourism destination value. The theoretical approach adopted herein is based on systems theory and, in particular, on the conceptualizations of the Viable Systems Approach (vSa). Starting from the definition of the elements that mostly effect the development of a specific territory, our contribution proposes an integrated approach to a tourism destination with the aim of enhancing the complex of resources that are included within a specific territory in order to increase its potential cultural value and viability. The focus is on the development of tourism in the Sardinia Region, where Arbatax Park represents a case study that offers interesting insights into the relevance of a shift in the territory perspective, specifically when the area is referred to as a tourism destination.
... Hence, by integrating the THM into the TBL framework, as proposed in Figure 1, it is possible to give account for the systemic functioning of the TBL, that is, more generally, the interaction between the three dimensions of sustainability [25,[28][29][30]. At the same time, society and natural environment would be also included in the THM without adding new blades, as suggested in other proposal that takes a different view [31]. ...
This work is based on a view of healthcare as a fundamental Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) to share globally to be effective at local level. On this basis, the paper analyzes the health programs in less-favored areas with the aim of understanding why the United Nations SDGs are so difficult to reach in some countries. A brief review of the main literature and research on the health governance systems in three countries of the African continent have been conducted to this aim. The results are interpreted through the sustainability helix model (SHM). Key roles and conditions of effectiveness of the health sustainable development governance approach in the investigated countries are discussed. The main findings reveal that the analyzed governance systems lack implementation plans. By discussing the observed problem in the light of the sustainability helix model, fundamental elements of a health sustainable development helix model have been identified in less favored countries where key actors and roles are identified. The study highlights, in particular, the relevance of ‘interface’ roles played by non-governmental actors (NGA) and international actors (IA) in the health governance system of less-favored countries. These actors and roles allow connections between the global and the local levels of action favoring interaction among actors institutionally devoted to governing development.
In the sense of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), global efforts to create a sustainable society will not be sufficiently successful under the current geopolitical and socio‐economic trends. For this reason, recent sustainability research has increasingly focused on systemic coherence, the subject of cognition, and psychological and epistemological aspects. With regard to the sustainability discourse, this article proposes a perspective based on systems theory's findings in its enactivist interpretation. It understands this as a joint process of sense‐making that must be actively maintained on an ongoing basis. Scientific knowledge and human experience are not described as mutually exclusive and informing spheres but as part of the world of experience actively spanned by the organism in its self‐execution, which inherently involves ambiguities and complexity reductions that leave the subject and object undetermined. Such an understanding of systemic thinking should help to prevent the process of sustainable development itself from being called into question when some goals are inevitably missed.
This study underscores the pivotal role of occupational physicians in safeguarding workers' health by identifying and evaluating occupational risks to prevent workplace incidents and diseases. The study conducts a comprehensive literature review across databases. Results illuminate the stringent standards governing occupational physicians in Morocco, subjecting them to civil, criminal, and disciplinary responsibilities in cases of medical negligence. Adherence to ethical principles and a profound understanding of relevant laws, particularly those concerning workplace safety, is imperative. Operating within multidisciplinary teams, occupational physicians navigate intricate organizational structures and consider medical-social aspects. In conclusion, the study underscores the necessity for occupational physicians to adapt to legal and medical advancements, addressing medical responsibility holistically. Staying informed, advocating for quality practices, contributing to worker safety, and championing clear regulations are imperative for shaping the trajectory of occupational medicine.
This article addresses students’ value co-creation behaviour, framed by the Service-Dominant logic approach, within the context of the marketization of the higher education service ecosystem. The objective is to explore how students integrate their cognitive and behavioural activities during their academic trajectory. The study surveyed 375 first-year undergraduate students, all with weighted grade point averages (GPA) in the range of 8.5 to 9.5 out of 10, at a public university in Mexico, a region characterized by a strong presence of the prevalent passive customer-student analogy tendency. A principal component analysis was also conducted to assess the grouping of the eight original dimensions included in the scale implemented for this ecosystem. In addition, a non-hierarchical cluster analysis was employed to categorize the students according to their co-creation behaviour. The results identify three segments of students: the first with a high willingness to cocreate value, the second characterized by a proactive attitude but lack of interest in relationships with peers and teachers, and the third characterized by a low level of co-creation in all dimensions assessed. These findings highlight that not all students engage in co-creation behaviours during their academic pursuits, even when they achieve outstanding grades. The results suggest some considerations for operationalizing value co-creation in the context of the educational service ecosystem, highlighting its implementation as a dynamic and nonlinear process, considering predelivery and postdelivery. It also highlights the relevance of involving students in activities beyond traditional activities during their service experience. Finally, this study stresses the need to adopt a long-term perspective rather than seek immediate student satisfaction, suggesting the importance of designing more sustainable educational policies and strategies.
Recent research on value co-creation has recognized the importance of digital technologies and digital platforms in adding efficiency, effectiveness, and sustainability to value co-creation. The availability of new and advanced digital technologies has also pervaded the mechanisms at the core of value co-creation, facilitating the interactions among spatially, temporally, and organizationally dispersed actors. Research has associated the ecosystem perspective with digital platforms underlining their potential in facilitating a multi-actor long-lasting online resource integration. To contribute to the debate on the digital value co-creation, this study has been based on the analysis of a specific service domain such as the cultural heritage, with a focus on museums. This study approaching museum digital transformation according to ecosystem perspective aims at better understanding how digital platforms boost resource integration, exploiting the value that networked ecosystem actors co-create digitally, enhancing museums' resources protection, research, exploitation, and utilization.
The decommissioning of offshore platforms has been increasingly discussed due to its economic, social, and environmental impacts. The high complexity of this multilevel context pushes for the adoption of a service ecosystem view to explore the value propositions and actors' relations involved in resource exchanges. This study follows a mixed‐method approach based on semistructured interviews conducted with oil and gas stakeholders and content analysis of the secondary data collected. The results highlight the ecosystem elements and identify the main drivers for sustainable growth in the process of the reconversion of oil and gas assets. A “meta” level is theorized to investigate how the actors' purposes can be harmonized with an ecosystem's goal to encourage the diffusion of a sustainable‐oriented culture in the context of offshore decommissioning. In this sense, the study provides several insights for researchers and professionals in both the local and national governance field and the oil and gas industry.
Esta pesquisa tem por objetivo apresentar processos e ferramentas que orientem arquitetos ou designers no desenvolvimento de projetos de design de ambientes de varejo que considerem a estratégia de negócios da marca varejista, a experiência do cliente e o conceito de omnichannel. Este repertório oferecerá base para os profissionais atuarem como mediadores deste processo com maior assertividade. Por meio de pesquisa bibliográfica e revisão assistemática, foram selecionadas pesquisas contemporâneas alinhadas à dinâmica teórico-prática que o setor do varejo exige, a de apresentar resultados baseados em planejamentos estratégicos associados às múltiplas demandas do mercado contemporâneo. O resultado deste artigo serve de estrutura para elaboração de modelos de desenvolvimento de projetos de design de ambientes de varejo.
The main purpose of this contribution is twofold: from a scientific point of view, to interpret the symbiotic logic through the framework of the Viable Systems approach (vSa), and from a managerial viewpoint, to provide the actors of industrial symbiosis initiatives, at any stage of their life cycle, with a guide to the most promising web-based solutions in terms of defining the best configuration for the symbiotic network. The article, therefore, aims to provide an in-depth study of the existing literature, which is still not exhaustive, and to consider synoptically and comparatively the modern platforms capable of supporting industrial symbiosis initiatives. The objective was pursued by examining 10 existing and functioning Web-based platforms, of which only a few were previously explored in the previous literature, while the recognition of the latter was carried out on a bibliometric basis to articulate in more detail the existing gap based on a panel of contributions as large as possible. The joint consideration of the literature review and the examination of the existing and functioning platforms shows an articulated framework of approaches, proposed models, and classification schemes of their functions, which allows us to conclude that given the sectoral, territorial, and specific characteristics of the materials addressed by each platform and considering the different cycles existing in eco-industrial parks (water, energy, by-products, etc.), the most promising way for their implementation is to consider multiple platforms to fully exploit the contribution of each of them. As for the management implications, the suggestion is to integrate the results obtained from the different platforms and to evaluate the configurational alternatives with multi-criteria procedures.
This paper reports on preliminary testing of the "Self-Transformation Methodology" (STM) to rebalance an organisational structure in order to improve the effectiveness of corporate sustainability (CS) strategy implementation. It presents the results of a pilot study where it was possible to align CS strategy and organisational structure, clarifying the required adapting and learning organisational processes and closing the learning loop by continuously monitoring sustainability indicators during this process. Additionally, it reflects on the learning and needs for further developments of the methodology. This research contributes to CS and system thinking literature with an approach to address the challenges of integrating CS initiatives into the operation of a firm. The STM methodology has shown good potential for creating a more effective context for CS strategy implementation. The research scope is limited, and in consequence, more action research is required to fully apply the adjusted methodology to further corroborate the initial findings.
An enterprise complexity model (ECM) is offered as a methodological tool for the actors of an enterprise to overcome complex environmental problems. The heuristic for this purpose is the viable system model, which guides an enterprise's self‐organization towards policies creating, regulating and producing sustainable development goals. Self‐organization is grounded in correcting imbalanced interactions between an enterprise's actors and their environmental agents, to increase their requisite variety to achieve sustainability, that is, to overcome environmental problems. The interactions between actors and agents are facilitated by current and emergent digital technologies, which support the structuring of collaborative networks. Reflexive interactions between the enterprise's actors and agents in the problematic environment help their branching into all kinds of innovative organizational forms. The Viplan methodology is used to achieve this branching, which accounts for the enterprise's complexity with the support of the Viplan method. Respect for the environment and quality of interactions are values driving this ecology of enterprises towards a deeper and wider appreciation of the issues besetting future generations.
The objective of this article is to combine the two dominant perspectives of retail design— design and business—through systems thinking and flat ontology, in order to understand the ‘store’ as designed by retail designers in the new digital area. Using an abductive case study of the Danish retail design world, this article connects actors into a system, redefines 'the store’ as an interface between retailer and customer, and attaches the metaphors ‘observed universe’ and ‘extended self’ of owner managers to collectively designed spaces. The implication of the study is a retail design (and business) canvas.
The article's practical contribution is clarifying the profession of retail design under the condition of digitised retail, and to present a first step towards a system-based theory for retail design.
Managerial contribution
The article redefines the store as an interface affording customers' and retailers’ exchange of product and experiential interaction with the aim of providing adequate revenue.
W monografii "Model zrównoważenia przedsiębiorstwa" sformułowano i empirycznie zweryfikowano wielowymiarową koncepcję „zrównoważenia przedsiębiorstwa” (ang. business sustainability), która określa i strukturalizuje udział współczesnych przedsiębiorstw w rozwoju zrównoważonym i trwałym (ang. sustainable development).
Dostęp:
https://www.dbc.wroc.pl/dlibra/publication/142577/edition/73951
This presentation is about the contribution of Systems Thinking and, specifically, Viable Systems Approach (vSa® ) to Service Research.
It illustrates key elements of a systems and dynamic view of service highlighting the strong convergences with Service Science and Service-Dominant Logic.
The paper discusses the role played by business relationships within a view of the firm as a viable system. Attention is focused on relationships between firms and their supplying system, emphasising the way how such relationships affect firms' innovation processes. The paper also considers the role of trust in enhancing the effectiveness of customer-supplier relationships and in promoting innovation. These aspects are discussed theoretically and further developed using the empirical example of the Ericsson subsidiary in Italy.
This paper addresses sustainable development through the lens of the Viable Systems Approach (VSA), a theoretical approach developed by, among others, Golinelli (2000, 2005, 2010) and Barile (2000, 2008, 2009) to extend the relative reflections of the governing processes of a firm by focusing on the research of consonance within the specific context in which the firm operates. In fact, the aim to ensure a sustainable value proposition, and therefore be more competitive, can only be achieved if one understands and anticipates the evolution of the emerging contingencies while still attempting to exploit one’s own distinctive features over time. These issues have particular relevance in business to business (B2B) socio-economic relationships where all of the elements are homeostatically balanced and must constantly change to adapt to the external contingencies, and the lack of ability to adapt and maintain balance could harm or end the relationship.
We use the Business Roundtable’s challenge to the SEC’s 2010 proxy access rule as a natural experiment to measure the value of shareholder proxy access. We find that firms that would have been most vulnerable to proxy access, as measured by institutional ownership and activist institutional ownership in particular, lost value on October 4, 2010, when the SEC unexpectedly announced that it would delay implementation of the Rule in response to the Business Roundtable challenge. We also examine intra-day returns and find that the value loss occurred just after the SEC’s announcement on October 4. We find similar results on July 22, 2011, when the D.C. Circuit ruled in favor of the Business Roundtable. These findings are consistent with the view that financial markets placed a positive value on shareholder access, as implemented in the SEC’s 2010 Rule.
Il presente lavoro si propone di analizzare il concetto di cambiamento, le sue possibili cause, le criticità di gestione, e gli aspetti sistemici che lo caratterizzano.
Il cambiamento è analizzato quale elemento fondamentale per la sopravvivenza delle imprese (intese quali sistemi) nell’attuale turbolento eco-sistema economico, al fine di approfondire, grazie anche al supporto dell’Approccio Sistemico Vitale (ASV), quali possano essere le fasi del cambiamento e come si possano oggi esaminare le strategie di riconfigurazione, le contingenze, le influenze, le resistenze e le opportunità collegate.
Il contributo evidenzia come il ‘sistema’ può essere competitivo solo se comprende e anticipa l’evolversi delle contingenze circostanti, cercando comunque di valorizzare le specifiche caratteristiche distintive, nel tentativo di rispondere adeguatamente alle cangianti esigenze del mercato.
Il lavoro ha consentito evidenzia le connessioni esistenti tra il concetto di cambiamento e le recenti riflessioni della letteratura internazionale sui concetti di co-creazione del valore, competitività, complessità e innovazione.
The work aims to analyze the concept of change, its possible causes, the critical of management, and the systemic aspects that characterize it.
The change is analyzed as a key element for the survival of businesses (such as systems) in the current turbulent economic eco-system, in order to deepen, thanks to the Viable Systems Approach (VSA), which may be the phases of the change and how we can now examine the reconfiguration strategies, contingencies, the influences, the strengths and the related opportunities.
The contribution shows how the ‘system’ can be competitive only if it understand and anticipate the evolution of the contingencies surrounding, still trying to exploit the specific distinctive features, in an attempt to respond adequately to the changing needs of the market.
The work highlight the links between the concept of change and recent reflections of the international literature on the concepts of value co-creation, competitiveness, innovation, and complexity.
Stakeholder theory has been a popular heuristic for describing the management environment for years, but it has not attained full theoretical status. Our aim in this article is to contribute to a theory of stakeholder identification and salience based on stakeholders possessing one or more of three relationship attributes: power, legitimacy, and urgency. By combining these attributes, we generate a typology of stakeholders, propositions concerning their salience to managers of the firm, and research and management implications.
The Viable System Model (VSM) is a powerful tool to think about the complexity of human activities. However, in addition to models we need effective frameworks for action. This paper offers one such framework based on what is known as 'second-order cybernetics'. Second-order cybernetics put the emphasis in the observer and language as key aspects in order to develop explanations about our participation in human concerns. This emphasis permits us to develop a framework to discuss the complexity of human activities and with that it gives us a handle for problem solving in organisations; such a framework is introduced in this paper as the Cybernetic Methodology.
Offered here is a conceptual model that comprehensively describes essential aspects of corporate social performance. The three aspects of the model address major questions of concern to academics and managers alike: (1) What is included in corporate social responsibility? (2) What are the social issues the organization must address? and (3) What is the organization's philosophy or mode of social responsiveness?
Offered here is a conceptual model that comprehensively describes essential aspects of corporate social performance. The three aspects of the model address major questions of concern to academics and managers alike: (1) What is included in corporate social responsibility? (2) What are the social issues the organization must address? and (3) What is the organization's philosophy or mode of social responsiveness?
The main purpose of this paper is to highlight the new opportunities that the Viable Systems Approach (VSA) can provide for observing complex service systems and explaining social phenomena through general schemes of interpretation. At the same time, it explores methodological links with the Service Science (SS) approach in order to propose (VSA)'s contribution to moulding a unified vision of complex objects of analysis, and to evidence the many converging elements that emerge from the two perspectives as well as the benefits that derive from different interpretation schemes.
In particular, in our paper we analyze healthcare service complexity in a relational perspective, using a VSA-SS conceptual framework to interpret the emergent systems instability in the Italian Health Service. The application of principles and concepts proper to the (VSA) and the SS approaches to articulated service structures, such as healthcare, identifies critical features and interesting new “therapeutic” prospects for healthcare service systems in order to guarantee their viability.
The paper proposes an innovative methodological basis for evaluating the level of appropriateness of the healthcare service and, at the same time, evidences the need for achieving a balanced triple target of efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability (EES) in healthcare service systems governance. As a result, a new area of cross fertilization for collaborative research emerges.
[Service Science, ISSN 2164-3962 (print), ISSN 2164-3970 (online), was published by Services Science Global (SSG) from 2009 to 2011 as issues under ISBN 978-1-4276-2090-3.]
The Viable System Model (VSM) is not a new idea. Created by
Stafford Beer over twenty years ago, it has been used extensively
as a conceptual tool for understanding organizations, redesigning
them (where appropriate) and supporting the management of
change. Despite its successful application within numerous private
and public sector organizations, however, the VSM is not yet widely
known among the general management population. There are two
main reasons for this. Firstly, the ideas behind the model are not
intuitively easy to grasp; secondly, they run counter to the great
legacy of thinking about organizations dating from the Industrial
Revolution - a legacy that is only now starting to be questioned.
To deal with the second point in more detail, organizations have
been viewed traditionally as hierarchical institutions that operate
according to a top-down command structure: strategic plans are
formulated at the top and implemented by a cascade of instructions
through the tiered ranks. It is now widely acknowledged that this
modus operandi is too slow and inflexible to cope with the
increasing rate of change and complexity surrounding most
organizations.
Augmented measures of savings and wealth in the national accounts are critical to conceptualizing and achieving sustainable
development. After developing the theory of genuine savings—traditional net savings less the value of resource depletion and
environmental degradation plus the value of investment in human capital—this article presents empirical estimates for developing
countries. These calculations account for resource depletion and carbon dioxide emissions, using consistent time series data
for 1970–93. The empirical evidence shows that levels of genuine savings are negative in a wide range of countries, particularly
in Sub-Saharan Africa, and that these countries are being progressively impoverished. Increasing the coverage of natural resources
and pollutants in our calculations would reduce the estimated levels of genuine savings overall. The use of genuine savings
measures suggests a series of policy questions that are key to sustaining development. These are also explored, specifically
the extent to which monetary and fiscal policies, exports of exhaustible resources, stronger resource policies, and pollution
abatement measures boost genuine savings rates. For policymakers, linking sustainable development to genuine savings rates
means that there are many possible interventions to increase sustainability, from the macroeconomic to the purely environmental.
The purpose of this chapter is to outline the development of the idea of "stakeholder management" as it has come to be applied in strategic management. We begin by developing a brief history of the concept. We then suggest that traditionally the stakeholder approach to strategic management has several related characteristics that serve as distinguishing features. We review recent work on stakeholder theory and suggest how stakeholder management has affected the practice of management. We end by suggesting further research questions.
Modern management theory is constricted by a fractured epistemology. which separates humanity from nature and truth from morality. Reintegration is necessary if organizational science is to support ecologically and socially sustainable development. This article posits requisites of such development and rejects the paradigms of conventional technocentrism and antithetical ecocentrism on grounds of incongruence. A more fruitful integrative paradigm of “sustaincentrism” is then articulated, and implications for organizational science are generated as if sustainability, extended community, and our Academy mattered.
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) expresses a fundamental morality in the way a company behaves toward society. It follows ethical behavior toward stakeholders and recognizes the spirit of the legal and regulatory environment. The idea of CSR gained momentum in the late 1950s and 1960s with the expansion of large conglomerate corporations and became a popular subject in the 1980s with R. Edward Freeman’s Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach and the many key works of Archie B. Carroll, Peter F. Drucker, and others. In the wake of the financial crisis of 2008–2010, CSR has again become a focus for evaluating corporate behavior. First published in 1953, Howard R. Bowen’s Social Responsibilities of the Businessman was the first comprehensive discussion of business ethics and social responsibility. It created a foundation by which business executives and academics could consider the subjects as part of strategic planning and managerial decision–making. Though written in another era, it is regularly and increasingly cited because of its relevance to the current ethical issues of business operations in the United States. Many experts believe it to be the seminal book on corporate social responsibility. This new edition of the book includes an introduction by Jean–Pascal Gond, Professor of Corporate Social Responsibility at Cass Business School, City University of London, and a foreword by Peter Geoffrey Bowen, Daniels College of Business, University of Denver, who is Howard R. Bowen’s eldest son. © 2013 by the Estate of Howard R. Bowen and 1953 by the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America.
Systems are organised images of the real world that entail certain principles, and we build systems models because we can attribute to them certain generic characteristics that we believe can help us explain what we perceive as the real world. The idea of the real world being modelled as a system hierarchy composed of networks of organisations seen as semi-autonomous systems is a powerful way of representing what we believe that we see. The theory that is attached to such systems is called viable systems theory.
Stakeholder theory has been a popular heuristic for describing the management environment for years, but it has not attained full theoretical status. Our aim in this article is to contribute to a theory of stakeholder identification and salience based on stakeholders possessing one or more of three relationship attributes: power, legitimacy, and urgency. By combining these attributes, we generate a typology of stakeholders, propositions concerning their salience to managers of the firm, and research and management implications.
This paper aims to analyze the applicability of a sustainable vision within the business world, paying special attention to the opportunities and potential problems that this implies and proposing the adoption of an inclusive and holistic perspective that goes beyond the limitations of an approach based on "parts."
The reference to the service-based paradigms, which provide that value in business is co -created by all those who participate in its activities, places an emphasis on interactive and virtuous dynamics that could not occur if there wasn’t a global perspective that takes into account all the actors concerned and involved in the particular process under analysis. The vision that is imposed today is the one that looks into the distance, which takes into account the fact that unilateral decisions have influences on the community and that, where this is not considered, it would lead to a crisis of the entire system. The Viable Systems Approach (vSa) and its main concepts of consonance and resonance can be a useful interpretative paradigm to introduce sustainability within business.
The stakeholder theory has been advanced and justified in the man- agement literature on the basis of its descriptive accuracy, instrumen- tal power, and normative validity. These three aspects of the theory, although interrelated, are quite distinct; they involve different types of evidence and argument and have different implications. In this article, we examine these three aspects of the theory and critique and integrate important contributions to the literature related to each. We conclude that the three aspects of stakeholder theory are mutually supportive and that the normative base of the theory-which includes the modern theory of property rights-is fundamental. If the unity of the corporate body is real, then there is reality and not simply legal fiction in the proposition that the man- agers of the unit are fiduciaries for it and not merely for its individual members, that they are . . . trustees for an institu- tion (with multiple constituents) rather than attorneys for the stockholders.
Modern management theory is constricted by a fractured epistemology which separates humanity from nature and truth from morality. Reintegration is necessary if organizational science is to support ecologically and socially sustainable development. This paper posits requisites of such development and rejects the paradigms of conventional technocentrism and antithetical ecocentrism on grounds of incongruence. A more fruitful integrative paradigm of sustaincentrism is then articulated and implications for organizational science are generated as if sustainability, extended community and our academy mattered.
The Problem to be ExaminedThe Reciprocal Nature of the ProblemThe Pricing System with Liability for DamageThe Pricing System with No Liability for DamageThe Problem Illustrated AnewThe Cost of Market Transactions Taken into AccountThe Legal Delimitation of Rights and the Economic Problem
Editor's Note: John Elkington's new book, Cannibals with Forks: The Triple Bottom Line of 21st-Century Business, has been hailed as “practical, compassionate and deeply informed, a brilliant synthesis of his genius for cutting through the thicket of tough issues–in the world of business and sustainability–and producing elegant solutions that can be applied today” (Paul Hawken). We are pleased to have the opportunity to publish a selection from this award-winning book. In this discussion of partnerships, Elkington explores how effective, long-term partnerships will be crucial for companies making the transition to sustainability and offers approaches and examples of keen interest. Special thanks to Capstone Publishers, U.K., for their gracious cooperation.
In this elegant critique, Amartya Sen argues that welfare economics can be enriched by paying more explicit attention fo ethics, and that modern ethical studies can also benefit from a closer contact with economics. Predicitive and descriptive economics can be helped by making room for welfare-economic considerations in the explanation of behaviour. In this context, he explores the rationality of behaviour and pays particular attention to social interdependence and internal tensions within consequential reasoning.
When I hear businessmen speak eloquently about the “social responsibilities of business in a free-enterprise system”, I am
reminded of the wonderful line about the Frenchman who discovered at the age of 70 that he had been speaking prose all his
life. The businessmen believe that they are defending free enterprise when they declaim that business is not concerned “merely”
with profit but also with promoting desirable “social” ends; that business has a “social conscience” and takes seriously its
responsibilities for providing employment, eliminating discrimination, avoiding pollution and whatever else may be the catchwords
of the contemporary crop of reformers. In fact they are — or would be if they or anyone else took them seriously -preaching
pure and unadulterated socialism. Businessmen who talk this way are unwitting puppets of the intellectual forces that have
been undermining the basis of a free society these past decades.
Gregory Bateson was a philosopher, anthropologist, photographer, naturalist, and poet, as well as the husband and collaborator of Margaret Mead. With a new foreword by his daughter Mary Katherine Bateson, this classic anthology of his major work will continue to delight and inform generations of readers. "This collection amounts to a retrospective exhibition of a working life. . . . Bateson has come to this position during a career that carried him not only into anthropology, for which he was first trained, but into psychiatry, genetics, and communication theory. . . . He . . . examines the nature of the mind, seeing it not as a nebulous something, somehow lodged somewhere in the body of each man, but as a network of interactions relating the individual with his society and his species and with the universe at large."âD. W. Harding, New York Review of Books "[Bateson's] view of the world, of science, of culture, and of man is vast and challenging. His efforts at synthesis are tantalizingly and cryptically suggestive. . . .This is a book we should all read and ponder."âRoger Keesing, American Anthropologist Gregory Bateson (1904-1980) was the author of Naven and Mind and Nature.
In the classic bestseller, Capitalism and Freedom, Milton Friedman presents his view of the proper role of competitive capitalismâthe organization of economic activity through private enterprise operating in a free marketâas both a device for achieving economic freedom and a necessary condition for political freedom. Beginning with a discussion of principles of a liberal society, Friedman applies them to such constantly pressing problems as monetary policy, discrimination, education, income distribution, welfare, and poverty. "Milton Friedman is one of the nation's outstanding economists, distinguished for remarkable analytical powers and technical virtuosity. He is unfailingly enlightening, independent, courageous, penetrating, and above all, stimulating."-Henry Hazlitt, Newsweek "It is a rare professor who greatly alters the thinking of his professional colleagues. It's an even rarer one who helps transform the world. Friedman has done both."-Stephen Chapman, Chicago Tribune