Inferring principles for sustainable development of business through analogies from ecological systems

The literature in the field of sustainable development (SD) of businesses is piecemeal and diverse. This paper identifies and integrates principles that businesses could use for transformation towards SD. This is done through analogical reasoning from the source context of ecological systems to the...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: K. Sriram, L.S. Ganesh, R. Madhumathi
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2013-03-01
Series:IIMB Management Review
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0970389612001322
Description
Summary:The literature in the field of sustainable development (SD) of businesses is piecemeal and diverse. This paper identifies and integrates principles that businesses could use for transformation towards SD. This is done through analogical reasoning from the source context of ecological systems to the target contexts of business socio-economic systems and machine/technology systems. The methodologies of systems thinking and morphological analysis supplement the analogical reasoning. Based on this, twelve principles for sustainable development of business are inferred for business managers and policy makers.
ISSN:0970-3896