Proceedings of the International Association for Business and Society

Volume 25, 2014

Proceedings of the Twenty-Fifth Annual Meeting

Frederik Dahlmann
Pages 213-225

Evolutionary systems theory of corporate sustainable strategy

Drawing on complex systems theories this paper outlines a theory of why companies need to make more determined efforts to develop genuinely sustainable corporate strategies. The paper integrates the notions of coevolutionary systems change, fitness landscapes and corporate sustainable strategies in an attempt to synthesise our understanding of how and why organisations evolve over time with the observation of increasing rates of wider systemic changes. The aim is to illustrate that there is a much deeper (and arguably ‘natural’) reason for why firms will and must make greater efforts towards implementing sustainability strategies. By framing sustainability challenges through this evolutionary complex systems perspective, this paper hopes to contribute to more instrumental discussions about firms’ wider impact on nature and society.