Work

Circular economy principles as a basis for a sustainability management theory: A systems thinking and moral imagination approach

Year: 2024

Type: article

Abstract: To enable corporations to bring about more responsible business practices, changes in the wider system within which businesses operate – including the mental models through which sustainability is understood in the management field – are necessary. Drawing on functioning principles in natural ecosystems – as embodied in circular economy thinking – this conceptual article proposes some constructs to inform the development of a sustainability management theory. We show that the potential for the circular economy to provide a sounder basis to sustainable management theory rests on its capacity to propose a socio‐eco‐systemic framework, which overcomes the separation between man and nature and is isomorphic to the conception proposed by the emerging complexity paradigm. Also, we show that, by imagining a new cognitive framework and evaluating the current linear model and the alternative circular model from a moral standpoint, the circular economy can be thought of as an exercise in moral imagination.

Source: Business Strategy and the Environment

DOI: 10.1002/bse.3730

Authors: Roberta De Angelis, Giancarlo Ianulardo

Institutions: Cardiff University, University of Exeter

Language: English

Topic: Sustainable Supply Chain Management

Subfield: Strategy and Management

Field: Business, Management and Accounting

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Responsible consumption and production

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $4,270