Layered understanding of the nested reality of nature and society in enterprise value chains for sustainability
systems thinking connecting in an intergenerational effect
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.23925/2179-3565.2026v17i1p186-202Keywords:
Systems thinking, Sustainability science, Social and environmental issues, Resiliency, Sustainability, Regenerative economics, Resource economics, Sustainability management, Policy management, Adaptive strategies, Business environment, People and planet, Welfare, WellbeingAbstract
The globe is today sustainability hungry. There is a huge potential to work common and collective in the sustainability transition and drive multi-decade long development cycles. The challenges and opportunities in the new approaches needed for sustainability is large and the associated risks and to take up responsibility are larger. Regulating the growing interests and aspirations to support sustainable development and align in line with sustainability in the transformative outcomes are huge and are varying unimaginably in the needs and wants of growth and development phases. This paper tries to focus on systems thinking for sustainability science where the advancement in the value based sustainable outlook has to happen recognizing the multiple layer and interconnectedness bringing in shared identity and reasonable belongingness, in developing many new understanding and purposes for the common and collective actions of states, markets and business environment to build, extending the base line of economic development and growth to be placed in the triple bottom line in the layered understanding and nested reality. Layered understanding, reflection and reformulation in the value chains are needed for the very specific sustainable and contributory business environment activity chains for people and planet leading towards common prosperity. This paper addresses qualitatively from the point of view of the key interests in sustainable development themes like distribution, fairness, welfare, wellbeing, equity and justice along with the twin questions of attaining sustainability and leading towards sustainable development goals in the futuristic growth and development pathway as support structures leading a transition having an intergenerational effect.
Downloads
References
Adams, W.M. (2006). The Future of Sustainability – Rethinking Environment and Development in the Twenty-First Century. Report of the IUCN Renowned Thinkers Meeting, 29-31 January 2006, IUCN
Amoako, G.K., Adam, A.M., Arthur C.L. & Tackie, G. (2021) Institutional isomorphism, environmental management accounting and environmental accountability: a review. Environ Dev Sustain 23, 11201–11216 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-020-01140-y
Babalola, M. T., Bal, M., Cho, C. H., Garcia-Lorenzo, L., Guedhami, O., Liang, H., ... & van Gils, S. (2022). Bringing excitement to empirical business ethics research: Thoughts on the future of business ethics. Journal of Business Ethics, 180(3), 903-916.
Baldwin, C., Marshall, G., Ross, H., Cavaye, J., Stephenson, J., Carter, L., Freeman, C., Curtis, A., & Syme, G. (2019). Hybrid neoliberalism: Implications for sustainable development. Society & Natural Resources, 32(5), 566–587
Boda, C. S., O’Byrne, D., Harnesk, D., Faran, T., & Isgren, E. (2022). A collective alternative to the Inward Turn in environmental sustainability research. Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, 12(2), 291-297.
Browder, G., S. Ozment., I. Rehberger Bescos., T. Gartner., & G. Lange. (2019). Integrating Green and Gray: Creating Next Generation Infrastructure. Washington, DC: World Bank and World Resources Institute.
BSDC (2017). Ideas for Action for a Long-Term and Sustainable Financial System, Business and Sustainable Development Commission.
Bu, Maoliang., & Marcus, Wagner. (2016). Racing to the Bottom and Racing to the Top: The Crucial Role of Firm Characteristics in Foreign Direct Investment Choices. Journal of International Business Studies 47 (August): 1032–57.
Cabrera, D., Cabrera, L. L., & Midgley, G. (2023). The four waves of systems thinking. Journal of Systems Thinking, 3, 51.
Carney, M. (2021). Value(s): Building a better world for all. HarperCollins Publishers.
Cechvala, S., & Ganson, B. (2024). Systems perspectives on business and peace: The contingent nature of business-related action with respect to peace positive impacts. Journal of Business Ethics, 194(3), 523-544.
Demekas., Dimitrios G. Nerlich., & Anica. (2020). Creating Domestic Capital Markets in Developing Countries : Perspectives from Market Participants, International Finance Corporation, Washington, DC.
Divanbeigi, R., & R. Ramalho. (2015). Business Regulations and Growth. Policy Research Working Paper No. 7299, World Bank, Washington, DC.
Duchen, C. (2024). Women's rights and women's lives in France 1944-68. Routledge.
Espinosa, A. (2022). Sustainable self-governance in businesses and society: The viable system model in action. Routledge.
Gamarra, AR., Lechón, Y., Escribano, G., Lilliestam, J., Lázaro, L., & Caldés, N. (2022). Assessing dependence and governance as value chain risks: natural gas versus concentrated solar power plants in Mexico. Environ Impact Assess Rev 93:106708.
Garcia-Castro., Roberto., & Ruth V. Aguilera. (2015). Incremental Value Creation and Appropriation in a World with Multiple Stakeholders. Strategic Management Journal 36 (1): 137–147. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.2241
Hernández, M., & Muñoz, P. (2022). Reformists, decouplists, and activists: A typology of ecocentric management. Organization & Environment, 35(2), 282–306.
Herron, R. J., Mendiwelso‐Bendek, Z., Salinas Navarro, D. E., Vilalta‐Perdomo, E., & Weaver, M. W. (2025). The resonance of Mike Jackson's work with the use of systems ideas in community operational research. Systems Research and Behavioral Science, 42(1), 51-68.
Jackson, M. C. (2024). Critical systems thinking: A practitioner's guide. John Wiley & Sons.
Latour, B. (2022). Gaia as a problem of social theory. Cambridge University Press
Jones, G. (2023). Deeply responsible business: A global history of values-driven leadership. Harvard University Press.
Liu, M., & Koivula, A. (2023). Greed doesn’t grow on trees: the indirect association between proenvironmental behaviour and materialism through adolescents’ psychological entitlement. Young Consumers, 24(1), 1-17.
Maphosa, F., & Maunganidze, L. (2021). Business and Society: An Introduction. In Corporate Citizenship: Business and Society in Botswana (pp. 1-30). Cham: Springer International Publishing.
Martini, A. (2021). Socially responsible investing: from the ethical origins to the sustainable development framework of the European Union. Environment, development and sustainability, 23(11), 16874-16890.
Midgley, G. (2023). The systemic intervention approach. Journal of Systems Thinking, 1-24.
Swapan, Dasgupta., and Tapan, Mitra. (1999). On the Welfare significance of National product for economic growth and sustainable development. The Japanese Economic Review Vol. 50, No. 4, December 1999
Thomas, Cottier. (2011). Confidence-building for Global Challenges: The Experience of International Economic Law and Relations, Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) Trade Regulation, World Resources Institute, Washington.
Thomas, Cottier. (2014). Renewable Energy and WTO Law: More Policy Space or Enhanced Disciplines? Renewable Energy Law and Policy Review, 5(1), 40–51.
UNCTAD. (2020). How Public Pension and Sovereign Wealth Funds Mainstream Sustainability: Practices of the frontrunners and a proposed integration framework. UNCTAD.
UNCTAD. (2022) Sustainability integration by public pension and sovereign wealth funds.
UNEP. (2017). Financing sustainable development: the role of sovereign wealth funds for green investment.
Wan Rosely, W.I.H., & Voulvoulis, N. (2024). System Thinking for Sustainable Water Management: The Use of System Tools in Sustainability Transitions. Water Resource Manage 38, 1315–1337. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11269-023-03723-6
Weaver, M., Fonseca, A. P., Tan, H., & Pokorna, K. (2025). Systems thinking for sustainability: shifting to a higher level of systems consciousness. Journal of the Operational Research Society, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/01605682.2025.2486698
Wendling, Zachary., Emerson, Jay., Esty, Daniel & Levy, Marc & de Sherbinin, Alex. (2018). Environmental Performance Index (EPI). New Haven, CT: Yale Centre for Environmental Law & Policy. 10.13140/RG.2.2.34995.12328.
Wiegratz, J., Salverda, T., & Lanzano, C. (2024). Moral economies of capitalism in Africa. Critical African Studies, 16(1), 1-16.
Woodly, D. R. (2022). Reckoning: Black lives matter and the democratic necessity of social movements. Oxford University Press.
You, L. (2024). The impact of social norms of responsibility on corporate social responsibility short title: The impact of social norms of responsibility on corporate social responsibility. Journal of business ethics, 190(2), 309-326.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
This Journal is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivers 4.0 International license.
1.The author (s) authorize the publication of the article in the journal;
2.The author (s) warrant that the contribution is original and unpublished and is not in the process of being evaluated in other journal (s);
3. The journal is not responsible for the opinions, ideas and concepts emitted in the texts, as they are the sole responsibility of its author (s);
4. The editors are entitled to make textual adjustments and to adapt the articles to the standards of publication.
