Title: The emergence and devolution of sustainable organisations

Authors: Lee A. Swanson; Vince Bruni-Bossio

Addresses: Edwards School of Business, University of Saskatchewan, 25 Campus Drive, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, S7N 5A7, Canada ' Edwards School of Business, University of Saskatchewan, 25 Campus Drive, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, S7N 5A7, Canada

Abstract: In this paper, we examine the pre- and post-sustainable positions from which sustainable organisations emerge and to which they devolve while addressing the factors that affect the patterns of emergence and devolution. Drawing from existing definitions of sustainable enterprises, we describe three categories of sustainable organisations and conceptualise how enterprises enter and leave these sustainable positions. This work builds upon existing concepts of sustainable enterprise that mainly take a prescriptive approach toward managing transitions toward varying concepts of organisational sustainability. Our work fills a research gap by examining what the conditions of pre- and post-sustainability can mean for enterprises.

Keywords: emergence; entrepreneurship; social enterprise; sustainability.

DOI: 10.1504/IJISD.2020.104244

International Journal of Innovation and Sustainable Development, 2020 Vol.14 No.1, pp.30 - 48

Received: 12 Feb 2018
Accepted: 25 Feb 2018
Published online: 23 Dec 2019 *

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