BUS604: Innovation and Sustainability

Business and the economy are an important part of the greater social system. Businesses and the economy exist within a broader system of laws, cultures, and customs that make up human society. The global social system exists within the broader context of the earth's environment. Businesses, the economy, and society are dependent on the earth's natural resources.

A more complex and dynamic systems approach or perspective defines a system as a set of things that affect one another within an environment and form a larger pattern that is different from any of the parts. When viewed from a systems perspective, organizations engage in the continual stages of input, throughput (processing), and output in an open or closed context. A closed system does not interact with its environment. It does not take in information and therefore is likely to atrophy - that is, to vanish. An open system receives information, which it uses to interact dynamically with its environment. Openness increases the likelihood of survival and prosperity.

Sustainable business practices require an open systems perspective and consideration of how business actions impact not only internal operations and outcomes (such as costs, sales, and profitability) but also external outcomes - that is, the environment and the sustainability of the natural and social systems that businesses are part of.