Beyond What and Why

Abstract

In this article, we strive to contribute to the ongoing shift in the sustainability debate from its historical focus on definitional (“what”) and motivational (“why”) questions to the understanding of change and learning process questions (“how”) connected to the efforts some firms are making to evolve toward “sustainable enterprise” models. A conceptual framework to study these evolutionary processes is thus developed, and the complexities and research design trade-offs facing the related empirical inquiry highlighted. The main message advanced herein is that shifting the focus of analysis to the level of the initiatives undertaken to change the various elements in the enterprise model could prove the best way to frame the conceptual and empirical challenge before us. In a way, to make progress on the “what,” research should focus on the “how.”