Strategy Textbooks and the Environment Construct

Abstract

A central claim within the sustainable development literature is that realizing sustainable outcomes requires a move away from a conceptualization of the environment as a separate, bounded, independently given entity. In this article, the conceptualization of the environment within best-selling strategy textbooks in the United Kingdom and Australia in 2011 is reviewed. The article focuses on strategy textbooks as it is argued that corporate strategists are key actors in the realization of sustainable outcomes, and that the constructs those individuals may learn from texts are potentially key to the realization of sustainable outcomes. The findings show that the constructs in the textbooks offer a sclerotic, dehumanized view of the environment that is partitioned into external and internal categories by an organizational boundary—a limitation, it is argued, that will not foster sustainable outcomes.