The Seven Schools of Sustainable Strategic Management

This chapter delves into the specific schools of thought within SSM. Various approaches exist reflecting the multidimensional nature of sustainability and strategic decision-making. Adopting a similar style to Mintzberg’s Strategy Safari, with its ten schools of strategy, this chapter critically analyses the following seven “Schools”: Traditional strategic management Corporate social responsibility approach Environmental sustainability and green strategies Social innovation and inclusive business Circular economy and cradle-to-cradle design Innovation and disruption Global South perspectives. “Sustainable Strategy Toolkit (3) – The SSM Typology” offers a structured approach to understanding the phenomenon under investigation. By prioritising different constructs, this reduces complexity and highlights areas of focus by adopting a shared vocabulary for discussing transition, strategy, and performance. The Nvidia’s $4 Trillion Mini Case Study illustrates a blueprint for the artificial intelligence winner-take-all performance-driven economy. The Strategy Nugget shows how the seven schools of SSM interconnect to form a holistic approach. This chapter closes with an SSM definition, together with a table that reinforces the applicability to practitioners through the translation of each school. The competitive logic is that organisations focus on two to three dimensions (financial, stakeholder, and environmental), but mastering all seven dimensions creates a competitive advantage. The sustainability challenge is to develop strategies that achieve solutions within both business and planetary constraints.