Measuring Economic Sustainability: Are we doing it Right?

Abstract

Economic sustainability, one among the Triple Bottom Lines (TBLs), perhaps the most attractive and popular dimension of sustainability, is the long-term standpoint of an establishment in terms of financial and marketing measures. The realization of the value of economic sustainability is a far-felt need for practitioners because of its sense of stability. Despite the theorists' immense contribution to offering a theoretically sought definition and workable measures, the concept remains ambiguous in its application. This review examined the evolution of economic sustainability as a construct in terms of its definitions and measures. A desk review of the published literature in leading journals was performed. Each contribution was assessed against the properties of available theoretical bases to unearth the theoretical lapses. Findings include research gaps and associated directions for future studies in bridging the identified gaps.