Sustainable Value Management: Pluralistic, Multi-Criteria, and Long-Term Decision-Making

Abstract

As a consequence of global and local dynamics, the reality of doing business around the world is changing, which impinges upon Adam Smith’s “invisible hand” to self-regulate economic activities and shared social welfare while protecting humanity’s endowment: nature. The last two decades have witnessed an unprecedented scholarship and professional development on sustainability, social responsibility, and ethics in the business and management literature. We argue that the internalization of sustainability into responsible research in business and management (RRBM) should be explicitly founded on sustainable business value management, which is pluralistic (multiple stakeholders along the value chain), multi-criteria (multiple value dimensions), and long term (value accumulates and decays over time and space). Our position is aligned with all RRBM’s main principles, but particularly service to the society, stakeholder involvement and impact on stakeholders. In this chapter, we argue for the development of responsible decision-making frameworks in business and management that are founded on inclusivity of stakeholders (sometimes including reconciliation), multidimensional value (e.g., triple bottom line) creation, and long-term governance (in opposition to short-term). Sustainable value management is therefore not only about reporting, but also about changing the decision-making mind set, processes and methods.