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This study aims to identify the content in introductory business sustainability courses in the USA to determine the most frequently assigned reading material and its sustainability orientation.

In total, 81 introductory sustainable business course syllabi reading lists were analyzed from 51 US colleges and universities. The study utilized frequency counts for authors and readings and R analysis of key words to classify readings along the sustainability spectrum.

The study reveals the most frequently assigned authors and readings in US sustainable business courses (by program type) and places them along the sustainability spectrum from weak to strong. In total, 55 per cent of the top readings assigned in the sample advocate a weak sustainability paradigm, and 29 per cent of the top readings advocate a strong sustainability paradigm.

This study focused on reading lists of introductory courses in the USA; cases, videos and supplemental materials were excluded, and the study does not analyze non-US courses.

The findings of this study can inform instructors of the most commonly assigned authors and readings and identify readings that align with weak sustainability and strong sustainability. Instructors are now able to select sustainable business readings consistent with peers and which advance a weak or strong sustainability orientation.

This is the first research to identify the most commonly assigned authors and readings to aid in course planning. This is also the first research to guide instructors in identifying which readings represent weak versus strong sustainability.

This paper aims to learn how sustainability and the circular economy were being integrated into the curriculum of a Dutch university and to transfer that knowledge back to a US university business school curriculum. Given the resistance toward integrating sustainability into the US business school curriculum, the Dutch university served as a role model for education for sustainable development.

This case study used ethnographic methods of participant observation over a four-month residency at the Dutch university.

Themes observed are as follows: success in the current context relied upon sustainability being integrated into the culture and lifestyle, legislative enforcement, a focus on urban sustainability, use of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and collaboration as a key to success. The course proposal shifted to a class on the SDGs which is broader, more inclusive, and interdisciplinary. The proposal to integrate circular economy into the US business school curriculum shifted to a class on the SDGs. It was determined that the SDGs presented a more amenable approach to introduce sustainability into the business school curriculum and meet the objectives of education for sustainable development.

This case study is based upon the author’s experience at one university in the Netherlands. Limitations include the generalizability of the findings to another university as well as the question of transferability across cultures.

This case study offers one suggestion for integrating sustainability into the business school curriculum.

Integrating sustainability into the business school curriculum through the SDGs might help overcome resistance.

The findings offer an alternative approach for integrating sustainability into the business school curriculum that is aligned with AACSB standards and which might face less resistance.

Since the Brundtland report’s call for sustainability, planetary conditions have deteriorated. This paper suggests that corporate hypocrisy is a major barrier toward the adoption of sustainability and offers a typology of business behavior that can move closer toward the adoption of true and strong sustainability.

This article uses a normative lens to build upon prior literature and anecdotal evidence from the field to present a typology of business archetypes that represent a variety of responses toward sustainability.

The authors propose five typologies of business behavior that represent responses toward sustainability: business-as-usual, hypocritical pretender, hypocritical co-opter, responsible enterprise and purposeful enterprise. The first three typologies represent existing hypocritical approaches using weak sustainability. The last two typologies decrease corporate hypocrisy; improve alignment of talk, decisions and action; and help an organization adopt true and strong sustainability.

This is a normative paper that critiques existing literature and practices in corporate sustainability and proposes new directions. It necessitates further research in the form of case studies and empirical cross-sectional and longitudinal analysis. It implies assessing firm impact in non-traditional ways and will call for the development of new measures and indicators of firm performance from a social and environmental perspective.

The typology can provide practitioners and researchers with one possible solution to eliminate or decrease corporate hypocrisy in relation to sustainability, reporting and communications.

Planetary conditions have worsened, and business activity continues to contribute to deteriorating conditions. This research attempts to help businesses move away from hypocritical and destructive practices and to adopt true and strong sustainability practices for a flourishing planet. Furthermore, the authors articulate policy and practice recommendations in this context.

After decades of failure to make progress in achieving planetary sustainability, this research offers a model for practitioners and researchers to use in defining the actions necessary to achieve the elusive concept of sustainability.

This paper aims to highlight differences between business and non-business literature regarding base of the pyramid (BoP) and subsistence contexts and reveal discourse’s powerful role in influencing goals, solutions and outcomes.

This paper uses critical discourse analysis to review a convenience sample of business versus non-business literature on the BoP and subsistence contexts.

Discourse used in business literature on the BoP is oriented toward hegemonic Western capitalist approaches that result in the depletion of resources, resource inequalities, poverty and increased consumption, dependence and environmental degradation and, therefore, cannot alleviate poverty.

There are two primary limitations: the study relied on a convenience sample that was not random and comparatively, the business BoP literature is not as mature as the non-business subsistence literature and, therefore, the BoP field of study is not yet fully developed.

Discourse has a powerful role in revealing assumptions and guiding actions. A change in BoP discourse toward a strength-based approach can serve as a model of sustainability and can help powerful entities enact structural and systemic change.

This paper reveals the role of discourse in business BoP literature and how it perpetuates and even exacerbates the problems they were designed to alleviate: depletion of resources, resource inequalities, poverty and increased consumption, dependence and environmental degradation. The paper challenges researchers, economists and powerful guiding entities to reorient their discourse of the BoP to be more aligned with those of non-business researchers of subsistence markets.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the need for integration of Wilber's all levels, all quadrants (AQAL) approach into the strategy of a corporation. Organizations have incorporated elements of his theory at various levels, but none has fully incorporated all four quadrants. We explore how each quadrant can be used in strategic change to aid organizations in their quest for sustainable competitive advantage.

Using Wilber's AQAL approach, we present suggestions on how corporations can use each quadrant in strategic change efforts.

Several strategic planning methods which try to be all‐inclusive are discussed. Several companies are also discussed that have incorporated progressive approaches throughout the organization. However, no example yet exists of a company that has used a full integrally‐informed approach to strategic change and transformation.

The authors seek to present an example of how each quadrant can be used in strategic change to aid organizations in their quest for sustainable competitive advantage.

The growing interest in developing and applying “integral” approaches to organisations has been accompanied by a corresponding increase in different ways of interpreting this term. This article aims to present a set of criteria to help in defining the varieties of integral approaches to the study of organisations.

These criteria are derived from Ken Wilber's integral framework. The constitutive elements of Wilber's multi‐paradigm framework are used to develop a typology that honours the many forms that integral approaches can take.

It is proposed that the key criteria for assessing integral approaches to organisational life are: the structural focus, the engagement with process, and the emphasis on spirituality or essential purpose. Four type categories result from applying the structural criteria. These range from a general type that utilises broadly holistic concepts through to type which employs the detailed application of developmental quadrant and level concepts that formally define the integral approach as conceived by Ken Wilber. The engagement and spirituality criteria are additional enriching criteria that establish the integrity of the methods and purposes used in truly integral approaches.

The proposed typology will help in understanding how different authors, researchers and practitioners represent and apply the term “integral” within organisational contexts.

Over the past two decades there has been a growing recognition of the need to develop integrative approaches to understanding and explaining organisational change. One of the barriers to achieving this has been the lack of an integrative theoretical framework that can cope with the multiple demands of researching and explaining organisational change across diverse domains. To meet this challenge a holonomic framework for the study of organisational change is proposed. The purpose of the paper is to demonstrate the suitability of the holon construct as the basis for a multilevel and multi‐paradigm framework for the study of organisational change.

Arthur Koestler's holon construct and the developmental principles of Ken Wilber's AQAL framework are used as foundations for developing the framework. To this end theory building techniques are used to describe how the holon construct can accommodate the essential explanatory characteristics of ten paradigms commonly used in organisational studies.

The holonomic framework described here possesses significant integrative capacity by demonstrating its ability to incorporate multiple concepts from a diversity of organisational fields.

It has the potential to contribute significantly to the integrative investigation of change across many levels and domains of organisational activity.

The paper offers an example of an approach to translating integral concepts into language that is accessible to executive leaders in business without resorting to introducing the complexity of integral theory and models.

The phase of intervention is data gathering prior to feedback of data, action planning or change interventions. The model is presented along with examples of its implementation. The methodology and implementation follows principles derived from organization development and change methodologies.

Time availability for “educational interventions”, particularly in the initial phases of an intervention with executives is usually very limited. Having an approach that is integrally informed supports the gathering and organization of quality data from interviews and lays the foundation for individual and team coaching interventions that may include introduction of integral models and concepts to support executive leadership. The approach clarifies for the individual and the executive team their views of the requisite priorities, skills and processes for effectiveness within the team and in relation to stakeholders.

The paper is suggestive of a more comprehensive approach to research on leadership and its development in organizations.

Since contracting for change is a critical element in successful interventions, an integral approach fosters more effective contracting due to the thoroughness of data identified.

Presents an application of integral theory that is unique and that has been tested in organization change interventions at the executive level.

To reframe analysis of the open source software (OSS) phenomenon from an AQAL perspective

The approach is a review of current research thinking and application of the AQAL framework to suggest resolution of polarizations.

The authors find that AQAL is valuable as an integrating framework allowing a more holistic understanding of the complex economic, social and cultural characteristics of open source communities.

The original value of this paper is to link, within the AQAL framework, current parallel streams of OSS research, the traditional economic and the social and anthropological, by introducing considerations of psychological contract and intrinsic motivation.

This article presents a psychoanalytically informed diagnosis of top management team (TMT) dysfunction during TMT training in a public sector organization. Outdoor management development exercises and the psychodynamics of family groups increased the psychological depth of a training intervention, eliciting dysfunctional behavior and facilitating diagnosis based on Bion’s theory of groups. Dysfunctional basic assumption behavior prohibited the group from effectively accomplishing the task of the work group. Implications for trainers and consultants are discussed.