How Can Organizations Loosen Growth Dependencies for the Sake of Sustainability? A Literature Review

growth dependency; growth imperative; growth moderation; literature review; postgrowth; sustainable business model; Business and International Management; Geography, Planning and Development; Strategy and Management; Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law

Abstract :

[en] The growth-driven economic paradigm is increasingly criticized for its ecological and social unsustainability, yet organizations remain embedded in systems that structurally depend on growth. This creates a persistent tension between growth dependencies and sustainability aspirations. This study examines how organizations can navigate this tension by identifying the conditions that enable growth moderation while sustaining the provision of goods and services. We conduct a systematic literature review combining keyword searches and snowballing and integrate a descriptive mapping of the field with an inductive content analysis. The mapping reveals a recent, heterogeneous, and critically oriented literature, marked by blind spots in managerial, policy, and institutional perspectives. The inductive analysis identifies and structures 28 enabling conditions across paradigmatic, sectoral, organizational, and actor levels. Building on these findings, we develop a four-part research agenda that calls for systemic regime-level analysis, configurational and cross-level studies, explicit engagement with tensions and trade-offs, and broader empirical investigation. The study provides a structured foundation for advancing research on organizational growth moderation beyond growth-dependent models.

Disciplines :

Production, distribution & supply chain management
General management, entrepreneurship & organizational theory

Author, co-author :

Dethier, Fanny ; Université de Liège - ULiège > HEC Liège Research > HEC Liège Research: Social Enterprise and Collective Action for Transition (SECAT) ; ICHEC Research Lab, ICHEC Brussels Management School, Woluwé-Saint-Pierre, Belgium

Roman, Philippe; ICHEC Research Lab, ICHEC Brussels Management School, Woluwé-Saint-Pierre, Belgium

Language :

English

Title :

How Can Organizations Loosen Growth Dependencies for the Sake of Sustainability? A Literature Review

Publication date :

2026

Journal title :

Business Strategy and the Environment

ISSN :

0964-4733

eISSN :

1099-0836

Publisher :

John Wiley and Sons Ltd

Peer reviewed :

Peer reviewed

Additional URL :

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/bse.71203

Available on ORBi :

since 14 July 2026

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