Hegemonic norms of economic growth and capitalism have influenced businesses to pursue exponential growth in profits, with less concern towards social and environmental extraction that comes along. Research has shown that alternative forms of business, that are “growth-agnostic” and radically “sustainable” in practice, are emerging. While mainstream business argues that growth fuels the impact they create on society, post-growth organizations aim to create and scale impact, without relying on exponential growth. Limited empirical studies exist on the scaling strategies used by post-growth businesses. Thus, this study aims to examine the strategies that “growth-agnostic sustainable businesses” (GASBs) use to scale their positive social and environmental impacts, without catering to conventional growth tactics. Using a qualitative approach (desk-based review and interviews) a pool of 14 GASBs was created, and their scaling strategies were analyzed using previously established scaling typologies. 3 business cases from the pool were interviewed to uncover deeper insights into their scaling strategies. The analysis showed that GASBs from the pool showcased the use of one or more of the pre-established strategies, at different stages of their development, and strive to spread their ideas/models/values to other businesses, aiming towards systemic changes. GASBs exemplified radical ways of doing business and exemplified 3 other strategies beyond those mentioned in scaling frameworks, indicating the need to create more robust frameworks to evaluate and analyze the scaling of impacts by post-growth organizations. Thus, the study presents 11 impact scaling strategies, with examples of how they were operationalized, which other GASBs can use. Although the sample size of the study is not adequate to generalize results, the study adds to the growing discourse on post-growth business and is purely exploratory in nature.

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Scaling Impact: Alternative Routes for Growth-Agnostic Sustainable Businesses

  • Sujay Hammannavar

摘要

Hegemonic norms of economic growth and capitalism have influenced businesses to pursue exponential growth in profits, with less concern towards social and environmental extraction that comes along. Research has shown that alternative forms of business, that are “growth-agnostic” and radically “sustainable” in practice, are emerging. While mainstream business argues that growth fuels the impact they create on society, post-growth organizations aim to create and scale impact, without relying on exponential growth. Limited empirical studies exist on the scaling strategies used by post-growth businesses. Thus, this study aims to examine the strategies that “growth-agnostic sustainable businesses” (GASBs) use to scale their positive social and environmental impacts, without catering to conventional growth tactics. Using a qualitative approach (desk-based review and interviews) a pool of 14 GASBs was created, and their scaling strategies were analyzed using previously established scaling typologies. 3 business cases from the pool were interviewed to uncover deeper insights into their scaling strategies. The analysis showed that GASBs from the pool showcased the use of one or more of the pre-established strategies, at different stages of their development, and strive to spread their ideas/models/values to other businesses, aiming towards systemic changes. GASBs exemplified radical ways of doing business and exemplified 3 other strategies beyond those mentioned in scaling frameworks, indicating the need to create more robust frameworks to evaluate and analyze the scaling of impacts by post-growth organizations. Thus, the study presents 11 impact scaling strategies, with examples of how they were operationalized, which other GASBs can use. Although the sample size of the study is not adequate to generalize results, the study adds to the growing discourse on post-growth business and is purely exploratory in nature.