Sustainable Development
Please refer to: Livvarcin and
Dudaroglu, 2008. A 3D Conceptual Model for the Evaluation of
Entrepreneurship for Sustainable Development,
Submitted to Journal of Business Venturing
Sustainable development is one of the
few trends in society that have been growing steadily over the latest
decades (Robert, 2000). Since the last quarter of the 20th century
significant efforts have been made in pursuit of sustainable
development. However, the diverse overuse of the word "sustainable" in
the literature augmented the complexity and the confusion. The term has
come to mean too much and nothing at the same time which caused
sustainable development as a concept to be too largely drawn to have any
particular usefulness (Temple, 1992). Although it is expected to take
some time before the technical characteristics, operational
indicators and moral injunctions of sustainable development enjoy
widespread consensus (Gladwin et al., 1995) there is urgent need for
a holistic approach and a common understanding.
This complexity of the subject is exactly
the answer of why most of the early studies were focused on the
identification of sustainable development (e.g. Clark, 1989; Jim et al.,
1991; Gore, 1992; Lee, 1993; Rolston, 1994; Viederman, 1994).
Although a unifying definition of
sustainable development does not exist (Seelos and Mair, 2005), one
of the most prevalent definitions of sustainable development was
introduced in 1987 by The World Commission on Environment and
Development, (Brundtland Commission) as "Development that meets the
needs of the present without compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their own needs.” This simple definition covers
a desired balance between the utilization of resources and the tendency
of technological, economic, and social development.
Some scholars focus on the restrictive
aspect of the issue and define sustainable development as the pursuit of
economic growth, subject to environmental constraints (Batie, 1989).
Another definition introduces sustainable development as a process of
achieving human development in an inclusive, connected, equitable,
prudent, and secure manner (Gladwin et al., 1995).
In all these definitions, the spirit of
sustainable development basically suggests development to consider both
protection of natural resources and maintenance of environmental quality
(Batie, 1989) which has not been a habit in the past (Munslow and
Fitzgerald, 1994).
As illustrated in Fig. 1 initially,
sustainment (or protection of environment and resources) and development
were two discrete concepts.
Illustration of sustainment and development
(Livvarcin and
Dudaroglu, 2008)
With the escalated global awareness and
the notion of one world over recent decades, numbers of successive but
overlapping concerns are emerged: population growth, environmental
change, inequalities in development and political fragmentation and
instability (Clarke, 1993). These concerns have been the
infra-structure of the sustainable development phenomenon and forced
sustainment and development circles to converge towards each other. The
intersection of sustainment and development led scholars, entrepreneurs
and bureaucrats to focus on the area of sustainable development as shown
in Fig. 2.
Illustration of sustainable development
(Livvarcin and
Dudaroglu, 2008)
The efforts in the field of sustainable
development are basically focused on the determination and establishment
of the balanced interaction between sustainment and development. The
degree of overlap determines the level of interaction between
sustainment and development or in other words the overlapped area
indicates foundations of sustainable development.
A total overlap between sustainment and
development would be too optimistic and utopian. However we might
conclude that the main purpose of all individual and institutional
endeavors for sustainable development is probably to broaden this
intersection as much as possible. This fantastic situation is
illustrated in Fig. 3.
Illustration of broadened ideal sustainable development
(Livvarcin
and Dudaroglu, 2008)
Due to the
popularity of the term "sustainable development" and speculations about
its role (Jickling, 1994), various models are developed in the
literature to explain and simplify the complex relationship between
sustainment and development (e.g. Jickling, 1994; Clark, 1995;
Straussfogel, D., 1997; Chichilnisky, 1997; Kates et al., 2008).
Just like many
others the first section of our study is also focused on the assessment
of the connection between sustainment and development. Our study
premises four major alternatives to classify this link: Sustainment with
development, sustainment without development, development without
sustainment, and neither development nor sustainment.
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