The Evolution of Business: Learning,Innovation, and Sustainability in the Twenty-First Century

This article-as part of a broader evolutionary inquiry toward human fulfillment, societal wellbeing, and environmental sustainability-explores new frontiers for business. In a rapidly changing global environment, corporations can become evolutionary change agents for the creation of a sustainable global civilization by fostering financial, social, and environmental results. The contemporary metaphors used to describe the business world can be limited in times when an emergent paradigm calls for new visions and actions. An evolutionary understanding, grounded in evolutionary systems theory, can open possibilities for leadership and innovation toward sustainability. Complex systems, such as organizations, need to learn to learn in harmony with the dynamics of their milieu in order to co-evolve and create value. The paper concludes with a reflection on the implications of the evolutionary paradigm for business education.     

Human dignity and human rights in the philosophy of absolute idealism

The tides of change constantly surface new currents in the world of business. No longer is it sufficient to seek the static positional advantage offered by classical Porterian analysis. This article explores the emerging direction of business strategy as expressed by the concept of evolutionary advantage. It examines first the major forms of business knowledge over the last century, then considers mainstream frameworks for strategic analysis, and offers, as a compelling alternative, the emerging notions of evolutionary development and evolutionary learning. Through application of Evolutionary Systems Design, it is shown how an organization may cultivate strategies for sustainable success.     

Happiness in modern society: Why intelligence and ethnic composition matter

Recent developments in evolutionary psychology suggest that living among others of the same ethnicity might make individuals happier and further that such an effect of the ethnic composition on life satisfaction may be stronger among less intelligent individuals. Data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health showed that White Americans had significantly greater life satisfaction than all other ethnic groups in the US and this was largely due to the fact that they were the majority ethnic group; minority Americans who lived in counties where they were the numerical majority had just as much life satisfaction as White Americans did. Further, the association between ethnic composition and life satisfaction was significantly stronger among less intelligent individuals. The results suggest two important factors underlying life satisfaction and highlight the utility of integrating happiness research and evolutionary psychology.