Sustainable Development from an Interdisciplinary Perspective: a Review of Scientific Theories and Implications for the Meetings Industry
Sustainable Development from an Interdisciplinary Perspective: a Review of Scientific Theories and Implications for the Meetings Industry

Summary/Abstract: The aim of this article is to synthesise the main scientific theories and concepts relating to sustainable development and to indicate their relevance to analyses of enterprises and the meetings industry. Theories and concepts are organised according to three levels of analysis: macro, meso, and micro. The theoretical part discusses, in sequence, ecological economics, the limits to growth, the planetary boundaries concept, the distinction between weak and strong sustainability, socio-ecological systems theory, resilience, the commons approach, ecological modernisation, industrial ecology, cleaner production, the socio-technical transitions perspective, transition management, the capability approach, doughnut economics, and degrowth. The article then analyses the most significant business and management theories used in sustainability research, including stakeholder theory, legitimacy theory, institutional theory, the resource-based view, the natural-resource-based view, dynamic capabilities, the sustainable value concept, the paradox perspective, stewardship, political CSR, and theories of sustainable and circular business models. The article also highlights the contribution of Polish researchers and proposes an interpretative framework that links the concept of sustainability with the category of legacy within the MICE sector. The study is review-based and integrative in nature. However, the use of theory in relation to the meetings industry serves not as a rhetorical justification of practices, but as a means of defining boundary conditions, stakeholder coordination mechanisms, evaluation criteria, and design directions for creating a sustainable event legacy. The review indicates the need to treat sustainable development simultaneously as a normative, systemic, institutional, and strategic category, while maintaining a distinction between global constraints and operational organisational decisions.

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