Based on the results of a conceptual study published in the journal ‘Business Strategy and the Environment’, this video considers the potential of the concept of syncretism to understand how companies are moving towards more sustainable management practices. Syncretism has mainly been treated in the literature as a process of religious synthesis or cultural change. It involves the production of new or modified religions/cultures as a result of contact between distinct ‘ideologies’. Exploring the analogies between religious/cultural syncretism and the challenge of corporate sustainability suggests that a syncretism-based perspective may be more practical and useful than conventional approaches combining corporate performance with sustainability – these have rarely challenged the dominant ‘win-win’ logic.
