A systemic model of the relationships between companies, biodiversity, and ecosystems to manage the environmental performance

Journal title MANAGEMENT CONTROL
Author/s Lino Cinquini, Giacomo Pigatto, Andrea Tenucci, Niccolò Braico
Publishing Year 2024 Issue 2024/2
Language Italian Pages 25 P. 161-185 File size 380 KB
DOI 10.3280/MACO2024-002008
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Biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse are major threats to humankind’s wellbeing and companies are facing increasing attention – and normative pressure – to consider their impacts on and dependencies from biodiversity and ecosystems. However, it is not easy to understand the complex relation-ship occurring between business activities, biodiversity, and ecosystems. Therefore, this research constructs a systemic model to comprehend such a re-lationship and breaks it up into simpler and manageable components. The re-search adopts an interventionist methodology in which the researchers under-took a literature review followed by focus groups with experts and companies to co-develop the systemic model. The final model identifies and classifies sixteen types of impacts that companies have on biodiversity grouped into five main drivers: ecosystem use change, over-exploitation, invasive alien species, pollution, and climate change. Moreover, the model identifies and classifies twenty-four ecosystem services grouped into three main categories: provisioning services, maintaining and regulating services, and immaterial and cultural services. This research contributes to management control re-search and practice by proposing a model that could help companies valuing, managing, monitoring, and accounting for a complex phenomenon – the rela-tionship between companies, biodiversity, and ecosystems – by breaking it up into simpler, clearer, and more manageable components.

Keywords: Biodiversity, Ecosystem, Impact, Dependency, Interventionist Re-search, Systemic Model

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Lino Cinquini, Giacomo Pigatto, Andrea Tenucci, Niccolò Braico, Un modello sistemico delle relazioni tra azienda, biodiversità ed ecosistemi per gestire la performance ambientale in "MANAGEMENT CONTROL" 2/2024, pp 161-185, DOI: 10.3280/MACO2024-002008