Systems-based approach to contemporary business management: An enabler of business sustainability in a context of industry 4.0, circular economy, competitiveness and diverse stakeholders

Sustainability is a core feature of 21st-century businesses for which the management approach can serve as a lever. Fourth Generation Management arises as a systems-based approach for managing contemporary businesses before the advent of Industry 4.0 and during low awareness of the Circular Economy. While 4th Generation Management provides value to business by considering several resources, stakeholders, and interactions, making businesses customer-oriented, it fails to address the sustainability issue for contemporary businesses in the current context of Industry 4.0, Circular Economy, Competitiveness, and Stakeholders. Indeed, it fails to make businesses more contemporary (i.e., more open and sustainable) to adapt to their context. Moreover, in the literature, there is no work discussing how Sustainability, Industry 4.0, Circular Economy, Competitiveness, and diverse Stakeholders as contemporary issues are accounted for in business management. The main aim of this study is to propose a Re-engineered 4th Generation Management as a systems-based approach, enabling today's business to be oriented toward customer and sustainability. We have reviewed 181 articles published between 2005 and 2022 from Scopus, Web of Science, and Science Direct databases to pursue such a goal. The novelty of this work relies on presenting a systems-based approach, which is best suited for sustainable businesses in the context of Industry 4.0 digitalization technologies (e.g., Artificial intelligence, Blockchain, Cloud computing, and Big data analytics), Circular Economy, Stakeholders, and Competitiveness. Furthermore, propositions are formulated to reflect on the suggested framework based on recent literature. At the end of this work, research implications and future directions are provided.