This thesis addresses the persistent disconnect between increasing business sustainability efforts and the continued degradation of ecological and social systems. Hence, the aim of the present thesis is to explain why business sustainability efforts are systemically insufficient by elucidating the systemic mechanisms that generate and reproduce unsustainability from a company perspective. To address this aim, the analysis shifts attention from sustainability as a normative aspiration to unsustainability as an empirical and explanatory phenomenon. Systems thinking is used as an enabling lens for treating companies as subsystems embedded in wider economic, institutional, social, and biophysical systems. The thesis is based on four interrelated studies situated in sustainable business model and sustainable service research. First, a relational understanding of unsustainability from a company perspective is developed, where unsustainability is defined as the patterned ways in which company activities undermine or degrade the biophysical and social conditions required for long-term system viability. Building on this conceptualization, the cross-paper synthesis identifies five interacting systemic mechanisms that generate and reproduce unsustainability from a company perspective: unsustainable paradigm, multipolar traps, destructive competition, narrow boundary perspectives, and information and feedback gaps. Together, these mechanisms explain why business sustainability efforts may remain weakly effective even when sustainability is explicitly pursued. The contribution to business sustainability research lies in conceptualizing unsustainability from a company perspective, providing a mechanism-based explanation of systemic insufficiency, informing mechanism-sensitive managerial diagnosis and response, and demonstrating how systems approaches can be applied across heterogeneous business contexts and multiple levels of analysis.

Denna avhandling behandlar den bestående diskrepansen mellan ökande hållbarhetsinsatser inom näringslivet och den fortsatta degenereringen av ekologiska och sociala system. Syftet med avhandlingen är att förklara varför företags hållbarhetsinsatser är systemiskt otillräckliga genom att belysa de systemiska mekanismer som genererar och reproducerar ohållbarhet från ett företagsperspektiv. För att uppnå detta syfte förskjuts det analytiska fokuset från hållbarhet som normativ strävan till ohållbarhet som ett empiriskt fenomen som kan observeras, analyseras, och förklaras. Systemtänkande används som ett möjliggörande perspektiv för att förstå företag som delsystem och som del av bredare ekonomiska, institutionella, sociala och biofysiska system. Avhandlingen bygger på fyra sammanhängande studier inom forskning om hållbara affärsmodeller och hållbar tjänsteforskning. Först utvecklas en relationell förståelse av ohållbarhet från ett företagsperspektiv, där ohållbarhet definieras som de mönster genom vilka företagsaktiviteter underminerar eller degraderar de biofysiska och sociala villkor som krävs för långsiktig systemviabilitet. Med utgångspunkt i denna konceptualisering identifierar den tvärgående syntesen fem samverkande systemiska mekanismer som genererar och reproducerar ohållbarhet från ett företagsperspektiv: ohållbart paradigm, multipolära fällor, destruktiv konkurrens, snäva gränsperspektiv samt informations- och återkopplingsgap. Tillsammans förklarar dessa mekanismer varför företags hållbarhetsinsatser kan förbli ineffektiva även när hållbarhet uttryckligen eftersträvas. Avhandlingens bidrag till företagsekonomisk hållbarhetsforskning ligger i att konceptualisera ohållbarhet från ett företagsperspektiv, erbjuda en mekanismbaserad förklaring av systemisk otillräcklighet, praktiska implikationer för en mekanism-informerad diagnostik och respons, samt visa hur systemperspektiv kan tillämpas över heterogena företagskontexter och flera analysnivåer.

Despite decades of growing attention to sustainability, business efforts remain systemically insufficient in addressing ecological degradation and social harm. This thesis asks why. Rather than treating sustainability as an ambiguous ideal, attention is shifted to unsustainability as what can be observed and explained: the ongoing reproduction of harmful systemic outcomes. Companies are understood as embedded in wider economic, institutional, social, and biophysical systems rather than as isolated actors. Drawing on four studies in sustainable business model research and sustainable service research, the thesis develops a relational conceptualization of unsustainability from a company perspective. On this basis, it identifies five systemic mechanisms that generate and reproduce unsustainability: unsustainable paradigm, multipolar traps, destructive competition, narrow boundary perspectives, and information and feedback gaps. Using systems thinking from a company perspective, the thesis explains why sustainability efforts may remain insufficient even when they are well intended. It offers a framework for understanding how company activity relates to wider system conditions and what must be addressed for more meaningful change to occur.

Why do business sustainability efforts remain systemically insufficient despite growing attention to sustainability in research and practice? This question is addressed in the present thesis by shifting focus from sustainability as an aspiration to unsustainability as the phenomenon that can be observed, analysed, and explained. It is argued that unsustainability cannot be understood only as a failure of implementation, weak ambition, or isolated firm-level shortcomings. Instead, it is generated and reproduced through system dynamics that shape what companies see, prioritize, value, and act upon. Companies are therefore approached not as isolated units, but as subsystems embedded in wider economic, institutional, social, and biophysical systems. The thesis consists of four interrelated studies in sustainable business model research and sustainable service research. Based on these studies, it develops a relational understanding of unsustainability from a company perspective, defined as the patterned ways in which company activities contribute to undermining or degrading the biophysical and social conditions required for long-term system viability. On this basis, five interacting mechanisms are identified that explain why business sustainability efforts remain systemically insufficient: unsustainable paradigm, multipolar traps, destructive competition, narrow boundary perspectives, and information and feedback gaps. These mechanisms show how sustainability efforts may be constrained, redirected, or weakened even when they are well intended. The thesis contributes to sustainability-oriented business research by clarifying how company activity relates to wider system conditions, offering a mechanism-based explanation of unsustainability, and demonstrating how systems thinking can support analysis across different business contexts and levels of analysis. It also provides practical implications for more mechanism-sensitive responses by companies and wider system actors.