The paper revisits the fundamental question of the nature of the firm by contrasting two philosophic worldviews suggested by process philosophy and the Luhmannian systems theory. Whereas the former worldview takes reality to be internally related, the latter ones underscores the tendency of social systems, such as firms, to disregard much of this interrelatedness. The productive tension between these worldviews suggests that the firm provides a context where systemic imperatives meet the rich concrete reality of human life. The role of the firm is to house those aspects of this reality that are too organic to be accommodated by the abstract “language of prices” corresponding, in institutional economics terms, to the reliance on market governance. The major examples of these aspects explored in the paper are dynamic capabilities and business ethics, both of which hold the potential to improve the firm’s sustainability, both economic and social. The proposed contrast between the process-philosophic and systems-theoretic worldviews thus illuminates not only the nature of the firm but also the managerial relevance of corporate sustainability instruments.

通过对比过程哲学和卢曼体系理论所提出的两种哲学世界观，本文重新审视了企业本质的基本问题。前一种世界观将现实与内部联系起来，而后一种世界观则强调了诸如公司之类的社会系统忽视了许多这种相互联系的趋势。这些世界观之间的生产力紧张关系表明，该公司提供了一个系统性要求，以满足人类生活的丰富现实的环境。公司的作用是将现实中那些过于有机的方面容纳起来，以致于不能从抽象的“价格语言”中适应（从制度经济学的角度来看）依赖于市场治理的那些方面。本文探讨的这些方面的主要示例是动态能力和商业道德，两者都有提高公司经济和社会可持续性的潜力。因此，过程哲学世界观与系统理论世界观之间提出的对比不仅阐明了公司的性质，而且阐明了公司可持续性手段在管理上的相关性。