Towards a Meaningful Economy: Seven Institutional Transitions from Maximisation to Satisficing

Abstract

Economic development has generated major gains in productivity, technological capability and
material prosperity, while also intensifying ecological pressures, unequal value distribution and the
separation of financial performance from social contribution. This conceptual article develops the
Meaningful Economy as an integrative framework for redirecting economic activity towards human
flourishing, ecological viability and value for stakeholders. It uses a problem-oriented integrative
synthesis spanning ecological and institutional economics, the capability approach, the sociology of
work, stakeholder theory, humanistic management, financialisation, corporate governance and social
accounting. The analysis identifies seven institutional transitions: from indefinite growth to sufficient
well-being; from the exploitation of nature to ecological balance; from means to human ends; from
financial profit to value for stakeholders; from short-termism to legacy; from meritocracy to inclusive
capacity; and from one-dimensional maximisation to balanced governance. Three cross-cutting
mechanisms—people-centred work and technology, socially embedded finance and stakeholder
oriented social accounting—connect these principles to organisational practice. The framework’s
central contribution is a principle of systemic viability grounded in satisficing: institutions should
maintain several essential economic, social and ecological conditions rather than maximise a single
metric at the expense of the system that sustains it. The Meaningful Economy therefore does not
reject markets, firms, technology, finance or profitability; it repositions them as instruments whose
legitimacy depends on the quality, distribution and durability of the value they create.