Paper short abstract:

This study explores how a logic of care influences business practices and how characteristics of care support the implementation of sufficiency in production and consumption practices.

Paper long abstract:

Sufficiency can be understood as the work of economic actors to adapt to human and more-than-human needs, by delivering only what is required to satisfy these needs – nothing more, nothing less. This interpretation reveals a connection between sufficiency and feminist concepts of care as both advocate for a need-centred economy. This study explores how a logic of care influences business practices and how characteristics of care support the implementation of sufficiency in business. In an integrative literature review, meanings and resources of care were inductively identified. They served as categories to deductively analysis empirical data from 14 sufficiency-oriented businesses. The results show that the dual nature of care, that everything is relational and interconnected, and that care always requires engagement in caring activities, is mirrored in sufficiency business practices. Sufficiency practitioners form care relationships to collaboratively realize needs because needs cannot be fulfilled in isolation. Additionally, resources such as time, financial means, and knowledge enable the performance of sufficiency and caring activities. The perception of the world as relational and interdependent, and the identification of care enablers can in future serve as guidance for sufficiency researchers and practitioners to support the implementation of sufficiency in production and consumption practices. The results of this research can also serve as framework for energy sufficiency practices, as energy represents a fundamental human. In a logic of care, as described in this study, levels of enoughness in energy provision could best be determined by engaging in caring relationships and activities.