Smarter organizations for another better world: Applying knowledge and strategic intelligence, risk Management innovation and sustainability in social and organizational complexity

Abstract

Organizations are immersed in local and global environments of incremental, multivariable, and dynamic complexity and competitiveness, and they face risks of various kinds and in different dimensions of their activities (economic financial, environmental, legal, information, technology, quality, occupational safety and health, social responsibility, among others). These risks would only become negative factors that threaten the survival and success of the organizations mentioned if they are not studied, identified, organized, valued, and managed in a relevant way, through logics based on techno-scientific and management principles. Based on an extensive literature review, the article analyzes and describes the various factors and sources of risks that may occur in SMEs in general, and particularly SMEs in the food sector, for which a sample of food exporting SMEs from the province of Córdoba –PAEC– is studied. The aim is to design a meaningful conceptual and contextual framework, the first step for the implementation of a sustainable risk management (SRM). For this, the model proposed by ISO 31000: 2018 (Risk management) is used, which provides a systemic perspective that takes into account the organizational complexity present in all the variables under study. From the implementation of such systematic logic, the intention is to anticipate the impacts of risk vectors and enable the emergence of effects that optimize the set of decisions-actions related to comprehensive management. Thus, the main purpose is to contribute to increasing the management capacities of food SMEs, particularly food companies –by virtue of managing weaknesses found in the results of the study–, and their chances of success and contributions to sustainability in environments of growing complexity and competitiveness.