Poking holes in the growth mindset

When Niki Khorasani asks her students what they think “Degrowth” is, the answers are usually not pretty. 

In the context of her Business and Society course, hands shoot up to say it’s an economic collapse. A societal breakdown. 

But the reality couldn’t be more opposite. 

Khorasani says that degrowth, which interrogates the true unsustainability of corporate growth and profit maximization -- “says that if we continue going the direction that we’re going right now, societal breakdown is exactly what’s going to happen.” 
 

A path to sustainable business

Khorasani, who began as an assistant professor at the Asper School of Business in July 2025, has published her degrowth research, Degrowth and Organization Studies, in the Financial Times 50-ranked publication Organization Studies.

The research was completed alongside Angelique Slade Shantz (University of Alberta) and Madeline Toubiana (University of Ottawa).

Khorasani says that uttering the word “degrowth” in the walls of a business school is usually provocative. Even in academic literature, most scholars are afraid to touch the word. 

“The way we define success is very much tied to growth. Even when companies want to be sustainable, they still have to prioritize growth,” she says. 

This “growth mindset” infects everything. Words like “efficiency” or “maximize” are everywhere. More is always better and growth is always good. And it’s true: our lives are more comfortable and advanced because of society’s constant growth. 

But this assumption that growth = prosperity comes with an unsustainable price tag.

“The scary reality now is that out of nine planetary boundaries, seven of them have been exceeded, beyond points where the planet’s life-support systems can properly function,” Khorasani says.

Degrowth proposes the question: how can we redefine growth?

To answer the question, Khorasani’s research looks for the people on the margins redefining what growth and business success is. 

She looks for ways organizations can adopt a degrowth mindset; to care less about the quarterly report, and more about community, individual well-being, and fairness.

Small wins

Khorasani’s illustration of a degrowth future starts with the world’s oldest hotel (and second oldest company). 

The Japanese hotel Keiunkun, founded over 1300 years ago, has been run by the same family for 52 generations. Key to its success? Their intentional decision not to grow. 

By keeping their integrity and remaining loyal to their community, they’ve gained more cultural and community capital than they ever could’ve had they expanded. 

Instead of “scaling up,” they “scaled deep.” 

The authors use cases like this to show “small wins”: practical choices that prioritize sufficiency and care over expansion. While not perfect models, they are real experiments that make degrowth imaginable. 

A similar idea appears in Fairphone, whose phones last much longer than the average iPhone and are more amenable to repair. By choosing to slow down and focus on exacting craftsmanship, they rebuke the idea that their success is tied to their sales. 
 

What is enough?

Foregoing the short-term reward for a long-term goal is a hallmark of sustainable business, but it’s only the start of the sacrifices necessary to truly practice degrowth.

Khorasani’s research does reckon with the consequences of taking on degrowth in organizations—and she hopes that her research into this often-underseen field poses big questions that inspire other researchers. 

Questions like: if we can’t have it all, what is enough? What do we sacrifice to achieve degrowth? Who decides what sacrifices we make?

They’re essential questions, and ones that Asper School students will directly come across as future leaders.  

“Do we want to face the big breakdowns of the earth systems in 10 to 20 years from now? Or do we want to have a slightly smaller profit margin and think through the tradeoffs?” Khorasani says. 
 

Pushing back

The Asper School of Business’ 2025-2030 strategic plan, Building Community, Inspiring Innovation cites “nurturing sustainability values” as one of 3 advancement areas. Between research such as Khorasani’s, as well as initiatives like The Chiu Centre for Business Serving Community, the Asper School of Business is passionate to be on the forefront of sustainability research in business education. 

However, thinking sustainably doesn’t end in the classroom. As Khorasani has pulled back the curtain on the assumption of growth, she has also pulled back the curtain on her everyday life.

She realized that in every context, “you can push back. Whatever doesn't make sense to you, you don't have to accept it.”

“The bigger house, the fancy car, buying more or even doing more, I challenge myself: do I really need this? Or is this something that I am drawn towards because of the societal push for ‘more is always better,’” says Khorasani.

No matter what, sustainability challenges us to take the best path, rather than the easy one.

“You can write your own story the way you want it to be written.” says Khorasani.