**5. Limitations and Conclusions**

Through the results (and proposed implications) of this conceptual article, we do not aim to propose CT as the solution to all of the current EM sustainability-related issues. We also agree with those scholars who, seminally [74,75] or more recently [76,77], have identified the risks of transforming CT, when (even more generally) applied to management, as the fad of modern times. Specifically, we do not believe that this fast-growing approach will totally overwrite all of those theories based on positivism and reductionism [10,78].

Relatedly, we are also conscious that, from a methodological point of view, the results from our analysis present some limits, in that they are, at present, strictly focused on the leading journal in the EM field and on a static explanation. At this stage, in other words, our analysis of the 38 articles should be considered through the lens of a (hopefully useful) initial qualitative assessment, rather than the lens of a quantitative research, which has statistics and trends also aimed at being predictive. In this regard, however, we believe that our results could serve as a heuristic proxy, i.e., a conceptual start to be expanded through more journal-based searches and/or dynamic analyses.

In sum, although aware of the limitations above, and through discussing the implications of our findings, we attempted to explain how CT can contribute to govern many current issues associated with the EM research (concerning the research in, and practice of, sustainability issues). If firms are modeled as CAS, through the identification of agents, their interactions, feedback, and emergent phenomena, CT can then help find novel ways of working to foster a supposed desired emergent behavior (e.g., improved efficiency and effectiveness in NPD, team organization, technology management, or PM); thus, providing engineers and managers with new tools for improving decision-making and performance [79–81]. In this regard, for example, Bianchi et al. [82] innovatively deal with complexity management in a recent NPD context through a study of the interaction between stage-gate and agile models (and their associated principles to reduce uncertainty).

Of course, scholars and practitioners argue that, in order to be more than a metaphorical device, a relevant CT framework will need to always be more rigorous from the theoretical, mathematical, and computational modeling points of view [83,84]. We also believe that this modeling will need to be tested in different industry settings to ensure appropriate comparisons between models and real world structures [85–87]. In this way, CT may also be taken as a useful approach, for engineers and managers, to test the reliability and consistency of more conventional methods intended to improve sustainability.

In conclusion, firms, clusters, networks, and industries, may be seen, from some aspects, as similar to living organisms [88,89], which grow, evolve, and die [90,91]. They can be healthy or sick [92–94] and their behavior emerges from their internal qualities and dynamics, which provide complexity to the system, and from their interactions with the environment [95–97]. A firm's behavior is both affected by linear control, such as that imposed by bureaucracy or top-down management decisions, and natural, uncontrolled dynamics. If enterprise complexity fits the complexity of the environment, then desired behaviors, such as high performance and synergy, emerge [98,99].

To date, complexity represents one of the main problems surrounding sustainable business. While we think that the application of CT to business cannot eliminate this problem, we believe that it can help reduce it to a satisfying level.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, G.A. and A.S.; methodology, G.A. and A.S.; investigation, A.S.; writing—original draft preparation, G.A. and A.S.; writing—review and editing, G.A. and A.S.; visualization, G.A. and A.S.; supervision, G.A. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research received no external funding.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.
