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A systems-oriented view of environment, organization, and management regards an organization as a complex value creation system that is embedded in a dynamic environment. This view emphasizes that entrepreneurial phenomena, problems, and developments must always be seen in their embeddedness, i.e., in a broader context (Pettigrew, 1987). This context can be manifold and, depending on the decision situation, different contexts need to be distinguished. Here are three examples: an organization’s historical development; a fierce controversy over a product’s important “side effects” (e.g., automobile emissions); or the respective political, legal, or technological context.

How market participants behave, how an organization develops, what management should and can actually achieve always needs to be considered in terms of a specific, historically evolved context. Thus, an organization’s behavior, be it an enterprise, city administration, political party, university, hospital or museum, can only be adequately understood in relation to that organization’s specific environment. [35]

The same applies to an organization’s “inner world.” Teams, specialized departments, and business units are embedded in the overall organization, and hence act from within it. Thus, what management practice can make happen and achieve depends essentially on the overall context. This context has evolved historically, is continuously developing, and hence is itself a dynamic entity.

Hence, in a systems-oriented view, it is essential to carefully grasp and understand the relevant contexts. This requires systematic “zooming-out,” in order to capture the larger context (e.g., technology and market dynamics). It also requires “zooming-in,” in order to adequately understand the involved microdynamics (e.g., the growing relevance of social media for an effective customer approach; Figure 24). Oscillating between zooming-out and zooming-in (i.e., mutual referencing) enables developing marketing activities able to do justice to both perspectives. Thus, in a systems-oriented view, if we are going to appropriately understand complex phenomena, we need to carefully examine a given system and its diverse environment.