Sustainable business models: Providing a more holistic perspective

Corporate sustainability has recently been challenging traditional business models that have been based on value proposition, creation and capture. There has been a steady increase in publications using the term “sustainable business models”; however, there have been few that have theoretically defined or characterized the term, and in most cases, they just apply the term. Seven peer‐reviewed papers were selected that aimed to define and explain sustainable business models and that have been widely cited. The papers were analyzed by assessing the elements and activities covered using the corporate sustainability framework, and by comparing them against four approaches to explain organizations. The paper proposes a definition and framework for more sustainable business models aimed at integrating organizational approaches, the company system, stakeholders, change and sustainability dimensions, thus providing a more holistic and systemic approach to discourses on sustainable business models.

[1]  H. Gadamer,et al.  Hermeneutics and Social Science , 1975 .

[2]  Florian Lüdeke-Freund,et al.  Business Models for Sustainability , 2016 .

[3]  Thomas Dyllick,et al.  Beyond the business case for corporate sustainability , 2002 .

[4]  N. Chirinda,et al.  Novel Technological and Management Options for Accelerating Transformational Changes in Rice and Livestock Systems , 2017 .

[5]  R. Sanchez,et al.  Reinventing strategic management: new theory and practice for competence-based competition , 1997 .

[6]  A. Kolk,et al.  Business Models for Sustainable Technologies: Exploring Business Model Evolution in the Case of Electric Vehicles , 2013 .

[7]  M. Porter,et al.  Creating Shared Value , 2019 .

[8]  George C. Jackson,et al.  Moving Beyond Trade‐offs , 1994 .

[9]  Nigel Roome,et al.  Journeying Toward Business Models for Sustainability , 2016 .

[10]  Ramon Casadesus-Masanell,et al.  From Strategy to Business Models and onto Tactics , 2010 .

[11]  O. Mont,et al.  A new business model for baby prams based on easing and product remanufacturing , 2006 .

[12]  Keith R. Skene,et al.  The Circular Economy: An Interdisciplinary Exploration of the Concept and Application in a Global Context , 2015, Journal of Business Ethics.

[13]  Antony Upward,et al.  An Ontology for Strongly Sustainable Business Models , 2016 .

[14]  J. Magretta.  Why business models matter. , 2002, Harvard business review.

[15]  S. Evans,et al.  A literature and practice review to develop sustainable business model archetypes , 2014 .

[16]  Anja Schaefer,et al.  Corporate sustainability – integrating environmental and social concerns? , 2004 .

[17]  Karl-Henrik Robèrt,et al.  Tools and concepts for sustainable development, how do they relate to a general framework for sustainable development, and to each other? , 2000 .

[18]  R. Lozano,et al.  Towards a more Circular Economy: Proposing a framework linking sustainable public procurement and sustainable business models , 2016 .

[19]  W. Dilthey,et al.  The Rise of Hermeneutics , 1972 .

[20]  G. Leyh,et al.  Toward a Constitutional Hermeneutics , 1988 .

[21]  C. Cocklin,et al.  Conceptualizing a “Sustainability Business Model” , 2008 .

[22]  James E. Richardson,et al.  The Business Model: An Integrative Framework for Strategy Execution , 2005 .

[23]  P. Keinz,et al.  Exploring the Nature and Implementation Process of User-Centric Business Models , 2011 .

[24]  A. Harrington,et al.  Dilthey, Empathy and Verstehen A Contemporary Reappraisal , 2001 .

[25]  O. Gassmann,et al.  The Future of Open Innovation , 2010 .

[26]  Jan H. Kietzmann,et al.  Ride On! Mobility Business Models for the Sharing Economy , 2014 .

[27]  D. Teece.  Business Models, Business Strategy and Innovation , 2010 .

[28]  G. Lay,et al.  Service-based business concepts: A typology for business-to-business markets , 2009 .

[29]  Xavier Lecocq,et al.  Business Model Evolution: In Search of Dynamic Consistency , 2010 .

[30]  Bernd Siebenhüner,et al.  Organizational learning to manage sustainable development , 2007 .

[31]  F. Boons,et al.  Business Models for Sustainable Innovation: State of the Art and Steps Towards a Research Agenda , 2013 .

[32]  Karl Täuscher,et al.  Business Models for Sustainability From a System Dynamics Perspective , 2016 .

[33]  Raphael Amit,et al.  Business Model Design: An Activity System Perspective , 2010 .

[34]  Rodrigo Lozano,et al.  Critical reflections on the Chemical Leasing concept , 2014 .

[35]  V. Beattie,et al.  Value Creation and Business Models: Refocusing the Intellectual Capital Debate , 2013 .

[36]  P. Trkman,et al.  Business Model: What it is and What it is Not , 2014 .

[37]  Alexander Osterwalder,et al.  The business model ontology a proposition in a design science approach , 2004 .

[38]  Rodrigo Lozano,et al.  Towards better embedding sustainability into companies’ systems: an analysis of voluntary corporate initiatives , 2012 .

[39]  K. R. Conner,et al.  A Resource-Based Theory of the Firm: Knowledge Versus Opportunism , 1996 .

[40]  Martina K. Linnenluecke,et al.  Subcultures and sustainability practices: The impact on understanding corporate sustainability , 2009 .