Investigating the benefits of sustainable business models for our societies is an important and timely topic. This Special Volume contributes to current research by exploring a variety of sustainable models in use around the world. The accepted articles provide an overview of the various organizational forms, management mechanisms, sustainability solutions, challenges, theoretical lenses and empirical evidence, i.e. fundamental elements in the study of sustainable business models. In this introductory paper, the thirty-seven articles included in this Special Volume are presented, organized in four approaches to sustainable business models: 1/the generalist approach, 2/the technology-based approach, 3/the entrepreneurship and innovation approach and 4/the behavioral approach. In conclusion, avenues for future research are formulated, with a call for solid theory building, more sophisticated research methods, focus on the interplay of sustainable with existing conventional business models, and systemic consideration of the role of governments in advancing sustainable business models.
The open science literature has focused on ways to increase the openness of research data at universities, while links with industry in the context of open innovation have received less attention. The aim of this article is to increase understanding of how open science can lead to open innovation. The key research questions are the following: How can researchers be motivated to make open their research data and how can industry take advantage of the data? The authors explore this topic through a case study of a Finnish foundation and its closed database. In 14 semi-structured interviews with the database owners, potential users and open science experts, they identified opportunities, barriers and possible solutions to opening the database. The authors propose a generic process framework for developing sustainable business models to facilitate research data transfer from university to industry. The study contributes to the open science literature by shedding light on how the gap between open science and open innovation can be bridged through the development of sustainable business models.
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