Embracing the variety of sustainable business models: A prolific field of research and a future research agenda

Abstract

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.

Dynamic business modeling for sustainability: Exploring a system dynamics perspective to develop sustainable business models

“…To do this, collaborative modeling approaches are proved to be effective methods for an active stakeholder engagement (Rouwette, ; Voinov & Bousquet, ). Yet, in line with Dentchev et al (), BMfS are called to investigate both the sustainability and viability of a business, embracing a variety of performance measures through more rigorous empirical methods, which may reflect the differences between planned and realized BMs, as well as unrealised and emergent activities.…”

“…With the intent to better frame the sustainable value dimensions and span the organizational boundaries of the firm, outcomes are further classified into (a) social value , (b) economic value , and (3) environmental value . Each subsection forming the value proposition embraces a set of indicators to measure the firm's performance according to the multidimensional perspective of sustainable value (Bocken, ; Bocken et al, ; Dentchev et al, ; Evans et al, ). As a result, this new structural arrangement—alongside the subdivision of the value proposition block—facilitates the adoption of resource‐based view as it fosters an understanding of how strategic resources and key stakeholders affect value drivers, which, in turn, influence key processes.…”

“…Yet, in line with Dentchev et al (2018), BMfS are called to investigate both the sustainability and viability of a business, embracing a variety of performance measures through more rigorous empirical methods, which may reflect the differences between planned and realized BMs, as well as unrealised and emergent activities.…”

“…In this prolific research background, one of the most promising lines of inquiry relates to BMs for sustainability (or sustainability‐oriented BMs, or simply sustainable BMs—these notions are abbreviated in the following as “BMfS”), that is currently experiencing a heated debate among scholars (Bocken, Short, Rana, & Evans, ; Boons & Lüdeke‐Freund, ; Dentchev et al, ; Lüdeke‐Freund, Bohnsack, Breuer, & Massa, ; Schaltegger, Hansen, & Lüdeke‐Freund, ; Upward & Jones, ). BMfS are defined as BMs incorporating concepts, principles, or goals that aim at sustainability, or integrating sustainability into their value proposition, value creation and delivery activities, and/or value capture mechanisms (Bocken et al, ; Boons & Lüdeke‐Freund, ; Geissdoerfer, Vladimirova, & Evans, ).…”

“…Recent studies highlighting the relevance of BMfS explored the state of the art in this research field, thus bringing out principles, criteria, and tools related to BMfS development, as well as design requirements, methodological gaps, and shortcomings of the extant modeling approaches (Breuer, Fichter, Lüdeke-Freund, & Tiemann, 2018;Dentchev et al, 2018;Lüdeke-Freund et al, 2019). Attempts to deal with these requirements and criticisms have resulted in valuable approaches for designing BMfS, such as the triple layer BM canvas (TLBMC; Joyce & Paquin, 2016) and the value mapping tool (Bocken, Short, Rana, & Evans, 2013).…”