Value uncaptured perspective for sustainable business model innovation

Abstract

Sustainability has become one of the key factors for long-term business success. Recent research and practice show that business model innovation is a promising approach for improving sustainability in manufacturing firms. To date business models have been examined mostly from the perspectives of value proposition, value capture, value creation and delivery. There is a need for a more comprehensive understanding of value in order to promote sustainability. This paper proposes value uncaptured as a new perspective for sustainable business model innovation, and develops four forms of value uncaptured: value surplus, value absence, value missed and value destroyed. This paper also proposes a framework of using value uncaptured for sustainable business model innovation. This framework has been validated in case studies in six product-service systems firms with advanced manufacturing technologies. The empirical studies identify 26 main sources of value uncaptured throughout the product life cycle. The findings show that (a) the new perspective of value uncaptured can help manufacturing firms understand the negative aspects of their business models; (b) the four forms and 26 sources can assist firms in identifying value uncaptured in a structured way; and (c) the identified value uncaptured can trigger the discovery of new value opportunities which lead to new business models with higher sustainable value. This paper extends the existing studies on business models from the perspectives of value proposition, capture, creation and delivery, to value uncaptured. The proposed framework has helped firms identify value opportunities that trigger the innovation of sustainable business models. Therefore, this paper contributes to both theory and practice in the field of sustainable business models innovation.

Transition towards Sustainable Solutions: Product, Service, Technology, and Business Model

“…New technology, services, and products are among the sustainable solutions and achieve commercial viability for business, but only when they paired with appropriate business models [8,65]. Therefore, a new business model could be another possible solution for sustainability [19].…”

“…Therefore, a new business model could be another possible solution for sustainability [19]. PSS [66], closed-loop models [67], IS [68] are among the business models that have a wide range of sustainability characteristics and help to achieve sustainability in business [8].…”

“…Bebbington et al [7] refer to the needs of companies, organizations, and individuals to find relevant approaches related to sustainable activities [7]. Additionally, there is an essential need for innovative approaches to attain sustainability in various business domains [8]. Therefore, technologies, services, products, and business models (i.e., product-service-system (PSS), circular economy (CE), and industrial symbiosis (IS)) are among the approaches proposed in this study to achieve sustainability.…”

Sustainable Value Creation—From Concept Towards Implementation

“…Based on this, Yang et al (2016) further propose value uncaptured as a new perspective for sustainable business model innovation. Value uncaptured is defined Fig.…”

“…Reducing any kind of the uncaptured value would create sustainable value. Yang et al (2016) propose a framework of using value uncaptured for sustainable business model innovation, and claims that sustainable business model innovation can be more easily achieved by identifying the value uncaptured in current business models, and then turning this new understanding of the current business into value opportunities that can lead to new business models with higher sustainable value. Fig.…”