Business Model Innovation for Sustainability: Towards a Unified Perspective for Creation of Sustainable Business Models
Open accessAbstract
Business model innovation has seen a recent surge in academic research and business practice. Changes to business models are recognized as a fundamental approach to realize innovations for sustainability. However, little is known about the successful adoption of sustainable business models (SBMs). The purpose of this paper is to develop a unified theoretical perspective for understanding business model innovations that lead to better organizational economic, environmental and social performance. The paper examines bodies of literature on business model innovation, sustainability innovation, networks theory, stakeholder theory and product–service systems. We develop five propositions that support the creation of SBMs in a unified perspective, which lays a foundation to support organizations in investigating and experimenting with alternative new business models. This article contributes to the emerging field of SBMs, which embed economic, environmental and social flows of value that are created, delivered and captured in a value network. It highlights gaps for addressing the challenges of business model innovation for sustainability and suggests avenues for future research. © 2017 The Authors. Business Strategy and the Environment published by ERP Environment and John Wiley & Sons Ltd
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The question of how business models can support sustainable entrepreneurs and their innovations in creating ecological, social, and economic value for various stakeholders has so far received little attention.
“But the question of how business models can support sustainable entrepreneurs and their innovations in creating ecological, social, and economic value for various stakeholders has so far received little attention (Boons et al., 2013;Evans et al., 2017;Lüdeke-Freund & Dembek, 2017;Schaltegger, Hansen, & Lüdeke-Freund, 2016).”
From Sustainable entrepreneurship, innovation, and business models: Integrative framework and propositions for future research (2020) · cites this paper as Evans et al., 2017
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- Authors
- Evans, S., Vladimirova, D., Holgado, M., Van Fossen, K., Yang, M., Silva, E. A., & Barlow, C. Y.
- Affiliations
- University of Cambridge (GB)
- Institute for Manufacturing, Department of Engineering University of Cambridge Cambridge UK
- Corresponding author
- Vladimirova, Doroteya
- Venue
- Business Strategy and the Environment
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2017-04-05
- Volume
- 26
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 597-608
- ISSN
- 0964-4733 (ISSN-L)
- 1099-0836
- OpenAlex
- W2549080287
- Cited by
- 1,370
- References
- 5
- Citations by year
- 2026: 131 · 2025: 200 · 2024: 222 · 2023: 198 · 2022: 179 · 2021: 174 · 2020: 124 · 2019: 87 · 2018: 47 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 1
- FWCI
- 144.07
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Business Strategy and the Environment (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Open Research Exeter (University of Exeter) (acceptedVersion, cc-by)
- Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Cambridge University Engineering Department Publications Database (submittedVersion)
- Sussex Research Online (University of Sussex) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Apollo (University of Cambridge) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Apollo (cc-by)
- Funders
- Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/I033351/1, EP/L019914/1)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Strategy and Management › Sustainable Supply Chain Management
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Management of Technology and Innovation › Sustainability and Innovation in Business
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Marketing › Environmental Sustainability in Business
- Keywords
- business model innovation, sustainable business models, sustainable innovation, stakeholder theory, product-service systems, value networks, organizational performance, environmental performance, social performance, economic performance
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