Business models for sustainable innovation: state-of-the-art and steps towards a research agenda

Commercialising ecologically and socially beneficial products, services, or product-service systems is not only driven by supply, demand, or public policies, it is also a question of business model design, making use of the business model's mediating function and its ability to connect green and social innovations to potential markets.

“In analogy, commercialising ecologically and socially beneficial products, services, or product-service systems is not only driven by supply, demand, or public policies, it is also a question of business model design, making use of the business model's mediating function (Doganova & Eyquem-Renault, 2009) and its ability to connect green and social innovations to potential markets (Boons & Lüdeke-F”

Sustainability innovations require and thus motivate new or modified business models to enter and diffuse in the market and finally to create business cases.

“From Section 3 follows that sustainability innovations (e.g., new processes, products, or services) require and thus motivate new or modified business models to enter and diffuse in the market (Boons et al., 2013;Boons & Lüdeke-Freund, 2013) and finally to create business cases (Schaltegger et al., 2012).”

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).”

Sustainability innovations require and thus motivate new or modified business models to enter and diffuse in the market and finally to create business cases.

“From Section 3 follows that sustainability innovations (e.g., new processes, products, or services) require and thus motivate new or modified business models to enter and diffuse in the market (Boons et al., 2013;Boons & Lüdeke-Freund, 2013) and finally to create business cases (Schaltegger et al., 2012).”

The meaning of sustainable development and sustainability is spatially, temporally, and culturally embedded, which leads to discursive ambiguity.

“Boons et al. (2013) frame this problem as spatial, temporal, and cultural embeddedness, which leads to discursive ambiguity, that is, different context-specific meanings of sustainable development as a process and sustainability as a goal.”

The relationships between sustainability innovations and business models depend on the specific purposes of these innovations, which can be the dissemination of clean technologies, the introduction of new organisational forms, or the solution of social problems.

“According to Boons and Lüdeke-Freund (2013), the relationships between sustainability innovations and business models depend on the specific purposes of these innovations, which can be the dissemination of clean technologies, the introduction of new organisational forms, or the solution of social problems.”