Business model innovation for sustainability: a new framework | Emerald Insight

Introduction

Business model innovation is a widely known topic and one of the most recurring keywords in managerial studies. It deals with a new way to do business aiming at prosperity in a dynamic environment through the reconceptualization of the underlying logic behind the value creation, capture and delivery (Richardson, 2008; Teece, 2010).

Firms increasingly need to innovate by modifying their business model by initiating changes, improvements and replacements in various organizational elements (Mitchell & Coles, 2003). It is relevant to understand these elements to facilitate the analysis of organizational processes and planning of transformation from one business model to another and to increase the firm’s resilience and the probability of success (Geissdoerfer, Vladimirova, & Evans, 2018).

In recent years, a new form of business model innovation (BMI) has occurred by incorporating the sustainability concept into the firm’s goals and processes. We define sustainable business model innovation (SBMI) as a change in how a firm operates to create positive impacts or reduce negative consequences for the environment and society.

Although there is a broad consensus about the importance of sustainability for firms, the academic studies on how to transform the firm into a sustainable organization remain blurred (i.e. Lemus-Aguilar, Morales-Alonso, Ramirez-Portilla, & Hidalgo, 2019; Presenza, Messeni Petruzzelli, & Natalicchio, 2019). Moreover, the process of implementing a sustainable business model remains unclear. Indeed, the prior scientific research about this topic offers various reviews (i.e. Boons and Lüdeke-Freund, 2013; Bocken, Short, Rana, & Evans, 2014; Geissdoerfer, Bocken, & Hultink, 2016, 2018) or analysis of a specific type of SBM (i.e. circular economy, collaborative consumption, inclusive growth and targeting low-income consumers). Nevertheless, the dynamic vision on how the business model changes to incorporate triple sustainability has received insufficient attention.

For addressing these gaps, this paper aims to simplify the study of the change of a business model that becomes “sustainable.” In particular, the questions addressed by this study are follows:

how to understand the way value proposition, value creation, and value capture within a business model change to include economic, environmental, and social issues. What pathways can an organization take?

To achieve our goal, we propose a new multidimensional framework that allows researchers to study the changes that occur when a business model moves toward sustainability and to study firms that design and manage this transformation process.

To structure the new framework, we must combine elements and characteristics of various tools of both academic and practical matrices. Regarding academic studies, we must consider the three concepts of value proposed by Richardson (2008), the ten types of stakeholders identified by Bocken, Short, Rana and Evans (2013) in the value mapping tool and the nine building blocks of business model canvas (BMC) proposed by Osterwalder and Pigneur (2010). Then, we must analyze nonacademic sources. We must consider the four areas of BIA (B Impact Assessment) methods promoted by Blab and the elements of the SDG implementation framework created by the United Nations.

At the end of the design process, we identified three macro-areas, namely value proposition, value creation and delivery and value capture, and several elements to describe each of them.

Our paper contributes to enriching the literature about BMI and sustainable innovation by adopting the business model dynamic perspective and presenting a new tool helpful in understanding how the business model changes to incorporate triple sustainability. A holistic framework for developing sustainable BMI could represent a learning framework for researchers to help identify the current assumptions about the phenomenon and improve them. Moreover, this study assumes a theoretical relevance because it uses the BMI construct as a lens to design a new framework. In contrast, the business model represents only the subject of innovation, and previous studies have instead identified it as the vehicle of innovation or a mediating device that can help achieve sustainable innovation. From a managerial perspective, the paper offers new tools that can serve as a guideline for a reorganization that aspires to increase sustainability within firms and reduce resistance to modifying existing business models.

The present article is structured as follows: first, we show the existing literature on BMI and SBMI to capture the current data. In the second section, we describe the research setting and the methodology. Then we propose a new conceptual and integrative framework as a guideline in the business model transformation toward sustainability. Finally, the discussion and the conclusion summarize the results and show the study implications and its limitations and directions for future research.