Sustainable Business Models: Literature Review of Main Contributions and Themes

Literature on sustainable business models (SBM) has recently emerged and is rapidly expanding. This promising research field is aimed at intersecting traditional business model approaches with corporate sustainability. Most of the research to date has focused on existing case studies or examples of sustainability innovations in business models or on the use of frameworks and tools to categorise or design SBMs or suggest the stages of this innovative process towards sustainability. This article presents an integrative literature review aimed at describing the objective aspects of the SBM literature such as its temporal, industrial, geographical and methodological factors. As well as this descriptive analysis, the paper categorises the SBM literature in terms of its main purposes and themes. This categorisation is aimed at synthesising the main contributions of the SBM literature and to highlight gaps to suggest possible further developments. Despite presenting different perspectives on value (proposition, creation, delivery and capture), the current research on SBM has failed to take a holistic approach towards sustainable value measurement and representation in its models and frameworks

A Literature Review on Sustainable Business Model: first insights about the value measurement gap

Although business models have been extensively studied by researchers, latest trends have led organizations to rethink their way of doing business, focusing not only on profit, but also on social and environmental purposes. That’s why literature on sustainable business models (SBM) has been recently developed and is rapidly spreading. The purpose of this paper is to explore this body of literature, describing its temporal, industrial, geographical and methodological features, but also categorizing articles in terms of main purposes and specific themes addressed. To do so, we conducted an integrative literature review, which highlighted that SBM literature has so far focused on the descriptive analysis of case studies, on the process of innovation of the business model towards sustainability, or on the visual representation and design of the SBM, while a gap emerges in terms of quantitative analysis and performance measurement of SBM. As a result, a specific analysis on SBM articles dealing with the concept of value in its components of proposition, creation, delivery and capture was carried out: we found that authors mainly focused on extending the concept of value proposition and value creation and distribution, but only few of them addressed value capture and almost no one investigated how to measure it in an alternative way, compared to traditional business models. This paper ends by highlighting the research gap on sustainable business model value measurement and suggesting new ideas for future research

Sustainable business models through the lens of organizational design: a systematic literature review

The interest in sustainable business models has grown rapidly in recent years. Although some progress has been made in identifying this concept and making the practices more sustainable, little is known about the organizational design that is most appropriate for creating new business models or implementing changes in existing ones towards a sustainability approach. This paper presents a review of sustainable business models in terms of the key factors that influence firm design based on organization theory. We retrieved 394 Journal Citation Reports papers from the WoK and Scopus databases, identifying 19 papers that have addressed the interplay between both constructs. We used the Galbraith Star Model to analyze the selected papers. We discuss three key findings for the cross-fertilization of both literatures: (i) the extension of the design elements outside the firm boundaries at the inter-organizational and ecosystem levels; (ii) the emphasis on certain design elements (strategy, process, people, structure) rather than others (rewards); and (iii) the use of the organizational design construct as a tactic tool for strategy execution of the sustainable business model. We also present theoretical and practical implications for the use and further development of this framework, as well as future avenues of research

Difusión de las memorias de sostenibilidad en Latinoamérica: análisis territorial y sectorial

En el presente artículo se plantean tres objetivos. En primer lugar, identificar cómo ha sido la difusión geo-gráfica y sectorial en Latinoamérica de los informes de sostenibilidad del tipo Global Reporting Initiative. En segundo lugar, comparar este patrón de difusión con el patrón de difusión mundial para identificar similitudes y diferencias. Finalmente, realizar un pronóstico de la difusión futura en la región. Para ello se realizarán regresiones de los datos disponibles del Global Reporting Initiative en países latinoamericanos utilizando la curva logística como patrón. Adicionalmente, se utilizarán indicadores de concentración y de inestabilidad de las series temporales. A partir de lo anterior, se concluye que el estándar GlobalReporting Initiative ha sido adoptado moderadamente por las empresas en Latinoamérica. Por otra parte, se observan diferencias significativas en el desarrollo de la responsabilidad social de las organizaciones entre los diferentes países

Simulation Modeling for Sustainability: A Review of the Literature

This article is a review of work published in various journals and conference proceedings on the topics of Simulation Modelling for Sustainability between January 2000 and May 2015. A total of 192 papers are reviewed. The article intends to serve three goals. First, it will be useful to researchers who wish to know what kinds of questions have been raised and how they have been addressed in the areas of simulation modelling for sustainability. Second, the article will be a useful resource for searching research topics. Third, it will serve as a comprehensive bibliography of the papers published during the period. The literature is analysed for application areas, simulation methods and dimensions of the triple bottom line model of sustainable development

Exploring the role of supplier relationship management for sustainable operations: an OR perspective

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of the Operational Research Society on 13/11/2013, available online: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1057/jors.2013.145This paper provides a systems-based approach to the exploration of the relationship and integration between Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) factors as part of a Sustainable Operations Management (SOM) agenda. The authors have chosen electronic procurement (e-Procurement) as a suitable context in this light. Through a review of extant literature, a Systems Archetype (SA) model was developed (based on the ‘Accidental Adversaries’ archetype) and findings from a quantitative pilot study exploring key factors pertinent to e-Procurement SRM were gathered, and hence evaluated against SOM factors. The objective of this research was to describe and visualise the causal interrelationships involved in SRM-SOM through the application of a SA (as an Operations Research tool). The authors believe that this research also provides a unique approach to developing and harnessing the useful and unique properties of Systems Thinking (ST), by attempting to reduce and organise the (generally ad hoc and wide-ranging) sequence of subjective perspectives commonly experienced in causal mapping experiments. The paper builds upon the extant literature, and provides further basis for continuing research in the areas of ST, SAs and the application of operational research to plan sustainable operations

PERCEIVE project - Deliverable D6.1 "Report on causal qualitative model"

The scope of the Deliverable 6.1 is to introduce the causal qualitative model developed in the context of the PERCEIVE project, as a part of the Working Package 6. The report begins with a short introduction that highlights the necessity of developing a model for simulating: (i) the manner in which the European Cohesion Policy funds are distributed among the regions under study and the factors that affect the related absorption, along with the (ii) the diverse streams of communication of the European Cohesion Policy projects and outcomes that influence the citizens awareness. The analysis of the system is focused on the EU structural funds, namely the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the European Social Fund (ESF) during the two previous programming periods (i.e. 2000-2006, 2007-2013). In fact, the multilevel nature of the system (i.e. EU, regions, beneficiaries), the dynamic behaviour over the programming periods, as well as the complexity reflected through the multiple intertwined feedback loops render the System Dynamics methodology as the appropriate approach to map and model the system under study. Thus, we briefly present the basic elements and procedures of System Dynamics technique

La información medioambiental en las empresas de América Latina. Un análisis de la información financiera y no financiera

LA INFORMACIÓN MEDIOAMBIENTAL EN LAS EMPRESAS DE AMERICA LATINA: UN ANÁLISIS DE LA INFORMACIÓN FINANCIERA Y NO FINANCIERA Introducción La información medioambiental que presentan las entidades empresariales en América Latina, para conocer la importancia que tiene la protección del medio ambiente en las actividades de las compañías que ofrecen un producto o servicio a los consumidores. Motivación de la tesis El motivo principal es conocer la necesidad de implantar actividades enfocadas a la protección ambiental en los sectores económicos que impacten en el ámbito latinoamericano.Este trabajo de investigación está integrado por cinco capítulos. Capítulo 1, el estudio de aspectos conceptuales del medio ambiente y su relación con la elaboración y divulgación de información financiera.Capítulo 2, la principal normativa internacional sobre el medio ambiente en su relación con la gestión e información financiera empresarial.Capítulo 3, se analiza la presentación de información medioambiental.Capítulo 4, análisis empírico de información medioambiental, en dos periodos.Se plantean y realizan análisis descriptivos y análisis estadísticos de la información.Finalmente capítulo 5, conclusiones generales y propuestas.Conclusiones.Esta tesis tuvo por objetivo determinar y caracterizar el grado de desarrollo de las actuaciones empresariales vinculadas con la gestión ambiental de los principales países de Latinoamérica. Se analizó la medida en que las empresas de Latinoamericana presentan, en sus reportes de sostenibilidad y los contables, información financiera y no financiera con relación al medio ambiente.El comportamiento informativo o transparencia ambiental de las empresas de los distintos países no es diferente de forma significativa en el periodo de años más recientes mientras que sí que existían diferencias anteriormente. Por ello, podemos concluir que se ha homogeneizado el comportamiento de las empresas en este sentido, mejorando e igualándose entre países. Sin embargo, parece apreciarse una mayor transparencia en países con cultura más occidental como Chile o México que reciben una mayor influencia de países desarrollados por su cercanía geográfica o en los negocios. <br /