An ontology for strongly sustainable business models: Defining an enterprise framework compatible with natural and social science

Business is increasingly employing sustainability practices, aiming to improve environmental and social responsibility while maintaining and improving profitability. For many organizations, profit-oriented business models are a major constraint impeding progress in sustainability. A formally defined ontology, a model definition, for profit-oriented business models has been employed globally for several years. However, no equivalent ontology is available in research or practice that enables the description of strongly sustainable business models, as validated by ecological economics and derived from natural, social, and system sciences. We present a framework of strongly sustainable business model propositions and principles as findings from a transdisciplinary review of the literature. A comparative analysis was performed between the framework and the Osterwalder profit-oriented ontology for business models. We introduce an ontology that enables the description of successful strongly sustainable business models that resolves weaknesses and includes functionally necessary relationships

Exploratory studies of the Business Model Canvas : differences in the visualizations of the business model

PURPOSE: The aim of this article was the identification of the differences in business models visual templates in relation to Business Model Canvas (BMC) presented by A. Osterwalder. The identification has been based on empirical analysis of the BMC architectural shifts in five dimensions: 1) template names, 2) description of the blocks, 3) number of blocks, 4) utilization of icons, 5) available spaces for the description.DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: Systematic Literature Review has been conducted, including quantification and qualitative assessment. The work utilized the BMC reference model. Visual Basic Application for Excel (VBA) was used. Density analysis along with keywords visualization was performed.FINDINGS: The architectural diversity amongst thinking schematism, reference model, and the makers' creativity has been identified. Keyword density analysis allowed for the extraction of groups clustering two-partial names. It also provided the identification of the most abundantly occurring block names in the templates.PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: The developed repository of Business Model (BM) templates may be utilized for scientific research, teaching as well as individual purposes and business.ORIGINALITY/VALUE: The template repository is currently the largest database enabling creation of new, original BM patterns. Architectural diversity is a consequence of the transformation of BM under external factors resulting from the system of the business environment.peer-reviewe

Success Canvas® in practice

Dissertação de mestrado integrado em Engineering and Management of Information SystemsIn the past few years, canvas has been proved to be a valuable tool. Canvas are management tools characterized by presenting a visual template, that can be customized and applied according to a specific target, creating, or documenting theoretical structures to serve as support for addressing design problems or identifying relevant aspects in the context of an area. These frameworks are often systematized into conceptual boxes with the intent of guiding the user to gather and analyze critical information to achieve their objective and improve performance with transparency. In the Information Systems project management field, there are scarce studies that focus on practical cases using canvas as management tools, specifically examining project success. The Success Canvas® or Project Management Success Map®, is an exception since it captures the definition of success in a project and what is meaningful to accomplish it, considering, for example, the criteria for evaluating success, expected benefits, and success factors. Due to the lack of literature surrounding canvas and the ambiguous concept of success, especially when followed by project management, there is an opportunity to explore this topic by studying on the current state of the art regarding existing canvas in the information systems field, as well as the results that they have been showing in practice, to characterize the contribution of the Success Canvas® to improve project management. To conduct this study, it was adopted a Multiple Case Study methodology. This study contributes with new insights on the benefits of the practical usage of the Success Canvas®, as well as expanding the current literature.Os canvas têm sido reconhecidos como instrumentos de grande utilidade no contexto da gestão. Sendo caracterizados como ferramentas de gestão visuais, permitem identificar aspetos relevantes numa determinada área de aplicação. Estes instrumentos são frequentemente estruturados em caixas temáticas, com a intenção de orientar o utilizador na recolha e análise de informações cruciais a fim de atingir um objetivo, assim como melhorar o desempenho com transparência. No âmbito da gestão de projetos de Sistemas de Informação, são escassos os estudos focados no uso de canvas como instrumentos de gestão, especificamente quando nos referimos ao sucesso de projetos. O Success Canvas® ou Project Management Success Map®, trata-se de uma exceção, dado que visa capturar a definição de sucesso dentro de um projeto, enfatizando os diversos aspetos relevantes como, por exemplo, os critérios de avaliação do sucesso, os benefícios esperados e os fatores de sucesso. Devido à falta de literatura e à ambiguidade envolvente no conceito de sucesso, especialmente referente à gestão de projetos, existe assim uma oportunidade para explorar este tópico, refletindo sobre o estado de arte atual em relação aos canvas existentes na área de Sistemas de Informação, e os resultados que estes têm apresentado na prática, de modo a caracterizar o contributo que o Success Canvas® pode representar no exercício de gestão de projetos. Para a realização do estudo, foi adotada a metodologia multiple case study. Este estudo contribuiu para a avaliação benefícios da utilização prática do Success Canvas®, expandindo a literatura e o corpo de conhecimento da área

Missing attention to power dynamics in collaborative multi-actor business models for sustainability.

Advances within the Sustainability Business Models (SBMs) literature from the perspective of boundary-spanning business models have received limited attention. Further, discourse within the SBMs literature exploring collaborative practices adopts the perspective that collaborative forums are always a "force for good". This paper reviews important theories and relevant literature and calls into question the dearth of research examining business models for sustainability and focuses on the role that power, and power relations, play in the shaping and steering of value creation. In advancing research on sustainable operations, we assess the implications of ignoring uneven power, and draw attention to the affects and consequences of this omission in the study of SBMs. By embracing an alternative, deliberative democracy perspective, we challenge the sub-literature on collaborative multi-actor business models. In taking an inquisitive and critical stance on omnipresent power dynamics, we shine a light on the consequences of uneven power across multi-actor structures by augmenting research with practical insights from selected vignettes. Our proposed concept of a democratic business model for sustainability offers a new strand of theoretical development and a fresh perspective on the sustainability and business models literature

Guidelines for Integrating Value Sensitive Design in Responsible AI Toolkits

Value Sensitive Design (VSD) is a framework for integrating human values throughout the technology design process. In parallel, Responsible AI (RAI) advocates for the development of systems aligning with ethical values, such as fairness and transparency. In this study, we posit that a VSD approach is not only compatible, but also advantageous to the development of RAI toolkits. To empirically assess this hypothesis, we conducted four workshops involving 17 early-career AI researchers. Our aim was to establish links between VSD and RAI values while examining how existing toolkits incorporate VSD principles in their design. Our findings show that collaborative and educational design features within these toolkits, including illustrative examples and open-ended cues, facilitate an understanding of human and ethical values, and empower researchers to incorporate values into AI systems. Drawing on these insights, we formulated six design guidelines for integrating VSD values into the development of RAI toolkits.Comment: 26 pages, 8 figures, 3 table