Sustainable business model innovation: Process, challenges and implementation

The capability to rapidly and successfully move into new business models is an important source of sustainable competitive advantage and a key leverage to improve the sustainability performance of organisations. However, research suggests that many business model innovations fail. Despite the importance of the topic, the reasons for failure are relatively unexplored, and there is no comprehensive description of the sustainable business model innovation process in the literature. This research addresses this gap by sequentially employing four research methods. First, a literature review is conducted to synthesise a conceptual model as a framework for an empirical investigation. This investigation used two focus groups with ten participants, interviews with 61 senior managers of 24 organisations, and active participatory research, in which the researcher joined the teams of two different business model innovation projects for several months. The research provides the most comprehensive literature review on the definition and process of sustainable business model innovation to date. It identifies five different process steps of sustainable business model innovation as well as a comprehensive list of key activities and challenges associated with each step of the process. It also discusses how the resulting process framework could be translated into a management tool and outlines some insights on the organisational setup of the process and success factors. These findings can serve as hypotheses to guide further research on sustainable business model innovation and adjacent phenomena. It also provides direction for practitioners engaged in sustainable business model innovation in similar context as the ones investigated. As a result, the research can help organisations to structure their activities better, anticipate key challenges, and build up sustainable business model innovation capabilities

Managing business model innovation for relocalization in the process and manufacturing industry

More and more industrial activities are performed outside of Europe. INSPIRE is a project, that is driven by the European process industry in order to facilitate the relocalization of process industry value chain activities to Europe. Within the project four business model archetypes (BMA) that facilitate this relocalization were identified: decentralization and modularization, mass customization, servitization and product service systems (PSS), circular business model, by name Re-use, Recycle and Sustainability (RR&S). For companies that want to adopt these business models, we have developed four INSPIRE Tools to integrate flexibilization into process industry business models concepts: Technologies Dashboard for the 5 INSPIRE BMA’s1, Business Model Innovation (BMI) Game, BMI Decision Support Tool for each BMA, and Business Model Archetype Revenue Pattern Map. This article presents the main results and partly reprints other relevant aspects from the INSPIRE deliverable D 4.4. It aims to provide recommendations for decision makers to choose the right business model given their specific context and key parameter

Shifting the Focus to Measurement: A Review of Socially Responsible Investing and Sustainability Indicators

An increasing number of investors is including sustainability considerations in their investment processes. This can improve both financial and corporate sustainability performance. The emergence of sustainable investing as an academic research field has been accompanied by considerable interest from the industry. Despite its importance, there is still no uniform understanding of what a socially responsible investment (SRI) comprises. There is a multitude of similar terms that are not clearly defined and delineated, accompanied by a lack of a uniform understanding of how sustainability should be measured in the investment context. The resulting confusion hinders conceptual clarity, a material barrier for both scholarly and practitioner endeavours in the field. We try to address these issues by conducting a structured literature review based on database searches and cross-reference snowballing. We aim to provide a synthesised and unified definition of SRI and ancillary terms and to draw attention to the exact sustainability measurements. We (1) outline the history of the concept, (2) concisely define SRI and related terms, (3) propose a trinomial sustainability indicator framework (the Cambridge SRI indicator framework) for conceptualisation, and (4) use this framework to provide a structured overview of sustainability indicators for SRIs

Circular business models: a review

The Circular Economy is gaining traction in academia, industry, and policy making as an alternative model that minimises resource depletion, waste, and emissions. To implement the concept on the organisational level, business models are an important leverage. A body of literature has emerged investigating the notion of circular business model and circular business model innovation, however, there is considerable lack of clarity about their theoretical conceptualisation. To address this and systematise the state-of-the-art of the nascent field of circular business models and circular business model innovation, we have reviewed this literature, employing systematic database searches and cross-reference snowballing. Our contributions to conceptual clarity are: (1) an overview of the history of the concepts of circular business model and circular business model innovation, (2) an overview and synthesis of definitions of circular business model and circular business model innovation, and (3) an overview and synthesis of conceptual frameworks for circular business model and circular business model innovation.UKRI funding relates to co-authors: This work was supported by the EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Industrial Sustainability, grant number EP/I033351/1 and the EPSRC project Business Models for Sustainable Industrial Systems, grant number EP/L019914/1, as well as studentships from the EPSRC and the Foundation of German Business. This work was also supported by the research project CIRCit (Circular Economy Integration in the Nordic Industry for Enhanced Sustainability and Competitiveness), which is part of the Nordic Green Growth Research and Innovation Programme (grant number 83144) and jointly funded by NordForsk, Nordic Energy Research, and Nordic Innovation

From circular business models to circular business ecosystems

Abstract: The circular economy aims to minimize resource inputs and waste and emission outputs of the economy and its organizational subsystems. This can benefit both financial and sustainability performance of companies. To analyze industrial implementation of the concept, the prevalent unit of analysis on the firm level is currently the circular business model. Our investigation of nine Swedish biogas companies and one branch organization indicates a range of conceptual shortcomings that challenges this approach. Our comparative case analysis points towards circular ecosystems being a more appropriate concept to describe the high level of coordination between different stakeholders necessary to implement circular systems. This increases the suitability to analyze, plan, and communicate circular economy systems on an organizational level, especially if value chain integration is low. An ecosystem perspective can thus support innovation and entrepreneurship in the context of the circular economy

Digital Transformation’s Impact on Open Innovation Challenges: A case study of Alice Waters’ Open Innovation Ecosystem

A large proportion of sustainability issues are linked to our food systems. There are a range of innovators who are addressing these issues and promote more sustainable solutions. One innovator in particular, Alice Waters, has been at the forefront of this development for almost 50 years and has developed an open innovation ecosystem approach for food systems. This innovation ecosystem offers a prime context in which to study the impact of the digital transformation on open innovation. In this case study, we explore the young Chez Panisse and the current Edible Schoolyard through the lens of 24 open innovation challenges developed from Chesbrough and Appleyard (2007) and Van de Vrande et al. (2009). Our research illustrates the impact of digital transformation on a selection of the open innovation challenges and indicates avenues in which digital transformation can support the development and successful implementation of open innovation ecosystems. Thus, it can provide guidance to managers and entrepreneurs and lead to solutions to overcome open innovation challenges

Circular economy inspired imaginaries for sustainable innovations

In this chapter, Narayan and Tidström draw on the concept of imaginaries to show how Circular Economy (CE) can facilitate values that enable sustainable innovation. Innovation is key for sustainability, however, understanding and implementing sustainable innovation is challenging, and identifying the kind of actions that could direct sustainable innovations is important. The findings of this study indicate that CE-inspired imaginaries enable collaboration and by relating such imaginaries to common and shared social and cultural values, intermediaries could motivate actors into taking actions that contribute to sustainable innovation.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Shifting the Focus to Measurement: A Review of Socially Responsible Investing and Sustainability Indicators

An increasing number of investors is including sustainability considerations in their investment processes. This can improve both financial and corporate sustainability performance. The emergence of sustainable investing as an academic research field has been accompanied by considerable interest from the industry. Despite its importance, there is still no uniform understanding of what a socially responsible investment (SRI) comprises. There is a multitude of similar terms that are not clearly defined and delineated, accompanied by a lack of a uniform understanding of how sustainability should be measured in the investment context. The resulting confusion hinders conceptual clarity, a material barrier for both scholarly and practitioner endeavours in the field. We try to address these issues by conducting a structured literature review based on database searches and cross-reference snowballing. We aim to provide a synthesised and unified definition of SRI and ancillary terms and to draw attention to the exact sustainability measurements. We (1) outline the history of the concept, (2) concisely define SRI and related terms, (3) propose a trinomial sustainability indicator framework (the Cambridge SRI indicator framework) for conceptualisation, and (4) use this framework to provide a structured overview of sustainability indicators for SRIs

Shifting the Focus to Measurement: A Review of Socially Responsible Investing and Sustainability Indicators

Peer reviewed: TrueFunder: Strategic Research Council of the Academy of FinlandFunder: Stiftung der Deutschen WirtschaftAn increasing number of investors is including sustainability considerations in their investment processes. This can improve both financial and corporate sustainability performance. The emergence of sustainable investing as an academic research field has been accompanied by considerable interest from the industry. Despite its importance, there is still no uniform understanding of what a socially responsible investment (SRI) comprises. There is a multitude of similar terms that are not clearly defined and delineated, accompanied by a lack of a uniform understanding of how sustainability should be measured in the investment context. The resulting confusion hinders conceptual clarity, a material barrier for both scholarly and practitioner endeavours in the field. We try to address these issues by conducting a structured literature review based on database searches and cross-reference snowballing. We aim to provide a synthesised and unified definition of SRI and ancillary terms and to draw attention to the exact sustainability measurements. We (1) outline the history of the concept, (2) concisely define SRI and related terms, (3) propose a trinomial sustainability indicator framework (the Cambridge SRI indicator framework) for conceptualisation, and (4) use this framework to provide a structured overview of sustainability indicators for SRIs.</jats:p

Towards Circular Business Models: 99 Practices to Foster Consumer Acceptance

The circular economy aims to decouple growth from resource input. While significant scholarly attention has been put on technical solutions behind circular business models, the lack of consumer acceptance for these offers was recognised as a significant barrier in the transition towards the circular economy. Still, this topic remains underexplored. This paper aims to address this gap through a semi-systematic literature review. It conceptualises consumer behaviour in the circular economy in a framework and suggests definitions for the relevant terms. Further, it develops comprehensive frameworks for factors of consumer acceptance and for practices that companies can deploy to foster consumer acceptance. Thereby, the paper contributes to the theoretical conceptualisation of consumer acceptance in the circular economy. Moreover, it equips companies with knowledge to innovate their circular business models, increase sustainable consumption, and accelerate the transition towards the circular economy