scholarly journals Entrepreneurial lean thinking for sustainable business modeling: a workshop design for incumbent firms

Author(s):  
E. J. Schwarz ◽  
P. Gregori ◽  
I. Krajger ◽  
M. A. Wdowiak

AbstractIn times of increasing concerns and extensive political debates about social and environmental problems, incumbent firms are obliged to reduce their negative environmental impact by implementing sustainable business model innovation. Yet, realizing more sustainable business model variants entails several complexities and associated challenges that need to be overcome. To support this task, this article takes an entrepreneurship perspective on sustainable business model innovation and combines literature of business models and entrepreneurial lean thinking (ELT). In doing so, it derives a workshop design grounded in contemporary theory with state-of-the-art tools and methods. The workshop is framed as a stage-gate process facilitating the notions of ELT with iterative cycles of ‘create, test, and improve’ and spans the phases of opportunity identification, opportunity evaluation, opportunity development through sustainable business model design, and decision of opportunity exploitation. The article shows that ELT is an appropriate yet underutilized approach for sustainable business modeling. Further, it discusses how the workshop supports opportunities and mitigate pitfalls of ELT for sustainable business modeling. As such, the findings have theoretical implications for the intersection of sustainability and lean approaches in innovation research as well as implications for practitioners by providing a comprehensive framework to support sustainable business model innovation.

Author(s):  
Peter Lindgren

Advanced Green technologies integrated in Business Models and Green Multi Business Model Innovation processes introduce a new leadership and management agenda of Green Business Models. Fast innovation of sensing, persuasive and virtual Business Modelling that can operate autonomously and dynamically primarily lead by machines. Green Multi Business Model Innovation Brains will soon be the state of the art in Business that want to become Green – but also for businesses that want to do circular and/or sustainable business modelling. Businesses will build Green Multi Business Model Innovation competence and advanced Green Multi Business Models Innovation Brains capable to innovated and operate Green Business Models to all kinds of Business Model Ecosystems. This will open up to new Green Multi Business Model Innovation potential and create a new generation or archetypes of Business Models, new practice of Multi Business Model Innovation. The paper is a second articles and extension of a conceptual paper on Multi Business Model Brains. First paper was presented at the BIT Sindri IEEE Conference 2020 conceptualizing on how a Multi Business Model Brain could be constructed and would operate supported by advance sensor technologies, artificial intelligence technologies, deep learning, persuasive technologies, Multi Business Model Innovation pattern analysis and libraries of BM archetypes. In combination they will all be important supporting tools to the Multi Business Model Innovation Brain – but now also to the Green Multi Business Model Innovation Brain. 8 case examples shows how Green Multi Business Model Innovation Brains can work in different contexts – in physical, digital, virtual and combined Business Model ecosystems.


Author(s):  
Albérico Travassos Rosário

Increased global concerns about climate change and environmental degradation have attracted attention to sustainable development strategies. Sustainability involves maintaining ecological balance, requiring organizations to integrate social, political, economic, and environmental concepts in their business models. This research chapter aims to explore the new business models associated with increased awareness of sustainability. Literature review methodology was used as the primary data collection method. Four main new business models were identified, including sustainable business model innovation (SBMI), triadic business model (T-Model), circular business model, and Web 2.0-based business model. Despite the differences in definition and implementation of these modern frameworks, innovation and sustainability remain the central concepts of enhancing value creation and capturing. While these business models aim to enhance organizations' capabilities to optimize new opportunities and overcome challenges, they also aim to improve society and protect the environment.


Author(s):  
Job Taminiau ◽  
Joseph Nyangon ◽  
Ariella Shez Lewis ◽  
John Byrne

Establishing a sustainable energy future can justifiably be considered the next frontier in global sustainable development under the agenda laid out in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The newly adopted Paris Agreement which seeks to hold global average temperature increase to “well below 2°C” above pre-industrial levels inserts additional urgency into this agenda. To realize the commitments outlined in the agreement, implementation of innovative sustainable business models capable of producing strong mitigation and adaptation outcomes is required ‘on the ground' and needs to be available for subsequent diffusion across different countries, contexts and domains. This chapter explores the value of polycentric climate change governance through an investigation of sustainable business model innovation. An example of a sustainable business model, called the Sustainable Energy Utility (SEU), is evaluated and an assessment of United Nations-based programming to aid future diffusion of such business models is conducted.


2017 ◽  
Vol 26 (5) ◽  
pp. 597-608 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steve Evans ◽  
Doroteya Vladimirova ◽  
Maria Holgado ◽  
Kirsten Van Fossen ◽  
Miying Yang ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Brian BALDASSARRE ◽  
Giulia CALABRETTA ◽  
Nancy BOCKEN ◽  
Jan-Carel DIEHL ◽  
Duygu KESKIN

Concerns about the societal and environmental impact of how companies operate have generated increasing interest in more sustainable ways of doing business (Porter & Kramer, 2011). Research and practice from the past decade show that a Sustainable Business Model Innovation lens is suitable to embed sustainability into firms’ objectives and operations (Bocken et al., 2014; Schaltegger, Lüdeke-Freund, & Hansen, 2012). Consequently, Sustainable Business Model Innovation has been emerging rapidly as a research field (Lüdeke-Freund & Dembek, 2017). Recent developments in this field build upon seminal work on Design for Sustainability from the past two decades to establish a connection with Strategic Design (Baldassarre et al., 2019; Geissdoerfer et al., 2016; Manzini, 1999; Tukker, 2004). Strategic Design is a research stream that studies how to leverage the discipline of Design in the context of Strategy and Innovation Management (Calabretta et al., 2016; Karpen, Gemser, & Calabretta, 2017). More specifically, it focuses on the application of design practices, principles and methods to the formulation and implementation of innovation strategies that benefit people and organizations alike (Calabretta et al., 2016). The connection between Sustainable Business Model Innovation and Strategic Design is mainly supported by the argument that the strategic and experimental nature of design enables the integration of stakeholders’ objectives including sustainability concerns, while also providing the process dimension needed to move away from theory towards concrete practice and tangible impact (Baldassarre et al., 2017; Bocken, Schuit, & Kraaijenhagen, 2018). However, research on the role and contribution of Strategic Design to Sustainable Business Modeling is still in its infancy. Consequently, within this track of the 2019 edition of the Academy for Design Innovation Management Conference, we collected four research contributions at the intersection between Strategic Design and Sustainable Business Model Innovation. These contributions are summarized in the paragraphs below, followed by a reflection on all of them and potential directions for future research.


Author(s):  
Alberto Peralta ◽  
Mohamed Salama

Indeed, the COVID-19 pandemic has seriously impacted many businesses with irredeemable consequences, while the rest are trying to keep rowing, believing that making business as usual will save them. Only a few embarked on what academics call the innovation of business models. And they are doing it at the speed of light because the world they knew is no longer the same. The event management domain is not different. There is an urgent need to consider the impact of the emerging trends and the unexpected turbulence on the event industry, in general, and event management in particular. There is a common consensus that business model innovation can provide an effective path towards acquiring competitive advantage. Still, event management practice seems to be facing real challenges connecting related concepts like eco-innovation, stakeholder engagement, long-term sustain- ability (based on the triple bottom line) and impact of public and private governance from both the supply and demand sides. In short, there are very few examples in the industry that connect eco-innovation and the ways organisations create, deliver and capture value (the value cycle), and avoid leaving value uncaptured (Yang et al., 2017). The few examples of the value cycle connected to eco-innovation – i.e., connecting business models and sustainable innovation – concentrate on properly integrating the eco-innovated products, services, processes with working business models. The sort of linear thinking that advocates pursuing the sustainability of a business model by just producing greener or environmentally-conscious services seldom considers eco-innovation of business models as driven by valueholders’ needs and interests. This chapter will discuss how business models in the event industry, while aiming to achieve the sustainability goals, balancing economic, social and environmental needs and requirements for better or greener products and extended value proposals, should realise that these are imposed by the valueholders affecting their value creation, delivery and capture cycle. The chapter starts with an introduction, explaining the relevant basic concepts of business models (BM), business model innovation (BMI) and sustainable business models (SBM) while linking to the concept of eco-innovation. The remaining sections explicate the concept of valueholder from a SBM perspective and its impact on the development and implementation of the SBM. The discussion starts by looking at how the concept of (institutional) logic can help to implement business model eco-innovation, with emphasis on the behavioural aspects that influence the decisions made, which determine the effectiveness of the BM.


Author(s):  
M. G. E. Velter ◽  
V. Bitzer ◽  
N. M. P. Bocken

AbstractSustainable business model innovation cannot reach its full sustainability potential if it neglects the importance of multi-stakeholder alignment. Several studies emphasize the need for multi-stakeholder collaboration to enable sustainable business model innovation, but few studies offer guidance to companies for engaging in such a collaborative process. Based on the concept of boundary work, this study presents a tested process tool that helps companies engage with multiple stakeholders to innovate sustainable business models. The tool was developed in three iterative phases, including testing and evaluation with 74 participants in six sustainable business model innovation cases. The final process tool consists of five steps to facilitate multi-stakeholder alignment for sustainable business model innovation: (1) defining a collective ambition, (2) mapping and negotiating the changing organizational boundaries, (3) exploring opportunities and tensions for aligning stakeholders, (4) defining first interventions and (5) developing a collaboration pitch. We found that the tool enables discussions and negotiations on sensitive topics, such as power reconfigurations and mutual responsibilities to help stakeholders align. For companies, the boundary tool enriches sustainable business model innovation by offering guidance in the process of redesigning their multi-stakeholder system, assessing their own organizational boundaries, exploring, negotiating and prioritizing strategic actions based on organizational boundary changes and kick-starting new partnerships.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuliya Snihur ◽  
Christoph Zott ◽  
Raphael (Raffi) Amit

Managers and designers of innovative business models that are enabled by emerging technologies need to build legitimacy with ecosystem participants. Yet increasing legitimacy within the ecosystem raises competitors’ incentives to imitate the business model innovators, thereby adversely affecting the innovators’ ability to appropriate value. We refer to this trade-off as the appropriation dilemma. We draw on institutional and resource-based perspectives to develop propositions about mitigating the appropriation dilemma and provide illustrations with a range of cases. Our theory development contributes to the technology management and business model innovation literatures by delineating how business model innovators can create value for all stakeholders and at the same time appropriate value through strategic business model design, a task that is particularly salient in the context of emerging technologies. We also strengthen the theoretical foundations of business model innovation research by grounding propositions about the strategic design of business models in resource-based theory and institutional theory.


Author(s):  
Alberto Peralta ◽  
Jorge Castellote ◽  
Mohamed Salama

Business model innovation (BMI) has emerged as a key root cause of competitive advantage. This is vital for organizations seeking to achieve the set strategic objectives through projects, particularly New Product Development (NPD) projects. However, there is limited attention among scholars and practitioners about sustainable BMI and its methods. Eco-innovation efforts (including the environmental, social and economic dimensions of innovation) concentrate on triple bottom line goals, but to date there seems to be a deficit of academic and practitioner literature on the effect of this type of innovation on new business models. Scholars has been trying to address this gap, mostly focused on eco-innovation from a product-centric perspective where the product is the cornerstone of the new sustainable business models. And this is how conventional sustainable business model innovation is being developed.


2020 ◽  
pp. 2122-2141
Author(s):  
Job Taminiau ◽  
Joseph Nyangon ◽  
Ariella Shez Lewis ◽  
John Byrne

Establishing a sustainable energy future can justifiably be considered the next frontier in global sustainable development under the agenda laid out in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The newly adopted Paris Agreement which seeks to hold global average temperature increase to “well below 2°C” above pre-industrial levels inserts additional urgency into this agenda. To realize the commitments outlined in the agreement, implementation of innovative sustainable business models capable of producing strong mitigation and adaptation outcomes is required ‘on the ground' and needs to be available for subsequent diffusion across different countries, contexts and domains. This chapter explores the value of polycentric climate change governance through an investigation of sustainable business model innovation. An example of a sustainable business model, called the Sustainable Energy Utility (SEU), is evaluated and an assessment of United Nations-based programming to aid future diffusion of such business models is conducted.


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