A new business model for sustainable development: an exploratory study using the theory of constraints in Nordic organizations

The business model in use by many large companies has changed significantly from that of a decade ago and has incorporated environmental and social aspects of performance. However, given these achievements, are there unavoidable inhibitions in the contemporary business model that mean that even exemplar corporations cannot become sustainable? A key issue is consumption without limits, but can businesses do anything about this? The UK Government's Sustainable Development Commission identifies this as an issue. There is a need for an open‐minded consideration of business fundamentals to consider this issue as part of an identification of criteria for a sustainable business model. This is an account of an exploratory study undertaken to identify a new business model for sustainable development. The theory of constraints was adapted to provide the project's methodology that made use of semi‐structured interviews and secondary material. The cloverleaf account of sustainable development was used to structure and analyse sustainable development information. The organizations studied are all located in Nordic countries, since these countries are globally recognized for sustainable development achievements. Conclusions of the study acknowledge that, whilst specific new management tools and approaches of Nordic organizations do help sustainable development, it is the social context in which these organizations function that is a critical factor. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Dynamic business modeling for sustainability: Exploring a system dynamics perspective to develop sustainable business models

In the last decade, business models for sustainability have gained increasing attraction by corporate sustainability scholars with international conferences and scientific journals encouraging the development of the debate on their design, use and innovation processes. Capitalizing on the basic principles, requirements, and methodological limitations found in the literature on sustainability‐oriented business model design, this paper aims to conceptualize a dynamic business modeling for sustainability approach, which combines an adapted sustainable business model canvas and system dynamics modeling. To this end, the paper also illustrates the key operating principles of the proposed approach through an exemplary application to Patagonia's business model. Findings suggest that dynamic business modeling for sustainability may contribute to sustainable business model research and practice by introducing a systemic design tool, which frames environmental, social, and economic drivers of value generation into a dynamic business model causal feedback structure, thus overcoming methodological gaps of the extant business model design tools.     

New sustainable business models in China

This research explores the need to establish new sustainable business models in China and uses multiple objectives to examine in a sample of Chinese companies the reality of the level of sustainable development, environmental awareness and performance, community responsibility, performance barriers and drivers and other sustainability issues. A mixed methodology was adopted, using a questionnaire survey and interviews with 20 manufacturing companies in Guangzhou and Shenzen. Evidence from the small sample of companies demonstrates the lack of significant sustainable development practices in China, although small and medium sized companies appeared to show interest in this area and would like to further contribute to for example triple bottom line objectives. Increasing concerns are found from the company level regarding the need to use renewable energy, source alternative sustainable materials, close the loop of the supply chain, improve the quality of products produced rather than reducing cost, export to Europe and treat employees as an asset. The lack of skills, finance and knowledge are found to be prohibiting the effective embedment of sustainable development within companies and hence cause an under‐performance in this regard. The study concludes that the establishing of a new business model for sustainable development in China is needed urgently, and this should be a joint effort with the Chinese government. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Ten years later: where is our common future now?

In 1996 a paper entitled ‘Where is our common future?’ in Sustainable Development maintained that the world's largest oil companies, the Seven Sisters, were two giant steps away from sustainable development in their 1993 environmental values, visions and policies. These factors matched the level of their business environment; hence, the Sisters had positioned themselves to meet the needs of their business environment, but not the needs of the ecological environment. This is a 10‐year follow‐up study of these findings. The analysis of the 2003 environmental values, visions, business environment, general strategic management and environmental policies of the current Four Sisters – BP(Amoco), ChevronTexaco, ExxonMobil and Shell – indicates that these companies have moved one step towards sustainable development. However, their business environment has moved two steps, firmly rooting itself in ecocentric sustainable development – and now runs ahead of the Sisters in principle but not yet in practice. In the long run, the Four Sisters need to exchange their technocentric values, traditional visions and conventional policies for ecocentric values, progressive visions and entrepreneurial policies to be able to participate in Our Common Future. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

A fuzzy multi-objective programming approach for determination of resilient supply portfolio under supply failure risks

The main contribution of this paper is to develop a new decision tool that interprets strategies for determination of resilient supply portfolio under supply failure risks. The strategic decisions include the allocation of emergency capacities to be pre-positioned at backup suppliers, the output of which can be increased in the event of mitigating a shortage caused by another supplier's failure. The model contains three objective functions – minimising the total cost, minimising the net rejected items and minimising the net late deliveries – while satisfying capacity and minimum order quantity requirement constraints. A weighted additive fuzzy multi-objective model is proposed to simultaneously consider the imprecision of information and the relative importance of objectives for determining the allocation of order quantity and emergency capacity to each supplier. The application of the proposed model is illustrated using an example case of global supply chains with different supplier characteristics.     

Stakeholder Engagement: Defining Strategic Advantage for Sustainable Construction

Although sustainable development is increasingly becoming a part of business plans, it is unclear what makes the economic, social and environmental dynamics strategically compatible. This research examines which of the following in sustainable development – government policy, managerial attitude and stakeholder engagement – is the most influential on the profitability of companies in the UK construction sector. Quantitative and qualitative analyses were rendered through a survey and semi‐structured interviews. Patterns of ambiguity in legislation were discovered as an obstacle for changing the sector's mind‐set. Stakeholder engagement was identified as the defining factor increasing managers' awareness, helping legislation to be effectively implemented and making sustainability highly appealing to clients. These findings indicate that to gain competitive advantage, companies should embark on long‐term strategic alliances which adopt the proposals of environmental non‐governmental organisations and closely follow public opinion. This, strengthens brand equity, allows for premium pricing, increases market share and maximizes profit. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Systemic circular business model application at the company,supply chain and society levels—A view into circular economy native and adopter companies

This study contributes to the conceptualization of a sustainable circular business model (CBM), the application of the circular economy (CE) by companies. The study utilized a three-level framework adapted from the CE literature with company (micro), supply chain (meso) and society (macro) levels. This multiple-case study in the textile industry included two types of companies operating in the CE: companies founded on the sustainable principles of a CE (natives) and companies transitioning to a CE from the linear economy (adopters). The findings show that the adopters emphasized long-term economic sustainability on a company level and implemented CE elements to varying degrees on all three levels. The natives pursued business decisions from environmental and social sustainability standpoints, and the three levels were integral in their systemic approach to a CE. The study highlights two key claims: established operational structures and economic volition hindered adopters in their systemic CE implementation, and an integral part of the CBM for natives was a proactive approach towards the society level.     

The Impact of Business Strategies on Online Sustainability Disclosures

With increasing attention being paid to corporate sustainability, pressure from stakeholders, especially customers, is forcing companies to implement sustainability strategies and practices that express their commitment to sustainable development, and engage with stakeholders through voluntary sustainability disclosure. To better understand the sustainability disclosure mechanisms from a business strategy perspective, this study investigates the influence of business strategy, formulated by customer groups, on online sustainability disclosure. It provides empirical observation of Malaysian public‐listed companies based on the combined lens of stakeholder and legitimacy theory. Despite the comparatively low level of corporate sustainability disclosure in Malaysia, this content analysis of online sustainability information disclosure reveals that the companies with more diversified product lines disclose more sustainability information, and that the corporate sustainability effort is significantly related to brand name. Hence, companies should be encouraged to proactively improve their sustainability performance and disclose more sustainability information in order to strengthen their brand names. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Sustainable Entrepreneurship and B Corps

Sustainable entrepreneurship contributes to solving social and environmental problems through the means of successful for‐profit businesses. This paper contributes to understanding how sustainable entrepreneurship is implemented by exploring an emerging new form of business, ‘B Corps’, that employs market tactics to address social and environmental issues. Through interviewing 14 B Corps, the exploratory research study found that B Corps treat profit as a means to achieve positive societal ends, they regard the B Corp model as a tool for change, the B Corp model provides a common collective identity for internal and external validation, they are focused on societal impact rather than maximizing profits and they attempt to legitimate this form of sustainable entrepreneurship by influencing the business community and government officials. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Where are they now? tracking the longitudinal evolution of environmental businesses from the 1990s

In 1991 Steven Bennett published one of the first major publications on the concept of ecopreneurship, business opportunities resulting from the emerging environmental agenda of the late 1980s and early 1990s (Ecopreneuring: the Complete Guide to Small Business Opportunities From the Environmental Revolution. Wiley: New York). Since then a body of literature has developed that explores the idea of the intersection of entrepreneurship with environmentally and socially responsible behaviour. Many of the business cases presented by Bennett represent early adopters of green products, services and emerging eco‐markets. Given the current emphasis on the transformation of business practices towards a more sustainable paradigm it is timely to review these 94 early ecopreneurial examples and consider their status two decades on from the original publication. This paper explores the definitions of environmental and social enterprise, and considers the longitudinal survival of these companies and the emerging trends in consolidation and failure of the sampled companies. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

我国家族企业可持续发展环境的构建

实现我国家族企业可持续发展,是企业自身也是国家经济发展的需要。要使我国家族企业走上可持续发展之路,就要为家族企业构建可持续发展的环境,不仅需要政府转变观念,在权益保护、市场准入、依法监管、资金融通等环节上采取有效措施,为家族企业构建良好的外部发展环境;还需要家族企业自身的改革与创新,不断加强自我建设,构建有利于企业可持续发展的内部环境。     

Unravelling the design process of business models from linear to circular: An empirical investigation

In the last years, circular economy has represented one of the most-debated topics in management research. Although the understanding of this industrial paradigm has significantly improved over the last decade, a number of important research questions still remain unanswered. Among them, the design process of business model through which established firms evolve from being linear to circular deserves further investigation. Existing research still falls short to investigate how companies design the dimensions of value creation, value transfer, and value capture of their business models to launch circular products into the market. By leveraging a multiple case study analysis of four companies in the paper and beverage industries that have launched six circular products, the paper examines the process that these companies have followed to face the transition toward a circular business model. The paper contributes to the research field in the intersection between new product development and circular business models, by showing that the process toward a circular business model occurs along three major phases, that is, idea generation, product development, and commercialization. In each phase, companies implement peculiar managerial practices for launching circular products into the market, which typically address all the dimensions of the business model and follows a recurrent path over time.     

Understanding sustainable development flexibility: An information perspective

Although flexibility has been considered critical in responding to uncertainty in a business environment, few studies have explored firms' flexibility in sustainable development. To understand the nature of firms that can respond better to uncertainty in their sustainable development practices, this study defines sustainable development flexibility and investigates the mechanism underlying its formation. The study proposes a conceptual framework on the interactions of managers' environmental attitude and cognitive style, as well as firms' information integration on sustainable development flexibility. A questionnaire survey was developed to test the corresponding hypotheses, and 241 valid responses were received from middle- and top-level managers in Chinese firms. The results show that (a) the higher the manager's environmental attitude, the higher the firm's information integration and greater sustainable supply chain flexibility, and (b) the more intuitive the manager's cognitive style, the greater the impact of environmental attitude on sustainable development flexibility.     

高科技创业上市公司商业模式设计对其IPO估值的影响

高科技创新型企业是人们目前关注的热点,目前我国创业板公司就成为资本市场的新宠儿。而对商业模式的研究也属于前沿领域,众多学者对于商业模式还没有权威清晰的定义。本文的目的就在于研究高科技上市公司商业模式设计与其在资本市场估值的关系。本文对商业模式设计及托宾q值的理论文献进行了回顾,通过对创业板281家上市公司的商业模式设计的研究,并通过小组讨论,对每一家公司的商业模式进行了评价及评分。再通过spss软件分析了这281家公司的商业模式评分与其市场价值、财务数据之间的关系。     

High‐performance work system implementation in small and medium enterprises: A knowledge‐creation perspective

While it is well established that high‐performance work systems (HPWSs) affect firm‐level outcomes within large, complex organizations, less is known about how they create benefits for firms within the small‐business sector. Using a knowledge‐creation perspective, this study examines the impact of HPWSs in small and medium enterprises and examines whether the impact observed depends on the small‐business leader's capacity to obtain additional HR knowledge from an external expert, as well as the leader's HR background and knowledge. Archival and survey data were obtained from 294 small‐business organizations, with survey responses obtained from both the small‐business leader and an HR consultant assigned to the small business. Findings suggest that leader perceptions of HR effectiveness are positively related to the use of HPWSs and that this relationship is moderated both by the communication patterns between the small‐business leader and the HR consultant assigned to the firm and the small‐business leader's HR knowledge. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Can businesses move beyond efficiency? The shift toward effectiveness and equity in the corporate sustainability debate

The aim of this paper is to articulate to a wider practitioner and academic audience the value and importance of moving the sustainable business agenda beyond the notion of eco‐ and socio‐efficiency. This in itself is not a new development in the sustainable business literature. What are emerging are integrated models of corporate sustainability that link together the six criteria that a sustainable business will need to satisfy, namely eco‐efficiency, socio‐efficiency, eco‐effectiveness, socio‐effectiveness, sufficiency and ecological equity. At this stage these new models of corporate sustainability need further theoretical development, taking corporate sustainability beyond the business case (eco‐efficiency) towards an integrated approach that links in the social and natural cases. A new model for sustainable entrepreneurship is presented and discussed in the context of a social entrepreneur case study. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

The Effects of Culture and Structure on Strategic Flexibility during Business Model Innovation

This study uses responses from 107 multinational firms to reveal CEO perceptions of the drivers of strategic flexibility during business model innovation. While the positive effect of creative culture is confirmed, partner reliance reduces strategic flexibility during business model innovation. Further, structural change is disaggregated into efforts that either focus managerial attention on core activities or reconfigure existing activities. CEOs perceive that structural flexibility requires structural simplification while retaining control of non‐core functions. We find that the relative magnitude of business model innovation effort moderates the effect of reconfiguration on strategic flexibility. The implications for theories of organizational design and dynamic capabilities are discussed.     

Sustainability in the Transport and Logistics Sector: Lacking Environmental Measures

Sustainability as part of the development of companies' business strategies is gaining in importance. Due to its impact on the environment, this is particularly essential for companies of the transport and logistics sector. This paper explores several factors that influence the environmental behaviour of transport and logistics companies in Austria. It discusses the importance of the economic impact on environmental management decision in detail and analyses the sector's specific characteristics in terms of environmental behavior. A case‐based approach involving multiple field studies with face‐to‐face expert interviews and secondary data analysis was used to evaluate environmental performance and specific practices. Using selected cases, we will demonstrate how environmental measures contribute to overall business performance and draw general conclusions regarding the transport and logistics sector. Furthermore, suggestions are given as to how the government can further support transport and logistics companies in this regard. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Designing business models in circular economy: A systematic literature review and research agenda

The concept of circular economy is increasingly receiving attention in different domains, including strategic management, operations management, and technology management. It requires companies to design their business model (i.e., the value network, the relationships with the supply chain partners, and the value propositions towards customers) around a new concept of sustainable development that reduces consumption of natural resources and preserves the environment. However, extant research falls short in terms of explaining how companies design their business model according to the circular economy principles. Starting from this premise, the present paper provides a systematic review of the literature on the design of business models in the context of circular economy, aiming to offer an overview of the state of research and outline a promising research agenda.