Sustainable Business Model Innovation: Review, Analysis and Impact on Society

How Knowledge Sharing Affects Business Model Innovation: An Empirical Study from the Perspective of Ambidextrous Organizational Learning

In the era of knowledge economy and open innovation, it is especially important for organizations to learn how to store and utilize internal and external knowledge for the sustainability of business models. The ability to innovate is a necessity for sustainable development, thus this paper starting from the internal factors driving enterprises to realize business model innovation, from perspective of ambidextrous organizational learning, takes 257 managers in enterprises as samples to empirically study the mechanism of knowledge sharing on business model innovation. The results of regression analysis and structural equation model (SEM) path analysis show that knowledge sharing affects novel and efficient business model innovation through ambidextrous organizational learning, and ambidextrous organizational learning plays a complete mediating role. Both explorative and exploitative learning have a significant positive impact on the novel and efficient business model innovation, and explorative learning has a stronger promoting effect. Therefore, in the practice of enterprise business model innovation, leaders need to establish a system that can promote the willingness of employees to share knowledge. Organizations need to pay attention to the effectiveness of explorative learning, consider the actual demand of employees as much as possible, and mobilize the initiative of employees in the learning process. Organizations also are required to pay attention to the balance between explorative learning and exploitative learning.

Sustainable Hybrid Business Model of Benefit Corporation: The Case of an Italian Film Production Company

In the last decade, individual awareness of the impacts generated by the activities of businesses has increased more than ever. Consumers, employees and investors have begun to criticize business behaviors that negatively affect either society or the environment. Given this context, and relying on the literature relating to hybrid organizations and sustainable business models, our research aims to investigate how dual logic affects the business model of benefit corporations in the Italian film production industry. To capture the complexity of this type of firm, we adopted a qualitative research method, the case study approach. The case selected was ARE FILMS srl, a creative film production company. It has been a benefit corporation since it was founded. The study suggests that the capacity of hybrid businesses to achieve a hybrid mission is intrinsically embedded in their business model. A young film production benefit corporation is more likely to adopt a semi-integrated business model that does not create an external perception of dual corporate identity and does not affect economic sustainability. Moreover, the sustainable value proposition emerges even without the formal application of accepted protocols. Furthermore, we realized that the size of the firm affects business modelling. Finally, this research underlines the fact that benefit corporations do not require external pressure to implement sustainable practices.

Sustainable business model innovation literature: a bibliometrics analysis

Sustainable business model innovation (SBMI) has received growing attention since it can provide sustainable competitive advantages for corporations under a dynamic external environment. This paper aims to understand the current situations and progress of SBMI research by conducting a bibliometric study of the existing literature. By collecting data from Web of Science and using bibliometric tools, the basic characteristics of SBMI research are first presented to show the productivity and citations of publications utilizing recognized bibliometric indicators. Then, the cooperation networks among countries/regions, institutions, and authors are drawn to determine their collaborative relationships. Furthermore, keyword analysis is presented to explore the evolution of the hotspots and themes of SBMI research through co-occurrence analysis, burst detection analysis, and thematic evolution analysis. Finally, we integrate the antecedents-decisions-outcomes framework for SBMI research. The findings in this study indicate that the development of SBMI research is positive and that greater collaboration among institutions and authors is required to explore the internal drivers and design SBMI as well as other topics to be developed.

Towards Systematic Sustainable Business Model Innovation: What Can We Learn from Business Model Innovation

This research aims to understand how sustainable business model innovation (SBMI) can learn from business model innovation. For this, first, we conducted a bibliometric analysis to evaluate the relationships between business model innovation and SBMI literature. After this, we performed a systematic literature review to create a comprehensive framework for managing SBMI. The bibliometric analysis showed that the SBMI stream grew quickly and significantly in recent years, evolving into a separated new research stream, which does not leverage recent business model innovation advancements. Through the performed analyses, we were able to discuss critical gaps in the SBMI literature and shed light on possible pathways to solve these gaps through lessons learned from business model innovation. We depicted five critical gaps for managing SBMI; (1) the need to understand the sustainable business model as a wicked problem, in which SBMI leads to “better than before” solutions calling for systematic SBMI, (2) the poor definition of distinctive dimensions of dynamic capabilities for SBMI, (3) the lack of studies exploring the role of open innovation for improving the SBMI process, (4) the lack of tools supporting SBMI implementation and (5) the need to explore game-changing, competitive advantages of SBMI. The findings of this study contribute to guiding future research on SBMI, which can be a basis for further efforts towards sustainable development.

Convergence or Divergence among Business Models of Public Bus Transport Authorities across the Globe: A Fuzzy Approach

Building on the debate about global convergence or divergence of practices, this study aims to query the viability of a new strategic action tool specifically geared to the interests of public bus transportation authorities (PBTA) around the globe and explore the degree of homogeneity in their responses as well as the possible drivers of them. To answer its research question, the study first offers a generic business model design for a PBTA, which integrates an extended version of the business model canvas with external environmental factors in order to enhance its sustainability. Subsequently, the importance attributions of international transportation experts to different model components are evaluated by using the Spherical Fuzzy AHP method. The model is developed in three hierarchical layers and evaluated by experts from four continents: America, Asia, Australia, and Europe. The results indicate that the expert opinions tend to converge more on the internal components of the model and diverge on the external components, especially regarding economic and technological factors. A strategic response action set is also designed to facilitate the adoption of the model by PBTA. The study not only extends the research on the strategic management of the public bus transportation domain but also contributes to the convergence and divergence debate by offering a reconciliatory duality perspective.