The business model literature is relatively scarce and especially the literature dedicated to sustainable business model. There are some attempts especially from German scholars. I will appreciate any suggestion that will help me in getting the newest research in the field of business model for sustainability that will create an up to date and comprehensive literature review.
I do think that there is a lot on business models - perhaps not all in classical "academic" sources. I really like this one: www.bcg.com/documents/file36456.pdf. Will provide some more...
In my opinion one of the best resources to get started: www.iese.edu/research/pdfs/di-0862-e.pdf
Books about business models (in general, not about sustainability): Business Model Generation by Alexander Osterwalder & Yves pigneur. And Ten Types of Innovation: The Discipline of Building Breakthroughs by Larry Keeley et al.
Rebecca Henderson, Harvard -has done several studies and held some great speaches about sustainability and business models (eg at World Innovation Forum conference 2013) worth googling.
Dear Britt,
Thank you very much for taking your time and answering to my question. Osterwalder and Pigneur are well known. Rebecca Henderson's research work is not that much known to Australian researchers and definitely I will mention her.
Thank you again and I wish you all the best.
Kindest
Sorin
Very pragmatic and insightful resource:
http://gerardjrego.com/2013/09/19/business-models-101-the-real-competitive-advantage-of-business-and-equity/
Dear Wilhelm,
Thank you very much. I agree the link provided is very good. There is a lot of good material there.
Best wishes
Sorin
I fear I disagree with Wilhelm since there is a plethora of academic articles on business models. For a first overview I suggest Zott/Amit/Massa (2011) [DOI: 10.1177/0149206311406265] or Lecocoq/Demil/Ventura (2010) [M@n@gement, 13(4), 214-225].
Starting researching in the field of business models one has to consider that there are diverse disciplines with pretty different understanding of what a business model is, e.g. computer since is modelling processes for software engineering in a business model and business administration connotates a kind of business logic to create and capture value. To complete the mess there are also mixtures of those understandings, e.g. Osterwalder (Business Informatics) meshed some management tools and took some parts to create a business model canvas (the handbook Business Model Generation should be read as a continous work of Osterwalder et al., starting with his dissertation where you can find the origins of the canvas concept). I have to admit that this critique is seen from a academic perspective, Osterwalders canvas concept might still be useful for and appreciated by practioners.
I guess it is important to make clear from which perspective you want to approach business models.
In reference to Sorin's question about sustainable business models: There are some articles dealing with business models for developing countries but I'm not sure if that is the topic you were looking for?!
Kindest
Andreas
http://www.hec.unil.ch/aosterwa/PhD/Osterwalder_PhD_BM_Ontology.pdf
Dear Andreas,
I appreciate very much your answer.
Since last post I progressed substantially. I managed to design a business model that is part of Corporation's Sustainability Management System, that I want to apply it in mining industry. As you know mining and energy industry are socially and ecological very sensitive industries and needs a very clear business model to become sustainable. So, that is the objective that I am looking for. I am open to any suggestion.
Thanks again.
Sorin
Hi, this a two-year-old review of relevant business model frameworks --> http://www.varietyofinnovation.org/?p=143
I think there are some more new frameworks now, but the majority of BM articles focus on the ones which are in this table.
Sorin,
with "sustainability" do you mean "sustained competitive advantage" (or persistent superior performance)?
There is a very recent special issue of the journal Organization of Environment, see
http://oae.sagepub.com/content/early/recent
It hasn't actually come out, but you can already access the articles, so it doesn't get more recent than that, I'd say.
For a relatively recent (2013) literature review on sustainable business models, see
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/256023864_Business_Models_for_Sustainable_Innovation_State_of_the_Art_and_Steps_Towards_a_Research_Agenda
Article Business Models for Sustainable Innovation: State of the Art...
There is a very recent special issue of the journal Organization of Environment, see
http://oae.sagepub.com/content/early/recent
It hasn't actually come out, but you can already access the articles, so it doesn't get more recent than that, I'd say.
For a relatively recent (2013) literature review on sustainable business models, see
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/256023864_Business_Models_for_Sustainable_Innovation_State_of_the_Art_and_Steps_Towards_a_Research_Agenda
Article Business Models for Sustainable Innovation: State of the Art...
The Network for Business Sustainability (NBS) will soon publish a comprehensive, systematic review of the literature on business models for sustainability. We are currently working on it under the broader label of business models for shared value: http://blog.ssbmg.com/2015/08/17/preview-nbs-sa-research-on-sustainable-business-models-for-shared-value/
The special issue Frank mentioned will also feature an introductory essay that summarises the main topics and gaps in this field as of 2015 - the essay will, hopefully, be available soon.
An overview of the currently available SI articles can be found here: http://blog.ssbmg.com/2015/07/30/update-special-issue-business-models-for-sustainability-articles-available/
If you are still interested, we have just published a comprehensive up-to-date literature review about the field of business models for sustainability:
Article Sustainable business model innovation: A review