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Truly Sustainable Business Models: A Value- Based Approach for Sustainable Production and Consumption
Type
conference paper
Date Issued
2018-06
Author(s)
Abstract (De)
Even though sustainability management is hugely popular amongst companies, the actual state of the planet fails to reflect this development. Scholars refer to this phenomenon as the big disconnect and argue for a change in perspective for companies in order to effectively address those sustainability challenges. This means, instead of focusing on the reduction of the footprint of the firm, they should direct their business at the positive creation of value across all dimension, social, environmental as well as economical. Consequently, sustainability challenges need to be regarded as opportunities that can be solved through business activities. The business model was identified as a suitable unit of analysis due to several characteristics. Most importantly it depicts the value created, delivered and captured by the company’s business, as well as the value proposition in form of the offered product or service. While doing so it reaches far beyond the boundaries of a firm by also including a wide network of stakeholders, ranging from customers to suppliers or investors. This holistic view makes the business model especially interesting to be studied in the context of sustainability. Building on the concept of true business sustainability by Dyllick & Muff (2016), a framework for truly sustainable business models will be developed in this thesis in order to help connect companies with the macro level of sustainable development, thus bridging the big disconnect. In order to focus the work, truly sustainable business models will be developed for the context of sustainable production and consumption. The empirical part of this thesis will identify reoccurring patterns of (truly) sustainable business models in sustainable start-ups and shining examples of visionary companies.
Language
English
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
Event Title
EURAM 2018 Doctoral Colloquium
Event Location
Reykjavic
Event Date
18.-19.06.2018
Subject(s)
Division(s)
Contact Email Address
fiona.stappmanns@unisg.ch
Eprints ID
255980