Designing Business Models for the Bioeconomy: What are the major challenges?

Abstract

In the context of mitigating climate change by means of abandoning fossil resources by developing new clean technologies, the bioeconomy, a concept defined by the seminal work of Christian Patermann, has gained tremendous interest. Although designing an appropriate business model for a novel bio-based technology is crucial for the commercialization and thus transition towards the bioeconomy, research on business models in the context of the bioeconomy is still scarce. However, the particularities of the bioeconomy such as the complex knowledge base, fragmented policy schemes, and diverse innovation types cause challenges for the design of business models. Against this backdrop, we aim to fill this gap by conceptualizing three generic business model types specific to the bioeconomy, namely 1) new bio-based products, 2) new bio-based processes, and 3) integrated (bio-based) services as well as identifying their most characteristic challenges. To this end, we review existing literature on business models in the bioeconomy and categorize challenges and their implications for business models. In total, this is the first approach to conceptualize business model types specifically for the bioeconomy contributing to defining a clearer research agenda as well as guiding business model design in the context of bioeconomy-specific challenges.