Transformative Sustainable Business Models in the Light of the Digital Imperative—A Global Business Economics Perspective

Barbara Brenner

doi:10.3390/su10124428

Abstract

The considerable body of literature on business models, business model innovation, and sustainable business models has yet to fully account for the impact of external dynamics—including the digital imperative—on generating sustainable value propositions. To address this issue, we developed a multifaceted framework of transformative sustainable business models, spanning three levels: the external environment, the organization, and the individual. We drew on the resource-based view and the literature on digitization to explain how organizations can capitalize on dynamic transformative capabilities to generate novel value propositions, based on both reconstructionist logic and shared-value logic. These include elements such as co-creation, usage-based pricing, agility, closed-loop processes, asset sharing, and collaborative business ecosystems.

Highlights

How can firms stay competitive in dynamic digital environments? How can business models beconceptualized to successfully and sustainably address ongoing digital transformation? Striving for external alignment and adequate internal organizational response has become an ever-more complex task in times of digitization, with fast-changing environments [1,2,3]
We built on business model theory, because the business model can be conceived as “a focusing device that mediates between technology development and economic value creation” [66] (p. 532)
We attempted to contribute to developing theory by discussing the theoretical foundations of business model innovation, shared-value logic, and digital technologies

Summary

Introduction

Striving for external alignment and adequate internal organizational response has become an ever-more complex task in times of digitization, with fast-changing environments [1,2,3]. A retrospective glance at the history of technology reveals that after tens of thousands of years of rather slow development, a number of ground-breaking ideas eventually led to programmable computing machines and seemingly-unlimited digital data-storage capacity, a development that poses major challenges to societies today [4]. Three times in the past 50 years, information technology radically reshaped competition and business strategy [5,6,7]. Instead of window-dressing peripheral social responsibility efforts, companies can respond to such challenges by putting sustainability at the core of their business model, creating shared value for the company, its stakeholders, and society as a whole [11]

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