Sustainable Business Models: A Review

Sustainability, 2020

26 Pages Posted: 25 Nov 2020

See all articles by Saeed Nosratabadi

Saeed Nosratabadi

Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Amir Mosavi

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Shahaboddin Shamshirband

Ton Duc Thang University

Edmundas Kazimieras Zavadskas

Vilnius Gediminas Technical University

Andry Rakotonirainy

Queensland University of Technology

Kwok-Wing Chau

Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Date Written: October 6, 2020

Abstract

During the past two decades of e-commerce growth, the concept of a business model has become increasingly popular. More recently, the research on this realm has grown rapidly, with diverse research activity covering a wide range of application areas. Considering the sustainable development goals, the innovative business models have brought a competitive advantage to improve the sustainability performance of organizations. The concept of the sustainable business model describes the rationale of how an organization creates, delivers, and captures value, in economic, social, cultural, or other contexts, in a sustainable way. The process of sustainable business model construction forms an innovative part of a business strategy. Different industries and businesses have utilized sustainable business models’ concept to satisfy their economic, environmental, and social goals simultaneously. However, the success, popularity, and progress of sustainable business models in different application domains are not clear. To explore this issue, this research provides a comprehensive review of sustainable business models literature in various application areas. Notable sustainable business models are identified and further classified in fourteen unique categories, and in every category, the progress -either failure or success- has been reviewed, and the research gaps are discussed. Taxonomy of the applications includes innovation, management and marketing, entrepreneurship, energy, fashion, healthcare, agri-food, supply chain management, circular economy, developing countries, engineering, construction and real estate, mobility and transportation, and hospitality. The key contribution of this study is that it provides an insight into the state of the art of sustainable business models in various application areas and future research directions. This paper concludes that popularity and the success rate of sustainable business models in all application domains have been increased along with the increasing use of advanced technologies.

Keywords: sustainable business model; sustainable development; sustainability; business model; review; survey; state-of-the-art; climate change; climate protection; global warming; research method; circular economy; sustainable mobility; mitigation; adaptation

Suggested Citation

Nosratabadi, Saeed and Mosavi, Amir and Shamshirband, Shahaboddin and Zavadskas, Edmundas Kazimieras and Rakotonirainy, Andry and Chau, Kwok-Wing, Sustainable Business Models: A Review (October 6, 2020). Sustainability, 2020, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3706127 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3706127

Saeed Nosratabadi (Contact Author)

Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences ( email )

Hungary

Amir Mosavi

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Shahaboddin Shamshirband

Ton Duc Thang University ( email )

19 Nguyen Huu Tho
District 7
Ho Chi Minh City, Ho Chi Minh 0848
Vietnam

Edmundas Kazimieras Zavadskas

Vilnius Gediminas Technical University ( email )

Lithuania

Andry Rakotonirainy

Queensland University of Technology ( email )

2 George Street
Brisbane, Queensland 4000
Australia

Kwok-Wing Chau

Hong Kong Polytechnic University ( email )

11 Yuk Choi Rd
Hung Hom
Hong Kong

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