Business Models for Sustainability Transitions – How Organisations Contribute to Societal Transformation is a new book published by Palgrave MacMillan and edited by Annabeth Aagaard, Florian Lüdeke-Freund & Peter Wells.
The book explores the powerful synergies of combining research on sustainability transitions and business models for sustainability. Twelve chapters, written by 30+ authors, offer new insights into business model innovation as a catalyst for system-wide sustainability transitions and reveal how profound innovations in society and the economy can create space for new and sustainable business concepts to emerge and prosper.
In the below video, the editors discuss insights from the research and talk about the incentive behind the book. To watch the video, please click play.
As an inspirational give-away, the editors offer a free version of the Chapter 1: Introduction to Business Models for Sustainability Transitions from the newly published book. To access the Chapter 1, please click here.
Why a Book on Business Models for Sustainability Transitions?
Increasing pressure on the environment and society indicate that a rapid sustainability transition is needed worldwide. We are confronted with a large variety of major sustainability challenges such as climate change, loss of biodiversity, lack of clean water, waste production, inequality, poverty, and modern slavery. Many of these issues are connected to unsustainable business models.
The book presents multiple perspectives on business models and sustainability transitions including various business cases and lenses on the topic. Throughout the book, the authors reflect upon the proposition; Rather than seeing business as the main culprit for unsustainability, how can it be the driver for positive change and innovation?
By bridging the complementarities of business model innovation and sustainability transitions, the book generates new insights for strategy and policy-making as key to destabilizing unsustainable business practices and to accelerate processes of transformative and sustainable change.
The authors
Annabeth Aagaard is an associate professor and the founding director of Interdisciplinary Centre for Digital Business Development at Aarhus University, Denmark. Her research is focused on digital and sustainable business development, ecosystems, and innovation, from which she has (co)-authored 14 textbooks, including Sustainable Business Models – Innovation, Implementation and Success (Palgrave).
Florian Lüdeke-Freund is Professor of Corporate Sustainability and director of the MSc Sustainability Entrepreneurship & Innovation, at ESCP Business School, Berlin. He serves on the editorial boards of different journals, and he has authored or edited four books, including Sustainable Business Model Design. Florian founded the international research hub www.SustainableBusinessModel.org.
Peter Wells is Professor of Business and Sustainability and director of the Centre for Automotive Industry Research, at Cardif Business School. He is author or editor of 11 books and is frequently quoted in The New York Times, Forbes, Bloomberg, the BBC, and other international news sources.
The book
The research on business model innovation for sustainability goes beyond the financial profitability of firms as it includes the social and environmental purposes of strategy making. The contents are covered by the introduction and 11 additional chapters:
Part I: Crossing the Chasm: Integrating Business Model and Sustainability Transition Perspectives
- Transformative Business and Sustainability Transitions: A Framework and an Empirical Illustration
- The Networked Business Model for Systems Change: Integrating a Systems Perspective in Business Model Development for Sustainability Transitions
- Sustainable Value Creation for Advancing Sustainability Transition: An Approach to Integrate Company- and System Level Sustainability
- Building BoP Business Models for Sustainable Poverty Alleviation: System Tips and System Traps
Part II: Beyond Business-as-Usual: Alternative Value Creation Logics Driving Sustainability Transitions
- The Business Model of Enough: Value Creation for Sufficiency-Oriented Businesses
- Collaborative Business Models and Platforms in Shared Mobility Transitions: The Case of Bikeshare Integration
- Upscaling Sustainable Niches: How a User Perspective of Organizational Value Logics Can Help Translate Between Niche and System
Part III: Being the Change: Transformative and Transformed Business Models in Selected Industries
- IoT-Driven Reuse Business Models: The Case of Salesianer Textile Rental Services
- Business Models for Smart Sustainability: A Critical Perspective on Smart Homes and Sustainability Transitions
- Business Models for Energy Efficiency Services: Four Archetypes Based on User-Centeredness and Dynamic Capabilities
- Reverse Logistics Process for Business Transitions: An Example from the Clothing Industry
To access the Chapter 1, please click here, or directly on the book cover below.
The book brings together a compelling set of contributions that explore the intersection of transition studies and business model innovation with the aspiration to bridge the two strands of research and to open new and impactful avenues for research. The book is an important stepping-stone in a much larger journey toward more sustainable modes of production and consumption, and provides a fruitful pathway forward for theory and practice.
For further information on, and access to, the book, please click here.