Sustainability Transition in Industry 4.0 and Smart Manufacturing with the Triple-Layered Business Model Canvas

Fernando E. García-Muiña, María Sonia Medina-Salgado, Anna Maria Ferrari and Marco Cucchi
Additional contact information
Fernando E. García-Muiña: Department of Business Administration (ADO), Applied Economics II and Fundamentals of Economic Analysis, Rey-Juan-Carlos University, 28032 Madrid, Spain
María Sonia Medina-Salgado: Department of Business Administration (ADO), Applied Economics II and Fundamentals of Economic Analysis, Rey-Juan-Carlos University, 28032 Madrid, Spain
Anna Maria Ferrari: Department of Sciences and Methods for Engineering, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, 42122 Reggio Emilia, Italy
Marco Cucchi: Gruppo Ceramiche Gresmalt, Via Mosca 4, 41049 Sassuolo, Italy

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 6, 1-19

Abstract: Sustainability transition is becoming increasingly relevant at a manufacturing level, especially for resource- and energy-intensive industries. In addition, the 4.0 industry paradigm opens new opportunities in terms of sustainable development. The aim of this research is to analyze the introduction of sustainability in the corporate value proposition, through the evolution from a traditional to a sustainable business model. The business model innovation will be investigated in the case of a ceramic tile producer in the district of Sassuolo, Italy. The company has introduced several sustainability practices over the years and, through investments in Industry 4.0 technologies, is able to conduct impact assessments of its production process. The applied tool for the business model transition will be the Triple-Layered Business Model Canvas by Joyce and Paquin. The results illustrate the new company’s sustainable value proposition, considering all three pillars of sustainability: environment, economy, and society. Despite the limitations resulting from the individual case study, the findings can be easily adapted to other ceramic tile companies in the sector. Besides, the paper could inspire other manufacturing companies in the drafting of a sustainable business model. The paper explores the still limited literature on the application of sustainable business models in operational scenarios.

Keywords: Industry 4.0; sustainability; manufacturing; business model canvas (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (31)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/6/2364/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/6/2364/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:6:p:2364-:d:333817

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().