Towards Sustainable Innovative Business Models

Carolina López-Nicolás, Jesús Ruiz-Nicolás and Enrique Mateo-Ortuño
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Carolina López-Nicolás: Department of Management and Finance, University of Murcia, 30100 Murcia, Spain
Jesús Ruiz-Nicolás: Technical Department, University of Murcia, 30100 Murcia, Spain
Enrique Mateo-Ortuño: Department of Marketing, University of Murcia, 30100 Murcia, Spain

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 11, 1-19

Abstract: This paper addresses two research questions: (1) How do firms innovate their business models to deal with the economic, environmental and social aspects of sustainability, and their interconnections? (2) How do managers design the process toward more sustainable innovative business models? Starting from the triple-layered canvas as a theoretical framework, a pattern matching technique is used to compare that theoretical pattern to the empirical pattern observed. The study is based on qualitative methods and data from a Spanish company in the wine sector. The findings indicate that the triple-layered canvas is applicable and useful for micro firms, although the process to design sustainable innovative business models might be even more important. A new theoretical model is inferred and proposed to incorporate the perspective of the process of the business model innovations for sustainability, and to add several relevant aspects to make the process more successful. Besides this, non-family firms introducing sustainable business model innovations in their economic, ecological, and social aspects move closer to family firms’ distinctive behavior. Finally, the implications and future lines of research are summarized.

Keywords: sustainable business model; business model innovation; wine business; Spain; social business model; ecological business model (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:11:p:5804-:d:559644

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