Transition towards Sustainable Solutions: Product, Service, Technology, and Business Model

Mina Nasiri, Tero Rantala, Minna Saunila, Juhani Ukko and Hannu Rantanen
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Mina Nasiri: School of Business and Management, Lappeenranta University of Technology, 15140 Lahti, Finland
Tero Rantala: School of Business and Management, Lappeenranta University of Technology, 15140 Lahti, Finland
Minna Saunila: School of Business and Management, Lappeenranta University of Technology, 15140 Lahti, Finland
Juhani Ukko: School of Business and Management, Lappeenranta University of Technology, 15140 Lahti, Finland
Hannu Rantanen: School of Business and Management, Lappeenranta University of Technology, 15140 Lahti, Finland

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 10, issue 2, 1-18

Abstract: Nowadays, the horse industry can be considered as an important industry in European countries and has a major role in agricultural industry throughout the world. Although today the diversity of the horse-related companies provides new markets and business opportunities, there are also some sustainable issues which needs to be addressed. Therefore, this study contributes to this research gap by reviewing the concept of sustainability and existing approaches to find sustainable solutions for companies. These sustainable approaches can be applied to products, services and technologies as well as business models, such as the product-service-system (PSS), circular economy (CE) and industrial symbiosis (IS). Although there seems to be a growing understanding of sustainable approaches and their role in sustainable development, there is a lack of research at the empirical level regarding the types of sustainability approaches (i.e., technologies, services, products and business models) that evolve in specific industries. The empirical data in this research have been collected from a cross-section of Finnish horse industry operators to determine how willing companies are to exploit approaches to sustainable solutions, as well as what the existing sustainable solutions are in this industry. The response rate of this study is approximately 24 percent, including 139 received valid responses among the sample of 580 operators.

Keywords: sustainability; sustainable solutions; agricultural industry; industrial symbiosis; circular economy; product-service-system (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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