It is now widely accepted that the social responsibility of organizations is to create value for all stakeholders. To that end, many organizations have started changing their business models to incorporate social and environmental concerns (Schaltegger et al., 2016). Business model innovation for sustainability (BMIfS) has been advocated as one of the strategic options for organizations to build resilient business models and seize additional value creation opportunities (Geissdoerfer et al., 2018). BMIfS can be achieved through altering existing business models, creating additional business models, and/or starting-up completely new business models. Although the design of BMIfS has not been an issue, organizations often fail to implement BMIfS because of the enduring tensions between complex economic, environmental, and social concerns (Hahn et al., 2014). This is referred to as the “design-implementation gap” in the literature (Lemus-Aguilar et al., 2019; Geissdoerfer et al., 2018). Although BMIfS research has attracted much attention, the question of how to bridge the design-implementation gap of BMIfS remains unanswered. Thus, this Special Issue is to inviting scholars to examine how organizations perform BMIfS and under what conditions the design-implementation gap of BMIfS can be bridged.

Theoretical and empirical contributions are welcomed to address the following questions on BMIfS:

Challenges: How do organizations balance tensions between complex economic, environmental, and social concerns? What are the barriers that hinder the implementation of BMIfS? What are the factors that influence the implementation of BMIfS? What business modeling tools and methods can facilitate the design and implementation of BMIfS?

Strategies: What strategies do organizations undertake to achieve BMIfS? What are the different types of BMIfS? Do different types of BMIfS require different strategies?

Process: What is unique about the process of BMIfS compared to other business model innovations? What are the phases that organizations go through when undertaking BMIfS? What are the activities and practices involved in each phase? Which activities and practices bridge the design-implementation gap?

Impact: What is the impact of BMIfS on organizational operations and business processes? Does BMIfS improve or hinder organizational performance? What is the impact of BMIfS on the ecosystems?

Reference

Geissdoerfer, M., Vladimirova, D., & Evans, S. (2018). Sustainable business model innovation: A review. Journal of Cleaner Production, 198, 401–416.

Hahn, T., Preuss, L., Pinkse, J., & Figge, F. (2014). Cognitive frames in corporate sustainability: Managerial sensemaking with paradoxical and business case frames. Academy of Management Review, 39(4), 463–487.

Lemus-Aguilar, I., Morales-Alonso, G., Ramirez-Portilla, A., & Hidalgo, A. (2019). Sustainable Business Models through the Lens of Organizational Design: A Systematic Literature Review. Sustainability, 11(19), 5379.

Schaltegger, S., Hansen, E. G., & Lüdeke-Freund, F. (2016). Business models for sustainability: Origins, present research, and future avenues. Organization & Environment, 29(1), 3–10.

Dear Colleagues, 

Business model innovation for sustainability (BMIfS) has been recognised as one of the strategic options available to organizations willing to build resilient business models and seize additional value creation opportunities. Although BMIfS design has not been an issue, organizations often fail to implement BMIfS. Thus, Special Issue is inviting contributions on how organizations perform BMIfS and under what conditions the design-implementation gap of BMIfS can be bridged. 

This Special Issue will publish high-quality empirical and theoretical papers on BMIfS challenges, strategies, processes, and impacts.

Prof. Cherif Guermat
Dr. Boumediene Ramdani
Guest Editors

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• business model
• innovation
• sustainability
• design-implementation gap