Business models based on the circular economy and product service systems are explained as examples of sustainable business models, along with a breakdown of sustainability factors for both examples. Their business model approach is currently one of the most popular approaches to describing, developing and analyzing business models.
The (Three Layered) Canvas: A Tool for Sustainable Business Model Creation
Sustainable business model tools have been developed either to adapt conventional business models or to create new ones so that they fulfill the purpose of creating companies that are environmentally and socially friendly and economically sufficient. By assembling the nine core elements of their business model approach mentioned above (customer segments, channels, customer relationships, revenue, value proposition, resources, activities, partners, and costs), entrepreneurs can easily conceptualize their business model (Osterwalder and Pigneur 2013).
Business Model Innovation Meets Future Studies
The authors used elements of ecological life cycle assessment to create the environmental layer of their concepts, which now include functional value, materials, production, supply and outsourcing, distribution, use phase, end of life, environmental impacts and environmental benefits. Vertical coherence allows the comparison and analysis of interaction and interference of specific elements, such as value proposition, functional value and social value (Joyce et al.2015).
Scenario 2
The Value Creation Module (VCM)
Any kind of value creation activity can be characterized in terms of a so-called value creation module (VCM) (Seliger 2008). A VCM is composed of five value creation factors (VCF): product, process, equipment, organization and human.
Description of the Method
For this reason, this part of the method focused on specific processes rather than their network. The VCM (see also Section 2.1) provides a structured framework for noting value creation activities in the first step of the method. In order to gain general knowledge about the sustainability performance of VCM, in the second step, an assessment of aVCM is carried out.
Based on the similarity assessment of the selected benchmarks, the VCM can be reconfigured and its sustainable performance improved. The method focuses on the network implementation of pre-labeled, evaluated and reconfigured VCMs. Industrial symbiosis networks and contribution to environmental innovation: the case of the Landskron industrial symbiosis programme.
In this section, the reasoning behind the implementation of sustainability as part of the company's strategy is examined, and the most important motivational aspects are highlighted. Based on the historical development of the concept and the discipline, limitations put forward by sustainability strategies seem contradictory and require further investigation. As far as the scientific development of this aspect is concerned, an essential structuring feature lies in the origin of motivation.
After examining the motivations behind the implementation of sustainability in the corporate strategy, a new or adapted strategy must be determined.
De fi nition of the Business Model and Business Success as the Baseline for Strategy Development
Social perspective - To achieve sustainable value creation within the social dimension, social issues at the center of attention must provide a real competitive advantage. Combining fragments or modules of an enterprise is a fundamental aspect in several definitions of business models (Osterwalder and Pigneur 2011; Johnson et al. 2008; Wirtz 2010; Mitchell and Coles 2003), which serves the purpose of creating products and services and thereby creating, delivering and sustaining value. (Wirtz 2010; Johnson et al. 2008; Osterwalder and Pigneur 2011). In this context, value creation is used to strengthen customer relationship and competitive advantage (Wirtz2010).
Differentiation compared to competitors and strengthening the customer relationship. Realization of competitive advantage and absorption of value. Relating the business model concept to sustainability (Lüdeke-Freund2010), a sustainable business model is defined as “a business model that creates competitive advantage through superior customer value and contributes to sustainable development of the company and society.” Sustainable business model innovation can be an important lever to consider changes in a business as sustainable and to meet the emerging challenges in this context.
This further involves an expansion of the business model scope beyond green (FORA 2010), product-service systems (Tukker 2004) or social issues (Yunus et al.2010; Bocken et al.2014). These archetypes can be interpreted as an approach for business model innovation to sustainability.
Strategy Development
In the second step, the products and markets are categorized to quantify their respective contribution to the overall business performance. The goal of this step is to obtain a first rough estimate of the yield model in order to derive interesting advances from the existing business model in the next step. The most important decisions regarding the incorporation of sustainability into the strategic decision-making process are derived in the step of assessing the strategic options for corporate sustainability.
The starting point for determining appropriate strategic options is covered in step 1, where the company's general goals and current trends in the business environment are presented. In addition, the current position of the company, examined in step 2, leads to the need to make a fundamental decision about how precisely the company would like to face the challenge of sustainability without losing its growth potential. Baumgartner and Ebner (2010) recommend a set of profiles for sustainability strategy (Table 1) as a first orientation tool in the strategic decision-making process.
For the analysis of the relationship between sustainability and competitive strategy, (Baumgartner and Ebner2010) propose two criteria: the costs caused by the strategy and the recipient of the resulting benefits. The use of process management approaches for transferring complex strategies to operational business will be examined in the next section.
Process De fi nition and Modelling
Therefore, the process definition extends from customer requirements to delivery of process results to the customer. It is important that the terms of the processes of corporate strategy and reference to customers within the framework of process management are harmonized (Jochem and Balzert 2010). Figure 6 illustrates the connection between corporate strategy and its operationalization through integrated management.
The comprehensive development and implementation of a corporate sustainability strategy that meets the requirements of the economic, environmental and social perspective requires a solid information base from which to move forward. The applications are designed and reach to illustrate the enterprise architecture, analyze the root causes. Process management therefore starts with aligning the processes and the sustainability strategy, which means defining the value-adding processes and objectives that need to be achieved.
During the implementation of the processes in the organization of the company, the evaluation of the processes in terms of achieving the objective is done and where possible harmonization or standardization may be required. The implementation of a sustainable development strategy requires not only excellent knowledge of internal processes and structures, but also, for example, of relations with customers and partners, i.e.
Resource De fi nition and Impact Analysis
This physical part of the production system includes infrastructure and buildings, work equipment, and measuring, storage, and transportation facilities (Westkämper and Decker 2006). Based on the classical understanding of “land” as the main factor of production, natural capital comprises all available natural resources, processes and systems (Harris and Roach 2013; IIRC 2013). The classification of intellectual capital among intangible resources follows the principle of harmonization of intellectual capital factors into standard repositories.
Although all factors are indeed structural factors of intangible resources, the implications on the activities of the model as state transformation of objects such as "knowledge" must be observed and incorporated into the process model creation. At the micro level, the external relations of the enterprise with individual actors are taken into account, while cooperation partners, supplier, customer and investor relations constitute the meso level as individual "dyadic" relations (Provan et al. 2007). At this point, an assessment of the cause-effect relationships can be implemented following a cross-factor impact assessment of all resource factors (Alwert et al. 2005).
The identification of closed-loop relationships is an attempt to address the systems theoretical discussion of the introduction, where weakening or strengthening dependencies are identified and expressed in relation to a specific object of analysis (Galeitzke et al. 2015) . The definition of resources (tangible and intangible) builds the basis for the analysis of the interrelationships within the different resource categories and helps to identify fields of action for improving the sustainability performance of their deployment.
Action Planning and Monitoring Through Allocation in Process Models
The measurement, control and communication of information about sustainability requires the interaction between various actors, evaluation methods and operational data (Maas et al.2016). By applying this framework, one can ensure that a systematic embedding of the individual sustainability strategies, objectives, their monitoring and their implementation takes place in the planning phase. Once the variables that contribute to the characterization of sustainability have been modeled, a detailed action plan for achieving the strategic goals is required.
In order to make the best use of a company's scarce resources, an initial selection is necessary. Optimizing energy consumption can e.g. be extremely urgent but may not be easily feasible due to contractual obligations. Furthermore, the improvement of material efficiency may be extremely urgent, but not very feasible, due to the complex processes along the value chain, which can only be changed with a huge effort.
Moreover, a solution for network sustainability management and its evaluation is required to balance economic, ecological and social dimensions (Wilding et al.2012). To provide task- or role-oriented information, the framework supports a so-called "view concept." The views contain.
Integrated Reporting
One was to offer a bridge builder for sustainability reporting on the path to integrated reporting. Based on this, the IIRC develops proposals for integrated reporting, consisting of seven guiding principles and nine key content elements. To increase the distribution of the report, the approach also suggests the use of digital media.
Exploring the integration of corporate sustainability into strategic management: A literature review. Journal of Cleaner Production. Towards Integrated Reporting – Communicating Value in the 21st Century: Summary of Responses to the Summary of Responses to the September 2011 Discussion Paper and Next Steps.http://integratedreporting.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Discussion -Paper - Abstract 1. The Consequences of Mandatory Corporate Sustainability Reporting.Harvard Business School Working Paper 11–100.
The International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) integrated reporting framework: Towards better sustainability reporting and (much) beyond. Environmental Quality Management23(2): 1–14. Motivations for sustainable business management: contrasting research findings and implementation. Corporate social responsibility and environmental management.
