Sustainable business models: a literature review

The relationship between the selected sectoral dimensions and sustainable consumption and production within the Sustainable Development Goal 12

The study's main goal was to quantify the relationships between the selected sectoral dimensions and responsible consumption and production within the Sustainable Development Goal 12 (SDG 12). The SDG 12 goal was examined through the six indicators: (i) raw material consumption tonnes per capita (RMC), (ii) average CO2 emissions per km from new passenger cars (CO2), (iii) circular material use rate, (iv) generation of waste excluding major mineral wastes by hazardousness in kilogram per capita, (v) gross value added in environmental goods and services sector percentage per GDP (VAE), and (vi) energy productivity PPS per kilogram of oil (EPO). The results of the analyses confirmed the existence of the important synergies, but also the significant compromises between the goals of sustainable development. The highest level of association with the raw material consumption was confirmed for the enterprises located in the low-tech manufacturing sector. The results are beneficial for the policymakers and development strategies, for experts dealing with the sector analyses in a relation to sustainable development, creators of the evaluation, and regulatory mechanisms supporting the sustainability of the economies and their environmental goals and strategies.

Individual change agents for corporate sustainability transformation: a systematic literature review

Purpose

Individual change agents for corporate sustainability can drive the transformation of organizations and foster sustainable development. Current research literature is growing and is published in a wide variety of journals. This systematic literature review provides an overview and synthesis of different understandings of individual change agents for corporate sustainability transformation. It identifies gaps and puts forward propositions to contribute to theoretical development in the field.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper conducts a systematic literature review and thematic content analysis of individual agency in light of corporate sustainability transformation.

Findings

The analysis identifies five research streams, three key dimensions of individual change agency for sustainability (beliefs, actions and competencies) and presents levels of individual agency for transformation. An integrated definition of change agents for sustainability is proposed.

Research limitations/implications

The review concludes with implications to support individuals in fostering sustainability transformations of organizations, markets and societies. The synthesis and propositions help in identifying which dimensions are already and could in future be addressed by individual change agents. While acknowledging the usual limitations of literature reviews, this paper can inspire future empirical research on the effectiveness of individual change agents for sustainability.

Originality/value

By synthesizing different understandings in the literature of individual change agents for sustainability, this article contributes to the theoretical development of individual agency in the areas of understandings, research streams, dimensions and perspectives. It also develops propositions on how individual change agency can effectively contribute to sustainability transformations at individual, organizational and systems levels.

Green and sustainable business models: historical roots, growth trajectory, conceptual architecture and an agenda for future research-A bibliometric review of green and sustainable business models

Over the last two decades, green and sustainable business models (GnSBMs) have become a prominent topic of discussion among scholars, practitioners and policymakers. Preponderance of research and an increasing global pressure to adopt GnSBMs necessitate a comprehensive understanding of the state of research on GnSBMs. Towards this end, we extracted 851 publications on GnSBMs from the Scopus database and employed a series of bibliometrical techniques to: (1) explore the historical roots and sleeping beauties, (2) assess the life cycle, (3) map the conceptual evolution and (4) propose a research agenda for this growing field. Our analysis revealed that research on GnSBMs is moving from a multidisciplinary to an interdisciplinary domain. Its historical roots can be traced to the pioneering works on business strategy in the 1950s, environmental science in the early 1960s and stakeholder theory in the 1980s. Life cycle analysis indicated that research on GnSBM went through an introductory stage from 2002 to 2013 and then began to rapidly grow in 2014, and this growth is forecast to continue until circa 2040. The conceptual structures from 2002 to 2013 and 2014 to 2020 were mapped and an agenda for future research was proposed.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11192-022-04577-2.

Relationship Among Green Human Resource Management, Green Knowledge Sharing, Green Commitment, and Green Behavior: A Moderated Mediation Model

This study aims to examine the underlying mechanism of the relationship between perceived green human resource management (GHRM) and perceived employee green behavior (EGB). By drawing on attitude and social exchange theories, we examined green commitment (GC) as a mediator and green knowledge sharing (GKS) as a moderator of the GHRM-EGB relationship. The study employs partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to analyze 329 responses. Data were collected in two time lags. The empirical results confirmed that GC mediates the relationship between GHRM and EGB. However, the study results found that GKS moderated the indirect influence of GHRM on green behavior via GC. This research signifies the effect of GHRM, GKS, GC, and green behavior on organizations' sustainability and environmental management. Despite the emerging literature on the significance of green practices in organizations for environmental management, no study has examined the moderating role of GKS on the indirect effect of GHRM on green behavior via mediating role of GC. This study offers valuable insight into environmental management in organizations through green practices and green behavior.

Decarbonization strategy of businesses, stock return performance and investment styles: a systematic review

Purpose

This paper aims to provide a systematic review of the research focusing on the decarbonization strategy of businesses, stock return performance, and investment styles.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper utilizes bibliometric methods and content analysis to present a broad overview of the research on the association between decarbonization strategies in businesses and financial performance in the last few decades. The final dataset contains 272 records published between 2001 and early 2021, available in the Web of Science (WoS) database.

Findings

The authors find a relatively small number of publications before 2010 and the research focus increases only after 2016. There exists limited knowledge on the links between climate change strategies and firm performance till date. The top management journals have also failed to respond to the importance of decarbonization strategies in firms and their relationship with stock returns and investment styles. Furthermore, there is a limited indication of publications from ecology and the environmental sciences, in general, being included or cited by the business and management research studies, thus highlighting weak network linkages between the two fields.

Research limitations/implications

The study contributes to the literature on decarbonization strategies of businesses, and the strategies' relation with firm performance by consolidating the extant research and thus finding the research gaps and research areas that require further investigation.

Practical implications

For the industry professionals, this research provides a comprehensive repository of articles on incorporating decarbonization strategies in industry professionals' decisions on improving firm performance.

Originality/value

This paper examines the history and development of themes, related to firms' emission mitigation strategies, firm performance and investment styles, across the journal articles in the WoS database published from 2001 to early 2021. In addition, the authors highlight research directions and the need for research on sustainable strategies in businesses, stock return, and investment styles.

Sustainable Circular Economy Strategies: An Analysis of Brazilian Corporate Sustainability Reporting

Corporate Sustainability Reporting provides essential data for academic and empirical research on sustainability and the still-growing adoption of the circular economy by companies. Despite the wide attention that the circular economy receives from the academy, a systematization and hierarchy of the strategies that embrace the sustainable circular economy are still necessary. In addition, there is a limitation of research on the analysis of Corporate Sustainability Reporting in emerging economies. In this study, fifty sustainable circular economy strategies emerged from a systematic literature review, arranged among nine categories. The differential of the identified strategies is the expansion of strategies for a sustainable circular economy vision. Then, 51 Corporate Sustainability Reporting from 17 multinational companies operating in Brazil in 2016, 2018 and 2020 were analyzed to identify companies’ adoption of these strategies. The Corporate Sustainability Reporting analysis results suggest that companies operating in Brazil are directing significant efforts toward a sustainable circular economy. Based on these two results and the theory of business process management, we proposed the Business Process for Sustainable Circular Economy framework.

Understanding the Connection between Sustainable Human Resource Management and the Hotel Business Outcomes: Evidence from the Green-Certified Hotels of Egypt

Sustainable human resource management (SHRM) practices are extensively believed to cause a strategic advantage for the hotel industry. However, while a growing body of evidence indicates that SHRM practices are related to superior organization-level outcomes, it is rather unclear as to how these practices could affect such outcomes and whether they result in desirable hotel outcomes. This paper aimed to examine the moderation effect of hotels’ environmental strategy (ES) on the relationship between SHRM practices and hotel business outcomes: operational performance (OP), competitive advantage (C), and corporate performance (CP). Following a positivism philosophy, a proposed hypothesised model was validated through a survey strategy. Data were obtained from 247 green-certified hotel managers based in Egypt’s top-two major cities involving green-certified hotels. Structural equation modelling was used to test the model relationships. The findings lent credence to the significant connectedness between SHRM practices and hotel business outcomes. The moderation effect of ES was positively confirmed by 83.4% of the SHRM practices, demonstrating that ES is a crucial driver of hotel business outcomes through the optimal usage of SHRM. Negatively, it was revealed that only sustainable promotion practice (16.6%) does not moderate its impact on the hotel business outcomes. This research is the first empirical study to examine the moderation effect of ES on the nexus between the SHRM and hotel business outcomes in the green-certified hotels of Egypt.

Sustainable Business Model Innovation: An Umbrella Review

The purpose of this paper is to conduct an umbrella review of systematic literature reviews of sustainable business model innovation. Despite its relative novelty, sustainable business model innovation is a multifaceted phenomenon. Our aim is to capture the different manifestations of sustainable business model innovation and organise their antecedents and outcomes into an integrative framework. The Web of Science database was used to identify existing systematic literature reviews. The final sample for analysis comprised 57 review articles published up to March 2021. The qualitative data analysis software NVivo was used to facilitate the analysis.

Customer co-creation, COVID-19 and sustainable service outcomes

Purpose

Many changes that call for concerted social action were observed in society and business performance during the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak. The impact of digitization and customer participation was evident in providing medical guidelines, updates on government initiatives, education or the supply of essential services during lockdown in many countries. However, there were aberrations. The purpose of this study is to explore some consumers and firms' being better equipped for service co-creation than others, specifically during a pandemic; the different degrees of service co-creation and the possible outcomes of customer participation in the service context.

Design/methodology/approach

Qualitative study with 35 in-depth interviews of supply- and demand-side actors, with coding and analysis of interview transcripts was conducted.

Findings

The authors identify two levels of service co-creation: (1) service co-development and (2) service co-evaluation that are affected by customer capabilities and firm/institutional barriers. The outcome of service co-creation lies in the social, economic and experiential values thus created. A pandemic strengthens the effect of antecedents (customer capabilities and firm capabilities) on the co-creation process.

Practical implications

Managers can refer to the findings to manage customer engagements and co-creations effectively, especially during a pandemic.

Originality/value

The impact of the pandemic on the service co-creation process in an emerging market, and the antecedents (firm- and customer-side) and consequences (mutual value outcomes) of service co-creation and actor participation are explored.

Towards a Taxonomy for Design Options of Social Networking Technologies in Sustainable Business Models

Social networking technologies such as social media, crowd concepts, or gamification represent key resources for the integration of customers, value network partners, and the community into sustainable business models. However, there is a lack of understanding of how sustainable enterprises apply such technologies. To close this gap, we propose a taxonomy of design options for social networking technologies in sustainable business models. Our taxonomy comprises eight dimensions that deal with relevant questions of the design of social networking technologies. When creating our taxonomy, we built on existing literature and use cases and involved experienced practitioners in the field of sustainable business models for the validation of our taxonomy. In this way, our study contributes to knowledge on the use of social networking technologies in sustainable business models and how such technologies influence the boundaries of sustainable business models. Likewise, we provide practical insights into the use of social networking technologies in sustainable business models.

Sustainable Business Models: A Bibliometric Performance Analysis

Sustainable business models have become a phenomenon of global interest. Since the beginning of the 21st century, companies have sought to shift from traditional business models towards sustainable ones in order to leverage their sustainable performance and increase their competitive advantage. The aim of this paper is to provide an extensive overview of the academic research on sustainable business models with the focus on inquiry of main trends related to business and economics studies and identification of future research directions. This paper reviews existing literature on sustainable business models in order to map this research stream and identify the most substantial contributors to the advances of research in this field. It contributes to the existing body of knowledge on sustainable business models by: (1) describing the most influential and high-impact researchers/authors, journals, and papers; (2) highlighting main and most important research trends related to sustainable business models in studies on business and economics; and (3) identifying future research agendas in investigating sustainable business models from business and economics perspectives.

Green market segmentation and consumer profiling: a cluster approach to an emerging consumer market

Purpose

In the present era of green consumerism, consumers are shifting towards sustainable consumption with the rising demand of green products. Despite consumers' demand of such products, their attitudes towards eco-friendly practices can neither be the same for different consumer groups nor can be treated as they all are equally green. The purpose of this study is to operationalize the green market segmentation based on demographic, psychographic and behavioural characterization in the Indian context of green consumerism.

Design/methodology/approach

The deductive approach of questionnaire survey method has been adapted to collect the responses from convenience sampling of Indian consumers using the measured constructs concerning to green consumer psychology. The data were analyzed by applying multivariate techniques of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), cluster and discriminant analysis.

Findings

The results revealed that the three distinctive set of consumer groups are evolved as “keen greens”, “moderate greens” and “reluctant greens” based on the eight cognitive variables used in this study, namely environmental concern (EC), perceived environmental knowledge (PEK), perceived consumer effectiveness (PCE), perception of eco-label, perception of eco-brand and environmental advertisements, green purchase intention (GPI) and green purchasing behaviour (GPB) in the Indian context.

Research limitations/implications

The research findings may lack its generalizability in the Indian context, as the survey strategy is confined with the most populated territory of India. To provide its robustness, the future studies need more heterogeneous sample across the country. The research findings could provide the key insights into policymakers and enterprises in the framing of marketing strategies to promote green consumerism in the setting of emerging economies.

Originality/value

There is dearth of literature concerning to green consumer segmentation based on the “attitude–intention–behaviour” approach in the Indian context. Therefore, the present study endeavours to manifest a holistic description of green consumer classification based on demographic, psychographic and behavioural characterization. At Prima facie, the study is the first that elucidates consumers' segments profile by incorporating environmental cognitive factors from both the perspectives; “consumers” inner stimuli' and “external green marketing cues”, especially in the indigenous Indian setting.

Taxonomy of organizational alignment: implications for data-driven sustainable performance of firms and supply chains

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to identify, characterize, classify and conceptualize different perspectives on strategic alignment still in use, propose a taxonomy and definitions that allow understanding the various coexisting concepts, as well as investigate the implications of strategic alignment for data-driven sustainable performance of firms and supply chains.

Design/methodology/approach

Bibliographic review was used.

Findings

The taxonomy proposes two classes of strategic alignment: (1) Align – more rigorous types of alignment: structure alignment, strategic congruence and strategy alignment; (2) Fit – less rigorous types of alignment: contingency strategic adjustment, strategic coalignment and strategic consistency. Companies are accumulating large amounts of data, which relevance varies widely. The strategic alignment can define criteria to select only the data that have strategic value, which restricts the amount of data to be analyzed. Each of the six types of strategic alignment is appropriate for a given situation in companies and/or supply chains.

Research limitations/implications

The limitations stem from the exclusive use of the taxonomy of strategic alignment, without considering the most diverse perspectives of strategy.

Practical implications

Decision makers will be able to identify more objectively which classes of data should be explored in each situation.

Social implications

Theoretical implications – The taxonomy proposal and the definition of each of the strategic alignment perspectives solve generalized misunderstandings resulting from the lack of a clear delimitation between the perspectives and the conceptual divergence between authors, who use them as equivalent or synonymous.

Originality/value

From 1961 to 2019, no paper was found proposing taxonomy, typology, systematization, ranking, distribution or classification of strategic alignment. The strategic alignment can define criteria to select, within the large amount of data accumulated by the company, only those that have strategic value, what restricts the quantity of data to be analyzed and facilitates the decision of the leaders.