Exploring business models for sustainability: A bibliographic investigation of the literature and future research directions

This study aims to review the state of the art on the topic of business models for sustainability. The paper screens 1744 peer‐reviewed papers with no temporal limitation and undertakes three stages of literature review analysis of a final set of 134 papers with a combination of systematic, bibliome...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Business strategy and the environment 2021-07, Vol.30 (5), p.2505-2522
Main Authors: Preghenella, Nadia, Battistella, Cinzia
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
bibliometric methods
Bibliometrics
business model for sustainability
Business models
Citation analysis
company sustainability
Innovations
literature review
Literature reviews
multivariate techniques
shared value
stakeholder engagement
State-of-the-art reviews
Sustainability
Sustainability transitions
sustainable development
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Summary:This study aims to review the state of the art on the topic of business models for sustainability. The paper screens 1744 peer‐reviewed papers with no temporal limitation and undertakes three stages of literature review analysis of a final set of 134 papers with a combination of systematic, bibliometric and multivariate techniques. The first output is the identification of six wide different but interconnected research streams of business model for sustainability: namely, elements and structure; applications; different types of business model for sustainability; transition process; circularity as sustainability; and technical aspects of innovation. A theoretical framework that allows to understand the themes explored by the literature so far and gives an interpretation of the evolution of the literature has been produced. Finally, the analysis provides opportunities and research directions for future research. The paper originality lies in providing the first co‐citation analysis of business models for sustainability with a descriptive and critical study by identifying main research trends and relevant gaps in the literature and by providing future research directions.
ISSN:0964-4733
1099-0836
DOI:10.1002/bse.2760