Digital‐sustainable business models: Definition, systematic literature review, integrative framework and research agenda from a strategic management perspective
Journal
International Journal of Management Reviews
ISSN
1460-8545
Type
journal article
Date Issued
2024-09-03
Author(s)
Abstract
The era of digitization coincides with a growing interest in social and environmental
sustainability. Management scholars, therefore, turned their attention
to the intersection of both trends, seeking a better understanding of how firms
can manage digital sustainability. Business models are a central element in the
strategic management of digital sustainability. Due to the diverse roots in the
digitization literature, the sustainability literature and the business model literature,
previous work on digital-sustainable businessmodels is highly fragmented.
We, therefore, develop a strategic management framework and conduct an integrative
literature review to synthesize fragmented insights, covering 134 studies
published between 2007 and 2023 in leading academic journals. Examining the
synthesized body of knowledge fromthe lens of affordances and our framework’s
inclusive strategic management perspective, we then identify promising avenues
for further strategy research. Among others, future research should examine
complementarities and conflicts between the three business model dimensions
(value propositions, value creation and delivery processes, value capture mechanisms),
between multiple options within each dimension, between different
digital technologies, between various digital affordances, between digitalization
and sustainability and between the outcomes of the triple-bottom-line. More
efforts should also be directed towards the antecedents and boundary conditions
of digital-sustainable business models and towards questions of generalizability,
especially towards generalizable theoretical mechanisms. Our framework,
synthesis and research agenda support strategy scholars in advancing our
understanding of business models for digital sustainability.
sustainability. Management scholars, therefore, turned their attention
to the intersection of both trends, seeking a better understanding of how firms
can manage digital sustainability. Business models are a central element in the
strategic management of digital sustainability. Due to the diverse roots in the
digitization literature, the sustainability literature and the business model literature,
previous work on digital-sustainable businessmodels is highly fragmented.
We, therefore, develop a strategic management framework and conduct an integrative
literature review to synthesize fragmented insights, covering 134 studies
published between 2007 and 2023 in leading academic journals. Examining the
synthesized body of knowledge fromthe lens of affordances and our framework’s
inclusive strategic management perspective, we then identify promising avenues
for further strategy research. Among others, future research should examine
complementarities and conflicts between the three business model dimensions
(value propositions, value creation and delivery processes, value capture mechanisms),
between multiple options within each dimension, between different
digital technologies, between various digital affordances, between digitalization
and sustainability and between the outcomes of the triple-bottom-line. More
efforts should also be directed towards the antecedents and boundary conditions
of digital-sustainable business models and towards questions of generalizability,
especially towards generalizable theoretical mechanisms. Our framework,
synthesis and research agenda support strategy scholars in advancing our
understanding of business models for digital sustainability.
Language
English
Publisher
Wiley
Volume
27
Number
3
File(s)![Thumbnail Image]()
open.access
Name
2025 IJMR Digital‐sustainable business models .pdf
Size
1.2 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
b1ad835d623c999624d59e2461fcb1d0