CONFERENCE TRACKS NBM2025

Research on the tensions generated by paradoxes in sustainability-oriented business is topical. This workshop will explore those paradoxes inherent in business models for sustainability and how stakeholder behaviour influences them. Through a case study of the fashion industry, we will discuss various theoretical and practical perspectives on these complex dynamics. A panel of practitioners and academic experts and an interactive session will enable participants to delve deeper into this topic, share experiences, and co-construct new ideas.

The workshop seeks to facilitate integrating and advancing participants' research agendas within the topic. By fostering collaborative discussions and exploring academic and practical experience, it aims to identify new avenues to expand the field's boundaries and practical and theoretical frameworks of ongoing and future research. Additionally, group activities will help participants connect with potential collaborators for future research projects.

Organizers:

Jaime Gonzalez-Masip. Universidad Politécnica de Madrid

Sonia Marcos. Universidad de Burgos

Esben R.G. Pedersen. Copenhagen Business School

Thorey S Thorisdottir. University of Iceland

Grace Achieng. Gracelandic

Date and time: 24. or 25th of June, 2025

Duration: 2 hours

NOTE: To confirm your participation, please complete the registration form using the link: https://forms.gle/zoQQELqb97ZieZgz5

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The En-Roads Climate Workshop is an interactive session where participants, guided by a trained facilitator, propose climate solutions. These solutions are tested in real-time using the En-Roads Climate Solutions Simulator to evaluate their impact on global temperature. The workshop aims to develop scenarios that align with the Paris Agreement´s goals of limiting global warning to well below 2C, ideally 1.5, above pre-industrial levels.

The workshop is ideal for those seeking to understand the implications of climate mitigation strategies and their impact. Participants gain a deeper understanding of the interconnectedness of various climate solutions, such as renewable energy, carbon pricing, deforestation reduction, and their impact on global warming. They experience a hands-on, real-time simulation using the En-Roads Climate Solutions simulator, which visualizes the outcomes of proposed climate policies and actions.

The workshop emphasizes global goals and offers insights into policies that support international climate objectives. It also helps participants evaluate the effectiveness of different strategies for mitigating climate change while understanding the trade-offs and synergies among other actions.

By the end of the workshop, a panel discussion on individual and collective actions and how we, as individuals, the research community, and businesses, can make a meaningful difference in addressing climate change.

Organizers:

Agusta Thora Jonsdottir, University of Iceland

Rosbjorg Jónsdóttir, Icelandic Energy Cluster

Date and time: 24. or 25th of June, 2025

Duration: 2 hours

Panelists:  4 and 6 panelists, comprised of 50% industry practitioners from Iceland and 50% academics selected from the conference attendees.

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Achieving meaningful sustainability in business demands a nuanced understanding of diverse approaches, including regenerative models, circular economy, strong and weak sustainability, community-based practices, and more. These models intersect with a growing interest in inter- and transdisciplinary approaches, which transcend traditional disciplinary boundaries to address complex, real-world challenges.

This workshop provides a dynamic space for researchers and practitioners to engage critically and collaboratively with these approaches. Instead of passively receiving content, participants will be actively involved in a series of facilitated, hands-on activities designed to spark dialogue, surface tensions, and co-develop new perspectives. With just a touch of theory to ground us, the focus will be on activities to build a shared understanding, exploring diverse viewpoints, and co-creating new ideas for sustainability-oriented business models and ecosystems.

Whether it is to learn more about these models or share your expertise, this workshop will offer you a platform. Throughout the session, participants will:

• Reflect on the relationships and tensions between different sustainability models, particularly the spectrum from weak to strong sustainability

• Explore how ecological integrity, social value, and systemic thinking can be meaningfully integrated into business models;

• Work together to generate new insights that support interdisciplinary and practice-oriented research;

• Gain new insights to enhance your research or professional practice.

• Connect with peers from diverse disciplines and institutions, creating opportunities for future collaboration.

The workshop is ideal for those eager to contribute to the evolution of sustainable business practices and particularly early career researchers interested in inter- and multi-disciplinarity.

Organizers:
Dominika Alexa Teigiserova, Manchester Metropolitan University

Tulin Dzhengiz, Manchester Metropolitan University

Sarah Walker, Manchester Metropolitan University

Susana Toboso Chavero, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Erasmus University Rotterdam

Paul Dewick, Manchester Metropolitan University

Date and time:
24th or 25th of June, 2025

Duration:
2 hours

NOTE: To ensure your participation, we invite you to look for the registration form, which will be available a few weeks before the workshop.

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This workshop convenes entrepreneurial leaders from both the Global Majority and the North to engage in a reciprocity-centered exploratory dialogue about groundbreaking business models and their impact on sustainability, equity, healthcare, and climate resilience in order to surface current research gaps and opportunities for further research. Focused on addressing the world’s largest challenges, we will explore two distinct business models tackling the same issue—one from the Global Majority and one from the North—while leveraging different resources and drawing from diverse cultural wisdom and knowledge.

Through dynamic presentations and an exploratory dialogue between entrepreneurs from South America, Africa, and the North, we will uncover the intersections of their innovations and the unique differences in their approaches. This session will challenge traditional perceptions of innovation by learning how these different approaches are advancing next-generation business models. 

Building on the outcomes of these discussions, a facilitated workshop will engage participants in exploring further research opportunities. Together, we will identify key themes and opportunities to highlight new directions for future research.

Key Themes

·      Unique Business Models: Examine the design, resources, implementation strategies, and impact of innovative business models.

• Entrepreneurial Skills and Mindsets: Discover how diverse cultures, creativity, and wisdom empower entrepreneurs to envision innovative solutions and drive impact and change.

• Reciprocity and Global Systems Change: Explore how collaborations between the Global Majority and the North can inspire and sustain transformative global impact.

• New Research Agenda: Identify key opportunities and emerging themes to inform new research directions, aligned with the normative values, interests and expertise of workshop participants.

Workshop participants will gain valuable insights into innovative business model designs, uncovering new pathways for democratized transformative business practices. This session fosters cross-contextual learning, encouraging reciprocal collaboration, exploring new research themes and opportunities for future exploration. 

Format

The workshop will feature a dynamic series of three presentations, each showcasing innovative business models that tackle the same global challenge from distinct perspectives. This will be followed by an exploratory dialogue designed to foster deep engagement and cross-contextual learning. A final facilitated session, led by Professor Maya and business design practitioner Ondine Hogeboom, will guide participants in identifying new research themes and opportunities aligned with their areas of interest and expertise. Participants will also integrate key takeaways grounded in expansive business model exploration and an appreciation for diverse perspectives.

Who Is This For?

This workshop is for academics, researchers, and practitioners from the Global Majority and the North who are interested in cross-cultural dialogue, collaborative learning, and advancing research on business models addressing sustainability, equity, healthcare, climate resilience, and global systems change. It offers a unique space to uncover new research themes by exploring transformative business practices through a culturally diverse lens.

Organizers

Ondine Hogeboom (Director, Flourishing Startups, Fellow, Georgian College Canada) 

Dr Maya Hoveskog (Halmstad University)

Levinia Jones (Specialist in cultural intelligence and cultural exchange - Southern Africa) 

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Annukka Näyhä & Irene Kuhmonen, Jyväskylä University School of Business and Economics, Finland

Timber Haaker Saxion, University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands

Milou Derks, Orange Corners and Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands

Nguyen Hong Quan, Institute for Circular Economy Development, Vietnam National University - Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam,

Nguyen Cong Thanh, National Economics University, Hanoi, Vietnam,

Keywords: Innovations and business models for sustainability; business ecosystem; collaboration; circularity; sustainability transition; transdisciplinary approaches; Global North, Global South.

It is widely agreed that diverse organizations, instead of seeking purely economic profits attained through innovations, should increasingly pursue sustainability-oriented innovations which promote environmental and/or social sustainability (e.g. Boons and Lüdeke-Freund, 2013; Adams et al., 2016; Bocken et al. 2019). Further, aligned collaborative efforts by a diverse range of value network actors and stakeholders are needed for sustainable value creation and successful innovation diffusion. For example, circular business models and innovations with networked nature are key levers for implementation of circular economy principles (Antinkainen and Valkokari, 2016). All in all, sustainability transition requires innovative business models and collaboration between diverse organizations as well as between organizations and their stakeholders in diverse business ecosystems, value networks and platforms (Köhler, 2019; Aagaard et al. 2021; Planko and Kramer, 2021; Derks et al., 2022; Näyhä and Wallius, 2024; Nguyen, Haaker, and Le, 2023).

However, in-depth information on the impacts of innovative business models and ecosystems on system-level change is often lacking. Similarly, effects of system structures and the drivers and barriers they pose on sustainable business models requires more knowledge. Transition studies explore large-scale societal transformation towards sustainability, thus offering more systemic and interdisciplinary approaches to management and organizational studies (Markard et al., 2012). Management studies, in turn, when combined with transition perspectives, can illuminate the role of business actors and their agency in transition processes (Köhler et al., 2019). Further, the form that the business models and ecosystems take depends on the societal and business context in which they are to be embedded, such as Global North and Global South. For example, the Global South has informal low-income contexts which are rich in necessity-driven value retaining practices for materials and goods (Korsunova et al., 2022; Muchangos, 2021). While the transition contexts in these regions vary greatly, businesses in both regions are connected to each other through global telecouplings which affect the distribution of both environmental and social sustainability impacts and economic returns, highlighting also the justice aspects related to transition processes (Ramcilovic-Suominen, 2022).

Thus, attuning towards the specific challenges that arise from these contextual settings enhances the opportunities for promoting the role that innovative business models and collaborations can play in sustainability transitions.

This session welcomes studies that combine research on sustainable business models and large-scale, systemic sustainability transitions. The session explores the role of innovative business models and ecosystems in the sustainability transition both in Global South and North.  Bringing together these diverse theoretical and geographical perspectives is a necessity for studying, understanding, and facilitating the sustainability transition in our society. The session is divided into two parts, one of them concentrating on presentations related to Global South, and the other one to Global North.

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Track chairs: Abel Diaz Gonzalez, Maastricht University (The Netherlands);

Nikolay Dentchev, University of National and World Economy (Bulgaria) and Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium);

Bart Leyen, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium);

Valery Chistov, Deusto Business School, University of Deusto (Spain)

The ecosystem concept has gained significant attention over the past decade (Audretsch et al., 2018). Ecosystem thinking offers valuable insights into how various stakeholders can align, interact, and collaborate to gain competitive advantage, foster innovation, and enhance business productivity (Adner, 2017; Jacobides et al., 2018). Ecosystems support business growth by leveraging the diversity and complementarity of actors, their interactions, and coordinated efforts to mobilize resources (Neumeyer & Corbett, 2017; Roundy et al., 2017; Spigel & Harrison, 2018). Although there is still a lack of conceptual and theoretical clarity around ecosystems (Wurth et al., 2021), they serve as an ideal unit of analysis for addressing sustainability issues due to their holistic and systemic characteristics (Henriques et al., 2022).

In recent years, world leaders have increasingly advocated for more coordinated efforts to address various global challenges. Organizations like the World Economic Forum (World Economic Forum, 2020) have established supportive structures and programs to help entrepreneurs develop their businesses and increase their impact, offering both financial and non-financial assistance. Despite these initiatives, more cross-sectoral partnerships and support are urgently needed to address complex global challenges effectively.

As we strive to tackle sustainability problems, building well-functioning ecosystems becomes critical (Theodoraki et al., 2017). These ecosystems must prove their capacity to adapt, mobilize flexible and complementary resources (funding, infrastructure, knowledge), and evolve governance structures (Acs et al., 2017), policies (Stam, 2015), boundaries (Audretsch et al., 2019), and interrelationships (Stam & van de Ven, 2021). Ecosystem culture and resilience capacity are equally important (Roundy et al., 2017).

The ecosystem approach is crucial for both large, established businesses aiming to reduce their environmental impact and small, new sustainable ventures. For large businesses, ecosystems offer a platform to collaborate with diverse stakeholders, share knowledge, and access innovative solutions that help them transition to more sustainable practices and reduce their environmental footprint. These ecosystems provide the necessary support for integrating sustainable technologies, adjusting supply chains, and aligning with evolving environmental regulations. On the other hand, for small, new sustainable ventures, ecosystems are equally vital as they provide access to essential resources such as funding, mentorship, and networks, which are often limited for startups. By leveraging these ecosystems, small ventures can collaborate with key actors, foster innovation, and accelerate their growth while maintaining a sustainability focus. Ecosystems help these startups overcome barriers to entry and scale their impact more effectively by tapping into shared knowledge and resources.

This session aims to bring together scholars to discuss their current research on how ecosystems can be developed to support sustainability. Our focus will be on building ecosystems that foster new business models and address emerging global challenges. We welcome papers that explore the importance of ecosystems both for large, established businesses working to decrease their environmental impact, and for small, new sustainable ventures looking to scale their innovations. Papers from various methodological backgrounds, including literature reviews, theoretical, conceptual, and empirical work, are encouraged.

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Track chairs: Niels Faber, Hanze University of Applied Sciences, Groningen and University of Groningen (The Netherlands) & Jan Jonker Radboud University Nijmegen, em (The Netherlands). 

Recently, it has become clear that we need to develop innovative and radical solutions to tackle wicked and pressing problems associated with our current, linear economy and the sticky societal arrangements that are formed around it. Limitations of current society to tackle complex challenges become more and more visible. Efforts to address these issues thus far have only resulted in the creation of waste, pollution, depletion, and extreme forms of social exclusion.

 A new generation of business models is needed that fosters a transition towards sustainable societies (Derks, et al., 2023; Faber and Jonker, 2023). Since many, if not all, of these problems, stem from how value creation is organised, it calls for a reconceptualization of how the amalgamation of sustainable, circular, inclusive, and restorative business models can bring about radical (system) change.

This track invites contributions exploring how sustainable business models can shape transformation and transitions towards a more sustainable and inclusive society (e.g., Jonker and Faber, 2021; Faber and Witjes, 2024). Problems to be addressed include a mixed and diverse perspective on circularity, sustainability, social well-being, and biodiversity (Rockström et al., 2009; Raworth, 2017). These problems are linked and should be addressed at various levels of aggregation.

Leading questions

For NBM2025@Reykjavík, we want to continue to explore the debate started at NBM2024@San Sebastian on how sustainable business models contribute to shaping transitions towards a more just, more inclusive, and sustainable society. We welcome both empirical as well as theoretical and conceptual contributions. Regarding practice, we are interested in contributions that address the question of where we may find examples of this in practices and/or policies, in which business models are deliberately applied to realize such transition. We are interested to learn what the real and if possible measurable impact of these business models is.

Concerning theoretical/conceptual contributions we are looking for ways in which the foundations and concepts of business models foster transition. How are the connections between the concepts of transition and value creation operationalized and to what effect?

Our concept of business models is not limited by thinking only in concepts based on organizations’ pur-sang. On the contrary, we are convinced that value creation can be shaped through a rich and emerging variety of collective or collaborative business models based on collaboration between diverse stakeholders such as citizens, businesses, and government.

Our ambition is to chair two sessions. The first is on empirical observations and experiences of how business models shape societal transition. The second session will focus on exploring the theoretical and conceptual foundations of business models for transition. All those who submit to this track are cordially invited to join both sessions, present their work, and join the discussions.

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Track chairs:Maya Hoveskog, Halmstad University (Sweden), Laura Michelini, LUMSA University of Rome (Italy), Magnus Holmén, Halmstad University (Sweden), Lauri Paavola, University of Eastern Finland (Finland); Luís Irgang Dos Santos, Halmstad University (Sweden)

This track theoretically and empirically analyzes and conceptualizes the emergence and structure of both firms’ and ecosystems’ value propositions for sustainability.  The track focuses on, but is not limited to, the interplay between products and services vs data-driven business models and ecosystems; digitization, digitalization, and digital transformation of business models; the development and use of big data and machine learning, the use of generative AI for innovation and decision-making, data acquisition strategies and new business models; the role of digital platforms for business model innovation; methods for developing data-driven business models and ecosystems. A particular focus is placed on AI for data-driven business models for sustainable transformation.

Below listed are questions that illustrate relevant topics that the contributions can tackle. Those are neither exhaustive not comprehensive. Other relevant lines of investigation are welcome tackling innovation through artificial intelligence and data-driven business models for sustainable transformation.

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Track chairs: Sonia Marcos, Universidad de Burgos (Spain), Jaime González-Masip, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (Spain), Moniek Kamm, Saxion UAS

This track explores and explains community-based and community-led business models as a new approach to better understanding the necessity of bottom-up initiatives for sustainable development. Already, community-led and based actions and strategies result in successful new business models to address challenges in different communities, where the community's interests are closely linked to the preservation of the social capital and environment, such as rural communities. Collective and community-led business models can provide new solutions to local needs of communities such as ageing populations, elderly care, lack of essential services, access to affordable housing or integration of vulnerable groups, and spark the development of opportunities of circular economy in high potential sectors such as food and agriculture, new bio-based value chains and ecosystem services, among others. "The community is an intermediate, mediating and moderating environment" (Hindle, 2010, p. 601). The community context profoundly influences the types of entrepreneurship initiatives and how they are carried out (Peredo & Chrisman, 2006), demonstrating the importance of the community context in entrepreneurship (Mezias & Kuperman, 2001). The collective context and value proposition profoundly influence the types of entrepreneurship initiatives and businesses and how they are organised, demonstrating the importance of the community context in sustainable entrepreneurship.

Community-based business models (Jonker & Faber, 2021) are a distinct form of collective business models (Jonker, Hobé and Kamm, 2024) in which constituents collectively contribute to organizing themselves in an entrepreneurial manner (Kamm, 2022) around a collective value proposition. 

In community-led approaches, initiatives are not led by an organisation or other outsiders but by a communal process (Wessells, 2018, p. 19). A community-led approach uses the practices of empowerment, mutual learning and consensus building to create bottom-up, citizen-driven change (Kolosy, 2020). The community holds the power and makes the critical decisions. Community-based business models addressing wicked problems related to sustainable development demonstrate parallels to institutes for collective action (Ostrom, 2010) and Social-Ecological Systems (McGuiness and Ostrom, 2014). Community-based initiatives addressing sustainable development bring a new element in that their constituents often represent different realms of society (Kamm, 2022), resulting in a broad and diverse number of community stakeholders that are involved in governing, supporting, acting and making decisions for the work done by the community, involving strategy and core activities next to self-determination and autonomy (Wessells, 2018).

Therefore, community-based organising forms are in demand of customised business models that support the community and its goals. Social innovation is essential in designing new solutions focused on communities' local and specific needs because it adds new economic and social value to the community (Vercher et al., 2020; Ubels, Haartsen & Bock, 2019), where community-led and community-based business models can act as support structures for community development and dynamics (Olmedo et al., 2023).

This session aims to attract academics to discuss their current research on community-led and community-based business models. We welcome articles from different methodological backgrounds, including literature reviews and theoretical, conceptual, empirical, existing projects, and case studies.

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Track chairs: Laura Niessen, Maastricht University (The Netherlands)

Matthew Coffay, NHH Norwegian School of Economics (Norway)

Sveinung Jørgensen, NHH Norwegian School of Economics (Norway)

Lars Pedersen, NHH Norwegian School of Economics (Norway)

Nancy Bocken, Maastricht University (The Netherlands)

The circular economy is an inspiration to many companies. Yet, established businesses and new ventures alike need significant experimentation to create desirable, feasible, viable, and sustainable business models (Bocken et al., 2021). Experimenting with diverse circular business models can support the acceleration of circular disruption with a “systemic, widespread and fast change” (Blomsma et al., 20222, p.1011) towards circularity. Research on business experimentation for circularity shows that experimentation requires considerable capability and planning but can create valuable learning and guide the transition towards sustainability (Weissbrod & Bocken, 2017). This reiterative approach can help overcome consumer barriers through finding interventions that address them (Bashhir et al., 2020).

While companies have been quite successful at creating business models focused on ’narrowing the loop’ through resource efficiencies and closing the loop through recycling, the more challenging business models focused on regeneration, as well as slowing the loop through strategies such as sufficiency, are less commonplace (Bocken et al., 2022). Regeneration requires businesses to consider both societal and environmental well-being in their operations and to attempt to do “more good” rather than “less bad” (Konietzko et al., 2023). Sufficiency-oriented businesses seek to address the overconsumption of resources and provide alternative products and services to ensure that needs are met within the planetary boundaries (Niessen & Bocken, 2021). Both of these more strongly sustainable business transformations require piloting and experimentation to assess their desirability, feasibility and viability, as well as their real and measurable impact in terms of sustainability.

Finally, circular business models need to be designed and reviewed carefully to ensure that they do not accidentally create unintended rebound effects (Das et al., 2023). Circular business models often entail or require behavioural changes but might inadvertently lead to higher impacts due to convenience or new forms of consumption (Baczyk et al., 2024). Therefore, experimentation and experimentation tools can help to assess possible rebound effects (Das et al., 2023).

This track focuses on the cases, practices and tools of experimentation with new circular business model strategies.

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Track chairs:

Burcin Hatipoglu, School of Business IRRG & PSRG, Canberra, University of New South Wales (UNSW), Australia

Silvia Cantele, Department of Management, University of Verona, Italy

Assunta Di Vaio, Department of Law, University of Naples "Parthenope", Italy

Vincenzo Riso, Department of Management, University of Verona, Italy

This track explores the future directions for developing managerial capabilities and accountability when innovating business models for digital, green, and inclusive transition. Engagement with sustainability and circularity involves integrating ecological and social aspects into products, processes, and organizational structures. Some avenues to explore in this track are governance and the role of boards, leadership, and managerial responsibilities; employee participation in eco-innovation processes; circular and sustainability KPIs and incentives; formal and informal organizational learning; knowledge management; sustainability practices and sustainability or integrated reporting; and creating co-creation opportunities with employees and other stakeholders.

Theories that lend themselves to exploring the managerial side of business model innovations include the resource-based view of the firm, dynamic capabilities, capability view of the firm, stakeholder theory, organizational learning, and sustainability transition frameworks. We invite research that applies some of these theories or proposes unexplored theories to examine how the managerial side of an organization can be developed when organizations innovate their business models.

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Track chairs: Dorleta Ibarra, Mondragon Unibertsitatea (Spain), Juan Ignacio Igartua Mondragon Unibertsitatea (Spain) 

We are facing a paradigm shift marked by a convergence of multiple crises, such as climate change and environmental degradation, energy crises, water scarcity, global health crises, geopolitical conflicts, economic downturns, supply chain disruptions, social inequalities, and migration and displacement. The urgency to address these interconnected crises is driving the global triple transition—digital, green, and inclusive.

Crises stress societies, disrupt economies, strain public services, and can significantly challenge conventional business models. They increase uncertainty, challenge governance structures and regulations, aggravate inequalities, and damage social cohesion, leaving businesses and communities struggling to maintain stability and resilience while adapting to new contexts and market dynamics.

New business models emerging from crises and adapting to the triple transition often focus on agility, resilience and sustainability, accelerating technology diffusion and digital transformation to remain competitive in a changing world. In this context, emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence can play a crucial role in addressing crises by providing rapid data analysis, supporting decision-making, and predicting trends. Likewise, organisations are increasingly pivoting toward circular business models to address climate change, resource constraints and regulatory pressures. These business model innovations must be inclusive and just, placing people at the centre and ensuring that no one is left behind. We must move towards organisations that integrate intergenerational challenges, promote diversity in all its forms (gender, race, class, etc.), foster (inter-)cooperation, create shared social value, and cultivate a culture that empowers individuals to play a more active role in social transformations.

This track explores research aimed at understanding the dynamics that help businesses and communities not only weather crises but also seize them as opportunities for innovation and sustainable growth. It focuses on building and assessing more resilient business models, considering dynamic capabilities, financial resilience, upskilling and reskilling needs and supporting tools for risk management and informed decisions-making.

We are particularly interested in cases involving startups, SMEs, and cooperatives, as they often address global challenges through local responses, promoting community-driven and solidarity-based solutions. Their unique characteristics make them naturally adaptive and resilient. Additionally, these models often focus on mutual aid, support for local economies, and the provision of essential services during times of distress.

The track encourages both conceptual and empirical contributions—quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-method studies—that offer insights into creating business models capable of navigating the complexities of a multi-crisis environment.

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Track chairs: Florian Lüdeke-Freund, ESCP Business School Berlin (Germany)

Romana Rauter, University of Graz (Austria)

Henrikke Baumann, Chalmers University of Technology (Sweden)

Ana Carolina Bertassini Chalmers University of Technology (Sweden)

Joan Manuel F. Mendoza, Mondragon University (Spain)

Business models for sustainability (BMfS) aim at contributions to sustainable development and are therefore based on the principles of triple-bottom-line and stakeholder-centric value creation. They aim not just to improve the performance of organizations but also to have net positive ecological and social impacts beyond organizational boundaries (Freudenreich et al., 2020; Lüdeke-Freund et al., 2020). The aim of this track is to better understand whether and how business models can have such effects and how these effects – including outputs, outcomes, impacts, and value – can be managed and measured (Rauter et al., 2019). Assessing and managing the sustainability effects of business models requires exploring and integrating various topics and concepts (e.g., business model, system-level perspectives, types of effect) as well as tools and metrics (e.g., from sustainability reporting and accounting, life cycle assessment). Digitalisation and artificial intelligence as well as regulatory frameworks such as CSRD/ESRS, EU taxonomy, CSDDD etc. play an increasingly important role, too. This track is open to conceptual and empirical papers that integrate the notions of business models and measuring and managing the sustainability effects of organizations in novel and robust ways. Approaches based on life cycle assessment frameworks and methods are particularly welcome as these have proven to be promising and thought-provoking in past editions of this track (e.g., Böckin et al., 2022; Goffeti et al., 2022).

What does measuring and managing the sustainability effects of business models mean? Measuring and managing the sustainability effects of business models involves defining the units of analysis for the business model and its performance, which includes, for example, the created and destroyed value, its contribution to an organization’s environmental performance, and the social impacts resulting from organizational activities. It also refers to the necessity to develop frameworks, methods, and tools that allow specifying, measuring, and managing such effects. Here critical questions emerge, such as: What sustainability effects do business models create? How can these be measured and managed effectively? How do we know that these effects are related to business models and their properties? This also requires navigating challenges in defining terms like “performance,” “value,” and “impact” in relation to business models (e.g., Dembek et al., 2023), as these concepts are currently not well-connected to business models in standardized or meaningful ways.

Why is it an important topic? Business models are central to organizational value creation and, by extension, to societal value creation. Thus, integrating sustainability into their core operations is crucial for sustainable development. BMfS can help bridge the gap between businesses’ relationships with society and the natural environment by promoting sustainability in their operations and outputs. Understanding and managing the sustainability effects of business models is hence essential to guide responsibility, accountability, and governance within and beyond organizational boundaries.

What are current challenges in dealing with this topic? As BMfS are defined using diverse theoretical perspectives (e.g., stakeholder, activity, or value flow perspectives) a high degree ambiguity exists, leading to challenges in developing meaningful approaches for sustainability assessment and management from a business model perspective. The broad and inclusive nature of BMfS concepts makes it difficult to focus on distinct sustainability impacts and qualities, which leads to significant boundary setting and scoping issues, such as assigning specific environmental or social impacts to certain business models, or parts thereof, as well as determining the scope of a BMfS in terms of responsibility and governance of both direct and indirect effects. Furthermore, value-creating activities and their sustainability impacts occur at various levels (e.g., individual, organizational, global), yet there is limited understanding of how these impacts unfold across levels as well as across different stakeholders (e.g., consumers, companies, regulators) with their varying needs and expectations. Overall, there is a lack of unified concepts and terminologies to address sustainability performance, outcomes, and impacts of business models.

These challenges highlight the need for robust, interdisciplinary research to address gaps in sustainability assessment and management for business models.

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Track chairs: Florian Lüdeke-Freund, ESCP Business School Berlin (Germany)

Tobias Froese, Borderstep Institute for Innovation and Sustainability (Germany)

This track explores the status quo and future directions of theories underpinning research on business models for sustainability (BMfS). Building on, and going beyond, established approaches – such as activity-based (e.g., Zott & Amit, 2010), component-based (e.g., Osterwalder et al., 2005), design-based (e.g., Lüdeke-Freund, Massa et al., 2024; Zott & Amit, 2010), value-logics-based (e.g., Laasch, 2018; Lüdeke-Freund, Froese et al., 2024), or values-based (Breuer & Lüdeke-Freund, 2017) theoretical views on BMfS – we are looking for novel and theoretically robust contributions that further develop our understanding of the antecedents of BMfS, conditions of their emergence, their inner workings, and their sustainability implications. New theoretical views that lend themselves to this endeavor include, for example, theories of social practice (e.g., Gherardi, 2012), Alexandrian pattern theory (e.g., Alexander et al., 1977), or social mechanism theory (e.g., Hedström & Swedberg, 1998).

We invite contributions that make use of such theoretical lenses as current research faces significant shortcomings in addressing the complexities and special features of BMfS. Most current theoretical approaches are mono-disciplinary, leading to siloed perspectives that restrict integration across disciplines and fail to capture the systemic nature of both business models and sustainability. Additionally, there is a lack of comprehensive frameworks that link firm-level to system-level phenomena, such as societal value creation or sustainability transitions and transformations. Conceptual clarity is another issue as existing theoretical frameworks struggle to explain how BMfS create and diffuse value, and how they resolve tensions between traditional and sustainability-oriented modes of value creation (e.g., Laasch, 2018). These and further gaps highlight the need for more holistic and integrative theoretical foundations that can address the multidimensional nature of BMfS.

Several theories have the potential to provide promising foundations for the study of BMfS by offering interdisciplinary and systemic perspectives (for an exemplary overview see Lüdeke-Freund et al., 2021). Beyond those mentioned above, interesting candidates are sustainability transition and innovation system theories that shed light on how BMfS drive systemic change across multiple levels and networks (e.g., Bidmon & Knab, 2018). Imprinting theory to emphasize the importance of initial design choices in shaping long-term sustainable outcomes (e.g., Snihur & Zott, 2020), or paradox theory that addresses the tensions and conflicts that arise when organizations attempt to balance traditional business models with sustainability objectives (e.g., Hahn et al., 2018). Overall, promising avenues for future research lie in fostering multi-, inter-, and transdisciplinary theoretical frameworks that merge firm-level and system-level perspectives, while also considering the growing importance of emerging artificial intelligence (AI) technologies that will undoubtedly influence how future BMfS research will be conducted.

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Track Chairs: Adam Gordon (Columbia Climate School); Þröstur Olaf Sigurjónsson (University of Iceland), Björg Jónsdóttir (Bifröst University), Lára Jóhannsdóttir (University of Iceland)

Business models for sustainability (BMfS) are relevant for transitioning towards more socially, equitable, and ecofriendly world. However, this transition requires sustainable finance (La Torre et al., 2019) and investments fostering global development that is sustainable (Cunha et al., 2021) by taking into account environmental, social and governance issues (ESG) (European Commission, n.d.; Zairis et al., 2024). Sustainable finance, traced back to 1986 (Ferris & Rykaczewski, 1986), combines the elements of finance and sustainable development goals (SDGs) (Kumar et al., 2022), but sustainable finance and investment (Cunha et al., 2021) is of key importance in addressing the 2030 sustainable development agenda and the relevant SDGs, the Paris Agreement (Sisodia & Maheshwari, 2023) and in delivering the European Green Deal policy objectives (European Commission, n.d.). If not, risk can be embedded in investment portfolios, including transition risk (Alessi & Battiston, 2022).

Responsible business practices can furthermore be incentivized through finance- and reporting-related regulatory frameworks, standards and criteria, including the EU Taxonomy, the Corporate Social Responsibility Directive (CSRD), European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS), Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) criteria, Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR), and more relevant for finance and investment decisions (European Commission, 2020; Greenomy, 2023), where finance is used to encourage companies to adopt more sustainable and ethical practices. The research has, for instance, been categorized in terms of value creation, ESG ratings and performance, green bonds, and banking, financial risks, banking and sustainable finance (Zairis et al., 2024). Material or subject topics related to sustainable finance include sustainable development and the SDGs, climate change, green bonds, financial performance and social finance (Zairis et al., 2024), but also commonly associated with impact investing (Agrawal & Hockerts, 2021; Lehner et al., 2019; Rathee & Aggarwal, 2022; Roundy, 2020) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate social performance (Dam & Scholtens, 2015).  

The European Commissions definition of sustainable finance “understood as finance to support economic growth while reducing pressures on the environment to help reach the climate- and environmental objectives of the European Green Deal, taking into account social and governance aspects (European Commission, n.d.)” is seen as too narrow, whereas a broader definition states that “sustainable finance should encompass all activities and factors that would make finance sustainable and contribute to sustainability” (Kumar et al., 2022, p. 2). However, it should be noted that the literature on sustainable finance is still very fragmented thus offering rooms for exploring the topic further on different levels of the society (Cunha et al., 2021), including institutional and organizational levels.

The sustainable finance, or finance for sustainability, landscape is complicated as it includes operational and labelling standards, industry-originated frameworks, and wider policy context where the main components include environmental, social and economic goals, as a part of the SDGs, in addition other sustainability-related policy objectives, therefore much wider than climate finance, green finance, SDG finance (Migliorelli, 2021), ethical investing, conscious capitalism (Kumar et al., 2022) or similar finance aspects. The subject is, consequently, relevant to all economic sectors and activities such as energy production, transmission, storage, or efficiency, transport, buildings, agriculture, social infrastructures, reduction of inequalities, food security and food systems just to name some examples (Migliorelli, 2021).

The purpose of this session is to explore the theoretical, methodological and practical foundation of transitioning of business models towards sustainability through finance.

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Track Chairs: Katrien Verleye, Ghent University (Belgium)

Alexander Henkel, Open University (Netherlands)

This track aims to provide insight into ways to engage a multitude of actors – such as businesses, customers, and governmental bodies – in the development, launch, and adoption of circular and sustainable business models so that value is co-created. Specific attention is dedicated to the role of design thinking for circular and sustainable business model innovation. Yet, we also embrace research on practices for motivating actors (e.g., storytelling) and supporting actors (e.g., offering sharing platforms, smart lockers, and other technologies) to engage in the creation of circular or sustainable value.

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