A framework proposal on business model for sustainability performance: Creating value to competitive advantage and to global sustainable development

• Ano de defesa: 2016
• Autor(a) principal: Morioka, Sandra Naomi
• Tipo de documento: Tese
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: eng
• Instituição de defesa: Biblioteca Digitais de Teses e Dissertações da USP
• Palavras-chave em Português: Competitive advantage; Corporate sustainability; Corporate sustainability performance; Desenvolvimento sustentável; Negócios (Modelos); Performance systems; Sistemas de desempenho; Sustainable business model; Sustainable development goals; Sustainable Value Exchange Matrix (SVEM); Sustentabilidade; Sustentabilidade corporativa
• Link de acesso: https://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/3/3136/tde-18022022-101906/

Organizations, as other societal actors, play a relevant role in tackling sustainable development (SD) challenges. Thus, corporate sustainability can be seen as the contribution of an organization to global SD. Corporate sustainability is a multi-dimensional concept, according to which organizations\' decisions consider (1) economic, environmental and social goals, synergies and trade-offs; (2) corporate stakeholders including investors, employees, customers, natural environment, community amongst others; and (3) short, medium and also long term impact for current and future generations. Environmental and social initiatives are many times isolated efforts and it is not always clear how they are incorporated into organizational systems. Therefore, the concept of sustainable business model (SBM) has been emerging as an interesting body of knowledge to address the challenge of fostering organization\'s contribution to SD, by promoting sustainable value exchange between organizations and their stakeholders, and by converting social and environmental restrictions into business opportunities and corporate sustainability performance (CSP). Following this lead, the general objective of this thesis is to propose a framework for integration of sustainability principles into business models aligned with corporate sustainability performance goals. More specifically, this research aims to (1) analyse how the integration of sustainability principles into business can be coordinated with CSP systems; (2) identify the main elements that integrate sustainability principles into organizations business model; and (3) to identify context factors that affect SBM configurations. To do so, the first phase of the thesis includes research initiation and preliminary conceptual framework, obtained from a systematic literature review. Next, the second phase is composed by initial field research for preparation of framework development, including preliminary case studies and secondary data analysis (anecdotic cases). Finally, the third phase converges previous research stages and core case studies towards proposing a conceptual framework for SBM aiming for CSP. With this, the research indicates that there is not a threshold to delimit whether a certain organization has a SBM or not. Rather, the thesis argues that SBM is a perspective from which organizations can be critically analysed in the context of global sustainable development. From a SBM perspective, profit is not the only performance criteria, but a more holistic approach of CSP is highlighted, assessing sustainable value exchange with corporate stakeholders. This framework indicates, amongst other issues, that sustainability demands reflection on business purpose from a problem-solving and system-level perspective, in other words, on the reason of existence of the organization to contribute to sustainable development. From the conceptual framework, a practical tool was developed for academics and practitioners named the Sustainable Value Exchange Matrix (SVEM), providing a step-by-step guideline for a critical analysis of the organization from the SBM perspective. For future studies, the research indicates the need to further investigate SBM from a axiological approach, seeking to better understand tacit dynamics and motivations connected to people\'s moral values and believes that, in turn, emerge in decisions and actions aligned with sustainability.