SUSTAINABLE ENTREPRENEURSHIP: A BUSINESS MODEL TECHNOLOGY
PERSPECTIVE TO INCREASE SOCIAL VALUE TO THE ENVIRONMENT
Vania Orchid
Arizona State University
Course
Professor Melyan
April, 2024
Week 1
Introduction
Enterprise has been held up as a possible answer to fantastic social and natural difficulties, for
example, atmosphere change and expanding social imbalances. Practical business visionaries
are seen as key entertainers as they advance manageable improvement efforts through the use
of monetarily feasible and imaginative action plans that make positive social and ecological
effects. Nonetheless, economic business people face extreme difficulties as their organizations
need to combine ecological, social and business rationales, which are often separate regarding
their qualities, practices and targets. Making natural and social value can remain in brutal
discrepancy with business market rationales that govern monetary benefits, causing strain for
business people. In the event that these increased strains cannot be represented in action plan
plans, they can drive business unsteadiness what's more, undermining ecological and social
value creation. Subsequently, exploring how business visionaries make further, adjusting
different types of significant value inside their action plans is an appropriate and significant
zone of demand yet has not been adequately investigated. Late explorations have accepted the
thought that computerized innovation can be powerful to deal with the difficulties facing
economical business visionaries. This suspicion extends to the limit of digitalization
breakthroughs that adjust the subsequent notion of enterprise, altering the way to deal with
maintainability issues. In particular, advanced innovation offers opportunities for new
practices that provide innovative opportunities and empower the advancement of new action
plans. Furthermore, there is a possible cooperative energy between business visionary
ventures to change economic events and digitalization that still seems to go unexplored. We
address this hole by examining how sensible business visionaries incorporate advanced
innovation into the incentives, price creation, and feasibility of capturing parts of their
business models.
To this end, we take an institutional rational standpoint on the supported action plan.
Institutional rationale alludes to the shifted set of qualities, beliefs, and practices that govern,
empower, and compel activities. Institutional rationality alludes to a system in this view, a
practical plan of action that is allegedly a synthesis of various segments, to be specific,
offering, self-esteem creation, as well as, price capture, which suggests a natural, social, and
business institutional rational set of qualities, beliefs, and practices that govern, empower, and
compel activities. Likewise, we argue that digitalization involves an evolving advanced
rationale that has a special relationship with rationale support.
Our discoveries show that advanced innovation upholds increased offerings that blend
ecological, social, and monetary values. Furthermore, advanced advancements give
extraordinary heavenly objects to appreciate creation parts, consider network improvement
practices, co-creation, and broader partner coordination. The use of computerized
advancements can also encourage multidimensional feasible capturing because it empowers
complementary sway, flexibility of socio environmental values, and feasible overflow.
Additionally, the discoveries give experience into potential reasons related to strains inside
and between action plan segments.
This article adds to defensible business and action research plans by recognizing how
computerized advances can be used to make socio environmental esteem. We add to
contemporary exploration by explaining a new arrangement of reasonable action segment
plans empowered by advanced advances. Our exploration speaks to the complementary and
pressures of maintaining and computerizing innovation, adding to a more profound
understanding of how business visionaries add to sensible events. Likewise, by competing for
the reason that computerization increases, we add to the hypothesized advancement of
institutional rational viewpoints on reasonable action plans and the convergence of advanced
and reasonable viewpoints inside the flood of this exploration. We close with practical
consequences for practical business visionaries such as avenues for future exploration.
Theoretical Framework
An institutional logic perspective on sustainable business models
The notion of institutional rationality starts from the foundational work of Friedland
and Alford who recognize the presence of multiple enterprises (e.g. market, religion, or
family) that each have their own particular reasons. These reasons allude to a framework of
subjective intermediate interests including qualities, beliefs, and standards that situate,
empower, and obligate activities. Institutional reasons give primacy to assessing what is
significant and impactful to the development of goals (Friedland, 2018a), in this way, shaping
people and associations as their qualities and beliefs manage what is considered worth
seeking. The main rationale for this methodology is that various reasons grind away
concurrently, possibly prompting complementary and pressure between reasons. Ongoing
examination has distinguished the institutional reasons viewpoint as a productive way to deal
with researching how ecological, social, and business sense frameworks impact strategic
policies and individual action plans.
A presumed economic action plan consists of an interrelated arrangement of parts that
taken together describe the value creation exercise of the venture. These components refer to
the architecture of the venture, reflecting how an organization functions to accomplish its
objectives as well, revealing the innate relationship of significant value and also, the related
yearnings of the organization. The parts of the action plan are symbolized in the
understanding of business people that serve heuristic or account capacities, appear in
substantial and visually-printed curiosities, and are ordered through clear exercises. This
paper conceptualizes a plan of action consisting of incentives, esteem creation, and worth
capturing parts shaped by and indicating different institutional reasons.
While significant-value business ideas that develop around monetary benefits illustrate
regular action plans, manageable action plans go past simple money-related benefits and
further underline the price of what is more, ecological convictions and social reasons.
Ecological qualities, for example, natural perfection and decreased waste or social qualities
such as advancement, respect, or strengthening of humanity emanate from these institutional
reasons. Part of the non-business reasons can be coordinated across all segments of the action
plan. Constructing many reasons in a cross-racial star group is envisioned to encourage
complementaries and strains, giving practical businesses that show unpredictable endeavors.
Hence, business people play a vital role in interpreting, coordinating, also, mixing accessible
institutional reasons into business models. For instance, defensible business visionaries appear
to build up valuable suggestions that develop around how managing viewpoints advance the
nature of the item. Different cases give experience into how viable business people capture
work past benefits by deliberately thinking about waste reduction and network improvement
or reasonable asset combination into viable creation.
The Emerging Logic of Digitalization
Digitalization alludes to the allocation or expanded utilization of advanced innovation, for
example, distributed computing, man-made brainpower, 3D printing, or portable registries by
governments, businesses, or associations. The extraordinary nature of advanced advancements
makes computerized affordability that alludes to additional chances for activities that suit
specific clients or usage arrangements that can be utilized by entertainers, for example,
business visionaries.
Computerized change cycles show in new institutional courses of action, accomplishing new
qualities, rehearses, and structures that influence the rules of regulating games and challenge
contemporary celestial body reasons. These courses of action incorporate, for example, by and
large acknowledged and customized computerized modules like ERP frameworks, or standard
setting computerized frameworks governing entertainer associations, for example, item stages
and blockchain innovation. Essentially, these fascinating computerization advancements
likewise influence plans of action. Researchers contend that computerized affordability will
with advanced frameworks and modules expand choices and produce new paths to make,
convey, and catch worth. The change in monetary actions is propelling an exceptionally new
business model that requires explicit hierarchical capacities to be effectively recognized.
By presenting new practices, qualities, and structures, computerized advances seem to have
their own yet at the same time increasing rationale that coincides with and transforms other
institutional rational understandings and authorizations. As per ongoing work, digitization
evolves around ideas of networks, interfaces, receptivity, availability, variability, and
generativity. We argue that computerized reasoning contains these thoughts and thus
considering new practices can be added to the collection of potential reasons formed at the
action plan level. Nonetheless, how these evolving reasons communicate with existing
reasons, i.e. the opposing and synergistic relationship between advanced and non-digital
reasons, is a significant area for additional exploration.
Methods
Drawing on past explorations on action plans in business economics, we chose to apply
a qualitative methodology to analyze the gestalt of embedding advanced technologies in
sustainable entrepreneurs' business models. Applying a qualitative research design allows
adequate study and description of the complex relationships of individual business model
components, their representation, and the materialization of some institutional logics.
Furthermore, a qualitative research design is recommended for the study of institutional
logics. We follow a systematic approach that allows inductive engagement with information
within a theoretical framework.
Data Collection
We gathered information following a hypothesis-checking system that supported joint
assortment and information coding and took into account the determination of study members
as indicated by the ideas developed in the exploration cycle. In keeping with the hypothesis of
grounded getting close to, we began our information assortment with broader exploratory
inquiries that intended to examine the actions of reasonable business people occupied with
biological and social economic value creation. To this end, we screened the entries and
expectations of Austria's new pursuit competition that focused attention on ecological and
social tasks such as the agent program of the applicable partnership t o distinguish reasonable
business people. We recognized twenty happy business people interested in the investigation.
After completing the underlying meeting, we started the coding method and inductively
recognized the importance of advanced viewpoints in the action plans of the six business
people examined. Hence, in the second round of information assortment, we once more
moved towards new pursuit rivalry members and accelerated the agent project to expand the
underlying example with cases of addition that corresponds to a customized examination
center. We kept adding business people to our example until no further new ideas went up and
then appreciated immersion had been achieved. This examination system allowed us to create
a clear example of fifteen cases.
Extending the idea that action plans are talked about in different types of vivid and
visually printed antiques and communicated through stories, we gathered extensive essential
and optional information. We led up to three semi-organized meetings with supported
business people securing their own experiences and inspirations, adventure creation cycles,
useful engineering, furthermore, visualizing possible future events. Each meeting lasted
somewhere in the range of 45 and 90 minutes. Likewise, we gather information from various
sources, for example, landing pages, blog entries, web-based media data, paper articles, just as
author recordings. We anonymized these in and out cases utilizing letters chosen from Greek
alphabets arranged to upgrade lucidity.
Data Analysis
We apply an inductively organized, multi-step information investigation action
depending on contemplation starting from a grounded hypothesis approach. The cycle is
portrayed by repeated commitments with collected rough material, evolving codes and ideas,
just like a reasonable company hypothesis idea, action research plan, also, institutional
reasoning. In the initial step, each specialist is keenly interested in the thorough information
and open code sections that are essential to move towards the examination questions. By
examining the shared nature between cases, we talked about contrasts and code possibilities to
incorporate these open code entries into the first request code. The first request code at that
point gives a stand for more hypothesis driven second request topics, which, in turn, are
assembled into a total measurement. It is a nonlinear cycle, going to and fro between coding,
gathering, moreover, hypothesis conversation. In keeping with the previous examination, the
componential way of dealing with the plan of action offers an explanatory direction by which
codes can be examined and deciphered.
Findings
Mix Value Proportion
Our discoveries uncover that business visionaries use computerized advancements to
create blended incentives for their partners. To begin with, computerized reasoning makes it
possible to catalyze the creation of socio-environmental prices and, secondly, empowers
business visionaries to set up offerings that consolidate ecological, social, and monetary
rewards for their partners.
An essential guarantee of the computerized advances illustrated by economical
business visionaries is their capacity to make all-supportable exercises more broadly
accessible, available, and doable. Business visionaries recognize innovative parts of their
business models as integral assets to catalyzing more productive methods of living.
Thus, the rationale of some supported business visionaries' worthy recommendations
is to guarantee the beneficial utilization of their contributions. The computerized stage, in
particular, permits strong and proficient associations beforehand regardless of flexibly and
demand, along these lines supporting the spread of social and ecological incentives as referred
to by one of our members.
"It's a sophisticated market where we're bringing territorial food makers moreover,
metropolitan shoppers together. As of now, there are 400 little and private companies that
need to bring their items to you and me as well, we are taking care to guarantee that they
discover their way from the wide open to the city." (Iota)
Other entrepreneurs elaborate on the difficulty of finding, evaluating, and ultimately
purchasing eco-friendly and locally produced goods. Therefore, their online marketplace aims
to provide a better and more convenient alternative to buying sustainable products in different
stores. This concept of increased convenience through advanced marketplaces has also been
introduced to other types of products in our sample (e.g., different types of food or books).
Other entrepreneurs offer cell phone and web applications that provide efficiency for
stakeholders by analyzing user information and recommending more sustainable alternatives.
For example, Alpha offers an app that provides its users with constant information describing
their mobility behavior and the respective ecological consequences. In addition, the app
instantly suggests other eco-friendly means of transportation to trigger immediate behavioral
changes. The app serves as a catalyst for environmental social value propositions by
simultaneously making users aware of the existence of ecological alternatives and improving
the accessibility and convenience of these alternatives.
The integration of advanced logic enables entrepreneurs to successfully combine
environmental, social and economic value propositions. By embedding advanced technologies
entrepreneurs can offer sustainable products and services at competitive prices. One
entrepreneur, for example, stated that his digital marketplace allows environmentally certified
farmers and potential customers to trade conveniently, leading to the reduction and prevention
of unnecessary waste, while simultaneously observing animal rights in meat production.
Therefore, the computerized marketplace enables efficient transactions by ensuring financial
gains for producers while offering reasonable prices, thereby, incorporating economic value.
Integrative value creation
Our findings suggest that advanced technologies have the potential to increase actor
connectivity in the value creation component. We identify three, often interrelated, sets of
practices of community building, co-creation, and expanding stakeholder integration where
advanced logics facilitate the opening of value creation boundaries, making these components
more integrative.
Entrepreneurs often seek to form vibrant communities around the socio-environmental
challenges they wish to address, for example, through the creation and provision of
information centers, discussion boards on the web, stages, or other computerized networks
and communication tools. One way to approach this is offered by Sigma, which aims to
enable civic participation in public environmental projects through its online community. For
this, Sigma set up a crowdfunding stage with networking tools:
"We are considering focusing more on community building because the basic idea is a
simple tool for citizen participation and customer integration. Because that's actually the
recipe for success. As we can see from the ongoing projects, the need for community is very
much there. We have definitely established ourselves more as a crowdfunding stage for users
to support sustainability projects".
These communities, for example, are depicted through advanced cartographic
representations that show where each actor is located, how they are connected, and what they
contribute to the community (e.g. sharing information, managing additional projects, etc.).
In addition, some entrepreneurs use computerized technology to facilitate co-creation
with their users as exemplified by Beta's mission statement "Powered by community e curated
and nurtured by technology". We found that to realize a specialized online service based on
connectivity, the utilization of customers' individual resources is basic. Value co-creation
enabled in this advanced way can include tangible resources (e.g., sharing objects such as
books), but also intangible user resources. For example, users act as content creators for blogs
and websites that benefit communities and thus businesses (Rho) or articulate ideas for
common public-private projects on the crowdfunding stage (Sigma). In this vein, Zeta allows
customers to advancedly design their own farmland where they select and cultivate plants,
vegetables, and fruits through a gamified user interface. These instructions are then realized
by the company and the locally produced products are delivered to the customers. Thus,
entrepreneurial ventures act as computerized intermediaries transferring advanced inputs into
physical yields. In addition to the active integration of users in value creation, various
companies analyze user information to develop new offerings or improve existing offerings
(e.g., Alpha, Lambda, Epsilon, Omega).
Related to these efforts and permeating the idea of community building and co-
creation is the integration of an increasingly diverse set of stakeholders beyond customers and
suppliers. Through computerized networks, sustainable entrepreneurs can be inclusive when
building their advanced value creation networks as the following quote shows:
"Our worldwide network invites individuals, local businesses, NGOs, volunteers and
supporters to join. Every member has free access to information about implementing and
managing water supply projects. Everyone can be part of it!" (Gamma).
Multidimensional value capture
In terms of the value capture component, advanced logic allows entrepreneurs to
enable impact complementarity (i.e., the intertwining of environmental value capture and
social finance), support the scalability of social environmental value, and facilitate the
spillover of social environmental value through computerized means. This leads to
multidimensional value capture by adding multiple forms of value as well as boundaries and
scales of captured value.
Findings suggest that the advanced logic supporting challenge resolution combines the
capture of socio-environmental and economic values. Entrepreneurs state that the realization
of one value often corresponds to the enhancement of another and vice versa (e.g., Sigma,
Phi). This complementary relationship is withering clear in business models that perform an
intermediary function to connect various actors (stage advanced). Here, each service or
product sold entails capturing social and/or environmental value (e.g., a booking stage for
sustainable accommodation) while simultaneously enabling financial value capture (e.g.,
through charging commission fees). Crowdfunding services for sustainable projects enable a
similar complement of impacts. They raise public awareness of their fundable projects
through computerized channels that allow entrepreneurs to curate projects with the highest
potential impact. Any related action of the crowd whether it is a simple click, donation, or
pledge leads to the capture of financial and socio environmental value. Therefore, different
forms of value are not dichotomous in this business model but can complement each other
when intertwined through computerized means.
We further identify how entrepreneurs leverage the characteristics of advanced
solutions to facilitate the scalability of social environmental value. The generativity of the
computerized aspect of the business model allows entrepreneurs to "incorporate usability
requirements and user opinions" (Kappa) to customize their products. Advanced applications
and infrastructures are customizable and extensible to new products and services. In addition,
they are characterized by a seemingly easy move to other markets (e.g., Epsilon, Zeta). These
aspects enable scalability of some forms of value as suggested by the following comments:
"I wanted to find a model, which has a positive impact on my environment but also
has the classic attributes of a fire up. With another individualized structure, it can be scaled
like the modular venture case. I want to show that both are possible in the 21st century." (Phi).
In addition, findings show that sustainable entrepreneurs increase awareness and
education regarding sustainability issues, which is often an additional outcome of their
business model. We call this value spillover because it is not exclusive to the immediate target
group but has the potential to spill over to various stakeholders leading to the capture of
additional social environmental value for the business. To achieve such spillover, sustainable
entrepreneurs mostly rely on advanced media such as websites, blogs, social media,
networking activities at their respective stages, or community building on the web. Due to this
advanced presence, entrepreneurs do "educational work" (Epsilon) or "work at the level of
awareness" (Tau) and strive to "start movements" (Beta), closely linked to community
building as part of the value creation component.
"I think this happens automatically because of our community. Everyone who comes
to our website has to deal with the topic for better or worse. Everyone who sees our ads will
contact the topic. And if they think about it, it might stay in the back of their mind." (Phi).
Inter- and intra-componential logical tensions
We also identified challenges in relation to combining environmental, social, and
computerized logics expressed in inter- and intra-component logical tensions. The major
tension between social and environmental values and computerized logic stems from the
collision of advanced and physical aspects of business models. Computerized means
theoretically provide the potential for infinite scalability and, as shown, allow for scaling the
capture of multiple forms of value and enable complementarity of impact. However there are
restrictions that arise from the given natural boundaries governed by social and environmental
logic. Products and services often have physical properties and require physical resources to
produce. Intended value creation, thus, must consider social and environmental logic.
An example of this challenge is the contradiction between online accessibility and
regionality. Advanced solutions are potentially less constrained by geographical
considerations, but they can challenge the idea of local production and consumption.
Entrepreneurs seeking regionality often aim to capture value by reducing waste and
supporting local value creation. Consider, for example, Zeta, a gamified internet gardening
app where advanced aspects are potentially highly scalable. However, Zeta's cultivation zone
is located in a rural area in Austria and once harvested the fruits and vegetables are packaged
and shipped to customers. In this business model, the scalability of value capture is enhanced
through their computerized approach but is constrained by environmental considerations of
value creation in terms of farmland availability and distance to the end consumer. Similarly,
Iota offers an online stage for agricultural products that can be accessed in an advanced
manner with almost no constraints. However, their value proposition is limited to stakeholders
within relative geographical proximity due to CO2 transportation considerations as part of
value creation as well as the aim to empower local farmers, which is an important element of
their value capture. This is exemplified through the following quote:
"90% of our suppliers come from within a radius of less than 100 km. Purchasing food
with short transportation distances and organic farming makes a considerable contribution to
climate balance. At the same time, the regional economy and small producers from the
surrounding area are strengthened." (Iota).
Discussion And Implications
Embedding digital technologies in the elementarism of sustainable business models and
emerging digital logic tensions
This article seeks to gain a deeper understanding of how sustainable entrepreneurs
embed advanced technologies in their business models to foster social environmental value
creation. This is the first study to investigate the emerging advanced logics in sustainable
entrepreneurship. We argue that practices enabled by computerized logics support the
interconnectedness of environmental, social, and commercial logics but also entail tensions.
Therefore, we contribute theoretically and empirically to the development of a new topical
and ambitious research field on sustainable business models in an entrepreneurial context.
In sustainable business model design finding ways to calibrate, balance and blend
value is a key endeavor. We add to this by showing that sustainable entrepreneurs can
leverage computerized technology to develop blended value propositions. Sustainable
offerings often lack financial value for customers because sustainable products and services
are associated with higher value creation costs than their less sustainable counterparts. The
literature on sustainable behavior, however, argues that aspects such as time, effort, and
financial cost are important determinants of behavior favorable to the customer environment.
Our findings suggest that selective use of computerized technologies can increase
convenience and efficiency, while lowering costs in concert with a more sustainable way of
life, ultimately providing a more balanced value proposition.
We also offer new insights into the computerized value creation practices of
entrepreneurs. Our findings suggest a broad complementarity between the values of social
logic (e.g., community development, democratic participation, equality) and the affordances
of computerized technologies in value creation elements. By combining multiple advanced
artifacts and infrastructures (e.g., blogs, boards, social media interfaces, stages, etc.) they
create spaces for community interaction, engage in co-creation activities, and expand
stakeholder integration. With these advanced enabled practices, sustainable entrepreneurs
manage the boundaries of their business models, making them more dynamic and open. In
addition, we found the stage approach to be very effective in bringing together multiple
actors. This is especially important for sustainable business models, which are fraught with
additional efforts in managing external relationships as they need to include a variety of
diverse stakeholders. Enacting advanced logic increases the connectivity of actors across
geographical boundaries and enables integrative value creation. We, thus, add to further
establish the link between co-creation and sustainable business model design.
In addition, we identify synergistic relationships between digital applications and
sustainable business models that lead to multidimensional value capture. Extant research on
sustainable entrepreneurs reveals concerns in terms of business model scalability and financial
stability. We add to this body of knowledge by providing new insights into how entrepreneurs
leverage digital technologies to scale up their intended value capture along with the
exploitation of impact complements. Such impact complements are theorized to be critical for
sustainable business models and we show potential ways in which sustainable entrepreneurs
can achieve them. We further show that digital technologies can enable parallel growth of
environmental value and social finance. This unravels the importance of digital technology
and its supporting functions for sustainable business models. However, the findings also
reveal that this potential for scalability can conflict with social and environmental logic. Our
sample entrepreneurs often consciously limit the connectivity and accessibility provided by
digital technologies due to considerations involving CO2 reduction and local community
support. Thus, there are indications pointing towards a potential tension between logic and its
manifestation in business model components. As our research adds to the literature
investigating the challenging combination of multiple logics in business models and examines
how logics enable and constrain efforts for sustainability.
We further identify the value spillover effect. Through computerized artifacts
entrepreneurs create awareness and educational value, which means that their capture of socio
environmental value is not necessarily tied to the sale of their core products and services. As
such, they are breaking the conventional boundaries of the business model. Based on this and
based on the notion of social movement spillover, we argue that the online communities
formed and the content provided and/or created within these communities are not limited to
the stakeholders directly involved in their creation. Advanced content does not exist in a
vacuum but rather influences other individuals and groups. Our results show that advanced
tools make it possible to mobilize and connect individuals which can result in spillover
effects. We, thus, offer new insights into how computerized technologies can be leveraged to
influence stakeholders to support social and environmental impacts.
Theoretical implications
This article adds to the theoretical development of sustainable business models
conceptualized as a combination of different components that manifest a plural institutional
logic. Previous research in this area has largely focused on the institutional logic of
sustainability and thus considered how environmental, social and commercial logics relate to
each other. However, this can potentially leave out more logics further relevant for this
particular context. We add to this discourse by discussing the influence of emerging
computerized logics on the socio-environmental value creation of sustainable business
models. We explore how computerized logics based on connectivity, openness, accessibility
and generativity relate to other related logics in sustainable business models and identify
complementarities and tensions. As such, this is also one of the first studies that does not rely
on the dichotomous relationship of the two logics but rather aims to combine multiple logics
to broaden the perspective on sustainable business models.
We further add to the stream of emerging research in the field of entrepreneurship that
seeks to combine sustainability and digitalization. We contribute to building a foundation for
this advanced sustainable entrepreneurship. First, we show that an institutional logic
perspective on sustainable business models can provide a common theoretical foundation for
studying the intersection of these previously separate research streams. In addition, it provides
analytical guidance for studying sustainable entrepreneurs' efforts to balance environmental,
social, and commercial value creation in computerized times. Secondly, the identified themes
open rich pathways to advance connections between other research streams such as co-
creation or social movement theory and sustainable entrepreneurship. In particular, we
contribute to the theoretical development of sustainable entrepreneurship by presenting the
concept of esteem overflow. Value spillover draws attention to the capture of socio-
environmental value (e.g., education and raising awareness) that goes beyond targeted
customers and affects additional groups. In particular, va l u e spillover coupled with the role
of advanced technology to enable community building, co-creation activities, and broader
stakeholder integration offers a new perspective on entrepreneurial value creation for
sustainability.
Practical implications
Advanced technologies can substantially contribute to sustainable development goals.
However, how this potential can be realized in practice remains largely unknown, especially
for entrepreneurs seeking to create socio-environmental value through financially viable
business models. This article provides practitioners with important insights into how
advanced technologies can be embedded in the design of sustainable business models. As
such, practitioners can utilize the identified configuration of sustainable business model
components (i.e., blended value proposition, integrative value creation, and multidimensional
value capture) as an inspiring starting point for developing new sustainable business models.
For example, they can draw on the importance of computerized means for the formation of
communities that channel the many individual contributions and efforts of many actors
towards a common goal. This, in turn, can capitalize on socio-environmental value creation
through co-creation activities and lead to spillover effects in value capture elements. This
example demonstrates the potential of the themes identified for the practicum but also points
towards the complex relationships that practitioners should be aware of when designing
sustainable business models.
Creating a viable business model that harmonizes a large number of different value
systems is difficult and advanced technology cannot solve this completely. Despite the
reported complementarities, practitioners should also be aware of the tensions identified in
this article. Advanced solutions increase connectivity and accessibility, but this can counteract
environmental and social aspirations. Computerized technology, as such, is not a panacea for
sustainable development and should be used responsibly, keeping potential logic
contradictions in mind. Building on this, we recommend a critical but not inclination approach
when contemplating the integration of computerized means to enhance the impact of
sustainable business models.
Conclusions
This study aims to determine the effect of business models to increase social value to the
environment. Based on the results of the analysis, the conclusion that can be drawn from this
study is that business visionaries use computerized advances to create mixed incentives for
their partners. To begin with, computerized reasoning makes it possible to catalyze the
creation of socio-environmental prices and secondly, empowers business visionaries to
establish offerings that consolidate ecological, social, and rewards monetary for their partners.
Mix Value Proportion
Our discoveries uncover that business visionaries use computerized advancements to
create blended incentives for their partners. To begin with, computerized reasoning makes it
possible to catalyze the creation of socio-environmental prices and, secondly, empowers
business visionaries to set up offerings that consolidate ecological, social, and monetary
rewards for their partners.
An essential guarantee of the computerized advances illustrated by economical
business visionaries is their capacity to make all-supportable exercises more broadly
accessible, available, and doable. Business visionaries recognize innovative parts of their
business models as integral assets to catalyzing more productive methods of living.
Thus, the rationale of some supported business visionaries' worthy recommendations
is to guarantee the beneficial utilization of their contributions. The computerized stage, in
particular, permits strong and proficient associations beforehand regardless of flexibly and
demand, along these lines supporting the spread of social and ecological incentives as referred
to by one of our members.
"It's a sophisticated market where we're bringing territorial food makers moreover,
metropolitan shoppers together. As of now, there are 400 little and private companies that
need to bring their items to you and me as well, we are taking care to guarantee that they
discover their way from the wide open to the city." (Iota)
Other entrepreneurs elaborate on the difficulty of finding, evaluating, and ultimately
purchasing eco-friendly and locally produced goods. Therefore, their online marketplace aims
to provide a better and more convenient alternative to buying sustainable products in different
stores. This concept of increased convenience through advanced marketplaces has also been
introduced to other types of products in our sample (e.g., different types of food or books).
Other entrepreneurs offer cell phone and web applications that provide efficiency for
stakeholders by analyzing user information and recommending more sustainable alternatives.
For example, Alpha offers an app that provides its users with constant information describing
their mobility behavior and the respective ecological consequences. In addition, the app
instantly suggests other eco-friendly means of transportation to trigger immediate behavioral
changes. The app serves as a catalyst for environmental social value propositions by
simultaneously making users aware of the existence of ecological alternatives and improving
the accessibility and convenience of these alternatives.
The integration of advanced logic enables entrepreneurs to successfully combine
environmental, social and economic value propositions. By embedding advanced technologies
entrepreneurs can offer sustainable products and services at competitive prices. One
entrepreneur, for example, stated that his digital marketplace allows environmentally certified
farmers and potential customers to trade conveniently, leading to the reduction and prevention
of unnecessary waste, while simultaneously observing animal rights in meat production.
Therefore, the computerized marketplace enables efficient transactions by ensuring financial
gains for producers while offering reasonable prices, thereby, incorporating economic value.
Integrative value creation
Our findings suggest that advanced technologies have the potential to increase actor
connectivity in the value creation component. We identify three, often interrelated, sets of
practices of community building, co-creation, and expanding stakeholder integration where
advanced logics facilitate the opening of value creation boundaries, making these components
more integrative.
Entrepreneurs often seek to form vibrant communities around the socio-environmental
challenges they wish to address, for example, through the creation and provision of
information centers, discussion boards on the web, stages, or other computerized networks
and communication tools. One way to approach this is offered by Sigma, which aims to
enable civic participation in public environmental projects through its online community. For
this, Sigma set up a crowdfunding stage with networking tools:
"We are considering focusing more on community building because the basic idea is a
simple tool for citizen participation and customer integration. Because that's actually the
recipe for success. As we can see from the ongoing projects, the need for community is very
much there. We have definitely established ourselves more as a crowdfunding stage for users
to support sustainability projects".
These communities, for example, are depicted through advanced cartographic
representations that show where each actor is located, how they are connected, and what they
contribute to the community (e.g. sharing information, managing additional projects, etc.).
In addition, some entrepreneurs use computerized technology to facilitate co-creation
with their users as exemplified by Beta's mission statement "Powered by community e curated
and nurtured by technology". We found that to realize a specialized online service based on
connectivity, the utilization of customers' individual resources is basic. Value co-creation
enabled in this advanced way can include tangible resources (e.g., sharing objects such as
books), but also intangible user resources. For example, users act as content creators for blogs
and websites that benefit communities and thus businesses (Rho) or articulate ideas for
common public-private projects on the crowdfunding stage (Sigma). In this vein, Zeta allows
customers to advancedly design their own farmland where they select and cultivate plants,
vegetables, and fruits through a gamified user interface. These instructions are then realized
by the company and the locally produced products are delivered to the customers. Thus,
entrepreneurial ventures act as computerized intermediaries transferring advanced inputs into
physical yields. In addition to the active integration of users in value creation, various
companies analyze user information to develop new offerings or improve existing offerings
(e.g., Alpha, Lambda, Epsilon, Omega).
Related to these efforts and permeating the idea of community building and co-
creation is the integration of an increasingly diverse set of stakeholders beyond customers and
suppliers. Through computerized networks, sustainable entrepreneurs can be inclusive when
building their advanced value creation networks as the following quote shows:
"Our worldwide network invites individuals, local businesses, NGOs, volunteers and
supporters to join. Every member has free access to information about implementing and
managing water supply projects. Everyone can be part of it!" (Gamma).
Multidimensional value capture
In terms of the value capture component, advanced logic allows entrepreneurs to
enable impact complementarity (i.e., the intertwining of environmental value capture and
social finance), support the scalability of social environmental value, and facilitate the
spillover of social environmental value through computerized means. This leads to
multidimensional value capture by adding multiple forms of value as well as boundaries and
scales of captured value.
Findings suggest that the advanced logic supporting challenge resolution combines the
capture of socio-environmental and economic values. Entrepreneurs state that the realization
of one value often corresponds to the enhancement of another and vice versa (e.g., Sigma,
Phi). This complementary relationship is withering clear in business models that perform an
intermediary function to connect various actors (stage advanced). Here, each service or
product sold entails capturing social and/or environmental value (e.g., a booking stage for
sustainable accommodation) while simultaneously enabling financial value capture (e.g.,
through charging commission fees). Crowdfunding services for sustainable projects enable a
similar complement of impacts. They raise public awareness of their fundable projects
through computerized channels that allow entrepreneurs to curate projects with the highest
potential impact. Any related action of the crowd whether it is a simple click, donation, or
pledge leads to the capture of financial and socio environmental value. Therefore, different
forms of value are not dichotomous in this business model but can complement each other
when intertwined through computerized means.
We further identify how entrepreneurs leverage the characteristics of advanced
solutions to facilitate the scalability of social environmental value. The generativity of the
computerized aspect of the business model allows entrepreneurs to "incorporate usability
requirements and user opinions" (Kappa) to customize their products. Advanced applications
and infrastructures are customizable and extensible to new products and services. In addition,
they are characterized by a seemingly easy move to other markets (e.g., Epsilon, Zeta). These
aspects enable scalability of some forms of value as suggested by the following comments:
"I wanted to find a model, which has a positive impact on my environment but also
has the classic attributes of a fire up. With another individualized structure, it can be scaled
like the modular venture case. I want to show that both are possible in the 21st century." (Phi).
In addition, findings show that sustainable entrepreneurs increase awareness and
education regarding sustainability issues, which is often an additional outcome of their
business model. We call this value spillover because it is not exclusive to the immediate target
group but has the potential to spill over to various stakeholders leading to the capture of
additional social environmental value for the business. To achieve such spillover, sustainable
entrepreneurs mostly rely on advanced media such as websites, blogs, social media,
networking activities at their respective stages, or community building on the web. Due to this
advanced presence, entrepreneurs do "educational work" (Epsilon) or "work at the level of
awareness" (Tau) and strive to "start movements" (Beta), closely linked to community
building as part of the value creation component.
"I think this happens automatically because of our community. Everyone who comes
to our website has to deal with the topic for better or worse. Everyone who sees our ads will
contact the topic. And if they think about it, it might stay in the back of their mind." (Phi).
Inter- and intra-componential logical tensions
We also identified challenges in relation to combining environmental, social, and
computerized logics expressed in inter- and intra-component logical tensions. The major
tension between social and environmental values and computerized logic stems from the
collision of advanced and physical aspects of business models. Computerized means
theoretically provide the potential for infinite scalability and, as shown, allow for scaling the
capture of multiple forms of value and enable complementarity of impact. However there are
restrictions that arise from the given natural boundaries governed by social and environmental
logic. Products and services often have physical properties and require physical resources to
produce. Intended value creation, thus, must consider social and environmental logic.
An example of this challenge is the contradiction between online accessibility and
regionality. Advanced solutions are potentially less constrained by geographical
considerations, but they can challenge the idea of local production and consumption.
Entrepreneurs seeking regionality often aim to capture value by reducing waste and
supporting local value creation. Consider, for example, Zeta, a gamified internet gardening
app where advanced aspects are potentially highly scalable. However, Zeta's cultivation zone
is located in a rural area in Austria and once harvested the fruits and vegetables are packaged
and shipped to customers. In this business model, the scalability of value capture is enhanced
through their computerized approach but is constrained by environmental considerations of
value creation in terms of farmland availability and distance to the end consumer. Similarly,
Iota offers an online stage for agricultural products that can be accessed in an advanced
manner with almost no constraints. However, their value proposition is limited to stakeholders
within relative geographical proximity due to CO2 transportation considerations as part of
value creation as well as the aim to empower local farmers, which is an important element of
their value capture. This is exemplified through the following quote:
"90% of our suppliers come from within a radius of less than 100 km. Purchasing food
with short transportation distances and organic farming makes a considerable contribution to
climate balance. At the same time, the regional economy and small producers from the
surrounding area are strengthened." (Iota).
Discussion And Implications
Embedding digital technologies in the elementarism of sustainable business models and
emerging digital logic tensions
This article seeks to gain a deeper understanding of how sustainable entrepreneurs
embed advanced technologies in their business models to foster social environmental value
creation. This is the first study to investigate the emerging advanced logics in sustainable
entrepreneurship. We argue that practices enabled by computerized logics support the
interconnectedness of environmental, social, and commercial logics but also entail tensions.
Therefore, we contribute theoretically and empirically to the development of a new topical
and ambitious research field on sustainable business models in an entrepreneurial context.
In sustainable business model design finding ways to calibrate, balance and blend
value is a key endeavor. We add to this by showing that sustainable entrepreneurs can
leverage computerized technology to develop blended value propositions. Sustainable
offerings often lack financial value for customers because sustainable products and services
are associated with higher value creation costs than their less sustainable counterparts. The
literature on sustainable behavior, however, argues that aspects such as time, effort, and
financial cost are important determinants of behavior favorable to the customer environment.
Our findings suggest that selective use of computerized technologies can increase
convenience and efficiency, while lowering costs in concert with a more sustainable way of
life, ultimately providing a more balanced value proposition.
We also offer new insights into the computerized value creation practices of
entrepreneurs. Our findings suggest a broad complementarity between the values of social
logic (e.g., community development, democratic participation, equality) and the affordances
of computerized technologies in value creation elements. By combining multiple advanced
artifacts and infrastructures (e.g., blogs, boards, social media interfaces, stages, etc.) they
create spaces for community interaction, engage in co-creation activities, and expand
stakeholder integration. With these advanced enabled practices, sustainable entrepreneurs
manage the boundaries of their business models, making them more dynamic and open. In
addition, we found the stage approach to be very effective in bringing together multiple
actors. This is especially important for sustainable business models, which are fraught with
additional efforts in managing external relationships as they need to include a variety of
diverse stakeholders. Enacting advanced logic increases the connectivity of actors across
geographical boundaries and enables integrative value creation. We, thus, add to further
establish the link between co-creation and sustainable business model design.
In addition, we identify synergistic relationships between digital applications and
sustainable business models that lead to multidimensional value capture. Extant research on
sustainable entrepreneurs reveals concerns in terms of business model scalability and financial
stability. We add to this body of knowledge by providing new insights into how entrepreneurs
leverage digital technologies to scale up their intended value capture along with the
exploitation of impact complements. Such impact complements are theorized to be critical for
sustainable business models and we show potential ways in which sustainable entrepreneurs
can achieve them. We further show that digital technologies can enable parallel growth of
environmental value and social finance. This unravels the importance of digital technology
and its supporting functions for sustainable business models. However, the findings also
reveal that this potential for scalability can conflict with social and environmental logic. Our
sample entrepreneurs often consciously limit the connectivity and accessibility provided by
digital technologies due to considerations involving CO2 reduction and local community
support. Thus, there are indications pointing towards a potential tension between logic and its
manifestation in business model components. As our research adds to the literature
investigating the challenging combination of multiple logics in business models and examines
how logics enable and constrain efforts for sustainability.
We further identify the value spillover effect. Through computerized artifacts
entrepreneurs create awareness and educational value, which means that their capture of socio
environmental value is not necessarily tied to the sale of their core products and services. As
such, they are breaking the conventional boundaries of the business model. Based on this and
based on the notion of social movement spillover, we argue that the online communities
formed and the content provided and/or created within these communities are not limited to
the stakeholders directly involved in their creation. Advanced content does not exist in a
vacuum but rather influences other individuals and groups. Our results show that advanced
tools make it possible to mobilize and connect individuals which can result in spillover
effects. We, thus, offer new insights into how computerized technologies can be leveraged to
influence stakeholders to support social and environmental impacts.
Theoretical implications
This article adds to the theoretical development of sustainable business models
conceptualized as a combination of different components that manifest a plural institutional
logic. Previous research in this area has largely focused on the institutional logic of
sustainability and thus considered how environmental, social and commercial logics relate to
each other. However, this can potentially leave out more logics further relevant for this
particular context. We add to this discourse by discussing the influence of emerging
computerized logics on the socio-environmental value creation of sustainable business
models. We explore how computerized logics based on connectivity, openness, accessibility
and generativity relate to other related logics in sustainable business models and identify
complementarities and tensions. As such, this is also one of the first studies that does not rely
on the dichotomous relationship of the two logics but rather aims to combine multiple logics
to broaden the perspective on sustainable business models.
We further add to the stream of emerging research in the field of entrepreneurship that
seeks to combine sustainability and digitalization. We contribute to building a foundation for
this advanced sustainable entrepreneurship. First, we show that an institutional logic
perspective on sustainable business models can provide a common theoretical foundation for
studying the intersection of these previously separate research streams. In addition, it provides
analytical guidance for studying sustainable entrepreneurs' efforts to balance environmental,
social, and commercial value creation in computerized times. Secondly, the identified themes
open rich pathways to advance connections between other research streams such as co-
creation or social movement theory and sustainable entrepreneurship. In particular, we
contribute to the theoretical development of sustainable entrepreneurship by presenting the
concept of esteem overflow. Value spillover draws attention to the capture of socio-
environmental value (e.g., education and raising awareness) that goes beyond targeted
customers and affects additional groups. In particular, va l u e spillover coupled with the role
of advanced technology to enable community building, co-creation activities, and broader
stakeholder integration offers a new perspective on entrepreneurial value creation for
sustainability.
Practical implications
Advanced technologies can substantially contribute to sustainable development goals.
However, how this potential can be realized in practice remains largely unknown, especially
for entrepreneurs seeking to create socio-environmental value through financially viable
business models. This article provides practitioners with important insights into how
advanced technologies can be embedded in the design of sustainable business models. As
such, practitioners can utilize the identified configuration of sustainable business model
components (i.e., blended value proposition, integrative value creation, and multidimensional
value capture) as an inspiring starting point for developing new sustainable business models.
For example, they can draw on the importance of computerized means for the formation of
communities that channel the many individual contributions and efforts of many actors
towards a common goal. This, in turn, can capitalize on socio-environmental value creation
through co-creation activities and lead to spillover effects in value capture elements. This
example demonstrates the potential of the themes identified for the practicum but also points
towards the complex relationships that practitioners should be aware of when designing
sustainable business models.
Creating a viable business model that harmonizes a large number of different value
systems is difficult and advanced technology cannot solve this completely. Despite the
reported complementarities, practitioners should also be aware of the tensions identified in
this article. Advanced solutions increase connectivity and accessibility, but this can counteract
environmental and social aspirations. Computerized technology, as such, is not a panacea for
sustainable development and should be used responsibly, keeping potential logic
contradictions in mind. Building on this, we recommend a critical but not inclination approach
when contemplating the integration of computerized means to enhance the impact of
sustainable business models.
Conclusions
This study aims to determine the effect of business models to increase social value to the
environment. Based on the results of the analysis, the conclusion that can be drawn from this
study is that business visionaries use computerized advances to create mixed incentives for
their partners. To begin with, computerized reasoning makes it possible to catalyze the
creation of socio-environmental prices and secondly, empowers business visionaries to
establish offerings that consolidate ecological, social, and rewards monetary for their partners.
Mix Value Proportion
Our discoveries uncover that business visionaries use computerized advancements to
create blended incentives for their partners. To begin with, computerized reasoning makes it
possible to catalyze the creation of socio-environmental prices and, secondly, empowers
business visionaries to set up offerings that consolidate ecological, social, and monetary
rewards for their partners.
An essential guarantee of the computerized advances illustrated by economical
business visionaries is their capacity to make all-supportable exercises more broadly
accessible, available, and doable. Business visionaries recognize innovative parts of their
business models as integral assets to catalyzing more productive methods of living.
Thus, the rationale of some supported business visionaries' worthy recommendations
is to guarantee the beneficial utilization of their contributions. The computerized stage, in
particular, permits strong and proficient associations beforehand regardless of flexibly and
demand, along these lines supporting the spread of social and ecological incentives as referred
to by one of our members.
"It's a sophisticated market where we're bringing territorial food makers moreover,
metropolitan shoppers together. As of now, there are 400 little and private companies that
need to bring their items to you and me as well, we are taking care to guarantee that they
discover their way from the wide open to the city." (Iota)
Other entrepreneurs elaborate on the difficulty of finding, evaluating, and ultimately
purchasing eco-friendly and locally produced goods. Therefore, their online marketplace aims
to provide a better and more convenient alternative to buying sustainable products in different
stores. This concept of increased convenience through advanced marketplaces has also been
introduced to other types of products in our sample (e.g., different types of food or books).
Other entrepreneurs offer cell phone and web applications that provide efficiency for
stakeholders by analyzing user information and recommending more sustainable alternatives.
For example, Alpha offers an app that provides its users with constant information describing
their mobility behavior and the respective ecological consequences. In addition, the app
instantly suggests other eco-friendly means of transportation to trigger immediate behavioral
changes. The app serves as a catalyst for environmental social value propositions by
simultaneously making users aware of the existence of ecological alternatives and improving
the accessibility and convenience of these alternatives.
The integration of advanced logic enables entrepreneurs to successfully combine
environmental, social and economic value propositions. By embedding advanced technologies
entrepreneurs can offer sustainable products and services at competitive prices. One
entrepreneur, for example, stated that his digital marketplace allows environmentally certified
farmers and potential customers to trade conveniently, leading to the reduction and prevention
of unnecessary waste, while simultaneously observing animal rights in meat production.
Therefore, the computerized marketplace enables efficient transactions by ensuring financial
gains for producers while offering reasonable prices, thereby, incorporating economic value.
Integrative value creation
Our findings suggest that advanced technologies have the potential to increase actor
connectivity in the value creation component. We identify three, often interrelated, sets of
practices of community building, co-creation, and expanding stakeholder integration where
advanced logics facilitate the opening of value creation boundaries, making these components
more integrative.
Entrepreneurs often seek to form vibrant communities around the socio-environmental
challenges they wish to address, for example, through the creation and provision of
information centers, discussion boards on the web, stages, or other computerized networks
and communication tools. One way to approach this is offered by Sigma, which aims to
enable civic participation in public environmental projects through its online community. For
this, Sigma set up a crowdfunding stage with networking tools:
"We are considering focusing more on community building because the basic idea is a
simple tool for citizen participation and customer integration. Because that's actually the
recipe for success. As we can see from the ongoing projects, the need for community is very
much there. We have definitely established ourselves more as a crowdfunding stage for users
to support sustainability projects".
These communities, for example, are depicted through advanced cartographic
representations that show where each actor is located, how they are connected, and what they
contribute to the community (e.g. sharing information, managing additional projects, etc.).
In addition, some entrepreneurs use computerized technology to facilitate co-creation
with their users as exemplified by Beta's mission statement "Powered by community e curated
and nurtured by technology". We found that to realize a specialized online service based on
connectivity, the utilization of customers' individual resources is basic. Value co-creation
enabled in this advanced way can include tangible resources (e.g., sharing objects such as
books), but also intangible user resources. For example, users act as content creators for blogs
and websites that benefit communities and thus businesses (Rho) or articulate ideas for
common public-private projects on the crowdfunding stage (Sigma). In this vein, Zeta allows
customers to advancedly design their own farmland where they select and cultivate plants,
vegetables, and fruits through a gamified user interface. These instructions are then realized
by the company and the locally produced products are delivered to the customers. Thus,
entrepreneurial ventures act as computerized intermediaries transferring advanced inputs into
physical yields. In addition to the active integration of users in value creation, various
companies analyze user information to develop new offerings or improve existing offerings
(e.g., Alpha, Lambda, Epsilon, Omega).
Related to these efforts and permeating the idea of community building and co-
creation is the integration of an increasingly diverse set of stakeholders beyond customers and
suppliers. Through computerized networks, sustainable entrepreneurs can be inclusive when
building their advanced value creation networks as the following quote shows:
"Our worldwide network invites individuals, local businesses, NGOs, volunteers and
supporters to join. Every member has free access to information about implementing and
managing water supply projects. Everyone can be part of it!" (Gamma).
Multidimensional value capture
In terms of the value capture component, advanced logic allows entrepreneurs to
enable impact complementarity (i.e., the intertwining of environmental value capture and
social finance), support the scalability of social environmental value, and facilitate the
spillover of social environmental value through computerized means. This leads to
multidimensional value capture by adding multiple forms of value as well as boundaries and
scales of captured value.
Findings suggest that the advanced logic supporting challenge resolution combines the
capture of socio-environmental and economic values. Entrepreneurs state that the realization
of one value often corresponds to the enhancement of another and vice versa (e.g., Sigma,
Phi). This complementary relationship is withering clear in business models that perform an
intermediary function to connect various actors (stage advanced). Here, each service or
product sold entails capturing social and/or environmental value (e.g., a booking stage for
sustainable accommodation) while simultaneously enabling financial value capture (e.g.,
through charging commission fees). Crowdfunding services for sustainable projects enable a
similar complement of impacts. They raise public awareness of their fundable projects
through computerized channels that allow entrepreneurs to curate projects with the highest
potential impact. Any related action of the crowd whether it is a simple click, donation, or
pledge leads to the capture of financial and socio environmental value. Therefore, different
forms of value are not dichotomous in this business model but can complement each other
when intertwined through computerized means.
We further identify how entrepreneurs leverage the characteristics of advanced
solutions to facilitate the scalability of social environmental value. The generativity of the
computerized aspect of the business model allows entrepreneurs to "incorporate usability
requirements and user opinions" (Kappa) to customize their products. Advanced applications
and infrastructures are customizable and extensible to new products and services. In addition,
they are characterized by a seemingly easy move to other markets (e.g., Epsilon, Zeta). These
aspects enable scalability of some forms of value as suggested by the following comments:
"I wanted to find a model, which has a positive impact on my environment but also
has the classic attributes of a fire up. With another individualized structure, it can be scaled
like the modular venture case. I want to show that both are possible in the 21st century." (Phi).
In addition, findings show that sustainable entrepreneurs increase awareness and
education regarding sustainability issues, which is often an additional outcome of their
business model. We call this value spillover because it is not exclusive to the immediate target
group but has the potential to spill over to various stakeholders leading to the capture of
additional social environmental value for the business. To achieve such spillover, sustainable
entrepreneurs mostly rely on advanced media such as websites, blogs, social media,
networking activities at their respective stages, or community building on the web. Due to this
advanced presence, entrepreneurs do "educational work" (Epsilon) or "work at the level of
awareness" (Tau) and strive to "start movements" (Beta), closely linked to community
building as part of the value creation component.
"I think this happens automatically because of our community. Everyone who comes
to our website has to deal with the topic for better or worse. Everyone who sees our ads will
contact the topic. And if they think about it, it might stay in the back of their mind." (Phi).
Inter- and intra-componential logical tensions
We also identified challenges in relation to combining environmental, social, and
computerized logics expressed in inter- and intra-component logical tensions. The major
tension between social and environmental values and computerized logic stems from the
collision of advanced and physical aspects of business models. Computerized means
theoretically provide the potential for infinite scalability and, as shown, allow for scaling the
capture of multiple forms of value and enable complementarity of impact. However there are
restrictions that arise from the given natural boundaries governed by social and environmental
logic. Products and services often have physical properties and require physical resources to
produce. Intended value creation, thus, must consider social and environmental logic.
An example of this challenge is the contradiction between online accessibility and
regionality. Advanced solutions are potentially less constrained by geographical
considerations, but they can challenge the idea of local production and consumption.
Entrepreneurs seeking regionality often aim to capture value by reducing waste and
supporting local value creation. Consider, for example, Zeta, a gamified internet gardening
app where advanced aspects are potentially highly scalable. However, Zeta's cultivation zone
is located in a rural area in Austria and once harvested the fruits and vegetables are packaged
and shipped to customers. In this business model, the scalability of value capture is enhanced
through their computerized approach but is constrained by environmental considerations of
value creation in terms of farmland availability and distance to the end consumer. Similarly,
Iota offers an online stage for agricultural products that can be accessed in an advanced
manner with almost no constraints. However, their value proposition is limited to stakeholders
within relative geographical proximity due to CO2 transportation considerations as part of
value creation as well as the aim to empower local farmers, which is an important element of
their value capture. This is exemplified through the following quote:
"90% of our suppliers come from within a radius of less than 100 km. Purchasing food
with short transportation distances and organic farming makes a considerable contribution to
climate balance. At the same time, the regional economy and small producers from the
surrounding area are strengthened." (Iota).
Discussion And Implications
Embedding digital technologies in the elementarism of sustainable business models and
emerging digital logic tensions
This article seeks to gain a deeper understanding of how sustainable entrepreneurs
embed advanced technologies in their business models to foster social environmental value
creation. This is the first study to investigate the emerging advanced logics in sustainable
entrepreneurship. We argue that practices enabled by computerized logics support the
interconnectedness of environmental, social, and commercial logics but also entail tensions.
Therefore, we contribute theoretically and empirically to the development of a new topical
and ambitious research field on sustainable business models in an entrepreneurial context.
In sustainable business model design finding ways to calibrate, balance and blend
value is a key endeavor. We add to this by showing that sustainable entrepreneurs can
leverage computerized technology to develop blended value propositions. Sustainable
offerings often lack financial value for customers because sustainable products and services
are associated with higher value creation costs than their less sustainable counterparts. The
literature on sustainable behavior, however, argues that aspects such as time, effort, and
financial cost are important determinants of behavior favorable to the customer environment.
Our findings suggest that selective use of computerized technologies can increase
convenience and efficiency, while lowering costs in concert with a more sustainable way of
life, ultimately providing a more balanced value proposition.
We also offer new insights into the computerized value creation practices of
entrepreneurs. Our findings suggest a broad complementarity between the values of social
logic (e.g., community development, democratic participation, equality) and the affordances
of computerized technologies in value creation elements. By combining multiple advanced
artifacts and infrastructures (e.g., blogs, boards, social media interfaces, stages, etc.) they
create spaces for community interaction, engage in co-creation activities, and expand
stakeholder integration. With these advanced enabled practices, sustainable entrepreneurs
manage the boundaries of their business models, making them more dynamic and open. In
addition, we found the stage approach to be very effective in bringing together multiple
actors. This is especially important for sustainable business models, which are fraught with
additional efforts in managing external relationships as they need to include a variety of
diverse stakeholders. Enacting advanced logic increases the connectivity of actors across
geographical boundaries and enables integrative value creation. We, thus, add to further
establish the link between co-creation and sustainable business model design.
In addition, we identify synergistic relationships between digital applications and
sustainable business models that lead to multidimensional value capture. Extant research on
sustainable entrepreneurs reveals concerns in terms of business model scalability and financial
stability. We add to this body of knowledge by providing new insights into how entrepreneurs
leverage digital technologies to scale up their intended value capture along with the
exploitation of impact complements. Such impact complements are theorized to be critical for
sustainable business models and we show potential ways in which sustainable entrepreneurs
can achieve them. We further show that digital technologies can enable parallel growth of
environmental value and social finance. This unravels the importance of digital technology
and its supporting functions for sustainable business models. However, the findings also
reveal that this potential for scalability can conflict with social and environmental logic. Our
sample entrepreneurs often consciously limit the connectivity and accessibility provided by
digital technologies due to considerations involving CO2 reduction and local community
support. Thus, there are indications pointing towards a potential tension between logic and its
manifestation in business model components. As our research adds to the literature
investigating the challenging combination of multiple logics in business models and examines
how logics enable and constrain efforts for sustainability.
We further identify the value spillover effect. Through computerized artifacts
entrepreneurs create awareness and educational value, which means that their capture of socio
environmental value is not necessarily tied to the sale of their core products and services. As
such, they are breaking the conventional boundaries of the business model. Based on this and
based on the notion of social movement spillover, we argue that the online communities
formed and the content provided and/or created within these communities are not limited to
the stakeholders directly involved in their creation. Advanced content does not exist in a
vacuum but rather influences other individuals and groups. Our results show that advanced
tools make it possible to mobilize and connect individuals which can result in spillover
effects. We, thus, offer new insights into how computerized technologies can be leveraged to
influence stakeholders to support social and environmental impacts.
Theoretical implications
This article adds to the theoretical development of sustainable business models
conceptualized as a combination of different components that manifest a plural institutional
logic. Previous research in this area has largely focused on the institutional logic of
sustainability and thus considered how environmental, social and commercial logics relate to
each other. However, this can potentially leave out more logics further relevant for this
particular context. We add to this discourse by discussing the influence of emerging
computerized logics on the socio-environmental value creation of sustainable business
models. We explore how computerized logics based on connectivity, openness, accessibility
and generativity relate to other related logics in sustainable business models and identify
complementarities and tensions. As such, this is also one of the first studies that does not rely
on the dichotomous relationship of the two logics but rather aims to combine multiple logics
to broaden the perspective on sustainable business models.
We further add to the stream of emerging research in the field of entrepreneurship that
seeks to combine sustainability and digitalization. We contribute to building a foundation for
this advanced sustainable entrepreneurship. First, we show that an institutional logic
perspective on sustainable business models can provide a common theoretical foundation for
studying the intersection of these previously separate research streams. In addition, it provides
analytical guidance for studying sustainable entrepreneurs' efforts to balance environmental,
social, and commercial value creation in computerized times. Secondly, the identified themes
open rich pathways to advance connections between other research streams such as co-
creation or social movement theory and sustainable entrepreneurship. In particular, we
contribute to the theoretical development of sustainable entrepreneurship by presenting the
concept of esteem overflow. Value spillover draws attention to the capture of socio-
environmental value (e.g., education and raising awareness) that goes beyond targeted
customers and affects additional groups. In particular, va l u e spillover coupled with the role
of advanced technology to enable community building, co-creation activities, and broader
stakeholder integration offers a new perspective on entrepreneurial value creation for
sustainability.
Practical implications
Advanced technologies can substantially contribute to sustainable development goals.
However, how this potential can be realized in practice remains largely unknown, especially
for entrepreneurs seeking to create socio-environmental value through financially viable
business models. This article provides practitioners with important insights into how
advanced technologies can be embedded in the design of sustainable business models. As
such, practitioners can utilize the identified configuration of sustainable business model
components (i.e., blended value proposition, integrative value creation, and multidimensional
value capture) as an inspiring starting point for developing new sustainable business models.
For example, they can draw on the importance of computerized means for the formation of
communities that channel the many individual contributions and efforts of many actors
towards a common goal. This, in turn, can capitalize on socio-environmental value creation
through co-creation activities and lead to spillover effects in value capture elements. This
example demonstrates the potential of the themes identified for the practicum but also points
towards the complex relationships that practitioners should be aware of when designing
sustainable business models.
Creating a viable business model that harmonizes a large number of different value
systems is difficult and advanced technology cannot solve this completely. Despite the
reported complementarities, practitioners should also be aware of the tensions identified in
this article. Advanced solutions increase connectivity and accessibility, but this can counteract
environmental and social aspirations. Computerized technology, as such, is not a panacea for
sustainable development and should be used responsibly, keeping potential logic
contradictions in mind. Building on this, we recommend a critical but not inclination approach
when contemplating the integration of computerized means to enhance the impact of
sustainable business models.
Conclusions
This study aims to determine the effect of business models to increase social value to the
environment. Based on the results of the analysis, the conclusion that can be drawn from this
study is that business visionaries use computerized advances to create mixed incentives for
their partners. To begin with, computerized reasoning makes it possible to catalyze the
creation of socio-environmental prices and secondly, empowers business visionaries to
establish offerings that consolidate ecological, social, and rewards monetary for their partners.
Mix Value Proportion
Our discoveries uncover that business visionaries use computerized advancements to
create blended incentives for their partners. To begin with, computerized reasoning makes it
possible to catalyze the creation of socio-environmental prices and, secondly, empowers
business visionaries to set up offerings that consolidate ecological, social, and monetary
rewards for their partners.
An essential guarantee of the computerized advances illustrated by economical
business visionaries is their capacity to make all-supportable exercises more broadly
accessible, available, and doable. Business visionaries recognize innovative parts of their
business models as integral assets to catalyzing more productive methods of living.
Thus, the rationale of some supported business visionaries' worthy recommendations
is to guarantee the beneficial utilization of their contributions. The computerized stage, in
particular, permits strong and proficient associations beforehand regardless of flexibly and
demand, along these lines supporting the spread of social and ecological incentives as referred
to by one of our members.
"It's a sophisticated market where we're bringing territorial food makers moreover,
metropolitan shoppers together. As of now, there are 400 little and private companies that
need to bring their items to you and me as well, we are taking care to guarantee that they
discover their way from the wide open to the city." (Iota)
Other entrepreneurs elaborate on the difficulty of finding, evaluating, and ultimately
purchasing eco-friendly and locally produced goods. Therefore, their online marketplace aims
to provide a better and more convenient alternative to buying sustainable products in different
stores. This concept of increased convenience through advanced marketplaces has also been
introduced to other types of products in our sample (e.g., different types of food or books).
Other entrepreneurs offer cell phone and web applications that provide efficiency for
stakeholders by analyzing user information and recommending more sustainable alternatives.
For example, Alpha offers an app that provides its users with constant information describing
their mobility behavior and the respective ecological consequences. In addition, the app
instantly suggests other eco-friendly means of transportation to trigger immediate behavioral
changes. The app serves as a catalyst for environmental social value propositions by
simultaneously making users aware of the existence of ecological alternatives and improving
the accessibility and convenience of these alternatives.
The integration of advanced logic enables entrepreneurs to successfully combine
environmental, social and economic value propositions. By embedding advanced technologies
entrepreneurs can offer sustainable products and services at competitive prices. One
entrepreneur, for example, stated that his digital marketplace allows environmentally certified
farmers and potential customers to trade conveniently, leading to the reduction and prevention
of unnecessary waste, while simultaneously observing animal rights in meat production.
Therefore, the computerized marketplace enables efficient transactions by ensuring financial
gains for producers while offering reasonable prices, thereby, incorporating economic value.
Integrative value creation
Our findings suggest that advanced technologies have the potential to increase actor
connectivity in the value creation component. We identify three, often interrelated, sets of
practices of community building, co-creation, and expanding stakeholder integration where
advanced logics facilitate the opening of value creation boundaries, making these components
more integrative.
Entrepreneurs often seek to form vibrant communities around the socio-environmental
challenges they wish to address, for example, through the creation and provision of
information centers, discussion boards on the web, stages, or other computerized networks
and communication tools. One way to approach this is offered by Sigma, which aims to
enable civic participation in public environmental projects through its online community. For
this, Sigma set up a crowdfunding stage with networking tools:
"We are considering focusing more on community building because the basic idea is a
simple tool for citizen participation and customer integration. Because that's actually the
recipe for success. As we can see from the ongoing projects, the need for community is very
much there. We have definitely established ourselves more as a crowdfunding stage for users
to support sustainability projects".
These communities, for example, are depicted through advanced cartographic
representations that show where each actor is located, how they are connected, and what they
contribute to the community (e.g. sharing information, managing additional projects, etc.).
In addition, some entrepreneurs use computerized technology to facilitate co-creation
with their users as exemplified by Beta's mission statement "Powered by community e curated
and nurtured by technology". We found that to realize a specialized online service based on
connectivity, the utilization of customers' individual resources is basic. Value co-creation
enabled in this advanced way can include tangible resources (e.g., sharing objects such as
books), but also intangible user resources. For example, users act as content creators for blogs
and websites that benefit communities and thus businesses (Rho) or articulate ideas for
common public-private projects on the crowdfunding stage (Sigma). In this vein, Zeta allows
customers to advancedly design their own farmland where they select and cultivate plants,
vegetables, and fruits through a gamified user interface. These instructions are then realized
by the company and the locally produced products are delivered to the customers. Thus,
entrepreneurial ventures act as computerized intermediaries transferring advanced inputs into
physical yields. In addition to the active integration of users in value creation, various
companies analyze user information to develop new offerings or improve existing offerings
(e.g., Alpha, Lambda, Epsilon, Omega).
Related to these efforts and permeating the idea of community building and co-
creation is the integration of an increasingly diverse set of stakeholders beyond customers and
suppliers. Through computerized networks, sustainable entrepreneurs can be inclusive when
building their advanced value creation networks as the following quote shows:
"Our worldwide network invites individuals, local businesses, NGOs, volunteers and
supporters to join. Every member has free access to information about implementing and
managing water supply projects. Everyone can be part of it!" (Gamma).
Multidimensional value capture
In terms of the value capture component, advanced logic allows entrepreneurs to
enable impact complementarity (i.e., the intertwining of environmental value capture and
social finance), support the scalability of social environmental value, and facilitate the
spillover of social environmental value through computerized means. This leads to
multidimensional value capture by adding multiple forms of value as well as boundaries and
scales of captured value.
Findings suggest that the advanced logic supporting challenge resolution combines the
capture of socio-environmental and economic values. Entrepreneurs state that the realization
of one value often corresponds to the enhancement of another and vice versa (e.g., Sigma,
Phi). This complementary relationship is withering clear in business models that perform an
intermediary function to connect various actors (stage advanced). Here, each service or
product sold entails capturing social and/or environmental value (e.g., a booking stage for
sustainable accommodation) while simultaneously enabling financial value capture (e.g.,
through charging commission fees). Crowdfunding services for sustainable projects enable a
similar complement of impacts. They raise public awareness of their fundable projects
through computerized channels that allow entrepreneurs to curate projects with the highest
potential impact. Any related action of the crowd whether it is a simple click, donation, or
pledge leads to the capture of financial and socio environmental value. Therefore, different
forms of value are not dichotomous in this business model but can complement each other
when intertwined through computerized means.
We further identify how entrepreneurs leverage the characteristics of advanced
solutions to facilitate the scalability of social environmental value. The generativity of the
computerized aspect of the business model allows entrepreneurs to "incorporate usability
requirements and user opinions" (Kappa) to customize their products. Advanced applications
and infrastructures are customizable and extensible to new products and services. In addition,
they are characterized by a seemingly easy move to other markets (e.g., Epsilon, Zeta). These
aspects enable scalability of some forms of value as suggested by the following comments:
"I wanted to find a model, which has a positive impact on my environment but also
has the classic attributes of a fire up. With another individualized structure, it can be scaled
like the modular venture case. I want to show that both are possible in the 21st century." (Phi).
In addition, findings show that sustainable entrepreneurs increase awareness and
education regarding sustainability issues, which is often an additional outcome of their
business model. We call this value spillover because it is not exclusive to the immediate target
group but has the potential to spill over to various stakeholders leading to the capture of
additional social environmental value for the business. To achieve such spillover, sustainable
entrepreneurs mostly rely on advanced media such as websites, blogs, social media,
networking activities at their respective stages, or community building on the web. Due to this
advanced presence, entrepreneurs do "educational work" (Epsilon) or "work at the level of
awareness" (Tau) and strive to "start movements" (Beta), closely linked to community
building as part of the value creation component.
"I think this happens automatically because of our community. Everyone who comes
to our website has to deal with the topic for better or worse. Everyone who sees our ads will
contact the topic. And if they think about it, it might stay in the back of their mind." (Phi).
Inter- and intra-componential logical tensions
We also identified challenges in relation to combining environmental, social, and
computerized logics expressed in inter- and intra-component logical tensions. The major
tension between social and environmental values and computerized logic stems from the
collision of advanced and physical aspects of business models. Computerized means
theoretically provide the potential for infinite scalability and, as shown, allow for scaling the
capture of multiple forms of value and enable complementarity of impact. However there are
restrictions that arise from the given natural boundaries governed by social and environmental
logic. Products and services often have physical properties and require physical resources to
produce. Intended value creation, thus, must consider social and environmental logic.
An example of this challenge is the contradiction between online accessibility and
regionality. Advanced solutions are potentially less constrained by geographical
considerations, but they can challenge the idea of local production and consumption.
Entrepreneurs seeking regionality often aim to capture value by reducing waste and
supporting local value creation. Consider, for example, Zeta, a gamified internet gardening
app where advanced aspects are potentially highly scalable. However, Zeta's cultivation zone
is located in a rural area in Austria and once harvested the fruits and vegetables are packaged
and shipped to customers. In this business model, the scalability of value capture is enhanced
through their computerized approach but is constrained by environmental considerations of
value creation in terms of farmland availability and distance to the end consumer. Similarly,
Iota offers an online stage for agricultural products that can be accessed in an advanced
manner with almost no constraints. However, their value proposition is limited to stakeholders
within relative geographical proximity due to CO2 transportation considerations as part of
value creation as well as the aim to empower local farmers, which is an important element of
their value capture. This is exemplified through the following quote:
"90% of our suppliers come from within a radius of less than 100 km. Purchasing food
with short transportation distances and organic farming makes a considerable contribution to
climate balance. At the same time, the regional economy and small producers from the
surrounding area are strengthened." (Iota).
Discussion And Implications
Embedding digital technologies in the elementarism of sustainable business models and
emerging digital logic tensions
This article seeks to gain a deeper understanding of how sustainable entrepreneurs
embed advanced technologies in their business models to foster social environmental value
creation. This is the first study to investigate the emerging advanced logics in sustainable
entrepreneurship. We argue that practices enabled by computerized logics support the
interconnectedness of environmental, social, and commercial logics but also entail tensions.
Therefore, we contribute theoretically and empirically to the development of a new topical
and ambitious research field on sustainable business models in an entrepreneurial context.
In sustainable business model design finding ways to calibrate, balance and blend
value is a key endeavor. We add to this by showing that sustainable entrepreneurs can
leverage computerized technology to develop blended value propositions. Sustainable
offerings often lack financial value for customers because sustainable products and services
are associated with higher value creation costs than their less sustainable counterparts. The
literature on sustainable behavior, however, argues that aspects such as time, effort, and
financial cost are important determinants of behavior favorable to the customer environment.
Our findings suggest that selective use of computerized technologies can increase
convenience and efficiency, while lowering costs in concert with a more sustainable way of
life, ultimately providing a more balanced value proposition.
We also offer new insights into the computerized value creation practices of
entrepreneurs. Our findings suggest a broad complementarity between the values of social
logic (e.g., community development, democratic participation, equality) and the affordances
of computerized technologies in value creation elements. By combining multiple advanced
artifacts and infrastructures (e.g., blogs, boards, social media interfaces, stages, etc.) they
create spaces for community interaction, engage in co-creation activities, and expand
stakeholder integration. With these advanced enabled practices, sustainable entrepreneurs
manage the boundaries of their business models, making them more dynamic and open. In
addition, we found the stage approach to be very effective in bringing together multiple
actors. This is especially important for sustainable business models, which are fraught with
additional efforts in managing external relationships as they need to include a variety of
diverse stakeholders. Enacting advanced logic increases the connectivity of actors across
geographical boundaries and enables integrative value creation. We, thus, add to further
establish the link between co-creation and sustainable business model design.
In addition, we identify synergistic relationships between digital applications and
sustainable business models that lead to multidimensional value capture. Extant research on
sustainable entrepreneurs reveals concerns in terms of business model scalability and financial
stability. We add to this body of knowledge by providing new insights into how entrepreneurs
leverage digital technologies to scale up their intended value capture along with the
exploitation of impact complements. Such impact complements are theorized to be critical for
sustainable business models and we show potential ways in which sustainable entrepreneurs
can achieve them. We further show that digital technologies can enable parallel growth of
environmental value and social finance. This unravels the importance of digital technology
and its supporting functions for sustainable business models. However, the findings also
reveal that this potential for scalability can conflict with social and environmental logic. Our
sample entrepreneurs often consciously limit the connectivity and accessibility provided by
digital technologies due to considerations involving CO2 reduction and local community
support. Thus, there are indications pointing towards a potential tension between logic and its
manifestation in business model components. As our research adds to the literature
investigating the challenging combination of multiple logics in business models and examines
how logics enable and constrain efforts for sustainability.
We further identify the value spillover effect. Through computerized artifacts
entrepreneurs create awareness and educational value, which means that their capture of socio
environmental value is not necessarily tied to the sale of their core products and services. As
such, they are breaking the conventional boundaries of the business model. Based on this and
based on the notion of social movement spillover, we argue that the online communities
formed and the content provided and/or created within these communities are not limited to
the stakeholders directly involved in their creation. Advanced content does not exist in a
vacuum but rather influences other individuals and groups. Our results show that advanced
tools make it possible to mobilize and connect individuals which can result in spillover
effects. We, thus, offer new insights into how computerized technologies can be leveraged to
influence stakeholders to support social and environmental impacts.
Theoretical implications
This article adds to the theoretical development of sustainable business models
conceptualized as a combination of different components that manifest a plural institutional
logic. Previous research in this area has largely focused on the institutional logic of
sustainability and thus considered how environmental, social and commercial logics relate to
each other. However, this can potentially leave out more logics further relevant for this
particular context. We add to this discourse by discussing the influence of emerging
computerized logics on the socio-environmental value creation of sustainable business
models. We explore how computerized logics based on connectivity, openness, accessibility
and generativity relate to other related logics in sustainable business models and identify
complementarities and tensions. As such, this is also one of the first studies that does not rely
on the dichotomous relationship of the two logics but rather aims to combine multiple logics
to broaden the perspective on sustainable business models.
We further add to the stream of emerging research in the field of entrepreneurship that
seeks to combine sustainability and digitalization. We contribute to building a foundation for
this advanced sustainable entrepreneurship. First, we show that an institutional logic
perspective on sustainable business models can provide a common theoretical foundation for
studying the intersection of these previously separate research streams. In addition, it provides
analytical guidance for studying sustainable entrepreneurs' efforts to balance environmental,
social, and commercial value creation in computerized times. Secondly, the identified themes
open rich pathways to advance connections between other research streams such as co-
creation or social movement theory and sustainable entrepreneurship. In particular, we
contribute to the theoretical development of sustainable entrepreneurship by presenting the
concept of esteem overflow. Value spillover draws attention to the capture of socio-
environmental value (e.g., education and raising awareness) that goes beyond targeted
customers and affects additional groups. In particular, va l u e spillover coupled with the role
of advanced technology to enable community building, co-creation activities, and broader
stakeholder integration offers a new perspective on entrepreneurial value creation for
sustainability.
Practical implications
Advanced technologies can substantially contribute to sustainable development goals.
However, how this potential can be realized in practice remains largely unknown, especially
for entrepreneurs seeking to create socio-environmental value through financially viable
business models. This article provides practitioners with important insights into how
advanced technologies can be embedded in the design of sustainable business models. As
such, practitioners can utilize the identified configuration of sustainable business model
components (i.e., blended value proposition, integrative value creation, and multidimensional
value capture) as an inspiring starting point for developing new sustainable business models.
For example, they can draw on the importance of computerized means for the formation of
communities that channel the many individual contributions and efforts of many actors
towards a common goal. This, in turn, can capitalize on socio-environmental value creation
through co-creation activities and lead to spillover effects in value capture elements. This
example demonstrates the potential of the themes identified for the practicum but also points
towards the complex relationships that practitioners should be aware of when designing
sustainable business models.
Creating a viable business model that harmonizes a large number of different value
systems is difficult and advanced technology cannot solve this completely. Despite the
reported complementarities, practitioners should also be aware of the tensions identified in
this article. Advanced solutions increase connectivity and accessibility, but this can counteract
environmental and social aspirations. Computerized technology, as such, is not a panacea for
sustainable development and should be used responsibly, keeping potential logic
contradictions in mind. Building on this, we recommend a critical but not inclination approach
when contemplating the integration of computerized means to enhance the impact of
sustainable business models.
Conclusions
This study aims to determine the effect of business models to increase social value to the
environment. Based on the results of the analysis, the conclusion that can be drawn from this
study is that business visionaries use computerized advances to create mixed incentives for
their partners. To begin with, computerized reasoning makes it possible to catalyze the
creation of socio-environmental prices and secondly, empowers business visionaries to
establish offerings that consolidate ecological, social, and rewards monetary for their partners.
Mix Value Proportion
Our discoveries uncover that business visionaries use computerized advancements to
create blended incentives for their partners. To begin with, computerized reasoning makes it
possible to catalyze the creation of socio-environmental prices and, secondly, empowers
business visionaries to set up offerings that consolidate ecological, social, and monetary
rewards for their partners.
An essential guarantee of the computerized advances illustrated by economical
business visionaries is their capacity to make all-supportable exercises more broadly
accessible, available, and doable. Business visionaries recognize innovative parts of their
business models as integral assets to catalyzing more productive methods of living.
Thus, the rationale of some supported business visionaries' worthy recommendations
is to guarantee the beneficial utilization of their contributions. The computerized stage, in
particular, permits strong and proficient associations beforehand regardless of flexibly and
demand, along these lines supporting the spread of social and ecological incentives as referred
to by one of our members.
"It's a sophisticated market where we're bringing territorial food makers moreover,
metropolitan shoppers together. As of now, there are 400 little and private companies that
need to bring their items to you and me as well, we are taking care to guarantee that they
discover their way from the wide open to the city." (Iota)
Other entrepreneurs elaborate on the difficulty of finding, evaluating, and ultimately
purchasing eco-friendly and locally produced goods. Therefore, their online marketplace aims
to provide a better and more convenient alternative to buying sustainable products in different
stores. This concept of increased convenience through advanced marketplaces has also been
introduced to other types of products in our sample (e.g., different types of food or books).
Other entrepreneurs offer cell phone and web applications that provide efficiency for
stakeholders by analyzing user information and recommending more sustainable alternatives.
For example, Alpha offers an app that provides its users with constant information describing
their mobility behavior and the respective ecological consequences. In addition, the app
instantly suggests other eco-friendly means of transportation to trigger immediate behavioral
changes. The app serves as a catalyst for environmental social value propositions by
simultaneously making users aware of the existence of ecological alternatives and improving
the accessibility and convenience of these alternatives.
The integration of advanced logic enables entrepreneurs to successfully combine
environmental, social and economic value propositions. By embedding advanced technologies
entrepreneurs can offer sustainable products and services at competitive prices. One
entrepreneur, for example, stated that his digital marketplace allows environmentally certified
farmers and potential customers to trade conveniently, leading to the reduction and prevention
of unnecessary waste, while simultaneously observing animal rights in meat production.
Therefore, the computerized marketplace enables efficient transactions by ensuring financial
gains for producers while offering reasonable prices, thereby, incorporating economic value.
Integrative value creation
Our findings suggest that advanced technologies have the potential to increase actor
connectivity in the value creation component. We identify three, often interrelated, sets of
practices of community building, co-creation, and expanding stakeholder integration where
advanced logics facilitate the opening of value creation boundaries, making these components
more integrative.
Entrepreneurs often seek to form vibrant communities around the socio-environmental
challenges they wish to address, for example, through the creation and provision of
information centers, discussion boards on the web, stages, or other computerized networks
and communication tools. One way to approach this is offered by Sigma, which aims to
enable civic participation in public environmental projects through its online community. For
this, Sigma set up a crowdfunding stage with networking tools:
"We are considering focusing more on community building because the basic idea is a
simple tool for citizen participation and customer integration. Because that's actually the
recipe for success. As we can see from the ongoing projects, the need for community is very
much there. We have definitely established ourselves more as a crowdfunding stage for users
to support sustainability projects".
These communities, for example, are depicted through advanced cartographic
representations that show where each actor is located, how they are connected, and what they
contribute to the community (e.g. sharing information, managing additional projects, etc.).
In addition, some entrepreneurs use computerized technology to facilitate co-creation
with their users as exemplified by Beta's mission statement "Powered by community e curated
and nurtured by technology". We found that to realize a specialized online service based on
connectivity, the utilization of customers' individual resources is basic. Value co-creation
enabled in this advanced way can include tangible resources (e.g., sharing objects such as
books), but also intangible user resources. For example, users act as content creators for blogs
and websites that benefit communities and thus businesses (Rho) or articulate ideas for
common public-private projects on the crowdfunding stage (Sigma). In this vein, Zeta allows
customers to advancedly design their own farmland where they select and cultivate plants,
vegetables, and fruits through a gamified user interface. These instructions are then realized
by the company and the locally produced products are delivered to the customers. Thus,
entrepreneurial ventures act as computerized intermediaries transferring advanced inputs into
physical yields. In addition to the active integration of users in value creation, various
companies analyze user information to develop new offerings or improve existing offerings
(e.g., Alpha, Lambda, Epsilon, Omega).
Related to these efforts and permeating the idea of community building and co-
creation is the integration of an increasingly diverse set of stakeholders beyond customers and
suppliers. Through computerized networks, sustainable entrepreneurs can be inclusive when
building their advanced value creation networks as the following quote shows:
"Our worldwide network invites individuals, local businesses, NGOs, volunteers and
supporters to join. Every member has free access to information about implementing and
managing water supply projects. Everyone can be part of it!" (Gamma).
Multidimensional value capture
In terms of the value capture component, advanced logic allows entrepreneurs to
enable impact complementarity (i.e., the intertwining of environmental value capture and
social finance), support the scalability of social environmental value, and facilitate the
spillover of social environmental value through computerized means. This leads to
multidimensional value capture by adding multiple forms of value as well as boundaries and
scales of captured value.
Findings suggest that the advanced logic supporting challenge resolution combines the
capture of socio-environmental and economic values. Entrepreneurs state that the realization
of one value often corresponds to the enhancement of another and vice versa (e.g., Sigma,
Phi). This complementary relationship is withering clear in business models that perform an
intermediary function to connect various actors (stage advanced). Here, each service or
product sold entails capturing social and/or environmental value (e.g., a booking stage for
sustainable accommodation) while simultaneously enabling financial value capture (e.g.,
through charging commission fees). Crowdfunding services for sustainable projects enable a
similar complement of impacts. They raise public awareness of their fundable projects
through computerized channels that allow entrepreneurs to curate projects with the highest
potential impact. Any related action of the crowd whether it is a simple click, donation, or
pledge leads to the capture of financial and socio environmental value. Therefore, different
forms of value are not dichotomous in this business model but can complement each other
when intertwined through computerized means.
We further identify how entrepreneurs leverage the characteristics of advanced
solutions to facilitate the scalability of social environmental value. The generativity of the
computerized aspect of the business model allows entrepreneurs to "incorporate usability
requirements and user opinions" (Kappa) to customize their products. Advanced applications
and infrastructures are customizable and extensible to new products and services. In addition,
they are characterized by a seemingly easy move to other markets (e.g., Epsilon, Zeta). These
aspects enable scalability of some forms of value as suggested by the following comments:
"I wanted to find a model, which has a positive impact on my environment but also
has the classic attributes of a fire up. With another individualized structure, it can be scaled
like the modular venture case. I want to show that both are possible in the 21st century." (Phi).
In addition, findings show that sustainable entrepreneurs increase awareness and
education regarding sustainability issues, which is often an additional outcome of their
business model. We call this value spillover because it is not exclusive to the immediate target
group but has the potential to spill over to various stakeholders leading to the capture of
additional social environmental value for the business. To achieve such spillover, sustainable
entrepreneurs mostly rely on advanced media such as websites, blogs, social media,
networking activities at their respective stages, or community building on the web. Due to this
advanced presence, entrepreneurs do "educational work" (Epsilon) or "work at the level of
awareness" (Tau) and strive to "start movements" (Beta), closely linked to community
building as part of the value creation component.
"I think this happens automatically because of our community. Everyone who comes
to our website has to deal with the topic for better or worse. Everyone who sees our ads will
contact the topic. And if they think about it, it might stay in the back of their mind." (Phi).
Inter- and intra-componential logical tensions
We also identified challenges in relation to combining environmental, social, and
computerized logics expressed in inter- and intra-component logical tensions. The major
tension between social and environmental values and computerized logic stems from the
collision of advanced and physical aspects of business models. Computerized means
theoretically provide the potential for infinite scalability and, as shown, allow for scaling the
capture of multiple forms of value and enable complementarity of impact. However there are
restrictions that arise from the given natural boundaries governed by social and environmental
logic. Products and services often have physical properties and require physical resources to
produce. Intended value creation, thus, must consider social and environmental logic.
An example of this challenge is the contradiction between online accessibility and
regionality. Advanced solutions are potentially less constrained by geographical
considerations, but they can challenge the idea of local production and consumption.
Entrepreneurs seeking regionality often aim to capture value by reducing waste and
supporting local value creation. Consider, for example, Zeta, a gamified internet gardening
app where advanced aspects are potentially highly scalable. However, Zeta's cultivation zone
is located in a rural area in Austria and once harvested the fruits and vegetables are packaged
and shipped to customers. In this business model, the scalability of value capture is enhanced
through their computerized approach but is constrained by environmental considerations of
value creation in terms of farmland availability and distance to the end consumer. Similarly,
Iota offers an online stage for agricultural products that can be accessed in an advanced
manner with almost no constraints. However, their value proposition is limited to stakeholders
within relative geographical proximity due to CO2 transportation considerations as part of
value creation as well as the aim to empower local farmers, which is an important element of
their value capture. This is exemplified through the following quote:
"90% of our suppliers come from within a radius of less than 100 km. Purchasing food
with short transportation distances and organic farming makes a considerable contribution to
climate balance. At the same time, the regional economy and small producers from the
surrounding area are strengthened." (Iota).
Discussion And Implications
Embedding digital technologies in the elementarism of sustainable business models and
emerging digital logic tensions
This article seeks to gain a deeper understanding of how sustainable entrepreneurs
embed advanced technologies in their business models to foster social environmental value
creation. This is the first study to investigate the emerging advanced logics in sustainable
entrepreneurship. We argue that practices enabled by computerized logics support the
interconnectedness of environmental, social, and commercial logics but also entail tensions.
Therefore, we contribute theoretically and empirically to the development of a new topical
and ambitious research field on sustainable business models in an entrepreneurial context.
In sustainable business model design finding ways to calibrate, balance and blend
value is a key endeavor. We add to this by showing that sustainable entrepreneurs can
leverage computerized technology to develop blended value propositions. Sustainable
offerings often lack financial value for customers because sustainable products and services
are associated with higher value creation costs than their less sustainable counterparts. The
literature on sustainable behavior, however, argues that aspects such as time, effort, and
financial cost are important determinants of behavior favorable to the customer environment.
Our findings suggest that selective use of computerized technologies can increase
convenience and efficiency, while lowering costs in concert with a more sustainable way of
life, ultimately providing a more balanced value proposition.
We also offer new insights into the computerized value creation practices of
entrepreneurs. Our findings suggest a broad complementarity between the values of social
logic (e.g., community development, democratic participation, equality) and the affordances
of computerized technologies in value creation elements. By combining multiple advanced
artifacts and infrastructures (e.g., blogs, boards, social media interfaces, stages, etc.) they
create spaces for community interaction, engage in co-creation activities, and expand
stakeholder integration. With these advanced enabled practices, sustainable entrepreneurs
manage the boundaries of their business models, making them more dynamic and open. In
addition, we found the stage approach to be very effective in bringing together multiple
actors. This is especially important for sustainable business models, which are fraught with
additional efforts in managing external relationships as they need to include a variety of
diverse stakeholders. Enacting advanced logic increases the connectivity of actors across
geographical boundaries and enables integrative value creation. We, thus, add to further
establish the link between co-creation and sustainable business model design.
In addition, we identify synergistic relationships between digital applications and
sustainable business models that lead to multidimensional value capture. Extant research on
sustainable entrepreneurs reveals concerns in terms of business model scalability and financial
stability. We add to this body of knowledge by providing new insights into how entrepreneurs
leverage digital technologies to scale up their intended value capture along with the
exploitation of impact complements. Such impact complements are theorized to be critical for
sustainable business models and we show potential ways in which sustainable entrepreneurs
can achieve them. We further show that digital technologies can enable parallel growth of
environmental value and social finance. This unravels the importance of digital technology
and its supporting functions for sustainable business models. However, the findings also
reveal that this potential for scalability can conflict with social and environmental logic. Our
sample entrepreneurs often consciously limit the connectivity and accessibility provided by
digital technologies due to considerations involving CO2 reduction and local community
support. Thus, there are indications pointing towards a potential tension between logic and its
manifestation in business model components. As our research adds to the literature
investigating the challenging combination of multiple logics in business models and examines
how logics enable and constrain efforts for sustainability.
We further identify the value spillover effect. Through computerized artifacts
entrepreneurs create awareness and educational value, which means that their capture of socio
environmental value is not necessarily tied to the sale of their core products and services. As
such, they are breaking the conventional boundaries of the business model. Based on this and
based on the notion of social movement spillover, we argue that the online communities
formed and the content provided and/or created within these communities are not limited to
the stakeholders directly involved in their creation. Advanced content does not exist in a
vacuum but rather influences other individuals and groups. Our results show that advanced
tools make it possible to mobilize and connect individuals which can result in spillover
effects. We, thus, offer new insights into how computerized technologies can be leveraged to
influence stakeholders to support social and environmental impacts.
Theoretical implications
This article adds to the theoretical development of sustainable business models
conceptualized as a combination of different components that manifest a plural institutional
logic. Previous research in this area has largely focused on the institutional logic of
sustainability and thus considered how environmental, social and commercial logics relate to
each other. However, this can potentially leave out more logics further relevant for this
particular context. We add to this discourse by discussing the influence of emerging
computerized logics on the socio-environmental value creation of sustainable business
models. We explore how computerized logics based on connectivity, openness, accessibility
and generativity relate to other related logics in sustainable business models and identify
complementarities and tensions. As such, this is also one of the first studies that does not rely
on the dichotomous relationship of the two logics but rather aims to combine multiple logics
to broaden the perspective on sustainable business models.
We further add to the stream of emerging research in the field of entrepreneurship that
seeks to combine sustainability and digitalization. We contribute to building a foundation for
this advanced sustainable entrepreneurship. First, we show that an institutional logic
perspective on sustainable business models can provide a common theoretical foundation for
studying the intersection of these previously separate research streams. In addition, it provides
analytical guidance for studying sustainable entrepreneurs' efforts to balance environmental,
social, and commercial value creation in computerized times. Secondly, the identified themes
open rich pathways to advance connections between other research streams such as co-
creation or social movement theory and sustainable entrepreneurship. In particular, we
contribute to the theoretical development of sustainable entrepreneurship by presenting the
concept of esteem overflow. Value spillover draws attention to the capture of socio-
environmental value (e.g., education and raising awareness) that goes beyond targeted
customers and affects additional groups. In particular, va l u e spillover coupled with the role
of advanced technology to enable community building, co-creation activities, and broader
stakeholder integration offers a new perspective on entrepreneurial value creation for
sustainability.
Practical implications
Advanced technologies can substantially contribute to sustainable development goals.
However, how this potential can be realized in practice remains largely unknown, especially
for entrepreneurs seeking to create socio-environmental value through financially viable
business models. This article provides practitioners with important insights into how
advanced technologies can be embedded in the design of sustainable business models. As
such, practitioners can utilize the identified configuration of sustainable business model
components (i.e., blended value proposition, integrative value creation, and multidimensional
value capture) as an inspiring starting point for developing new sustainable business models.
For example, they can draw on the importance of computerized means for the formation of
communities that channel the many individual contributions and efforts of many actors
towards a common goal. This, in turn, can capitalize on socio-environmental value creation
through co-creation activities and lead to spillover effects in value capture elements. This
example demonstrates the potential of the themes identified for the practicum but also points
towards the complex relationships that practitioners should be aware of when designing
sustainable business models.
Creating a viable business model that harmonizes a large number of different value
systems is difficult and advanced technology cannot solve this completely. Despite the
reported complementarities, practitioners should also be aware of the tensions identified in
this article. Advanced solutions increase connectivity and accessibility, but this can counteract
environmental and social aspirations. Computerized technology, as such, is not a panacea for
sustainable development and should be used responsibly, keeping potential logic
contradictions in mind. Building on this, we recommend a critical but not inclination approach
when contemplating the integration of computerized means to enhance the impact of
sustainable business models.
Conclusions
This study aims to determine the effect of business models to increase social value to the
environment. Based on the results of the analysis, the conclusion that can be drawn from this
study is that business visionaries use computerized advances to create mixed incentives for
their partners. To begin with, computerized reasoning makes it possible to catalyze the
creation of socio-environmental prices and secondly, empowers business visionaries to
establish offerings that consolidate ecological, social, and rewards monetary for their partners.
Mix Value Proportion
Our discoveries uncover that business visionaries use computerized advancements to
create blended incentives for their partners. To begin with, computerized reasoning makes it
possible to catalyze the creation of socio-environmental prices and, secondly, empowers
business visionaries to set up offerings that consolidate ecological, social, and monetary
rewards for their partners.
An essential guarantee of the computerized advances illustrated by economical
business visionaries is their capacity to make all-supportable exercises more broadly
accessible, available, and doable. Business visionaries recognize innovative parts of their
business models as integral assets to catalyzing more productive methods of living.
Thus, the rationale of some supported business visionaries' worthy recommendations
is to guarantee the beneficial utilization of their contributions. The computerized stage, in
particular, permits strong and proficient associations beforehand regardless of flexibly and
demand, along these lines supporting the spread of social and ecological incentives as referred
to by one of our members.
"It's a sophisticated market where we're bringing territorial food makers moreover,
metropolitan shoppers together. As of now, there are 400 little and private companies that
need to bring their items to you and me as well, we are taking care to guarantee that they
discover their way from the wide open to the city." (Iota)
Other entrepreneurs elaborate on the difficulty of finding, evaluating, and ultimately
purchasing eco-friendly and locally produced goods. Therefore, their online marketplace aims
to provide a better and more convenient alternative to buying sustainable products in different
stores. This concept of increased convenience through advanced marketplaces has also been
introduced to other types of products in our sample (e.g., different types of food or books).
Other entrepreneurs offer cell phone and web applications that provide efficiency for
stakeholders by analyzing user information and recommending more sustainable alternatives.
For example, Alpha offers an app that provides its users with constant information describing
their mobility behavior and the respective ecological consequences. In addition, the app
instantly suggests other eco-friendly means of transportation to trigger immediate behavioral
changes. The app serves as a catalyst for environmental social value propositions by
simultaneously making users aware of the existence of ecological alternatives and improving
the accessibility and convenience of these alternatives.
The integration of advanced logic enables entrepreneurs to successfully combine
environmental, social and economic value propositions. By embedding advanced technologies
entrepreneurs can offer sustainable products and services at competitive prices. One
entrepreneur, for example, stated that his digital marketplace allows environmentally certified
farmers and potential customers to trade conveniently, leading to the reduction and prevention
of unnecessary waste, while simultaneously observing animal rights in meat production.
Therefore, the computerized marketplace enables efficient transactions by ensuring financial
gains for producers while offering reasonable prices, thereby, incorporating economic value.
Integrative value creation
Our findings suggest that advanced technologies have the potential to increase actor
connectivity in the value creation component. We identify three, often interrelated, sets of
practices of community building, co-creation, and expanding stakeholder integration where
advanced logics facilitate the opening of value creation boundaries, making these components
more integrative.
Entrepreneurs often seek to form vibrant communities around the socio-environmental
challenges they wish to address, for example, through the creation and provision of
information centers, discussion boards on the web, stages, or other computerized networks
and communication tools. One way to approach this is offered by Sigma, which aims to
enable civic participation in public environmental projects through its online community. For
this, Sigma set up a crowdfunding stage with networking tools:
"We are considering focusing more on community building because the basic idea is a
simple tool for citizen participation and customer integration. Because that's actually the
recipe for success. As we can see from the ongoing projects, the need for community is very
much there. We have definitely established ourselves more as a crowdfunding stage for users
to support sustainability projects".
These communities, for example, are depicted through advanced cartographic
representations that show where each actor is located, how they are connected, and what they
contribute to the community (e.g. sharing information, managing additional projects, etc.).
In addition, some entrepreneurs use computerized technology to facilitate co-creation
with their users as exemplified by Beta's mission statement "Powered by community e curated
and nurtured by technology". We found that to realize a specialized online service based on
connectivity, the utilization of customers' individual resources is basic. Value co-creation
enabled in this advanced way can include tangible resources (e.g., sharing objects such as
books), but also intangible user resources. For example, users act as content creators for blogs
and websites that benefit communities and thus businesses (Rho) or articulate ideas for
common public-private projects on the crowdfunding stage (Sigma). In this vein, Zeta allows
customers to advancedly design their own farmland where they select and cultivate plants,
vegetables, and fruits through a gamified user interface. These instructions are then realized
by the company and the locally produced products are delivered to the customers. Thus,
entrepreneurial ventures act as computerized intermediaries transferring advanced inputs into
physical yields. In addition to the active integration of users in value creation, various
companies analyze user information to develop new offerings or improve existing offerings
(e.g., Alpha, Lambda, Epsilon, Omega).
Related to these efforts and permeating the idea of community building and co-
creation is the integration of an increasingly diverse set of stakeholders beyond customers and
suppliers. Through computerized networks, sustainable entrepreneurs can be inclusive when
building their advanced value creation networks as the following quote shows:
"Our worldwide network invites individuals, local businesses, NGOs, volunteers and
supporters to join. Every member has free access to information about implementing and
managing water supply projects. Everyone can be part of it!" (Gamma).
Multidimensional value capture
In terms of the value capture component, advanced logic allows entrepreneurs to
enable impact complementarity (i.e., the intertwining of environmental value capture and
social finance), support the scalability of social environmental value, and facilitate the
spillover of social environmental value through computerized means. This leads to
multidimensional value capture by adding multiple forms of value as well as boundaries and
scales of captured value.
Findings suggest that the advanced logic supporting challenge resolution combines the
capture of socio-environmental and economic values. Entrepreneurs state that the realization
of one value often corresponds to the enhancement of another and vice versa (e.g., Sigma,
Phi). This complementary relationship is withering clear in business models that perform an
intermediary function to connect various actors (stage advanced). Here, each service or
product sold entails capturing social and/or environmental value (e.g., a booking stage for
sustainable accommodation) while simultaneously enabling financial value capture (e.g.,
through charging commission fees). Crowdfunding services for sustainable projects enable a
similar complement of impacts. They raise public awareness of their fundable projects
through computerized channels that allow entrepreneurs to curate projects with the highest
potential impact. Any related action of the crowd whether it is a simple click, donation, or
pledge leads to the capture of financial and socio environmental value. Therefore, different
forms of value are not dichotomous in this business model but can complement each other
when intertwined through computerized means.
We further identify how entrepreneurs leverage the characteristics of advanced
solutions to facilitate the scalability of social environmental value. The generativity of the
computerized aspect of the business model allows entrepreneurs to "incorporate usability
requirements and user opinions" (Kappa) to customize their products. Advanced applications
and infrastructures are customizable and extensible to new products and services. In addition,
they are characterized by a seemingly easy move to other markets (e.g., Epsilon, Zeta). These
aspects enable scalability of some forms of value as suggested by the following comments:
"I wanted to find a model, which has a positive impact on my environment but also
has the classic attributes of a fire up. With another individualized structure, it can be scaled
like the modular venture case. I want to show that both are possible in the 21st century." (Phi).
In addition, findings show that sustainable entrepreneurs increase awareness and
education regarding sustainability issues, which is often an additional outcome of their
business model. We call this value spillover because it is not exclusive to the immediate target
group but has the potential to spill over to various stakeholders leading to the capture of
additional social environmental value for the business. To achieve such spillover, sustainable
entrepreneurs mostly rely on advanced media such as websites, blogs, social media,
networking activities at their respective stages, or community building on the web. Due to this
advanced presence, entrepreneurs do "educational work" (Epsilon) or "work at the level of
awareness" (Tau) and strive to "start movements" (Beta), closely linked to community
building as part of the value creation component.
"I think this happens automatically because of our community. Everyone who comes
to our website has to deal with the topic for better or worse. Everyone who sees our ads will
contact the topic. And if they think about it, it might stay in the back of their mind." (Phi).
Inter- and intra-componential logical tensions
We also identified challenges in relation to combining environmental, social, and
computerized logics expressed in inter- and intra-component logical tensions. The major
tension between social and environmental values and computerized logic stems from the
collision of advanced and physical aspects of business models. Computerized means
theoretically provide the potential for infinite scalability and, as shown, allow for scaling the
capture of multiple forms of value and enable complementarity of impact. However there are
restrictions that arise from the given natural boundaries governed by social and environmental
logic. Products and services often have physical properties and require physical resources to
produce. Intended value creation, thus, must consider social and environmental logic.
An example of this challenge is the contradiction between online accessibility and
regionality. Advanced solutions are potentially less constrained by geographical
considerations, but they can challenge the idea of local production and consumption.
Entrepreneurs seeking regionality often aim to capture value by reducing waste and
supporting local value creation. Consider, for example, Zeta, a gamified internet gardening
app where advanced aspects are potentially highly scalable. However, Zeta's cultivation zone
is located in a rural area in Austria and once harvested the fruits and vegetables are packaged
and shipped to customers. In this business model, the scalability of value capture is enhanced
through their computerized approach but is constrained by environmental considerations of
value creation in terms of farmland availability and distance to the end consumer. Similarly,
Iota offers an online stage for agricultural products that can be accessed in an advanced
manner with almost no constraints. However, their value proposition is limited to stakeholders
within relative geographical proximity due to CO2 transportation considerations as part of
value creation as well as the aim to empower local farmers, which is an important element of
their value capture. This is exemplified through the following quote:
"90% of our suppliers come from within a radius of less than 100 km. Purchasing food
with short transportation distances and organic farming makes a considerable contribution to
climate balance. At the same time, the regional economy and small producers from the
surrounding area are strengthened." (Iota).
Discussion And Implications
Embedding digital technologies in the elementarism of sustainable business models and
emerging digital logic tensions
This article seeks to gain a deeper understanding of how sustainable entrepreneurs
embed advanced technologies in their business models to foster social environmental value
creation. This is the first study to investigate the emerging advanced logics in sustainable
entrepreneurship. We argue that practices enabled by computerized logics support the
interconnectedness of environmental, social, and commercial logics but also entail tensions.
Therefore, we contribute theoretically and empirically to the development of a new topical
and ambitious research field on sustainable business models in an entrepreneurial context.
In sustainable business model design finding ways to calibrate, balance and blend
value is a key endeavor. We add to this by showing that sustainable entrepreneurs can
leverage computerized technology to develop blended value propositions. Sustainable
offerings often lack financial value for customers because sustainable products and services
are associated with higher value creation costs than their less sustainable counterparts. The
literature on sustainable behavior, however, argues that aspects such as time, effort, and
financial cost are important determinants of behavior favorable to the customer environment.
Our findings suggest that selective use of computerized technologies can increase
convenience and efficiency, while lowering costs in concert with a more sustainable way of
life, ultimately providing a more balanced value proposition.
We also offer new insights into the computerized value creation practices of
entrepreneurs. Our findings suggest a broad complementarity between the values of social
logic (e.g., community development, democratic participation, equality) and the affordances
of computerized technologies in value creation elements. By combining multiple advanced
artifacts and infrastructures (e.g., blogs, boards, social media interfaces, stages, etc.) they
create spaces for community interaction, engage in co-creation activities, and expand
stakeholder integration. With these advanced enabled practices, sustainable entrepreneurs
manage the boundaries of their business models, making them more dynamic and open. In
addition, we found the stage approach to be very effective in bringing together multiple
actors. This is especially important for sustainable business models, which are fraught with
additional efforts in managing external relationships as they need to include a variety of
diverse stakeholders. Enacting advanced logic increases the connectivity of actors across
geographical boundaries and enables integrative value creation. We, thus, add to further
establish the link between co-creation and sustainable business model design.
In addition, we identify synergistic relationships between digital applications and
sustainable business models that lead to multidimensional value capture. Extant research on
sustainable entrepreneurs reveals concerns in terms of business model scalability and financial
stability. We add to this body of knowledge by providing new insights into how entrepreneurs
leverage digital technologies to scale up their intended value capture along with the
exploitation of impact complements. Such impact complements are theorized to be critical for
sustainable business models and we show potential ways in which sustainable entrepreneurs
can achieve them. We further show that digital technologies can enable parallel growth of
environmental value and social finance. This unravels the importance of digital technology
and its supporting functions for sustainable business models. However, the findings also
reveal that this potential for scalability can conflict with social and environmental logic. Our
sample entrepreneurs often consciously limit the connectivity and accessibility provided by
digital technologies due to considerations involving CO2 reduction and local community
support. Thus, there are indications pointing towards a potential tension between logic and its
manifestation in business model components. As our research adds to the literature
investigating the challenging combination of multiple logics in business models and examines
how logics enable and constrain efforts for sustainability.
We further identify the value spillover effect. Through computerized artifacts
entrepreneurs create awareness and educational value, which means that their capture of socio
environmental value is not necessarily tied to the sale of their core products and services. As
such, they are breaking the conventional boundaries of the business model. Based on this and
based on the notion of social movement spillover, we argue that the online communities
formed and the content provided and/or created within these communities are not limited to
the stakeholders directly involved in their creation. Advanced content does not exist in a
vacuum but rather influences other individuals and groups. Our results show that advanced
tools make it possible to mobilize and connect individuals which can result in spillover
effects. We, thus, offer new insights into how computerized technologies can be leveraged to
influence stakeholders to support social and environmental impacts.
Theoretical implications
This article adds to the theoretical development of sustainable business models
conceptualized as a combination of different components that manifest a plural institutional
logic. Previous research in this area has largely focused on the institutional logic of
sustainability and thus considered how environmental, social and commercial logics relate to
each other. However, this can potentially leave out more logics further relevant for this
particular context. We add to this discourse by discussing the influence of emerging
computerized logics on the socio-environmental value creation of sustainable business
models. We explore how computerized logics based on connectivity, openness, accessibility
and generativity relate to other related logics in sustainable business models and identify
complementarities and tensions. As such, this is also one of the first studies that does not rely
on the dichotomous relationship of the two logics but rather aims to combine multiple logics
to broaden the perspective on sustainable business models.
We further add to the stream of emerging research in the field of entrepreneurship that
seeks to combine sustainability and digitalization. We contribute to building a foundation for
this advanced sustainable entrepreneurship. First, we show that an institutional logic
perspective on sustainable business models can provide a common theoretical foundation for
studying the intersection of these previously separate research streams. In addition, it provides
analytical guidance for studying sustainable entrepreneurs' efforts to balance environmental,
social, and commercial value creation in computerized times. Secondly, the identified themes
open rich pathways to advance connections between other research streams such as co-
creation or social movement theory and sustainable entrepreneurship. In particular, we
contribute to the theoretical development of sustainable entrepreneurship by presenting the
concept of esteem overflow. Value spillover draws attention to the capture of socio-
environmental value (e.g., education and raising awareness) that goes beyond targeted
customers and affects additional groups. In particular, va l u e spillover coupled with the role
of advanced technology to enable community building, co-creation activities, and broader
stakeholder integration offers a new perspective on entrepreneurial value creation for
sustainability.
Practical implications
Advanced technologies can substantially contribute to sustainable development goals.
However, how this potential can be realized in practice remains largely unknown, especially
for entrepreneurs seeking to create socio-environmental value through financially viable
business models. This article provides practitioners with important insights into how
advanced technologies can be embedded in the design of sustainable business models. As
such, practitioners can utilize the identified configuration of sustainable business model
components (i.e., blended value proposition, integrative value creation, and multidimensional
value capture) as an inspiring starting point for developing new sustainable business models.
For example, they can draw on the importance of computerized means for the formation of
communities that channel the many individual contributions and efforts of many actors
towards a common goal. This, in turn, can capitalize on socio-environmental value creation
through co-creation activities and lead to spillover effects in value capture elements. This
example demonstrates the potential of the themes identified for the practicum but also points
towards the complex relationships that practitioners should be aware of when designing
sustainable business models.
Creating a viable business model that harmonizes a large number of different value
systems is difficult and advanced technology cannot solve this completely. Despite the
reported complementarities, practitioners should also be aware of the tensions identified in
this article. Advanced solutions increase connectivity and accessibility, but this can counteract
environmental and social aspirations. Computerized technology, as such, is not a panacea for
sustainable development and should be used responsibly, keeping potential logic
contradictions in mind. Building on this, we recommend a critical but not inclination approach
when contemplating the integration of computerized means to enhance the impact of
sustainable business models.
Conclusions
This study aims to determine the effect of business models to increase social value to the
environment. Based on the results of the analysis, the conclusion that can be drawn from this
study is that business visionaries use computerized advances to create mixed incentives for
their partners. To begin with, computerized reasoning makes it possible to catalyze the
creation of socio-environmental prices and secondly, empowers business visionaries to
establish offerings that consolidate ecological, social, and rewards monetary for their partners.
Mix Value Proportion
Our discoveries uncover that business visionaries use computerized advancements to
create blended incentives for their partners. To begin with, computerized reasoning makes it
possible to catalyze the creation of socio-environmental prices and, secondly, empowers
business visionaries to set up offerings that consolidate ecological, social, and monetary
rewards for their partners.
An essential guarantee of the computerized advances illustrated by economical
business visionaries is their capacity to make all-supportable exercises more broadly
accessible, available, and doable. Business visionaries recognize innovative parts of their
business models as integral assets to catalyzing more productive methods of living.
Thus, the rationale of some supported business visionaries' worthy recommendations
is to guarantee the beneficial utilization of their contributions. The computerized stage, in
particular, permits strong and proficient associations beforehand regardless of flexibly and
demand, along these lines supporting the spread of social and ecological incentives as referred
to by one of our members.
"It's a sophisticated market where we're bringing territorial food makers moreover,
metropolitan shoppers together. As of now, there are 400 little and private companies that
need to bring their items to you and me as well, we are taking care to guarantee that they
discover their way from the wide open to the city." (Iota)
Other entrepreneurs elaborate on the difficulty of finding, evaluating, and ultimately
purchasing eco-friendly and locally produced goods. Therefore, their online marketplace aims
to provide a better and more convenient alternative to buying sustainable products in different
stores. This concept of increased convenience through advanced marketplaces has also been
introduced to other types of products in our sample (e.g., different types of food or books).
Other entrepreneurs offer cell phone and web applications that provide efficiency for
stakeholders by analyzing user information and recommending more sustainable alternatives.
For example, Alpha offers an app that provides its users with constant information describing
their mobility behavior and the respective ecological consequences. In addition, the app
instantly suggests other eco-friendly means of transportation to trigger immediate behavioral
changes. The app serves as a catalyst for environmental social value propositions by
simultaneously making users aware of the existence of ecological alternatives and improving
the accessibility and convenience of these alternatives.
The integration of advanced logic enables entrepreneurs to successfully combine
environmental, social and economic value propositions. By embedding advanced technologies
entrepreneurs can offer sustainable products and services at competitive prices. One
entrepreneur, for example, stated that his digital marketplace allows environmentally certified
farmers and potential customers to trade conveniently, leading to the reduction and prevention
of unnecessary waste, while simultaneously observing animal rights in meat production.
Therefore, the computerized marketplace enables efficient transactions by ensuring financial
gains for producers while offering reasonable prices, thereby, incorporating economic value.
Integrative value creation
Our findings suggest that advanced technologies have the potential to increase actor
connectivity in the value creation component. We identify three, often interrelated, sets of
practices of community building, co-creation, and expanding stakeholder integration where
advanced logics facilitate the opening of value creation boundaries, making these components
more integrative.
Entrepreneurs often seek to form vibrant communities around the socio-environmental
challenges they wish to address, for example, through the creation and provision of
information centers, discussion boards on the web, stages, or other computerized networks
and communication tools. One way to approach this is offered by Sigma, which aims to
enable civic participation in public environmental projects through its online community. For
this, Sigma set up a crowdfunding stage with networking tools:
"We are considering focusing more on community building because the basic idea is a
simple tool for citizen participation and customer integration. Because that's actually the
recipe for success. As we can see from the ongoing projects, the need for community is very
much there. We have definitely established ourselves more as a crowdfunding stage for users
to support sustainability projects".
These communities, for example, are depicted through advanced cartographic
representations that show where each actor is located, how they are connected, and what they
contribute to the community (e.g. sharing information, managing additional projects, etc.).
In addition, some entrepreneurs use computerized technology to facilitate co-creation
with their users as exemplified by Beta's mission statement "Powered by community e curated
and nurtured by technology". We found that to realize a specialized online service based on
connectivity, the utilization of customers' individual resources is basic. Value co-creation
enabled in this advanced way can include tangible resources (e.g., sharing objects such as
books), but also intangible user resources. For example, users act as content creators for blogs
and websites that benefit communities and thus businesses (Rho) or articulate ideas for
common public-private projects on the crowdfunding stage (Sigma). In this vein, Zeta allows
customers to advancedly design their own farmland where they select and cultivate plants,
vegetables, and fruits through a gamified user interface. These instructions are then realized
by the company and the locally produced products are delivered to the customers. Thus,
entrepreneurial ventures act as computerized intermediaries transferring advanced inputs into
physical yields. In addition to the active integration of users in value creation, various
companies analyze user information to develop new offerings or improve existing offerings
(e.g., Alpha, Lambda, Epsilon, Omega).
Related to these efforts and permeating the idea of community building and co-
creation is the integration of an increasingly diverse set of stakeholders beyond customers and
suppliers. Through computerized networks, sustainable entrepreneurs can be inclusive when
building their advanced value creation networks as the following quote shows:
"Our worldwide network invites individuals, local businesses, NGOs, volunteers and
supporters to join. Every member has free access to information about implementing and
managing water supply projects. Everyone can be part of it!" (Gamma).
Multidimensional value capture
In terms of the value capture component, advanced logic allows entrepreneurs to
enable impact complementarity (i.e., the intertwining of environmental value capture and
social finance), support the scalability of social environmental value, and facilitate the
spillover of social environmental value through computerized means. This leads to
multidimensional value capture by adding multiple forms of value as well as boundaries and
scales of captured value.
Findings suggest that the advanced logic supporting challenge resolution combines the
capture of socio-environmental and economic values. Entrepreneurs state that the realization
of one value often corresponds to the enhancement of another and vice versa (e.g., Sigma,
Phi). This complementary relationship is withering clear in business models that perform an
intermediary function to connect various actors (stage advanced). Here, each service or
product sold entails capturing social and/or environmental value (e.g., a booking stage for
sustainable accommodation) while simultaneously enabling financial value capture (e.g.,
through charging commission fees). Crowdfunding services for sustainable projects enable a
similar complement of impacts. They raise public awareness of their fundable projects
through computerized channels that allow entrepreneurs to curate projects with the highest
potential impact. Any related action of the crowd whether it is a simple click, donation, or
pledge leads to the capture of financial and socio environmental value. Therefore, different
forms of value are not dichotomous in this business model but can complement each other
when intertwined through computerized means.
We further identify how entrepreneurs leverage the characteristics of advanced
solutions to facilitate the scalability of social environmental value. The generativity of the
computerized aspect of the business model allows entrepreneurs to "incorporate usability
requirements and user opinions" (Kappa) to customize their products. Advanced applications
and infrastructures are customizable and extensible to new products and services. In addition,
they are characterized by a seemingly easy move to other markets (e.g., Epsilon, Zeta). These
aspects enable scalability of some forms of value as suggested by the following comments:
"I wanted to find a model, which has a positive impact on my environment but also
has the classic attributes of a fire up. With another individualized structure, it can be scaled
like the modular venture case. I want to show that both are possible in the 21st century." (Phi).
In addition, findings show that sustainable entrepreneurs increase awareness and
education regarding sustainability issues, which is often an additional outcome of their
business model. We call this value spillover because it is not exclusive to the immediate target
group but has the potential to spill over to various stakeholders leading to the capture of
additional social environmental value for the business. To achieve such spillover, sustainable
entrepreneurs mostly rely on advanced media such as websites, blogs, social media,
networking activities at their respective stages, or community building on the web. Due to this
advanced presence, entrepreneurs do "educational work" (Epsilon) or "work at the level of
awareness" (Tau) and strive to "start movements" (Beta), closely linked to community
building as part of the value creation component.
"I think this happens automatically because of our community. Everyone who comes
to our website has to deal with the topic for better or worse. Everyone who sees our ads will
contact the topic. And if they think about it, it might stay in the back of their mind." (Phi).
Inter- and intra-componential logical tensions
We also identified challenges in relation to combining environmental, social, and
computerized logics expressed in inter- and intra-component logical tensions. The major
tension between social and environmental values and computerized logic stems from the
collision of advanced and physical aspects of business models. Computerized means
theoretically provide the potential for infinite scalability and, as shown, allow for scaling the
capture of multiple forms of value and enable complementarity of impact. However there are
restrictions that arise from the given natural boundaries governed by social and environmental
logic. Products and services often have physical properties and require physical resources to
produce. Intended value creation, thus, must consider social and environmental logic.
An example of this challenge is the contradiction between online accessibility and
regionality. Advanced solutions are potentially less constrained by geographical
considerations, but they can challenge the idea of local production and consumption.
Entrepreneurs seeking regionality often aim to capture value by reducing waste and
supporting local value creation. Consider, for example, Zeta, a gamified internet gardening
app where advanced aspects are potentially highly scalable. However, Zeta's cultivation zone
is located in a rural area in Austria and once harvested the fruits and vegetables are packaged
and shipped to customers. In this business model, the scalability of value capture is enhanced
through their computerized approach but is constrained by environmental considerations of
value creation in terms of farmland availability and distance to the end consumer. Similarly,
Iota offers an online stage for agricultural products that can be accessed in an advanced
manner with almost no constraints. However, their value proposition is limited to stakeholders
within relative geographical proximity due to CO2 transportation considerations as part of
value creation as well as the aim to empower local farmers, which is an important element of
their value capture. This is exemplified through the following quote:
"90% of our suppliers come from within a radius of less than 100 km. Purchasing food
with short transportation distances and organic farming makes a considerable contribution to
climate balance. At the same time, the regional economy and small producers from the
surrounding area are strengthened." (Iota).
Discussion And Implications
Embedding digital technologies in the elementarism of sustainable business models and
emerging digital logic tensions
This article seeks to gain a deeper understanding of how sustainable entrepreneurs
embed advanced technologies in their business models to foster social environmental value
creation. This is the first study to investigate the emerging advanced logics in sustainable
entrepreneurship. We argue that practices enabled by computerized logics support the
interconnectedness of environmental, social, and commercial logics but also entail tensions.
Therefore, we contribute theoretically and empirically to the development of a new topical
and ambitious research field on sustainable business models in an entrepreneurial context.
In sustainable business model design finding ways to calibrate, balance and blend
value is a key endeavor. We add to this by showing that sustainable entrepreneurs can
leverage computerized technology to develop blended value propositions. Sustainable
offerings often lack financial value for customers because sustainable products and services
are associated with higher value creation costs than their less sustainable counterparts. The
literature on sustainable behavior, however, argues that aspects such as time, effort, and
financial cost are important determinants of behavior favorable to the customer environment.
Our findings suggest that selective use of computerized technologies can increase
convenience and efficiency, while lowering costs in concert with a more sustainable way of
life, ultimately providing a more balanced value proposition.
We also offer new insights into the computerized value creation practices of
entrepreneurs. Our findings suggest a broad complementarity between the values of social
logic (e.g., community development, democratic participation, equality) and the affordances
of computerized technologies in value creation elements. By combining multiple advanced
artifacts and infrastructures (e.g., blogs, boards, social media interfaces, stages, etc.) they
create spaces for community interaction, engage in co-creation activities, and expand
stakeholder integration. With these advanced enabled practices, sustainable entrepreneurs
manage the boundaries of their business models, making them more dynamic and open. In
addition, we found the stage approach to be very effective in bringing together multiple
actors. This is especially important for sustainable business models, which are fraught with
additional efforts in managing external relationships as they need to include a variety of
diverse stakeholders. Enacting advanced logic increases the connectivity of actors across
geographical boundaries and enables integrative value creation. We, thus, add to further
establish the link between co-creation and sustainable business model design.
In addition, we identify synergistic relationships between digital applications and
sustainable business models that lead to multidimensional value capture. Extant research on
sustainable entrepreneurs reveals concerns in terms of business model scalability and financial
stability. We add to this body of knowledge by providing new insights into how entrepreneurs
leverage digital technologies to scale up their intended value capture along with the
exploitation of impact complements. Such impact complements are theorized to be critical for
sustainable business models and we show potential ways in which sustainable entrepreneurs
can achieve them. We further show that digital technologies can enable parallel growth of
environmental value and social finance. This unravels the importance of digital technology
and its supporting functions for sustainable business models. However, the findings also
reveal that this potential for scalability can conflict with social and environmental logic. Our
sample entrepreneurs often consciously limit the connectivity and accessibility provided by
digital technologies due to considerations involving CO2 reduction and local community
support. Thus, there are indications pointing towards a potential tension between logic and its
manifestation in business model components. As our research adds to the literature
investigating the challenging combination of multiple logics in business models and examines
how logics enable and constrain efforts for sustainability.
We further identify the value spillover effect. Through computerized artifacts
entrepreneurs create awareness and educational value, which means that their capture of socio
environmental value is not necessarily tied to the sale of their core products and services. As
such, they are breaking the conventional boundaries of the business model. Based on this and
based on the notion of social movement spillover, we argue that the online communities
formed and the content provided and/or created within these communities are not limited to
the stakeholders directly involved in their creation. Advanced content does not exist in a
vacuum but rather influences other individuals and groups. Our results show that advanced
tools make it possible to mobilize and connect individuals which can result in spillover
effects. We, thus, offer new insights into how computerized technologies can be leveraged to
influence stakeholders to support social and environmental impacts.
Theoretical implications
This article adds to the theoretical development of sustainable business models
conceptualized as a combination of different components that manifest a plural institutional
logic. Previous research in this area has largely focused on the institutional logic of
sustainability and thus considered how environmental, social and commercial logics relate to
each other. However, this can potentially leave out more logics further relevant for this
particular context. We add to this discourse by discussing the influence of emerging
computerized logics on the socio-environmental value creation of sustainable business
models. We explore how computerized logics based on connectivity, openness, accessibility
and generativity relate to other related logics in sustainable business models and identify
complementarities and tensions. As such, this is also one of the first studies that does not rely
on the dichotomous relationship of the two logics but rather aims to combine multiple logics
to broaden the perspective on sustainable business models.
We further add to the stream of emerging research in the field of entrepreneurship that
seeks to combine sustainability and digitalization. We contribute to building a foundation for
this advanced sustainable entrepreneurship. First, we show that an institutional logic
perspective on sustainable business models can provide a common theoretical foundation for
studying the intersection of these previously separate research streams. In addition, it provides
analytical guidance for studying sustainable entrepreneurs' efforts to balance environmental,
social, and commercial value creation in computerized times. Secondly, the identified themes
open rich pathways to advance connections between other research streams such as co-
creation or social movement theory and sustainable entrepreneurship. In particular, we
contribute to the theoretical development of sustainable entrepreneurship by presenting the
concept of esteem overflow. Value spillover draws attention to the capture of socio-
environmental value (e.g., education and raising awareness) that goes beyond targeted
customers and affects additional groups. In particular, va l u e spillover coupled with the role
of advanced technology to enable community building, co-creation activities, and broader
stakeholder integration offers a new perspective on entrepreneurial value creation for
sustainability.
Practical implications
Advanced technologies can substantially contribute to sustainable development goals.
However, how this potential can be realized in practice remains largely unknown, especially
for entrepreneurs seeking to create socio-environmental value through financially viable
business models. This article provides practitioners with important insights into how
advanced technologies can be embedded in the design of sustainable business models. As
such, practitioners can utilize the identified configuration of sustainable business model
components (i.e., blended value proposition, integrative value creation, and multidimensional
value capture) as an inspiring starting point for developing new sustainable business models.
For example, they can draw on the importance of computerized means for the formation of
communities that channel the many individual contributions and efforts of many actors
towards a common goal. This, in turn, can capitalize on socio-environmental value creation
through co-creation activities and lead to spillover effects in value capture elements. This
example demonstrates the potential of the themes identified for the practicum but also points
towards the complex relationships that practitioners should be aware of when designing
sustainable business models.
Creating a viable business model that harmonizes a large number of different value
systems is difficult and advanced technology cannot solve this completely. Despite the
reported complementarities, practitioners should also be aware of the tensions identified in
this article. Advanced solutions increase connectivity and accessibility, but this can counteract
environmental and social aspirations. Computerized technology, as such, is not a panacea for
sustainable development and should be used responsibly, keeping potential logic
contradictions in mind. Building on this, we recommend a critical but not inclination approach
when contemplating the integration of computerized means to enhance the impact of
sustainable business models.
Conclusions
This study aims to determine the effect of business models to increase social value to the
environment. Based on the results of the analysis, the conclusion that can be drawn from this
study is that business visionaries use computerized advances to create mixed incentives for
their partners. To begin with, computerized reasoning makes it possible to catalyze the
creation of socio-environmental prices and secondly, empowers business visionaries to
establish offerings that consolidate ecological, social, and rewards monetary for their partners.
Mix Value Proportion
Our discoveries uncover that business visionaries use computerized advancements to
create blended incentives for their partners. To begin with, computerized reasoning makes it
possible to catalyze the creation of socio-environmental prices and, secondly, empowers
business visionaries to set up offerings that consolidate ecological, social, and monetary
rewards for their partners.
An essential guarantee of the computerized advances illustrated by economical
business visionaries is their capacity to make all-supportable exercises more broadly
accessible, available, and doable. Business visionaries recognize innovative parts of their
business models as integral assets to catalyzing more productive methods of living.
Thus, the rationale of some supported business visionaries' worthy recommendations
is to guarantee the beneficial utilization of their contributions. The computerized stage, in
particular, permits strong and proficient associations beforehand regardless of flexibly and
demand, along these lines supporting the spread of social and ecological incentives as referred
to by one of our members.
"It's a sophisticated market where we're bringing territorial food makers moreover,
metropolitan shoppers together. As of now, there are 400 little and private companies that
need to bring their items to you and me as well, we are taking care to guarantee that they
discover their way from the wide open to the city." (Iota)
Other entrepreneurs elaborate on the difficulty of finding, evaluating, and ultimately
purchasing eco-friendly and locally produced goods. Therefore, their online marketplace aims
to provide a better and more convenient alternative to buying sustainable products in different
stores. This concept of increased convenience through advanced marketplaces has also been
introduced to other types of products in our sample (e.g., different types of food or books).
Other entrepreneurs offer cell phone and web applications that provide efficiency for
stakeholders by analyzing user information and recommending more sustainable alternatives.
For example, Alpha offers an app that provides its users with constant information describing
their mobility behavior and the respective ecological consequences. In addition, the app
instantly suggests other eco-friendly means of transportation to trigger immediate behavioral
changes. The app serves as a catalyst for environmental social value propositions by
simultaneously making users aware of the existence of ecological alternatives and improving
the accessibility and convenience of these alternatives.
The integration of advanced logic enables entrepreneurs to successfully combine
environmental, social and economic value propositions. By embedding advanced technologies
entrepreneurs can offer sustainable products and services at competitive prices. One
entrepreneur, for example, stated that his digital marketplace allows environmentally certified
farmers and potential customers to trade conveniently, leading to the reduction and prevention
of unnecessary waste, while simultaneously observing animal rights in meat production.
Therefore, the computerized marketplace enables efficient transactions by ensuring financial
gains for producers while offering reasonable prices, thereby, incorporating economic value.
Integrative value creation
Our findings suggest that advanced technologies have the potential to increase actor
connectivity in the value creation component. We identify three, often interrelated, sets of
practices of community building, co-creation, and expanding stakeholder integration where
advanced logics facilitate the opening of value creation boundaries, making these components
more integrative.
Entrepreneurs often seek to form vibrant communities around the socio-environmental
challenges they wish to address, for example, through the creation and provision of
information centers, discussion boards on the web, stages, or other computerized networks
and communication tools. One way to approach this is offered by Sigma, which aims to
enable civic participation in public environmental projects through its online community. For
this, Sigma set up a crowdfunding stage with networking tools:
"We are considering focusing more on community building because the basic idea is a
simple tool for citizen participation and customer integration. Because that's actually the
recipe for success. As we can see from the ongoing projects, the need for community is very
much there. We have definitely established ourselves more as a crowdfunding stage for users
to support sustainability projects".
These communities, for example, are depicted through advanced cartographic
representations that show where each actor is located, how they are connected, and what they
contribute to the community (e.g. sharing information, managing additional projects, etc.).
In addition, some entrepreneurs use computerized technology to facilitate co-creation
with their users as exemplified by Beta's mission statement "Powered by community e curated
and nurtured by technology". We found that to realize a specialized online service based on
connectivity, the utilization of customers' individual resources is basic. Value co-creation
enabled in this advanced way can include tangible resources (e.g., sharing objects such as
books), but also intangible user resources. For example, users act as content creators for blogs
and websites that benefit communities and thus businesses (Rho) or articulate ideas for
common public-private projects on the crowdfunding stage (Sigma). In this vein, Zeta allows
customers to advancedly design their own farmland where they select and cultivate plants,
vegetables, and fruits through a gamified user interface. These instructions are then realized
by the company and the locally produced products are delivered to the customers. Thus,
entrepreneurial ventures act as computerized intermediaries transferring advanced inputs into
physical yields. In addition to the active integration of users in value creation, various
companies analyze user information to develop new offerings or improve existing offerings
(e.g., Alpha, Lambda, Epsilon, Omega).
Related to these efforts and permeating the idea of community building and co-
creation is the integration of an increasingly diverse set of stakeholders beyond customers and
suppliers. Through computerized networks, sustainable entrepreneurs can be inclusive when
building their advanced value creation networks as the following quote shows:
"Our worldwide network invites individuals, local businesses, NGOs, volunteers and
supporters to join. Every member has free access to information about implementing and
managing water supply projects. Everyone can be part of it!" (Gamma).
Multidimensional value capture
In terms of the value capture component, advanced logic allows entrepreneurs to
enable impact complementarity (i.e., the intertwining of environmental value capture and
social finance), support the scalability of social environmental value, and facilitate the
spillover of social environmental value through computerized means. This leads to
multidimensional value capture by adding multiple forms of value as well as boundaries and
scales of captured value.
Findings suggest that the advanced logic supporting challenge resolution combines the
capture of socio-environmental and economic values. Entrepreneurs state that the realization
of one value often corresponds to the enhancement of another and vice versa (e.g., Sigma,
Phi). This complementary relationship is withering clear in business models that perform an
intermediary function to connect various actors (stage advanced). Here, each service or
product sold entails capturing social and/or environmental value (e.g., a booking stage for
sustainable accommodation) while simultaneously enabling financial value capture (e.g.,
through charging commission fees). Crowdfunding services for sustainable projects enable a
similar complement of impacts. They raise public awareness of their fundable projects
through computerized channels that allow entrepreneurs to curate projects with the highest
potential impact. Any related action of the crowd whether it is a simple click, donation, or
pledge leads to the capture of financial and socio environmental value. Therefore, different
forms of value are not dichotomous in this business model but can complement each other
when intertwined through computerized means.
We further identify how entrepreneurs leverage the characteristics of advanced
solutions to facilitate the scalability of social environmental value. The generativity of the
computerized aspect of the business model allows entrepreneurs to "incorporate usability
requirements and user opinions" (Kappa) to customize their products. Advanced applications
and infrastructures are customizable and extensible to new products and services. In addition,
they are characterized by a seemingly easy move to other markets (e.g., Epsilon, Zeta). These
aspects enable scalability of some forms of value as suggested by the following comments:
"I wanted to find a model, which has a positive impact on my environment but also
has the classic attributes of a fire up. With another individualized structure, it can be scaled
like the modular venture case. I want to show that both are possible in the 21st century." (Phi).
In addition, findings show that sustainable entrepreneurs increase awareness and
education regarding sustainability issues, which is often an additional outcome of their
business model. We call this value spillover because it is not exclusive to the immediate target
group but has the potential to spill over to various stakeholders leading to the capture of
additional social environmental value for the business. To achieve such spillover, sustainable
entrepreneurs mostly rely on advanced media such as websites, blogs, social media,
networking activities at their respective stages, or community building on the web. Due to this
advanced presence, entrepreneurs do "educational work" (Epsilon) or "work at the level of
awareness" (Tau) and strive to "start movements" (Beta), closely linked to community
building as part of the value creation component.
"I think this happens automatically because of our community. Everyone who comes
to our website has to deal with the topic for better or worse. Everyone who sees our ads will
contact the topic. And if they think about it, it might stay in the back of their mind." (Phi).
Inter- and intra-componential logical tensions
We also identified challenges in relation to combining environmental, social, and
computerized logics expressed in inter- and intra-component logical tensions. The major
tension between social and environmental values and computerized logic stems from the
collision of advanced and physical aspects of business models. Computerized means
theoretically provide the potential for infinite scalability and, as shown, allow for scaling the
capture of multiple forms of value and enable complementarity of impact. However there are
restrictions that arise from the given natural boundaries governed by social and environmental
logic. Products and services often have physical properties and require physical resources to
produce. Intended value creation, thus, must consider social and environmental logic.
An example of this challenge is the contradiction between online accessibility and
regionality. Advanced solutions are potentially less constrained by geographical
considerations, but they can challenge the idea of local production and consumption.
Entrepreneurs seeking regionality often aim to capture value by reducing waste and
supporting local value creation. Consider, for example, Zeta, a gamified internet gardening
app where advanced aspects are potentially highly scalable. However, Zeta's cultivation zone
is located in a rural area in Austria and once harvested the fruits and vegetables are packaged
and shipped to customers. In this business model, the scalability of value capture is enhanced
through their computerized approach but is constrained by environmental considerations of
value creation in terms of farmland availability and distance to the end consumer. Similarly,
Iota offers an online stage for agricultural products that can be accessed in an advanced
manner with almost no constraints. However, their value proposition is limited to stakeholders
within relative geographical proximity due to CO2 transportation considerations as part of
value creation as well as the aim to empower local farmers, which is an important element of
their value capture. This is exemplified through the following quote:
"90% of our suppliers come from within a radius of less than 100 km. Purchasing food
with short transportation distances and organic farming makes a considerable contribution to
climate balance. At the same time, the regional economy and small producers from the
surrounding area are strengthened." (Iota).
Discussion And Implications
Embedding digital technologies in the elementarism of sustainable business models and
emerging digital logic tensions
This article seeks to gain a deeper understanding of how sustainable entrepreneurs
embed advanced technologies in their business models to foster social environmental value
creation. This is the first study to investigate the emerging advanced logics in sustainable
entrepreneurship. We argue that practices enabled by computerized logics support the
interconnectedness of environmental, social, and commercial logics but also entail tensions.
Therefore, we contribute theoretically and empirically to the development of a new topical
and ambitious research field on sustainable business models in an entrepreneurial context.
In sustainable business model design finding ways to calibrate, balance and blend
value is a key endeavor. We add to this by showing that sustainable entrepreneurs can
leverage computerized technology to develop blended value propositions. Sustainable
offerings often lack financial value for customers because sustainable products and services
are associated with higher value creation costs than their less sustainable counterparts. The
literature on sustainable behavior, however, argues that aspects such as time, effort, and
financial cost are important determinants of behavior favorable to the customer environment.
Our findings suggest that selective use of computerized technologies can increase
convenience and efficiency, while lowering costs in concert with a more sustainable way of
life, ultimately providing a more balanced value proposition.
We also offer new insights into the computerized value creation practices of
entrepreneurs. Our findings suggest a broad complementarity between the values of social
logic (e.g., community development, democratic participation, equality) and the affordances
of computerized technologies in value creation elements. By combining multiple advanced
artifacts and infrastructures (e.g., blogs, boards, social media interfaces, stages, etc.) they
create spaces for community interaction, engage in co-creation activities, and expand
stakeholder integration. With these advanced enabled practices, sustainable entrepreneurs
manage the boundaries of their business models, making them more dynamic and open. In
addition, we found the stage approach to be very effective in bringing together multiple
actors. This is especially important for sustainable business models, which are fraught with
additional efforts in managing external relationships as they need to include a variety of
diverse stakeholders. Enacting advanced logic increases the connectivity of actors across
geographical boundaries and enables integrative value creation. We, thus, add to further
establish the link between co-creation and sustainable business model design.
In addition, we identify synergistic relationships between digital applications and
sustainable business models that lead to multidimensional value capture. Extant research on
sustainable entrepreneurs reveals concerns in terms of business model scalability and financial
stability. We add to this body of knowledge by providing new insights into how entrepreneurs
leverage digital technologies to scale up their intended value capture along with the
exploitation of impact complements. Such impact complements are theorized to be critical for
sustainable business models and we show potential ways in which sustainable entrepreneurs
can achieve them. We further show that digital technologies can enable parallel growth of
environmental value and social finance. This unravels the importance of digital technology
and its supporting functions for sustainable business models. However, the findings also
reveal that this potential for scalability can conflict with social and environmental logic. Our
sample entrepreneurs often consciously limit the connectivity and accessibility provided by
digital technologies due to considerations involving CO2 reduction and local community
support. Thus, there are indications pointing towards a potential tension between logic and its
manifestation in business model components. As our research adds to the literature
investigating the challenging combination of multiple logics in business models and examines
how logics enable and constrain efforts for sustainability.
We further identify the value spillover effect. Through computerized artifacts
entrepreneurs create awareness and educational value, which means that their capture of socio
environmental value is not necessarily tied to the sale of their core products and services. As
such, they are breaking the conventional boundaries of the business model. Based on this and
based on the notion of social movement spillover, we argue that the online communities
formed and the content provided and/or created within these communities are not limited to
the stakeholders directly involved in their creation. Advanced content does not exist in a
vacuum but rather influences other individuals and groups. Our results show that advanced
tools make it possible to mobilize and connect individuals which can result in spillover
effects. We, thus, offer new insights into how computerized technologies can be leveraged to
influence stakeholders to support social and environmental impacts.
Theoretical implications
This article adds to the theoretical development of sustainable business models
conceptualized as a combination of different components that manifest a plural institutional
logic. Previous research in this area has largely focused on the institutional logic of
sustainability and thus considered how environmental, social and commercial logics relate to
each other. However, this can potentially leave out more logics further relevant for this
particular context. We add to this discourse by discussing the influence of emerging
computerized logics on the socio-environmental value creation of sustainable business
models. We explore how computerized logics based on connectivity, openness, accessibility
and generativity relate to other related logics in sustainable business models and identify
complementarities and tensions. As such, this is also one of the first studies that does not rely
on the dichotomous relationship of the two logics but rather aims to combine multiple logics
to broaden the perspective on sustainable business models.
We further add to the stream of emerging research in the field of entrepreneurship that
seeks to combine sustainability and digitalization. We contribute to building a foundation for
this advanced sustainable entrepreneurship. First, we show that an institutional logic
perspective on sustainable business models can provide a common theoretical foundation for
studying the intersection of these previously separate research streams. In addition, it provides
analytical guidance for studying sustainable entrepreneurs' efforts to balance environmental,
social, and commercial value creation in computerized times. Secondly, the identified themes
open rich pathways to advance connections between other research streams such as co-
creation or social movement theory and sustainable entrepreneurship. In particular, we
contribute to the theoretical development of sustainable entrepreneurship by presenting the
concept of esteem overflow. Value spillover draws attention to the capture of socio-
environmental value (e.g., education and raising awareness) that goes beyond targeted
customers and affects additional groups. In particular, va l u e spillover coupled with the role
of advanced technology to enable community building, co-creation activities, and broader
stakeholder integration offers a new perspective on entrepreneurial value creation for
sustainability.
Practical implications
Advanced technologies can substantially contribute to sustainable development goals.
However, how this potential can be realized in practice remains largely unknown, especially
for entrepreneurs seeking to create socio-environmental value through financially viable
business models. This article provides practitioners with important insights into how
advanced technologies can be embedded in the design of sustainable business models. As
such, practitioners can utilize the identified configuration of sustainable business model
components (i.e., blended value proposition, integrative value creation, and multidimensional
value capture) as an inspiring starting point for developing new sustainable business models.
For example, they can draw on the importance of computerized means for the formation of
communities that channel the many individual contributions and efforts of many actors
towards a common goal. This, in turn, can capitalize on socio-environmental value creation
through co-creation activities and lead to spillover effects in value capture elements. This
example demonstrates the potential of the themes identified for the practicum but also points
towards the complex relationships that practitioners should be aware of when designing
sustainable business models.
Creating a viable business model that harmonizes a large number of different value
systems is difficult and advanced technology cannot solve this completely. Despite the
reported complementarities, practitioners should also be aware of the tensions identified in
this article. Advanced solutions increase connectivity and accessibility, but this can counteract
environmental and social aspirations. Computerized technology, as such, is not a panacea for
sustainable development and should be used responsibly, keeping potential logic
contradictions in mind. Building on this, we recommend a critical but not inclination approach
when contemplating the integration of computerized means to enhance the impact of
sustainable business models.
Conclusions
This study aims to determine the effect of business models to increase social value to the
environment. Based on the results of the analysis, the conclusion that can be drawn from this
study is that business visionaries use computerized advances to create mixed incentives for
their partners. To begin with, computerized reasoning makes it possible to catalyze the
creation of socio-environmental prices and secondly, empowers business visionaries to
establish offerings that consolidate ecological, social, and rewards monetary for their partners.
Mix Value Proportion
Our discoveries uncover that business visionaries use computerized advancements to
create blended incentives for their partners. To begin with, computerized reasoning makes it
possible to catalyze the creation of socio-environmental prices and, secondly, empowers
business visionaries to set up offerings that consolidate ecological, social, and monetary
rewards for their partners.
An essential guarantee of the computerized advances illustrated by economical
business visionaries is their capacity to make all-supportable exercises more broadly
accessible, available, and doable. Business visionaries recognize innovative parts of their
business models as integral assets to catalyzing more productive methods of living.
Thus, the rationale of some supported business visionaries' worthy recommendations
is to guarantee the beneficial utilization of their contributions. The computerized stage, in
particular, permits strong and proficient associations beforehand regardless of flexibly and
demand, along these lines supporting the spread of social and ecological incentives as referred
to by one of our members.
"It's a sophisticated market where we're bringing territorial food makers moreover,
metropolitan shoppers together. As of now, there are 400 little and private companies that
need to bring their items to you and me as well, we are taking care to guarantee that they
discover their way from the wide open to the city." (Iota)
Other entrepreneurs elaborate on the difficulty of finding, evaluating, and ultimately
purchasing eco-friendly and locally produced goods. Therefore, their online marketplace aims
to provide a better and more convenient alternative to buying sustainable products in different
stores. This concept of increased convenience through advanced marketplaces has also been
introduced to other types of products in our sample (e.g., different types of food or books).
Other entrepreneurs offer cell phone and web applications that provide efficiency for
stakeholders by analyzing user information and recommending more sustainable alternatives.
For example, Alpha offers an app that provides its users with constant information describing
their mobility behavior and the respective ecological consequences. In addition, the app
instantly suggests other eco-friendly means of transportation to trigger immediate behavioral
changes. The app serves as a catalyst for environmental social value propositions by
simultaneously making users aware of the existence of ecological alternatives and improving
the accessibility and convenience of these alternatives.
The integration of advanced logic enables entrepreneurs to successfully combine
environmental, social and economic value propositions. By embedding advanced technologies
entrepreneurs can offer sustainable products and services at competitive prices. One
entrepreneur, for example, stated that his digital marketplace allows environmentally certified
farmers and potential customers to trade conveniently, leading to the reduction and prevention
of unnecessary waste, while simultaneously observing animal rights in meat production.
Therefore, the computerized marketplace enables efficient transactions by ensuring financial
gains for producers while offering reasonable prices, thereby, incorporating economic value.
Integrative value creation
Our findings suggest that advanced technologies have the potential to increase actor
connectivity in the value creation component. We identify three, often interrelated, sets of
practices of community building, co-creation, and expanding stakeholder integration where
advanced logics facilitate the opening of value creation boundaries, making these components
more integrative.
Entrepreneurs often seek to form vibrant communities around the socio-environmental
challenges they wish to address, for example, through the creation and provision of
information centers, discussion boards on the web, stages, or other computerized networks
and communication tools. One way to approach this is offered by Sigma, which aims to
enable civic participation in public environmental projects through its online community. For
this, Sigma set up a crowdfunding stage with networking tools:
"We are considering focusing more on community building because the basic idea is a
simple tool for citizen participation and customer integration. Because that's actually the
recipe for success. As we can see from the ongoing projects, the need for community is very
much there. We have definitely established ourselves more as a crowdfunding stage for users
to support sustainability projects".
These communities, for example, are depicted through advanced cartographic
representations that show where each actor is located, how they are connected, and what they
contribute to the community (e.g. sharing information, managing additional projects, etc.).
In addition, some entrepreneurs use computerized technology to facilitate co-creation
with their users as exemplified by Beta's mission statement "Powered by community e curated
and nurtured by technology". We found that to realize a specialized online service based on
connectivity, the utilization of customers' individual resources is basic. Value co-creation
enabled in this advanced way can include tangible resources (e.g., sharing objects such as
books), but also intangible user resources. For example, users act as content creators for blogs
and websites that benefit communities and thus businesses (Rho) or articulate ideas for
common public-private projects on the crowdfunding stage (Sigma). In this vein, Zeta allows
customers to advancedly design their own farmland where they select and cultivate plants,
vegetables, and fruits through a gamified user interface. These instructions are then realized
by the company and the locally produced products are delivered to the customers. Thus,
entrepreneurial ventures act as computerized intermediaries transferring advanced inputs into
physical yields. In addition to the active integration of users in value creation, various
companies analyze user information to develop new offerings or improve existing offerings
(e.g., Alpha, Lambda, Epsilon, Omega).
Related to these efforts and permeating the idea of community building and co-
creation is the integration of an increasingly diverse set of stakeholders beyond customers and
suppliers. Through computerized networks, sustainable entrepreneurs can be inclusive when
building their advanced value creation networks as the following quote shows:
"Our worldwide network invites individuals, local businesses, NGOs, volunteers and
supporters to join. Every member has free access to information about implementing and
managing water supply projects. Everyone can be part of it!" (Gamma).
Multidimensional value capture
In terms of the value capture component, advanced logic allows entrepreneurs to
enable impact complementarity (i.e., the intertwining of environmental value capture and
social finance), support the scalability of social environmental value, and facilitate the
spillover of social environmental value through computerized means. This leads to
multidimensional value capture by adding multiple forms of value as well as boundaries and
scales of captured value.
Findings suggest that the advanced logic supporting challenge resolution combines the
capture of socio-environmental and economic values. Entrepreneurs state that the realization
of one value often corresponds to the enhancement of another and vice versa (e.g., Sigma,
Phi). This complementary relationship is withering clear in business models that perform an
intermediary function to connect various actors (stage advanced). Here, each service or
product sold entails capturing social and/or environmental value (e.g., a booking stage for
sustainable accommodation) while simultaneously enabling financial value capture (e.g.,
through charging commission fees). Crowdfunding services for sustainable projects enable a
similar complement of impacts. They raise public awareness of their fundable projects
through computerized channels that allow entrepreneurs to curate projects with the highest
potential impact. Any related action of the crowd whether it is a simple click, donation, or
pledge leads to the capture of financial and socio environmental value. Therefore, different
forms of value are not dichotomous in this business model but can complement each other
when intertwined through computerized means.
We further identify how entrepreneurs leverage the characteristics of advanced
solutions to facilitate the scalability of social environmental value. The generativity of the
computerized aspect of the business model allows entrepreneurs to "incorporate usability
requirements and user opinions" (Kappa) to customize their products. Advanced applications
and infrastructures are customizable and extensible to new products and services. In addition,
they are characterized by a seemingly easy move to other markets (e.g., Epsilon, Zeta). These
aspects enable scalability of some forms of value as suggested by the following comments:
"I wanted to find a model, which has a positive impact on my environment but also
has the classic attributes of a fire up. With another individualized structure, it can be scaled
like the modular venture case. I want to show that both are possible in the 21st century." (Phi).
In addition, findings show that sustainable entrepreneurs increase awareness and
education regarding sustainability issues, which is often an additional outcome of their
business model. We call this value spillover because it is not exclusive to the immediate target
group but has the potential to spill over to various stakeholders leading to the capture of
additional social environmental value for the business. To achieve such spillover, sustainable
entrepreneurs mostly rely on advanced media such as websites, blogs, social media,
networking activities at their respective stages, or community building on the web. Due to this
advanced presence, entrepreneurs do "educational work" (Epsilon) or "work at the level of
awareness" (Tau) and strive to "start movements" (Beta), closely linked to community
building as part of the value creation component.
"I think this happens automatically because of our community. Everyone who comes
to our website has to deal with the topic for better or worse. Everyone who sees our ads will
contact the topic. And if they think about it, it might stay in the back of their mind." (Phi).
Inter- and intra-componential logical tensions
We also identified challenges in relation to combining environmental, social, and
computerized logics expressed in inter- and intra-component logical tensions. The major
tension between social and environmental values and computerized logic stems from the
collision of advanced and physical aspects of business models. Computerized means
theoretically provide the potential for infinite scalability and, as shown, allow for scaling the
capture of multiple forms of value and enable complementarity of impact. However there are
restrictions that arise from the given natural boundaries governed by social and environmental
logic. Products and services often have physical properties and require physical resources to
produce. Intended value creation, thus, must consider social and environmental logic.
An example of this challenge is the contradiction between online accessibility and
regionality. Advanced solutions are potentially less constrained by geographical
considerations, but they can challenge the idea of local production and consumption.
Entrepreneurs seeking regionality often aim to capture value by reducing waste and
supporting local value creation. Consider, for example, Zeta, a gamified internet gardening
app where advanced aspects are potentially highly scalable. However, Zeta's cultivation zone
is located in a rural area in Austria and once harvested the fruits and vegetables are packaged
and shipped to customers. In this business model, the scalability of value capture is enhanced
through their computerized approach but is constrained by environmental considerations of
value creation in terms of farmland availability and distance to the end consumer. Similarly,
Iota offers an online stage for agricultural products that can be accessed in an advanced
manner with almost no constraints. However, their value proposition is limited to stakeholders
within relative geographical proximity due to CO2 transportation considerations as part of
value creation as well as the aim to empower local farmers, which is an important element of
their value capture. This is exemplified through the following quote:
"90% of our suppliers come from within a radius of less than 100 km. Purchasing food
with short transportation distances and organic farming makes a considerable contribution to
climate balance. At the same time, the regional economy and small producers from the
surrounding area are strengthened." (Iota).
Discussion And Implications
Embedding digital technologies in the elementarism of sustainable business models and
emerging digital logic tensions
This article seeks to gain a deeper understanding of how sustainable entrepreneurs
embed advanced technologies in their business models to foster social environmental value
creation. This is the first study to investigate the emerging advanced logics in sustainable
entrepreneurship. We argue that practices enabled by computerized logics support the
interconnectedness of environmental, social, and commercial logics but also entail tensions.
Therefore, we contribute theoretically and empirically to the development of a new topical
and ambitious research field on sustainable business models in an entrepreneurial context.
In sustainable business model design finding ways to calibrate, balance and blend
value is a key endeavor. We add to this by showing that sustainable entrepreneurs can
leverage computerized technology to develop blended value propositions. Sustainable
offerings often lack financial value for customers because sustainable products and services
are associated with higher value creation costs than their less sustainable counterparts. The
literature on sustainable behavior, however, argues that aspects such as time, effort, and
financial cost are important determinants of behavior favorable to the customer environment.
Our findings suggest that selective use of computerized technologies can increase
convenience and efficiency, while lowering costs in concert with a more sustainable way of
life, ultimately providing a more balanced value proposition.
We also offer new insights into the computerized value creation practices of
entrepreneurs. Our findings suggest a broad complementarity between the values of social
logic (e.g., community development, democratic participation, equality) and the affordances
of computerized technologies in value creation elements. By combining multiple advanced
artifacts and infrastructures (e.g., blogs, boards, social media interfaces, stages, etc.) they
create spaces for community interaction, engage in co-creation activities, and expand
stakeholder integration. With these advanced enabled practices, sustainable entrepreneurs
manage the boundaries of their business models, making them more dynamic and open. In
addition, we found the stage approach to be very effective in bringing together multiple
actors. This is especially important for sustainable business models, which are fraught with
additional efforts in managing external relationships as they need to include a variety of
diverse stakeholders. Enacting advanced logic increases the connectivity of actors across
geographical boundaries and enables integrative value creation. We, thus, add to further
establish the link between co-creation and sustainable business model design.
In addition, we identify synergistic relationships between digital applications and
sustainable business models that lead to multidimensional value capture. Extant research on
sustainable entrepreneurs reveals concerns in terms of business model scalability and financial
stability. We add to this body of knowledge by providing new insights into how entrepreneurs
leverage digital technologies to scale up their intended value capture along with the
exploitation of impact complements. Such impact complements are theorized to be critical for
sustainable business models and we show potential ways in which sustainable entrepreneurs
can achieve them. We further show that digital technologies can enable parallel growth of
environmental value and social finance. This unravels the importance of digital technology
and its supporting functions for sustainable business models. However, the findings also
reveal that this potential for scalability can conflict with social and environmental logic. Our
sample entrepreneurs often consciously limit the connectivity and accessibility provided by
digital technologies due to considerations involving CO2 reduction and local community
support. Thus, there are indications pointing towards a potential tension between logic and its
manifestation in business model components. As our research adds to the literature
investigating the challenging combination of multiple logics in business models and examines
how logics enable and constrain efforts for sustainability.
We further identify the value spillover effect. Through computerized artifacts
entrepreneurs create awareness and educational value, which means that their capture of socio
environmental value is not necessarily tied to the sale of their core products and services. As
such, they are breaking the conventional boundaries of the business model. Based on this and
based on the notion of social movement spillover, we argue that the online communities
formed and the content provided and/or created within these communities are not limited to
the stakeholders directly involved in their creation. Advanced content does not exist in a
vacuum but rather influences other individuals and groups. Our results show that advanced
tools make it possible to mobilize and connect individuals which can result in spillover
effects. We, thus, offer new insights into how computerized technologies can be leveraged to
influence stakeholders to support social and environmental impacts.
Theoretical implications
This article adds to the theoretical development of sustainable business models
conceptualized as a combination of different components that manifest a plural institutional
logic. Previous research in this area has largely focused on the institutional logic of
sustainability and thus considered how environmental, social and commercial logics relate to
each other. However, this can potentially leave out more logics further relevant for this
particular context. We add to this discourse by discussing the influence of emerging
computerized logics on the socio-environmental value creation of sustainable business
models. We explore how computerized logics based on connectivity, openness, accessibility
and generativity relate to other related logics in sustainable business models and identify
complementarities and tensions. As such, this is also one of the first studies that does not rely
on the dichotomous relationship of the two logics but rather aims to combine multiple logics
to broaden the perspective on sustainable business models.
We further add to the stream of emerging research in the field of entrepreneurship that
seeks to combine sustainability and digitalization. We contribute to building a foundation for
this advanced sustainable entrepreneurship. First, we show that an institutional logic
perspective on sustainable business models can provide a common theoretical foundation for
studying the intersection of these previously separate research streams. In addition, it provides
analytical guidance for studying sustainable entrepreneurs' efforts to balance environmental,
social, and commercial value creation in computerized times. Secondly, the identified themes
open rich pathways to advance connections between other research streams such as co-
creation or social movement theory and sustainable entrepreneurship. In particular, we
contribute to the theoretical development of sustainable entrepreneurship by presenting the
concept of esteem overflow. Value spillover draws attention to the capture of socio-
environmental value (e.g., education and raising awareness) that goes beyond targeted
customers and affects additional groups. In particular, va l u e spillover coupled with the role
of advanced technology to enable community building, co-creation activities, and broader
stakeholder integration offers a new perspective on entrepreneurial value creation for
sustainability.
Practical implications
Advanced technologies can substantially contribute to sustainable development goals.
However, how this potential can be realized in practice remains largely unknown, especially
for entrepreneurs seeking to create socio-environmental value through financially viable
business models. This article provides practitioners with important insights into how
advanced technologies can be embedded in the design of sustainable business models. As
such, practitioners can utilize the identified configuration of sustainable business model
components (i.e., blended value proposition, integrative value creation, and multidimensional
value capture) as an inspiring starting point for developing new sustainable business models.
For example, they can draw on the importance of computerized means for the formation of
communities that channel the many individual contributions and efforts of many actors
towards a common goal. This, in turn, can capitalize on socio-environmental value creation
through co-creation activities and lead to spillover effects in value capture elements. This
example demonstrates the potential of the themes identified for the practicum but also points
towards the complex relationships that practitioners should be aware of when designing
sustainable business models.
Creating a viable business model that harmonizes a large number of different value
systems is difficult and advanced technology cannot solve this completely. Despite the
reported complementarities, practitioners should also be aware of the tensions identified in
this article. Advanced solutions increase connectivity and accessibility, but this can counteract
environmental and social aspirations. Computerized technology, as such, is not a panacea for
sustainable development and should be used responsibly, keeping potential logic
contradictions in mind. Building on this, we recommend a critical but not inclination approach
when contemplating the integration of computerized means to enhance the impact of
sustainable business models.
Conclusions
This study aims to determine the effect of business models to increase social value to the
environment. Based on the results of the analysis, the conclusion that can be drawn from this
study is that business visionaries use computerized advances to create mixed incentives for
their partners. To begin with, computerized reasoning makes it possible to catalyze the
creation of socio-environmental prices and secondly, empowers business visionaries to
establish offerings that consolidate ecological, social, and rewards monetary for their partners.
Mix Value Proportion
Our discoveries uncover that business visionaries use computerized advancements to
create blended incentives for their partners. To begin with, computerized reasoning makes it
possible to catalyze the creation of socio-environmental prices and, secondly, empowers
business visionaries to set up offerings that consolidate ecological, social, and monetary
rewards for their partners.
An essential guarantee of the computerized advances illustrated by economical
business visionaries is their capacity to make all-supportable exercises more broadly
accessible, available, and doable. Business visionaries recognize innovative parts of their
business models as integral assets to catalyzing more productive methods of living.
Thus, the rationale of some supported business visionaries' worthy recommendations
is to guarantee the beneficial utilization of their contributions. The computerized stage, in
particular, permits strong and proficient associations beforehand regardless of flexibly and
demand, along these lines supporting the spread of social and ecological incentives as referred
to by one of our members.
"It's a sophisticated market where we're bringing territorial food makers moreover,
metropolitan shoppers together. As of now, there are 400 little and private companies that
need to bring their items to you and me as well, we are taking care to guarantee that they
discover their way from the wide open to the city." (Iota)
Other entrepreneurs elaborate on the difficulty of finding, evaluating, and ultimately
purchasing eco-friendly and locally produced goods. Therefore, their online marketplace aims
to provide a better and more convenient alternative to buying sustainable products in different
stores. This concept of increased convenience through advanced marketplaces has also been
introduced to other types of products in our sample (e.g., different types of food or books).
Other entrepreneurs offer cell phone and web applications that provide efficiency for
stakeholders by analyzing user information and recommending more sustainable alternatives.
For example, Alpha offers an app that provides its users with constant information describing
their mobility behavior and the respective ecological consequences. In addition, the app
instantly suggests other eco-friendly means of transportation to trigger immediate behavioral
changes. The app serves as a catalyst for environmental social value propositions by
simultaneously making users aware of the existence of ecological alternatives and improving
the accessibility and convenience of these alternatives.
The integration of advanced logic enables entrepreneurs to successfully combine
environmental, social and economic value propositions. By embedding advanced technologies
entrepreneurs can offer sustainable products and services at competitive prices. One
entrepreneur, for example, stated that his digital marketplace allows environmentally certified
farmers and potential customers to trade conveniently, leading to the reduction and prevention
of unnecessary waste, while simultaneously observing animal rights in meat production.
Therefore, the computerized marketplace enables efficient transactions by ensuring financial
gains for producers while offering reasonable prices, thereby, incorporating economic value.
Integrative value creation
Our findings suggest that advanced technologies have the potential to increase actor
connectivity in the value creation component. We identify three, often interrelated, sets of
practices of community building, co-creation, and expanding stakeholder integration where
advanced logics facilitate the opening of value creation boundaries, making these components
more integrative.
Entrepreneurs often seek to form vibrant communities around the socio-environmental
challenges they wish to address, for example, through the creation and provision of
information centers, discussion boards on the web, stages, or other computerized networks
and communication tools. One way to approach this is offered by Sigma, which aims to
enable civic participation in public environmental projects through its online community. For
this, Sigma set up a crowdfunding stage with networking tools:
"We are considering focusing more on community building because the basic idea is a
simple tool for citizen participation and customer integration. Because that's actually the
recipe for success. As we can see from the ongoing projects, the need for community is very
much there. We have definitely established ourselves more as a crowdfunding stage for users
to support sustainability projects".
These communities, for example, are depicted through advanced cartographic
representations that show where each actor is located, how they are connected, and what they
contribute to the community (e.g. sharing information, managing additional projects, etc.).
In addition, some entrepreneurs use computerized technology to facilitate co-creation
with their users as exemplified by Beta's mission statement "Powered by community e curated
and nurtured by technology". We found that to realize a specialized online service based on
connectivity, the utilization of customers' individual resources is basic. Value co-creation
enabled in this advanced way can include tangible resources (e.g., sharing objects such as
books), but also intangible user resources. For example, users act as content creators for blogs
and websites that benefit communities and thus businesses (Rho) or articulate ideas for
common public-private projects on the crowdfunding stage (Sigma). In this vein, Zeta allows
customers to advancedly design their own farmland where they select and cultivate plants,
vegetables, and fruits through a gamified user interface. These instructions are then realized
by the company and the locally produced products are delivered to the customers. Thus,
entrepreneurial ventures act as computerized intermediaries transferring advanced inputs into
physical yields. In addition to the active integration of users in value creation, various
companies analyze user information to develop new offerings or improve existing offerings
(e.g., Alpha, Lambda, Epsilon, Omega).
Related to these efforts and permeating the idea of community building and co-
creation is the integration of an increasingly diverse set of stakeholders beyond customers and
suppliers. Through computerized networks, sustainable entrepreneurs can be inclusive when
building their advanced value creation networks as the following quote shows:
"Our worldwide network invites individuals, local businesses, NGOs, volunteers and
supporters to join. Every member has free access to information about implementing and
managing water supply projects. Everyone can be part of it!" (Gamma).
Multidimensional value capture
In terms of the value capture component, advanced logic allows entrepreneurs to
enable impact complementarity (i.e., the intertwining of environmental value capture and
social finance), support the scalability of social environmental value, and facilitate the
spillover of social environmental value through computerized means. This leads to
multidimensional value capture by adding multiple forms of value as well as boundaries and
scales of captured value.
Findings suggest that the advanced logic supporting challenge resolution combines the
capture of socio-environmental and economic values. Entrepreneurs state that the realization
of one value often corresponds to the enhancement of another and vice versa (e.g., Sigma,
Phi). This complementary relationship is withering clear in business models that perform an
intermediary function to connect various actors (stage advanced). Here, each service or
product sold entails capturing social and/or environmental value (e.g., a booking stage for
sustainable accommodation) while simultaneously enabling financial value capture (e.g.,
through charging commission fees). Crowdfunding services for sustainable projects enable a
similar complement of impacts. They raise public awareness of their fundable projects
through computerized channels that allow entrepreneurs to curate projects with the highest
potential impact. Any related action of the crowd whether it is a simple click, donation, or
pledge leads to the capture of financial and socio environmental value. Therefore, different
forms of value are not dichotomous in this business model but can complement each other
when intertwined through computerized means.
We further identify how entrepreneurs leverage the characteristics of advanced
solutions to facilitate the scalability of social environmental value. The generativity of the
computerized aspect of the business model allows entrepreneurs to "incorporate usability
requirements and user opinions" (Kappa) to customize their products. Advanced applications
and infrastructures are customizable and extensible to new products and services. In addition,
they are characterized by a seemingly easy move to other markets (e.g., Epsilon, Zeta). These
aspects enable scalability of some forms of value as suggested by the following comments:
"I wanted to find a model, which has a positive impact on my environment but also
has the classic attributes of a fire up. With another individualized structure, it can be scaled
like the modular venture case. I want to show that both are possible in the 21st century." (Phi).
In addition, findings show that sustainable entrepreneurs increase awareness and
education regarding sustainability issues, which is often an additional outcome of their
business model. We call this value spillover because it is not exclusive to the immediate target
group but has the potential to spill over to various stakeholders leading to the capture of
additional social environmental value for the business. To achieve such spillover, sustainable
entrepreneurs mostly rely on advanced media such as websites, blogs, social media,
networking activities at their respective stages, or community building on the web. Due to this
advanced presence, entrepreneurs do "educational work" (Epsilon) or "work at the level of
awareness" (Tau) and strive to "start movements" (Beta), closely linked to community
building as part of the value creation component.
"I think this happens automatically because of our community. Everyone who comes
to our website has to deal with the topic for better or worse. Everyone who sees our ads will
contact the topic. And if they think about it, it might stay in the back of their mind." (Phi).
Inter- and intra-componential logical tensions
We also identified challenges in relation to combining environmental, social, and
computerized logics expressed in inter- and intra-component logical tensions. The major
tension between social and environmental values and computerized logic stems from the
collision of advanced and physical aspects of business models. Computerized means
theoretically provide the potential for infinite scalability and, as shown, allow for scaling the
capture of multiple forms of value and enable complementarity of impact. However there are
restrictions that arise from the given natural boundaries governed by social and environmental
logic. Products and services often have physical properties and require physical resources to
produce. Intended value creation, thus, must consider social and environmental logic.
An example of this challenge is the contradiction between online accessibility and
regionality. Advanced solutions are potentially less constrained by geographical
considerations, but they can challenge the idea of local production and consumption.
Entrepreneurs seeking regionality often aim to capture value by reducing waste and
supporting local value creation. Consider, for example, Zeta, a gamified internet gardening
app where advanced aspects are potentially highly scalable. However, Zeta's cultivation zone
is located in a rural area in Austria and once harvested the fruits and vegetables are packaged
and shipped to customers. In this business model, the scalability of value capture is enhanced
through their computerized approach but is constrained by environmental considerations of
value creation in terms of farmland availability and distance to the end consumer. Similarly,
Iota offers an online stage for agricultural products that can be accessed in an advanced
manner with almost no constraints. However, their value proposition is limited to stakeholders
within relative geographical proximity due to CO2 transportation considerations as part of
value creation as well as the aim to empower local farmers, which is an important element of
their value capture. This is exemplified through the following quote:
"90% of our suppliers come from within a radius of less than 100 km. Purchasing food
with short transportation distances and organic farming makes a considerable contribution to
climate balance. At the same time, the regional economy and small producers from the
surrounding area are strengthened." (Iota).
Discussion And Implications
Embedding digital technologies in the elementarism of sustainable business models and
emerging digital logic tensions
This article seeks to gain a deeper understanding of how sustainable entrepreneurs
embed advanced technologies in their business models to foster social environmental value
creation. This is the first study to investigate the emerging advanced logics in sustainable
entrepreneurship. We argue that practices enabled by computerized logics support the
interconnectedness of environmental, social, and commercial logics but also entail tensions.
Therefore, we contribute theoretically and empirically to the development of a new topical
and ambitious research field on sustainable business models in an entrepreneurial context.
In sustainable business model design finding ways to calibrate, balance and blend
value is a key endeavor. We add to this by showing that sustainable entrepreneurs can
leverage computerized technology to develop blended value propositions. Sustainable
offerings often lack financial value for customers because sustainable products and services
are associated with higher value creation costs than their less sustainable counterparts. The
literature on sustainable behavior, however, argues that aspects such as time, effort, and
financial cost are important determinants of behavior favorable to the customer environment.
Our findings suggest that selective use of computerized technologies can increase
convenience and efficiency, while lowering costs in concert with a more sustainable way of
life, ultimately providing a more balanced value proposition.
We also offer new insights into the computerized value creation practices of
entrepreneurs. Our findings suggest a broad complementarity between the values of social
logic (e.g., community development, democratic participation, equality) and the affordances
of computerized technologies in value creation elements. By combining multiple advanced
artifacts and infrastructures (e.g., blogs, boards, social media interfaces, stages, etc.) they
create spaces for community interaction, engage in co-creation activities, and expand
stakeholder integration. With these advanced enabled practices, sustainable entrepreneurs
manage the boundaries of their business models, making them more dynamic and open. In
addition, we found the stage approach to be very effective in bringing together multiple
actors. This is especially important for sustainable business models, which are fraught with
additional efforts in managing external relationships as they need to include a variety of
diverse stakeholders. Enacting advanced logic increases the connectivity of actors across
geographical boundaries and enables integrative value creation. We, thus, add to further
establish the link between co-creation and sustainable business model design.
In addition, we identify synergistic relationships between digital applications and
sustainable business models that lead to multidimensional value capture. Extant research on
sustainable entrepreneurs reveals concerns in terms of business model scalability and financial
stability. We add to this body of knowledge by providing new insights into how entrepreneurs
leverage digital technologies to scale up their intended value capture along with the
exploitation of impact complements. Such impact complements are theorized to be critical for
sustainable business models and we show potential ways in which sustainable entrepreneurs
can achieve them. We further show that digital technologies can enable parallel growth of
environmental value and social finance. This unravels the importance of digital technology
and its supporting functions for sustainable business models. However, the findings also
reveal that this potential for scalability can conflict with social and environmental logic. Our
sample entrepreneurs often consciously limit the connectivity and accessibility provided by
digital technologies due to considerations involving CO2 reduction and local community
support. Thus, there are indications pointing towards a potential tension between logic and its
manifestation in business model components. As our research adds to the literature
investigating the challenging combination of multiple logics in business models and examines
how logics enable and constrain efforts for sustainability.
We further identify the value spillover effect. Through computerized artifacts
entrepreneurs create awareness and educational value, which means that their capture of socio
environmental value is not necessarily tied to the sale of their core products and services. As
such, they are breaking the conventional boundaries of the business model. Based on this and
based on the notion of social movement spillover, we argue that the online communities
formed and the content provided and/or created within these communities are not limited to
the stakeholders directly involved in their creation. Advanced content does not exist in a
vacuum but rather influences other individuals and groups. Our results show that advanced
tools make it possible to mobilize and connect individuals which can result in spillover
effects. We, thus, offer new insights into how computerized technologies can be leveraged to
influence stakeholders to support social and environmental impacts.
Theoretical implications
This article adds to the theoretical development of sustainable business models
conceptualized as a combination of different components that manifest a plural institutional
logic. Previous research in this area has largely focused on the institutional logic of
sustainability and thus considered how environmental, social and commercial logics relate to
each other. However, this can potentially leave out more logics further relevant for this
particular context. We add to this discourse by discussing the influence of emerging
computerized logics on the socio-environmental value creation of sustainable business
models. We explore how computerized logics based on connectivity, openness, accessibility
and generativity relate to other related logics in sustainable business models and identify
complementarities and tensions. As such, this is also one of the first studies that does not rely
on the dichotomous relationship of the two logics but rather aims to combine multiple logics
to broaden the perspective on sustainable business models.
We further add to the stream of emerging research in the field of entrepreneurship that
seeks to combine sustainability and digitalization. We contribute to building a foundation for
this advanced sustainable entrepreneurship. First, we show that an institutional logic
perspective on sustainable business models can provide a common theoretical foundation for
studying the intersection of these previously separate research streams. In addition, it provides
analytical guidance for studying sustainable entrepreneurs' efforts to balance environmental,
social, and commercial value creation in computerized times. Secondly, the identified themes
open rich pathways to advance connections between other research streams such as co-
creation or social movement theory and sustainable entrepreneurship. In particular, we
contribute to the theoretical development of sustainable entrepreneurship by presenting the
concept of esteem overflow. Value spillover draws attention to the capture of socio-
environmental value (e.g., education and raising awareness) that goes beyond targeted
customers and affects additional groups. In particular, va l u e spillover coupled with the role
of advanced technology to enable community building, co-creation activities, and broader
stakeholder integration offers a new perspective on entrepreneurial value creation for
sustainability.
Practical implications
Advanced technologies can substantially contribute to sustainable development goals.
However, how this potential can be realized in practice remains largely unknown, especially
for entrepreneurs seeking to create socio-environmental value through financially viable
business models. This article provides practitioners with important insights into how
advanced technologies can be embedded in the design of sustainable business models. As
such, practitioners can utilize the identified configuration of sustainable business model
components (i.e., blended value proposition, integrative value creation, and multidimensional
value capture) as an inspiring starting point for developing new sustainable business models.
For example, they can draw on the importance of computerized means for the formation of
communities that channel the many individual contributions and efforts of many actors
towards a common goal. This, in turn, can capitalize on socio-environmental value creation
through co-creation activities and lead to spillover effects in value capture elements. This
example demonstrates the potential of the themes identified for the practicum but also points
towards the complex relationships that practitioners should be aware of when designing
sustainable business models.
Creating a viable business model that harmonizes a large number of different value
systems is difficult and advanced technology cannot solve this completely. Despite the
reported complementarities, practitioners should also be aware of the tensions identified in
this article. Advanced solutions increase connectivity and accessibility, but this can counteract
environmental and social aspirations. Computerized technology, as such, is not a panacea for
sustainable development and should be used responsibly, keeping potential logic
contradictions in mind. Building on this, we recommend a critical but not inclination approach
when contemplating the integration of computerized means to enhance the impact of
sustainable business models.
Conclusions
This study aims to determine the effect of business models to increase social value to the
environment. Based on the results of the analysis, the conclusion that can be drawn from this
study is that business visionaries use computerized advances to create mixed incentives for
their partners. To begin with, computerized reasoning makes it possible to catalyze the
creation of socio-environmental prices and secondly, empowers business visionaries to
establish offerings that consolidate ecological, social, and rewards monetary for their partners.
Mix Value Proportion
Our discoveries uncover that business visionaries use computerized advancements to
create blended incentives for their partners. To begin with, computerized reasoning makes it
possible to catalyze the creation of socio-environmental prices and, secondly, empowers
business visionaries to set up offerings that consolidate ecological, social, and monetary
rewards for their partners.
An essential guarantee of the computerized advances illustrated by economical
business visionaries is their capacity to make all-supportable exercises more broadly
accessible, available, and doable. Business visionaries recognize innovative parts of their
business models as integral assets to catalyzing more productive methods of living.
Thus, the rationale of some supported business visionaries' worthy recommendations
is to guarantee the beneficial utilization of their contributions. The computerized stage, in
particular, permits strong and proficient associations beforehand regardless of flexibly and
demand, along these lines supporting the spread of social and ecological incentives as referred
to by one of our members.
"It's a sophisticated market where we're bringing territorial food makers moreover,
metropolitan shoppers together. As of now, there are 400 little and private companies that
need to bring their items to you and me as well, we are taking care to guarantee that they
discover their way from the wide open to the city." (Iota)
Other entrepreneurs elaborate on the difficulty of finding, evaluating, and ultimately
purchasing eco-friendly and locally produced goods. Therefore, their online marketplace aims
to provide a better and more convenient alternative to buying sustainable products in different
stores. This concept of increased convenience through advanced marketplaces has also been
introduced to other types of products in our sample (e.g., different types of food or books).
Other entrepreneurs offer cell phone and web applications that provide efficiency for
stakeholders by analyzing user information and recommending more sustainable alternatives.
For example, Alpha offers an app that provides its users with constant information describing
their mobility behavior and the respective ecological consequences. In addition, the app
instantly suggests other eco-friendly means of transportation to trigger immediate behavioral
changes. The app serves as a catalyst for environmental social value propositions by
simultaneously making users aware of the existence of ecological alternatives and improving
the accessibility and convenience of these alternatives.
The integration of advanced logic enables entrepreneurs to successfully combine
environmental, social and economic value propositions. By embedding advanced technologies
entrepreneurs can offer sustainable products and services at competitive prices. One
entrepreneur, for example, stated that his digital marketplace allows environmentally certified
farmers and potential customers to trade conveniently, leading to the reduction and prevention
of unnecessary waste, while simultaneously observing animal rights in meat production.
Therefore, the computerized marketplace enables efficient transactions by ensuring financial
gains for producers while offering reasonable prices, thereby, incorporating economic value.
Integrative value creation
Our findings suggest that advanced technologies have the potential to increase actor
connectivity in the value creation component. We identify three, often interrelated, sets of
practices of community building, co-creation, and expanding stakeholder integration where
advanced logics facilitate the opening of value creation boundaries, making these components
more integrative.
Entrepreneurs often seek to form vibrant communities around the socio-environmental
challenges they wish to address, for example, through the creation and provision of
information centers, discussion boards on the web, stages, or other computerized networks
and communication tools. One way to approach this is offered by Sigma, which aims to
enable civic participation in public environmental projects through its online community. For
this, Sigma set up a crowdfunding stage with networking tools:
"We are considering focusing more on community building because the basic idea is a
simple tool for citizen participation and customer integration. Because that's actually the
recipe for success. As we can see from the ongoing projects, the need for community is very
much there. We have definitely established ourselves more as a crowdfunding stage for users
to support sustainability projects".
These communities, for example, are depicted through advanced cartographic
representations that show where each actor is located, how they are connected, and what they
contribute to the community (e.g. sharing information, managing additional projects, etc.).
In addition, some entrepreneurs use computerized technology to facilitate co-creation
with their users as exemplified by Beta's mission statement "Powered by community e curated
and nurtured by technology". We found that to realize a specialized online service based on
connectivity, the utilization of customers' individual resources is basic. Value co-creation
enabled in this advanced way can include tangible resources (e.g., sharing objects such as
books), but also intangible user resources. For example, users act as content creators for blogs
and websites that benefit communities and thus businesses (Rho) or articulate ideas for
common public-private projects on the crowdfunding stage (Sigma). In this vein, Zeta allows
customers to advancedly design their own farmland where they select and cultivate plants,
vegetables, and fruits through a gamified user interface. These instructions are then realized
by the company and the locally produced products are delivered to the customers. Thus,
entrepreneurial ventures act as computerized intermediaries transferring advanced inputs into
physical yields. In addition to the active integration of users in value creation, various
companies analyze user information to develop new offerings or improve existing offerings
(e.g., Alpha, Lambda, Epsilon, Omega).
Related to these efforts and permeating the idea of community building and co-
creation is the integration of an increasingly diverse set of stakeholders beyond customers and
suppliers. Through computerized networks, sustainable entrepreneurs can be inclusive when
building their advanced value creation networks as the following quote shows:
"Our worldwide network invites individuals, local businesses, NGOs, volunteers and
supporters to join. Every member has free access to information about implementing and
managing water supply projects. Everyone can be part of it!" (Gamma).
Multidimensional value capture
In terms of the value capture component, advanced logic allows entrepreneurs to
enable impact complementarity (i.e., the intertwining of environmental value capture and
social finance), support the scalability of social environmental value, and facilitate the
spillover of social environmental value through computerized means. This leads to
multidimensional value capture by adding multiple forms of value as well as boundaries and
scales of captured value.
Findings suggest that the advanced logic supporting challenge resolution combines the
capture of socio-environmental and economic values. Entrepreneurs state that the realization
of one value often corresponds to the enhancement of another and vice versa (e.g., Sigma,
Phi). This complementary relationship is withering clear in business models that perform an
intermediary function to connect various actors (stage advanced). Here, each service or
product sold entails capturing social and/or environmental value (e.g., a booking stage for
sustainable accommodation) while simultaneously enabling financial value capture (e.g.,
through charging commission fees). Crowdfunding services for sustainable projects enable a
similar complement of impacts. They raise public awareness of their fundable projects
through computerized channels that allow entrepreneurs to curate projects with the highest
potential impact. Any related action of the crowd whether it is a simple click, donation, or
pledge leads to the capture of financial and socio environmental value. Therefore, different
forms of value are not dichotomous in this business model but can complement each other
when intertwined through computerized means.
We further identify how entrepreneurs leverage the characteristics of advanced
solutions to facilitate the scalability of social environmental value. The generativity of the
computerized aspect of the business model allows entrepreneurs to "incorporate usability
requirements and user opinions" (Kappa) to customize their products. Advanced applications
and infrastructures are customizable and extensible to new products and services. In addition,
they are characterized by a seemingly easy move to other markets (e.g., Epsilon, Zeta). These
aspects enable scalability of some forms of value as suggested by the following comments:
"I wanted to find a model, which has a positive impact on my environment but also
has the classic attributes of a fire up. With another individualized structure, it can be scaled
like the modular venture case. I want to show that both are possible in the 21st century." (Phi).
In addition, findings show that sustainable entrepreneurs increase awareness and
education regarding sustainability issues, which is often an additional outcome of their
business model. We call this value spillover because it is not exclusive to the immediate target
group but has the potential to spill over to various stakeholders leading to the capture of
additional social environmental value for the business. To achieve such spillover, sustainable
entrepreneurs mostly rely on advanced media such as websites, blogs, social media,
networking activities at their respective stages, or community building on the web. Due to this
advanced presence, entrepreneurs do "educational work" (Epsilon) or "work at the level of
awareness" (Tau) and strive to "start movements" (Beta), closely linked to community
building as part of the value creation component.
"I think this happens automatically because of our community. Everyone who comes
to our website has to deal with the topic for better or worse. Everyone who sees our ads will
contact the topic. And if they think about it, it might stay in the back of their mind." (Phi).
Inter- and intra-componential logical tensions
We also identified challenges in relation to combining environmental, social, and
computerized logics expressed in inter- and intra-component logical tensions. The major
tension between social and environmental values and computerized logic stems from the
collision of advanced and physical aspects of business models. Computerized means
theoretically provide the potential for infinite scalability and, as shown, allow for scaling the
capture of multiple forms of value and enable complementarity of impact. However there are
restrictions that arise from the given natural boundaries governed by social and environmental
logic. Products and services often have physical properties and require physical resources to
produce. Intended value creation, thus, must consider social and environmental logic.
An example of this challenge is the contradiction between online accessibility and
regionality. Advanced solutions are potentially less constrained by geographical
considerations, but they can challenge the idea of local production and consumption.
Entrepreneurs seeking regionality often aim to capture value by reducing waste and
supporting local value creation. Consider, for example, Zeta, a gamified internet gardening
app where advanced aspects are potentially highly scalable. However, Zeta's cultivation zone
is located in a rural area in Austria and once harvested the fruits and vegetables are packaged
and shipped to customers. In this business model, the scalability of value capture is enhanced
through their computerized approach but is constrained by environmental considerations of
value creation in terms of farmland availability and distance to the end consumer. Similarly,
Iota offers an online stage for agricultural products that can be accessed in an advanced
manner with almost no constraints. However, their value proposition is limited to stakeholders
within relative geographical proximity due to CO2 transportation considerations as part of
value creation as well as the aim to empower local farmers, which is an important element of
their value capture. This is exemplified through the following quote:
"90% of our suppliers come from within a radius of less than 100 km. Purchasing food
with short transportation distances and organic farming makes a considerable contribution to
climate balance. At the same time, the regional economy and small producers from the
surrounding area are strengthened." (Iota).
Discussion And Implications
Embedding digital technologies in the elementarism of sustainable business models and
emerging digital logic tensions
This article seeks to gain a deeper understanding of how sustainable entrepreneurs
embed advanced technologies in their business models to foster social environmental value
creation. This is the first study to investigate the emerging advanced logics in sustainable
entrepreneurship. We argue that practices enabled by computerized logics support the
interconnectedness of environmental, social, and commercial logics but also entail tensions.
Therefore, we contribute theoretically and empirically to the development of a new topical
and ambitious research field on sustainable business models in an entrepreneurial context.
In sustainable business model design finding ways to calibrate, balance and blend
value is a key endeavor. We add to this by showing that sustainable entrepreneurs can
leverage computerized technology to develop blended value propositions. Sustainable
offerings often lack financial value for customers because sustainable products and services
are associated with higher value creation costs than their less sustainable counterparts. The
literature on sustainable behavior, however, argues that aspects such as time, effort, and
financial cost are important determinants of behavior favorable to the customer environment.
Our findings suggest that selective use of computerized technologies can increase
convenience and efficiency, while lowering costs in concert with a more sustainable way of
life, ultimately providing a more balanced value proposition.
We also offer new insights into the computerized value creation practices of
entrepreneurs. Our findings suggest a broad complementarity between the values of social
logic (e.g., community development, democratic participation, equality) and the affordances
of computerized technologies in value creation elements. By combining multiple advanced
artifacts and infrastructures (e.g., blogs, boards, social media interfaces, stages, etc.) they
create spaces for community interaction, engage in co-creation activities, and expand
stakeholder integration. With these advanced enabled practices, sustainable entrepreneurs
manage the boundaries of their business models, making them more dynamic and open. In
addition, we found the stage approach to be very effective in bringing together multiple
actors. This is especially important for sustainable business models, which are fraught with
additional efforts in managing external relationships as they need to include a variety of
diverse stakeholders. Enacting advanced logic increases the connectivity of actors across
geographical boundaries and enables integrative value creation. We, thus, add to further
establish the link between co-creation and sustainable business model design.
In addition, we identify synergistic relationships between digital applications and
sustainable business models that lead to multidimensional value capture. Extant research on
sustainable entrepreneurs reveals concerns in terms of business model scalability and financial
stability. We add to this body of knowledge by providing new insights into how entrepreneurs
leverage digital technologies to scale up their intended value capture along with the
exploitation of impact complements. Such impact complements are theorized to be critical for
sustainable business models and we show potential ways in which sustainable entrepreneurs
can achieve them. We further show that digital technologies can enable parallel growth of
environmental value and social finance. This unravels the importance of digital technology
and its supporting functions for sustainable business models. However, the findings also
reveal that this potential for scalability can conflict with social and environmental logic. Our
sample entrepreneurs often consciously limit the connectivity and accessibility provided by
digital technologies due to considerations involving CO2 reduction and local community
support. Thus, there are indications pointing towards a potential tension between logic and its
manifestation in business model components. As our research adds to the literature
investigating the challenging combination of multiple logics in business models and examines
how logics enable and constrain efforts for sustainability.
We further identify the value spillover effect. Through computerized artifacts
entrepreneurs create awareness and educational value, which means that their capture of socio
environmental value is not necessarily tied to the sale of their core products and services. As
such, they are breaking the conventional boundaries of the business model. Based on this and
based on the notion of social movement spillover, we argue that the online communities
formed and the content provided and/or created within these communities are not limited to
the stakeholders directly involved in their creation. Advanced content does not exist in a
vacuum but rather influences other individuals and groups. Our results show that advanced
tools make it possible to mobilize and connect individuals which can result in spillover
effects. We, thus, offer new insights into how computerized technologies can be leveraged to
influence stakeholders to support social and environmental impacts.
Theoretical implications
This article adds to the theoretical development of sustainable business models
conceptualized as a combination of different components that manifest a plural institutional
logic. Previous research in this area has largely focused on the institutional logic of
sustainability and thus considered how environmental, social and commercial logics relate to
each other. However, this can potentially leave out more logics further relevant for this
particular context. We add to this discourse by discussing the influence of emerging
computerized logics on the socio-environmental value creation of sustainable business
models. We explore how computerized logics based on connectivity, openness, accessibility
and generativity relate to other related logics in sustainable business models and identify
complementarities and tensions. As such, this is also one of the first studies that does not rely
on the dichotomous relationship of the two logics but rather aims to combine multiple logics
to broaden the perspective on sustainable business models.
We further add to the stream of emerging research in the field of entrepreneurship that
seeks to combine sustainability and digitalization. We contribute to building a foundation for
this advanced sustainable entrepreneurship. First, we show that an institutional logic
perspective on sustainable business models can provide a common theoretical foundation for
studying the intersection of these previously separate research streams. In addition, it provides
analytical guidance for studying sustainable entrepreneurs' efforts to balance environmental,
social, and commercial value creation in computerized times. Secondly, the identified themes
open rich pathways to advance connections between other research streams such as co-
creation or social movement theory and sustainable entrepreneurship. In particular, we
contribute to the theoretical development of sustainable entrepreneurship by presenting the
concept of esteem overflow. Value spillover draws attention to the capture of socio-
environmental value (e.g., education and raising awareness) that goes beyond targeted
customers and affects additional groups. In particular, va l u e spillover coupled with the role
of advanced technology to enable community building, co-creation activities, and broader
stakeholder integration offers a new perspective on entrepreneurial value creation for
sustainability.
Practical implications
Advanced technologies can substantially contribute to sustainable development goals.
However, how this potential can be realized in practice remains largely unknown, especially
for entrepreneurs seeking to create socio-environmental value through financially viable
business models. This article provides practitioners with important insights into how
advanced technologies can be embedded in the design of sustainable business models. As
such, practitioners can utilize the identified configuration of sustainable business model
components (i.e., blended value proposition, integrative value creation, and multidimensional
value capture) as an inspiring starting point for developing new sustainable business models.
For example, they can draw on the importance of computerized means for the formation of
communities that channel the many individual contributions and efforts of many actors
towards a common goal. This, in turn, can capitalize on socio-environmental value creation
through co-creation activities and lead to spillover effects in value capture elements. This
example demonstrates the potential of the themes identified for the practicum but also points
towards the complex relationships that practitioners should be aware of when designing
sustainable business models.
Creating a viable business model that harmonizes a large number of different value
systems is difficult and advanced technology cannot solve this completely. Despite the
reported complementarities, practitioners should also be aware of the tensions identified in
this article. Advanced solutions increase connectivity and accessibility, but this can counteract
environmental and social aspirations. Computerized technology, as such, is not a panacea for
sustainable development and should be used responsibly, keeping potential logic
contradictions in mind. Building on this, we recommend a critical but not inclination approach
when contemplating the integration of computerized means to enhance the impact of
sustainable business models.
Conclusions
This study aims to determine the effect of business models to increase social value to the
environment. Based on the results of the analysis, the conclusion that can be drawn from this
study is that business visionaries use computerized advances to create mixed incentives for
their partners. To begin with, computerized reasoning makes it possible to catalyze the
creation of socio-environmental prices and secondly, empowers business visionaries to
establish offerings that consolidate ecological, social, and rewards monetary for their partners.
Mix Value Proportion
Our discoveries uncover that business visionaries use computerized advancements to
create blended incentives for their partners. To begin with, computerized reasoning makes it
possible to catalyze the creation of socio-environmental prices and, secondly, empowers
business visionaries to set up offerings that consolidate ecological, social, and monetary
rewards for their partners.
An essential guarantee of the computerized advances illustrated by economical
business visionaries is their capacity to make all-supportable exercises more broadly
accessible, available, and doable. Business visionaries recognize innovative parts of their
business models as integral assets to catalyzing more productive methods of living.
Thus, the rationale of some supported business visionaries' worthy recommendations
is to guarantee the beneficial utilization of their contributions. The computerized stage, in
particular, permits strong and proficient associations beforehand regardless of flexibly and
demand, along these lines supporting the spread of social and ecological incentives as referred
to by one of our members.
"It's a sophisticated market where we're bringing territorial food makers moreover,
metropolitan shoppers together. As of now, there are 400 little and private companies that
need to bring their items to you and me as well, we are taking care to guarantee that they
discover their way from the wide open to the city." (Iota)
Other entrepreneurs elaborate on the difficulty of finding, evaluating, and ultimately
purchasing eco-friendly and locally produced goods. Therefore, their online marketplace aims
to provide a better and more convenient alternative to buying sustainable products in different
stores. This concept of increased convenience through advanced marketplaces has also been
introduced to other types of products in our sample (e.g., different types of food or books).
Other entrepreneurs offer cell phone and web applications that provide efficiency for
stakeholders by analyzing user information and recommending more sustainable alternatives.
For example, Alpha offers an app that provides its users with constant information describing
their mobility behavior and the respective ecological consequences. In addition, the app
instantly suggests other eco-friendly means of transportation to trigger immediate behavioral
changes. The app serves as a catalyst for environmental social value propositions by
simultaneously making users aware of the existence of ecological alternatives and improving
the accessibility and convenience of these alternatives.
The integration of advanced logic enables entrepreneurs to successfully combine
environmental, social and economic value propositions. By embedding advanced technologies
entrepreneurs can offer sustainable products and services at competitive prices. One
entrepreneur, for example, stated that his digital marketplace allows environmentally certified
farmers and potential customers to trade conveniently, leading to the reduction and prevention
of unnecessary waste, while simultaneously observing animal rights in meat production.
Therefore, the computerized marketplace enables efficient transactions by ensuring financial
gains for producers while offering reasonable prices, thereby, incorporating economic value.
Integrative value creation
Our findings suggest that advanced technologies have the potential to increase actor
connectivity in the value creation component. We identify three, often interrelated, sets of
practices of community building, co-creation, and expanding stakeholder integration where
advanced logics facilitate the opening of value creation boundaries, making these components
more integrative.
Entrepreneurs often seek to form vibrant communities around the socio-environmental
challenges they wish to address, for example, through the creation and provision of
information centers, discussion boards on the web, stages, or other computerized networks
and communication tools. One way to approach this is offered by Sigma, which aims to
enable civic participation in public environmental projects through its online community. For
this, Sigma set up a crowdfunding stage with networking tools:
"We are considering focusing more on community building because the basic idea is a
simple tool for citizen participation and customer integration. Because that's actually the
recipe for success. As we can see from the ongoing projects, the need for community is very
much there. We have definitely established ourselves more as a crowdfunding stage for users
to support sustainability projects".
These communities, for example, are depicted through advanced cartographic
representations that show where each actor is located, how they are connected, and what they
contribute to the community (e.g. sharing information, managing additional projects, etc.).
In addition, some entrepreneurs use computerized technology to facilitate co-creation
with their users as exemplified by Beta's mission statement "Powered by community e curated
and nurtured by technology". We found that to realize a specialized online service based on
connectivity, the utilization of customers' individual resources is basic. Value co-creation
enabled in this advanced way can include tangible resources (e.g., sharing objects such as
books), but also intangible user resources. For example, users act as content creators for blogs
and websites that benefit communities and thus businesses (Rho) or articulate ideas for
common public-private projects on the crowdfunding stage (Sigma). In this vein, Zeta allows
customers to advancedly design their own farmland where they select and cultivate plants,
vegetables, and fruits through a gamified user interface. These instructions are then realized
by the company and the locally produced products are delivered to the customers. Thus,
entrepreneurial ventures act as computerized intermediaries transferring advanced inputs into
physical yields. In addition to the active integration of users in value creation, various
companies analyze user information to develop new offerings or improve existing offerings
(e.g., Alpha, Lambda, Epsilon, Omega).
Related to these efforts and permeating the idea of community building and co-
creation is the integration of an increasingly diverse set of stakeholders beyond customers and
suppliers. Through computerized networks, sustainable entrepreneurs can be inclusive when
building their advanced value creation networks as the following quote shows:
"Our worldwide network invites individuals, local businesses, NGOs, volunteers and
supporters to join. Every member has free access to information about implementing and
managing water supply projects. Everyone can be part of it!" (Gamma).
Multidimensional value capture
In terms of the value capture component, advanced logic allows entrepreneurs to
enable impact complementarity (i.e., the intertwining of environmental value capture and
social finance), support the scalability of social environmental value, and facilitate the
spillover of social environmental value through computerized means. This leads to
multidimensional value capture by adding multiple forms of value as well as boundaries and
scales of captured value.
Findings suggest that the advanced logic supporting challenge resolution combines the
capture of socio-environmental and economic values. Entrepreneurs state that the realization
of one value often corresponds to the enhancement of another and vice versa (e.g., Sigma,
Phi). This complementary relationship is withering clear in business models that perform an
intermediary function to connect various actors (stage advanced). Here, each service or
product sold entails capturing social and/or environmental value (e.g., a booking stage for
sustainable accommodation) while simultaneously enabling financial value capture (e.g.,
through charging commission fees). Crowdfunding services for sustainable projects enable a
similar complement of impacts. They raise public awareness of their fundable projects
through computerized channels that allow entrepreneurs to curate projects with the highest
potential impact. Any related action of the crowd whether it is a simple click, donation, or
pledge leads to the capture of financial and socio environmental value. Therefore, different
forms of value are not dichotomous in this business model but can complement each other
when intertwined through computerized means.
We further identify how entrepreneurs leverage the characteristics of advanced
solutions to facilitate the scalability of social environmental value. The generativity of the
computerized aspect of the business model allows entrepreneurs to "incorporate usability
requirements and user opinions" (Kappa) to customize their products. Advanced applications
and infrastructures are customizable and extensible to new products and services. In addition,
they are characterized by a seemingly easy move to other markets (e.g., Epsilon, Zeta). These
aspects enable scalability of some forms of value as suggested by the following comments:
"I wanted to find a model, which has a positive impact on my environment but also
has the classic attributes of a fire up. With another individualized structure, it can be scaled
like the modular venture case. I want to show that both are possible in the 21st century." (Phi).
In addition, findings show that sustainable entrepreneurs increase awareness and
education regarding sustainability issues, which is often an additional outcome of their
business model. We call this value spillover because it is not exclusive to the immediate target
group but has the potential to spill over to various stakeholders leading to the capture of
additional social environmental value for the business. To achieve such spillover, sustainable
entrepreneurs mostly rely on advanced media such as websites, blogs, social media,
networking activities at their respective stages, or community building on the web. Due to this
advanced presence, entrepreneurs do "educational work" (Epsilon) or "work at the level of
awareness" (Tau) and strive to "start movements" (Beta), closely linked to community
building as part of the value creation component.
"I think this happens automatically because of our community. Everyone who comes
to our website has to deal with the topic for better or worse. Everyone who sees our ads will
contact the topic. And if they think about it, it might stay in the back of their mind." (Phi).
Inter- and intra-componential logical tensions
We also identified challenges in relation to combining environmental, social, and
computerized logics expressed in inter- and intra-component logical tensions. The major
tension between social and environmental values and computerized logic stems from the
collision of advanced and physical aspects of business models. Computerized means
theoretically provide the potential for infinite scalability and, as shown, allow for scaling the
capture of multiple forms of value and enable complementarity of impact. However there are
restrictions that arise from the given natural boundaries governed by social and environmental
logic. Products and services often have physical properties and require physical resources to
produce. Intended value creation, thus, must consider social and environmental logic.
An example of this challenge is the contradiction between online accessibility and
regionality. Advanced solutions are potentially less constrained by geographical
considerations, but they can challenge the idea of local production and consumption.
Entrepreneurs seeking regionality often aim to capture value by reducing waste and
supporting local value creation. Consider, for example, Zeta, a gamified internet gardening
app where advanced aspects are potentially highly scalable. However, Zeta's cultivation zone
is located in a rural area in Austria and once harvested the fruits and vegetables are packaged
and shipped to customers. In this business model, the scalability of value capture is enhanced
through their computerized approach but is constrained by environmental considerations of
value creation in terms of farmland availability and distance to the end consumer. Similarly,
Iota offers an online stage for agricultural products that can be accessed in an advanced
manner with almost no constraints. However, their value proposition is limited to stakeholders
within relative geographical proximity due to CO2 transportation considerations as part of
value creation as well as the aim to empower local farmers, which is an important element of
their value capture. This is exemplified through the following quote:
"90% of our suppliers come from within a radius of less than 100 km. Purchasing food
with short transportation distances and organic farming makes a considerable contribution to
climate balance. At the same time, the regional economy and small producers from the
surrounding area are strengthened." (Iota).
Discussion And Implications
Embedding digital technologies in the elementarism of sustainable business models and
emerging digital logic tensions
This article seeks to gain a deeper understanding of how sustainable entrepreneurs
embed advanced technologies in their business models to foster social environmental value
creation. This is the first study to investigate the emerging advanced logics in sustainable
entrepreneurship. We argue that practices enabled by computerized logics support the
interconnectedness of environmental, social, and commercial logics but also entail tensions.
Therefore, we contribute theoretically and empirically to the development of a new topical
and ambitious research field on sustainable business models in an entrepreneurial context.
In sustainable business model design finding ways to calibrate, balance and blend
value is a key endeavor. We add to this by showing that sustainable entrepreneurs can
leverage computerized technology to develop blended value propositions. Sustainable
offerings often lack financial value for customers because sustainable products and services
are associated with higher value creation costs than their less sustainable counterparts. The
literature on sustainable behavior, however, argues that aspects such as time, effort, and
financial cost are important determinants of behavior favorable to the customer environment.
Our findings suggest that selective use of computerized technologies can increase
convenience and efficiency, while lowering costs in concert with a more sustainable way of
life, ultimately providing a more balanced value proposition.
We also offer new insights into the computerized value creation practices of
entrepreneurs. Our findings suggest a broad complementarity between the values of social
logic (e.g., community development, democratic participation, equality) and the affordances
of computerized technologies in value creation elements. By combining multiple advanced
artifacts and infrastructures (e.g., blogs, boards, social media interfaces, stages, etc.) they
create spaces for community interaction, engage in co-creation activities, and expand
stakeholder integration. With these advanced enabled practices, sustainable entrepreneurs
manage the boundaries of their business models, making them more dynamic and open. In
addition, we found the stage approach to be very effective in bringing together multiple
actors. This is especially important for sustainable business models, which are fraught with
additional efforts in managing external relationships as they need to include a variety of
diverse stakeholders. Enacting advanced logic increases the connectivity of actors across
geographical boundaries and enables integrative value creation. We, thus, add to further
establish the link between co-creation and sustainable business model design.
In addition, we identify synergistic relationships between digital applications and
sustainable business models that lead to multidimensional value capture. Extant research on
sustainable entrepreneurs reveals concerns in terms of business model scalability and financial
stability. We add to this body of knowledge by providing new insights into how entrepreneurs
leverage digital technologies to scale up their intended value capture along with the
exploitation of impact complements. Such impact complements are theorized to be critical for
sustainable business models and we show potential ways in which sustainable entrepreneurs
can achieve them. We further show that digital technologies can enable parallel growth of
environmental value and social finance. This unravels the importance of digital technology
and its supporting functions for sustainable business models. However, the findings also
reveal that this potential for scalability can conflict with social and environmental logic. Our
sample entrepreneurs often consciously limit the connectivity and accessibility provided by
digital technologies due to considerations involving CO2 reduction and local community
support. Thus, there are indications pointing towards a potential tension between logic and its
manifestation in business model components. As our research adds to the literature
investigating the challenging combination of multiple logics in business models and examines
how logics enable and constrain efforts for sustainability.
We further identify the value spillover effect. Through computerized artifacts
entrepreneurs create awareness and educational value, which means that their capture of socio
environmental value is not necessarily tied to the sale of their core products and services. As
such, they are breaking the conventional boundaries of the business model. Based on this and
based on the notion of social movement spillover, we argue that the online communities
formed and the content provided and/or created within these communities are not limited to
the stakeholders directly involved in their creation. Advanced content does not exist in a
vacuum but rather influences other individuals and groups. Our results show that advanced
tools make it possible to mobilize and connect individuals which can result in spillover
effects. We, thus, offer new insights into how computerized technologies can be leveraged to
influence stakeholders to support social and environmental impacts.
Theoretical implications
This article adds to the theoretical development of sustainable business models
conceptualized as a combination of different components that manifest a plural institutional
logic. Previous research in this area has largely focused on the institutional logic of
sustainability and thus considered how environmental, social and commercial logics relate to
each other. However, this can potentially leave out more logics further relevant for this
particular context. We add to this discourse by discussing the influence of emerging
computerized logics on the socio-environmental value creation of sustainable business
models. We explore how computerized logics based on connectivity, openness, accessibility
and generativity relate to other related logics in sustainable business models and identify
complementarities and tensions. As such, this is also one of the first studies that does not rely
on the dichotomous relationship of the two logics but rather aims to combine multiple logics
to broaden the perspective on sustainable business models.
We further add to the stream of emerging research in the field of entrepreneurship that
seeks to combine sustainability and digitalization. We contribute to building a foundation for
this advanced sustainable entrepreneurship. First, we show that an institutional logic
perspective on sustainable business models can provide a common theoretical foundation for
studying the intersection of these previously separate research streams. In addition, it provides
analytical guidance for studying sustainable entrepreneurs' efforts to balance environmental,
social, and commercial value creation in computerized times. Secondly, the identified themes
open rich pathways to advance connections between other research streams such as co-
creation or social movement theory and sustainable entrepreneurship. In particular, we
contribute to the theoretical development of sustainable entrepreneurship by presenting the
concept of esteem overflow. Value spillover draws attention to the capture of socio-
environmental value (e.g., education and raising awareness) that goes beyond targeted
customers and affects additional groups. In particular, va l u e spillover coupled with the role
of advanced technology to enable community building, co-creation activities, and broader
stakeholder integration offers a new perspective on entrepreneurial value creation for
sustainability.
Practical implications
Advanced technologies can substantially contribute to sustainable development goals.
However, how this potential can be realized in practice remains largely unknown, especially
for entrepreneurs seeking to create socio-environmental value through financially viable
business models. This article provides practitioners with important insights into how
advanced technologies can be embedded in the design of sustainable business models. As
such, practitioners can utilize the identified configuration of sustainable business model
components (i.e., blended value proposition, integrative value creation, and multidimensional
value capture) as an inspiring starting point for developing new sustainable business models.
For example, they can draw on the importance of computerized means for the formation of
communities that channel the many individual contributions and efforts of many actors
towards a common goal. This, in turn, can capitalize on socio-environmental value creation
through co-creation activities and lead to spillover effects in value capture elements. This
example demonstrates the potential of the themes identified for the practicum but also points
towards the complex relationships that practitioners should be aware of when designing
sustainable business models.
Creating a viable business model that harmonizes a large number of different value
systems is difficult and advanced technology cannot solve this completely. Despite the
reported complementarities, practitioners should also be aware of the tensions identified in
this article. Advanced solutions increase connectivity and accessibility, but this can counteract
environmental and social aspirations. Computerized technology, as such, is not a panacea for
sustainable development and should be used responsibly, keeping potential logic
contradictions in mind. Building on this, we recommend a critical but not inclination approach
when contemplating the integration of computerized means to enhance the impact of
sustainable business models.
Conclusions
This study aims to determine the effect of business models to increase social value to the
environment. Based on the results of the analysis, the conclusion that can be drawn from this
study is that business visionaries use computerized advances to create mixed incentives for
their partners. To begin with, computerized reasoning makes it possible to catalyze the
creation of socio-environmental prices and secondly, empowers business visionaries to
establish offerings that consolidate ecological, social, and rewards monetary for their partners.
Mix Value Proportion
Our discoveries uncover that business visionaries use computerized advancements to
create blended incentives for their partners. To begin with, computerized reasoning makes it
possible to catalyze the creation of socio-environmental prices and, secondly, empowers
business visionaries to set up offerings that consolidate ecological, social, and monetary
rewards for their partners.
An essential guarantee of the computerized advances illustrated by economical
business visionaries is their capacity to make all-supportable exercises more broadly
accessible, available, and doable. Business visionaries recognize innovative parts of their
business models as integral assets to catalyzing more productive methods of living.
Thus, the rationale of some supported business visionaries' worthy recommendations
is to guarantee the beneficial utilization of their contributions. The computerized stage, in
particular, permits strong and proficient associations beforehand regardless of flexibly and
demand, along these lines supporting the spread of social and ecological incentives as referred
to by one of our members.
"It's a sophisticated market where we're bringing territorial food makers moreover,
metropolitan shoppers together. As of now, there are 400 little and private companies that
need to bring their items to you and me as well, we are taking care to guarantee that they
discover their way from the wide open to the city." (Iota)
Other entrepreneurs elaborate on the difficulty of finding, evaluating, and ultimately
purchasing eco-friendly and locally produced goods. Therefore, their online marketplace aims
to provide a better and more convenient alternative to buying sustainable products in different
stores. This concept of increased convenience through advanced marketplaces has also been
introduced to other types of products in our sample (e.g., different types of food or books).
Other entrepreneurs offer cell phone and web applications that provide efficiency for
stakeholders by analyzing user information and recommending more sustainable alternatives.
For example, Alpha offers an app that provides its users with constant information describing
their mobility behavior and the respective ecological consequences. In addition, the app
instantly suggests other eco-friendly means of transportation to trigger immediate behavioral
changes. The app serves as a catalyst for environmental social value propositions by
simultaneously making users aware of the existence of ecological alternatives and improving
the accessibility and convenience of these alternatives.
The integration of advanced logic enables entrepreneurs to successfully combine
environmental, social and economic value propositions. By embedding advanced technologies
entrepreneurs can offer sustainable products and services at competitive prices. One
entrepreneur, for example, stated that his digital marketplace allows environmentally certified
farmers and potential customers to trade conveniently, leading to the reduction and prevention
of unnecessary waste, while simultaneously observing animal rights in meat production.
Therefore, the computerized marketplace enables efficient transactions by ensuring financial
gains for producers while offering reasonable prices, thereby, incorporating economic value.
Integrative value creation
Our findings suggest that advanced technologies have the potential to increase actor
connectivity in the value creation component. We identify three, often interrelated, sets of
practices of community building, co-creation, and expanding stakeholder integration where
advanced logics facilitate the opening of value creation boundaries, making these components
more integrative.
Entrepreneurs often seek to form vibrant communities around the socio-environmental
challenges they wish to address, for example, through the creation and provision of
information centers, discussion boards on the web, stages, or other computerized networks
and communication tools. One way to approach this is offered by Sigma, which aims to
enable civic participation in public environmental projects through its online community. For
this, Sigma set up a crowdfunding stage with networking tools:
"We are considering focusing more on community building because the basic idea is a
simple tool for citizen participation and customer integration. Because that's actually the
recipe for success. As we can see from the ongoing projects, the need for community is very
much there. We have definitely established ourselves more as a crowdfunding stage for users
to support sustainability projects".
These communities, for example, are depicted through advanced cartographic
representations that show where each actor is located, how they are connected, and what they
contribute to the community (e.g. sharing information, managing additional projects, etc.).
In addition, some entrepreneurs use computerized technology to facilitate co-creation
with their users as exemplified by Beta's mission statement "Powered by community e curated
and nurtured by technology". We found that to realize a specialized online service based on
connectivity, the utilization of customers' individual resources is basic. Value co-creation
enabled in this advanced way can include tangible resources (e.g., sharing objects such as
books), but also intangible user resources. For example, users act as content creators for blogs
and websites that benefit communities and thus businesses (Rho) or articulate ideas for
common public-private projects on the crowdfunding stage (Sigma). In this vein, Zeta allows
customers to advancedly design their own farmland where they select and cultivate plants,
vegetables, and fruits through a gamified user interface. These instructions are then realized
by the company and the locally produced products are delivered to the customers. Thus,
entrepreneurial ventures act as computerized intermediaries transferring advanced inputs into
physical yields. In addition to the active integration of users in value creation, various
companies analyze user information to develop new offerings or improve existing offerings
(e.g., Alpha, Lambda, Epsilon, Omega).
Related to these efforts and permeating the idea of community building and co-
creation is the integration of an increasingly diverse set of stakeholders beyond customers and
suppliers. Through computerized networks, sustainable entrepreneurs can be inclusive when
building their advanced value creation networks as the following quote shows:
"Our worldwide network invites individuals, local businesses, NGOs, volunteers and
supporters to join. Every member has free access to information about implementing and
managing water supply projects. Everyone can be part of it!" (Gamma).
Multidimensional value capture
In terms of the value capture component, advanced logic allows entrepreneurs to
enable impact complementarity (i.e., the intertwining of environmental value capture and
social finance), support the scalability of social environmental value, and facilitate the
spillover of social environmental value through computerized means. This leads to
multidimensional value capture by adding multiple forms of value as well as boundaries and
scales of captured value.
Findings suggest that the advanced logic supporting challenge resolution combines the
capture of socio-environmental and economic values. Entrepreneurs state that the realization
of one value often corresponds to the enhancement of another and vice versa (e.g., Sigma,
Phi). This complementary relationship is withering clear in business models that perform an
intermediary function to connect various actors (stage advanced). Here, each service or
product sold entails capturing social and/or environmental value (e.g., a booking stage for
sustainable accommodation) while simultaneously enabling financial value capture (e.g.,
through charging commission fees). Crowdfunding services for sustainable projects enable a
similar complement of impacts. They raise public awareness of their fundable projects
through computerized channels that allow entrepreneurs to curate projects with the highest
potential impact. Any related action of the crowd whether it is a simple click, donation, or
pledge leads to the capture of financial and socio environmental value. Therefore, different
forms of value are not dichotomous in this business model but can complement each other
when intertwined through computerized means.
We further identify how entrepreneurs leverage the characteristics of advanced
solutions to facilitate the scalability of social environmental value. The generativity of the
computerized aspect of the business model allows entrepreneurs to "incorporate usability
requirements and user opinions" (Kappa) to customize their products. Advanced applications
and infrastructures are customizable and extensible to new products and services. In addition,
they are characterized by a seemingly easy move to other markets (e.g., Epsilon, Zeta). These
aspects enable scalability of some forms of value as suggested by the following comments:
"I wanted to find a model, which has a positive impact on my environment but also
has the classic attributes of a fire up. With another individualized structure, it can be scaled
like the modular venture case. I want to show that both are possible in the 21st century." (Phi).
In addition, findings show that sustainable entrepreneurs increase awareness and
education regarding sustainability issues, which is often an additional outcome of their
business model. We call this value spillover because it is not exclusive to the immediate target
group but has the potential to spill over to various stakeholders leading to the capture of
additional social environmental value for the business. To achieve such spillover, sustainable
entrepreneurs mostly rely on advanced media such as websites, blogs, social media,
networking activities at their respective stages, or community building on the web. Due to this
advanced presence, entrepreneurs do "educational work" (Epsilon) or "work at the level of
awareness" (Tau) and strive to "start movements" (Beta), closely linked to community
building as part of the value creation component.
"I think this happens automatically because of our community. Everyone who comes
to our website has to deal with the topic for better or worse. Everyone who sees our ads will
contact the topic. And if they think about it, it might stay in the back of their mind." (Phi).
Inter- and intra-componential logical tensions
We also identified challenges in relation to combining environmental, social, and
computerized logics expressed in inter- and intra-component logical tensions. The major
tension between social and environmental values and computerized logic stems from the
collision of advanced and physical aspects of business models. Computerized means
theoretically provide the potential for infinite scalability and, as shown, allow for scaling the
capture of multiple forms of value and enable complementarity of impact. However there are
restrictions that arise from the given natural boundaries governed by social and environmental
logic. Products and services often have physical properties and require physical resources to
produce. Intended value creation, thus, must consider social and environmental logic.
An example of this challenge is the contradiction between online accessibility and
regionality. Advanced solutions are potentially less constrained by geographical
considerations, but they can challenge the idea of local production and consumption.
Entrepreneurs seeking regionality often aim to capture value by reducing waste and
supporting local value creation. Consider, for example, Zeta, a gamified internet gardening
app where advanced aspects are potentially highly scalable. However, Zeta's cultivation zone
is located in a rural area in Austria and once harvested the fruits and vegetables are packaged
and shipped to customers. In this business model, the scalability of value capture is enhanced
through their computerized approach but is constrained by environmental considerations of
value creation in terms of farmland availability and distance to the end consumer. Similarly,
Iota offers an online stage for agricultural products that can be accessed in an advanced
manner with almost no constraints. However, their value proposition is limited to stakeholders
within relative geographical proximity due to CO2 transportation considerations as part of
value creation as well as the aim to empower local farmers, which is an important element of
their value capture. This is exemplified through the following quote:
"90% of our suppliers come from within a radius of less than 100 km. Purchasing food
with short transportation distances and organic farming makes a considerable contribution to
climate balance. At the same time, the regional economy and small producers from the
surrounding area are strengthened." (Iota).
Discussion And Implications
Embedding digital technologies in the elementarism of sustainable business models and
emerging digital logic tensions
This article seeks to gain a deeper understanding of how sustainable entrepreneurs
embed advanced technologies in their business models to foster social environmental value
creation. This is the first study to investigate the emerging advanced logics in sustainable
entrepreneurship. We argue that practices enabled by computerized logics support the
interconnectedness of environmental, social, and commercial logics but also entail tensions.
Therefore, we contribute theoretically and empirically to the development of a new topical
and ambitious research field on sustainable business models in an entrepreneurial context.
In sustainable business model design finding ways to calibrate, balance and blend
value is a key endeavor. We add to this by showing that sustainable entrepreneurs can
leverage computerized technology to develop blended value propositions. Sustainable
offerings often lack financial value for customers because sustainable products and services
are associated with higher value creation costs than their less sustainable counterparts. The
literature on sustainable behavior, however, argues that aspects such as time, effort, and
financial cost are important determinants of behavior favorable to the customer environment.
Our findings suggest that selective use of computerized technologies can increase
convenience and efficiency, while lowering costs in concert with a more sustainable way of
life, ultimately providing a more balanced value proposition.
We also offer new insights into the computerized value creation practices of
entrepreneurs. Our findings suggest a broad complementarity between the values of social
logic (e.g., community development, democratic participation, equality) and the affordances
of computerized technologies in value creation elements. By combining multiple advanced
artifacts and infrastructures (e.g., blogs, boards, social media interfaces, stages, etc.) they
create spaces for community interaction, engage in co-creation activities, and expand
stakeholder integration. With these advanced enabled practices, sustainable entrepreneurs
manage the boundaries of their business models, making them more dynamic and open. In
addition, we found the stage approach to be very effective in bringing together multiple
actors. This is especially important for sustainable business models, which are fraught with
additional efforts in managing external relationships as they need to include a variety of
diverse stakeholders. Enacting advanced logic increases the connectivity of actors across
geographical boundaries and enables integrative value creation. We, thus, add to further
establish the link between co-creation and sustainable business model design.
In addition, we identify synergistic relationships between digital applications and
sustainable business models that lead to multidimensional value capture. Extant research on
sustainable entrepreneurs reveals concerns in terms of business model scalability and financial
stability. We add to this body of knowledge by providing new insights into how entrepreneurs
leverage digital technologies to scale up their intended value capture along with the
exploitation of impact complements. Such impact complements are theorized to be critical for
sustainable business models and we show potential ways in which sustainable entrepreneurs
can achieve them. We further show that digital technologies can enable parallel growth of
environmental value and social finance. This unravels the importance of digital technology
and its supporting functions for sustainable business models. However, the findings also
reveal that this potential for scalability can conflict with social and environmental logic. Our
sample entrepreneurs often consciously limit the connectivity and accessibility provided by
digital technologies due to considerations involving CO2 reduction and local community
support. Thus, there are indications pointing towards a potential tension between logic and its
manifestation in business model components. As our research adds to the literature
investigating the challenging combination of multiple logics in business models and examines
how logics enable and constrain efforts for sustainability.
We further identify the value spillover effect. Through computerized artifacts
entrepreneurs create awareness and educational value, which means that their capture of socio
environmental value is not necessarily tied to the sale of their core products and services. As
such, they are breaking the conventional boundaries of the business model. Based on this and
based on the notion of social movement spillover, we argue that the online communities
formed and the content provided and/or created within these communities are not limited to
the stakeholders directly involved in their creation. Advanced content does not exist in a
vacuum but rather influences other individuals and groups. Our results show that advanced
tools make it possible to mobilize and connect individuals which can result in spillover
effects. We, thus, offer new insights into how computerized technologies can be leveraged to
influence stakeholders to support social and environmental impacts.
Theoretical implications
This article adds to the theoretical development of sustainable business models
conceptualized as a combination of different components that manifest a plural institutional
logic. Previous research in this area has largely focused on the institutional logic of
sustainability and thus considered how environmental, social and commercial logics relate to
each other. However, this can potentially leave out more logics further relevant for this
particular context. We add to this discourse by discussing the influence of emerging
computerized logics on the socio-environmental value creation of sustainable business
models. We explore how computerized logics based on connectivity, openness, accessibility
and generativity relate to other related logics in sustainable business models and identify
complementarities and tensions. As such, this is also one of the first studies that does not rely
on the dichotomous relationship of the two logics but rather aims to combine multiple logics
to broaden the perspective on sustainable business models.
We further add to the stream of emerging research in the field of entrepreneurship that
seeks to combine sustainability and digitalization. We contribute to building a foundation for
this advanced sustainable entrepreneurship. First, we show that an institutional logic
perspective on sustainable business models can provide a common theoretical foundation for
studying the intersection of these previously separate research streams. In addition, it provides
analytical guidance for studying sustainable entrepreneurs' efforts to balance environmental,
social, and commercial value creation in computerized times. Secondly, the identified themes
open rich pathways to advance connections between other research streams such as co-
creation or social movement theory and sustainable entrepreneurship. In particular, we
contribute to the theoretical development of sustainable entrepreneurship by presenting the
concept of esteem overflow. Value spillover draws attention to the capture of socio-
environmental value (e.g., education and raising awareness) that goes beyond targeted
customers and affects additional groups. In particular, va l u e spillover coupled with the role
of advanced technology to enable community building, co-creation activities, and broader
stakeholder integration offers a new perspective on entrepreneurial value creation for
sustainability.
Practical implications
Advanced technologies can substantially contribute to sustainable development goals.
However, how this potential can be realized in practice remains largely unknown, especially
for entrepreneurs seeking to create socio-environmental value through financially viable
business models. This article provides practitioners with important insights into how
advanced technologies can be embedded in the design of sustainable business models. As
such, practitioners can utilize the identified configuration of sustainable business model
components (i.e., blended value proposition, integrative value creation, and multidimensional
value capture) as an inspiring starting point for developing new sustainable business models.
For example, they can draw on the importance of computerized means for the formation of
communities that channel the many individual contributions and efforts of many actors
towards a common goal. This, in turn, can capitalize on socio-environmental value creation
through co-creation activities and lead to spillover effects in value capture elements. This
example demonstrates the potential of the themes identified for the practicum but also points
towards the complex relationships that practitioners should be aware of when designing
sustainable business models.
Creating a viable business model that harmonizes a large number of different value
systems is difficult and advanced technology cannot solve this completely. Despite the
reported complementarities, practitioners should also be aware of the tensions identified in
this article. Advanced solutions increase connectivity and accessibility, but this can counteract
environmental and social aspirations. Computerized technology, as such, is not a panacea for
sustainable development and should be used responsibly, keeping potential logic
contradictions in mind. Building on this, we recommend a critical but not inclination approach
when contemplating the integration of computerized means to enhance the impact of
sustainable business models.
Conclusions
This study aims to determine the effect of business models to increase social value to the
environment. Based on the results of the analysis, the conclusion that can be drawn from this
study is that business visionaries use computerized advances to create mixed incentives for
their partners. To begin with, computerized reasoning makes it possible to catalyze the
creation of socio-environmental prices and secondly, empowers business visionaries to
establish offerings that consolidate ecological, social, and rewards monetary for their partners.
Mix Value Proportion
Our discoveries uncover that business visionaries use computerized advancements to
create blended incentives for their partners. To begin with, computerized reasoning makes it
possible to catalyze the creation of socio-environmental prices and, secondly, empowers
business visionaries to set up offerings that consolidate ecological, social, and monetary
rewards for their partners.
An essential guarantee of the computerized advances illustrated by economical
business visionaries is their capacity to make all-supportable exercises more broadly
accessible, available, and doable. Business visionaries recognize innovative parts of their
business models as integral assets to catalyzing more productive methods of living.
Thus, the rationale of some supported business visionaries' worthy recommendations
is to guarantee the beneficial utilization of their contributions. The computerized stage, in
particular, permits strong and proficient associations beforehand regardless of flexibly and
demand, along these lines supporting the spread of social and ecological incentives as referred
to by one of our members.
"It's a sophisticated market where we're bringing territorial food makers moreover,
metropolitan shoppers together. As of now, there are 400 little and private companies that
need to bring their items to you and me as well, we are taking care to guarantee that they
discover their way from the wide open to the city." (Iota)
Other entrepreneurs elaborate on the difficulty of finding, evaluating, and ultimately
purchasing eco-friendly and locally produced goods. Therefore, their online marketplace aims
to provide a better and more convenient alternative to buying sustainable products in different
stores. This concept of increased convenience through advanced marketplaces has also been
introduced to other types of products in our sample (e.g., different types of food or books).
Other entrepreneurs offer cell phone and web applications that provide efficiency for
stakeholders by analyzing user information and recommending more sustainable alternatives.
For example, Alpha offers an app that provides its users with constant information describing
their mobility behavior and the respective ecological consequences. In addition, the app
instantly suggests other eco-friendly means of transportation to trigger immediate behavioral
changes. The app serves as a catalyst for environmental social value propositions by
simultaneously making users aware of the existence of ecological alternatives and improving
the accessibility and convenience of these alternatives.
The integration of advanced logic enables entrepreneurs to successfully combine
environmental, social and economic value propositions. By embedding advanced technologies
entrepreneurs can offer sustainable products and services at competitive prices. One
entrepreneur, for example, stated that his digital marketplace allows environmentally certified
farmers and potential customers to trade conveniently, leading to the reduction and prevention
of unnecessary waste, while simultaneously observing animal rights in meat production.
Therefore, the computerized marketplace enables efficient transactions by ensuring financial
gains for producers while offering reasonable prices, thereby, incorporating economic value.
Integrative value creation
Our findings suggest that advanced technologies have the potential to increase actor
connectivity in the value creation component. We identify three, often interrelated, sets of
practices of community building, co-creation, and expanding stakeholder integration where
advanced logics facilitate the opening of value creation boundaries, making these components
more integrative.
Entrepreneurs often seek to form vibrant communities around the socio-environmental
challenges they wish to address, for example, through the creation and provision of
information centers, discussion boards on the web, stages, or other computerized networks
and communication tools. One way to approach this is offered by Sigma, which aims to
enable civic participation in public environmental projects through its online community. For
this, Sigma set up a crowdfunding stage with networking tools:
"We are considering focusing more on community building because the basic idea is a
simple tool for citizen participation and customer integration. Because that's actually the
recipe for success. As we can see from the ongoing projects, the need for community is very
much there. We have definitely established ourselves more as a crowdfunding stage for users
to support sustainability projects".
These communities, for example, are depicted through advanced cartographic
representations that show where each actor is located, how they are connected, and what they
contribute to the community (e.g. sharing information, managing additional projects, etc.).
In addition, some entrepreneurs use computerized technology to facilitate co-creation
with their users as exemplified by Beta's mission statement "Powered by community e curated
and nurtured by technology". We found that to realize a specialized online service based on
connectivity, the utilization of customers' individual resources is basic. Value co-creation
enabled in this advanced way can include tangible resources (e.g., sharing objects such as
books), but also intangible user resources. For example, users act as content creators for blogs
and websites that benefit communities and thus businesses (Rho) or articulate ideas for
common public-private projects on the crowdfunding stage (Sigma). In this vein, Zeta allows
customers to advancedly design their own farmland where they select and cultivate plants,
vegetables, and fruits through a gamified user interface. These instructions are then realized
by the company and the locally produced products are delivered to the customers. Thus,
entrepreneurial ventures act as computerized intermediaries transferring advanced inputs into
physical yields. In addition to the active integration of users in value creation, various
companies analyze user information to develop new offerings or improve existing offerings
(e.g., Alpha, Lambda, Epsilon, Omega).
Related to these efforts and permeating the idea of community building and co-
creation is the integration of an increasingly diverse set of stakeholders beyond customers and
suppliers. Through computerized networks, sustainable entrepreneurs can be inclusive when
building their advanced value creation networks as the following quote shows:
"Our worldwide network invites individuals, local businesses, NGOs, volunteers and
supporters to join. Every member has free access to information about implementing and
managing water supply projects. Everyone can be part of it!" (Gamma).
Multidimensional value capture
In terms of the value capture component, advanced logic allows entrepreneurs to
enable impact complementarity (i.e., the intertwining of environmental value capture and
social finance), support the scalability of social environmental value, and facilitate the
spillover of social environmental value through computerized means. This leads to
multidimensional value capture by adding multiple forms of value as well as boundaries and
scales of captured value.
Findings suggest that the advanced logic supporting challenge resolution combines the
capture of socio-environmental and economic values. Entrepreneurs state that the realization
of one value often corresponds to the enhancement of another and vice versa (e.g., Sigma,
Phi). This complementary relationship is withering clear in business models that perform an
intermediary function to connect various actors (stage advanced). Here, each service or
product sold entails capturing social and/or environmental value (e.g., a booking stage for
sustainable accommodation) while simultaneously enabling financial value capture (e.g.,
through charging commission fees). Crowdfunding services for sustainable projects enable a
similar complement of impacts. They raise public awareness of their fundable projects
through computerized channels that allow entrepreneurs to curate projects with the highest
potential impact. Any related action of the crowd whether it is a simple click, donation, or
pledge leads to the capture of financial and socio environmental value. Therefore, different
forms of value are not dichotomous in this business model but can complement each other
when intertwined through computerized means.
We further identify how entrepreneurs leverage the characteristics of advanced
solutions to facilitate the scalability of social environmental value. The generativity of the
computerized aspect of the business model allows entrepreneurs to "incorporate usability
requirements and user opinions" (Kappa) to customize their products. Advanced applications
and infrastructures are customizable and extensible to new products and services. In addition,
they are characterized by a seemingly easy move to other markets (e.g., Epsilon, Zeta). These
aspects enable scalability of some forms of value as suggested by the following comments:
"I wanted to find a model, which has a positive impact on my environment but also
has the classic attributes of a fire up. With another individualized structure, it can be scaled
like the modular venture case. I want to show that both are possible in the 21st century." (Phi).
In addition, findings show that sustainable entrepreneurs increase awareness and
education regarding sustainability issues, which is often an additional outcome of their
business model. We call this value spillover because it is not exclusive to the immediate target
group but has the potential to spill over to various stakeholders leading to the capture of
additional social environmental value for the business. To achieve such spillover, sustainable
entrepreneurs mostly rely on advanced media such as websites, blogs, social media,
networking activities at their respective stages, or community building on the web. Due to this
advanced presence, entrepreneurs do "educational work" (Epsilon) or "work at the level of
awareness" (Tau) and strive to "start movements" (Beta), closely linked to community
building as part of the value creation component.
"I think this happens automatically because of our community. Everyone who comes
to our website has to deal with the topic for better or worse. Everyone who sees our ads will
contact the topic. And if they think about it, it might stay in the back of their mind." (Phi).
Inter- and intra-componential logical tensions
We also identified challenges in relation to combining environmental, social, and
computerized logics expressed in inter- and intra-component logical tensions. The major
tension between social and environmental values and computerized logic stems from the
collision of advanced and physical aspects of business models. Computerized means
theoretically provide the potential for infinite scalability and, as shown, allow for scaling the
capture of multiple forms of value and enable complementarity of impact. However there are
restrictions that arise from the given natural boundaries governed by social and environmental
logic. Products and services often have physical properties and require physical resources to
produce. Intended value creation, thus, must consider social and environmental logic.
An example of this challenge is the contradiction between online accessibility and
regionality. Advanced solutions are potentially less constrained by geographical
considerations, but they can challenge the idea of local production and consumption.
Entrepreneurs seeking regionality often aim to capture value by reducing waste and
supporting local value creation. Consider, for example, Zeta, a gamified internet gardening
app where advanced aspects are potentially highly scalable. However, Zeta's cultivation zone
is located in a rural area in Austria and once harvested the fruits and vegetables are packaged
and shipped to customers. In this business model, the scalability of value capture is enhanced
through their computerized approach but is constrained by environmental considerations of
value creation in terms of farmland availability and distance to the end consumer. Similarly,
Iota offers an online stage for agricultural products that can be accessed in an advanced
manner with almost no constraints. However, their value proposition is limited to stakeholders
within relative geographical proximity due to CO2 transportation considerations as part of
value creation as well as the aim to empower local farmers, which is an important element of
their value capture. This is exemplified through the following quote:
"90% of our suppliers come from within a radius of less than 100 km. Purchasing food
with short transportation distances and organic farming makes a considerable contribution to
climate balance. At the same time, the regional economy and small producers from the
surrounding area are strengthened." (Iota).
Discussion And Implications
Embedding digital technologies in the elementarism of sustainable business models and
emerging digital logic tensions
This article seeks to gain a deeper understanding of how sustainable entrepreneurs
embed advanced technologies in their business models to foster social environmental value
creation. This is the first study to investigate the emerging advanced logics in sustainable
entrepreneurship. We argue that practices enabled by computerized logics support the
interconnectedness of environmental, social, and commercial logics but also entail tensions.
Therefore, we contribute theoretically and empirically to the development of a new topical
and ambitious research field on sustainable business models in an entrepreneurial context.
In sustainable business model design finding ways to calibrate, balance and blend
value is a key endeavor. We add to this by showing that sustainable entrepreneurs can
leverage computerized technology to develop blended value propositions. Sustainable
offerings often lack financial value for customers because sustainable products and services
are associated with higher value creation costs than their less sustainable counterparts. The
literature on sustainable behavior, however, argues that aspects such as time, effort, and
financial cost are important determinants of behavior favorable to the customer environment.
Our findings suggest that selective use of computerized technologies can increase
convenience and efficiency, while lowering costs in concert with a more sustainable way of
life, ultimately providing a more balanced value proposition.
We also offer new insights into the computerized value creation practices of
entrepreneurs. Our findings suggest a broad complementarity between the values of social
logic (e.g., community development, democratic participation, equality) and the affordances
of computerized technologies in value creation elements. By combining multiple advanced
artifacts and infrastructures (e.g., blogs, boards, social media interfaces, stages, etc.) they
create spaces for community interaction, engage in co-creation activities, and expand
stakeholder integration. With these advanced enabled practices, sustainable entrepreneurs
manage the boundaries of their business models, making them more dynamic and open. In
addition, we found the stage approach to be very effective in bringing together multiple
actors. This is especially important for sustainable business models, which are fraught with
additional efforts in managing external relationships as they need to include a variety of
diverse stakeholders. Enacting advanced logic increases the connectivity of actors across
geographical boundaries and enables integrative value creation. We, thus, add to further
establish the link between co-creation and sustainable business model design.
In addition, we identify synergistic relationships between digital applications and
sustainable business models that lead to multidimensional value capture. Extant research on
sustainable entrepreneurs reveals concerns in terms of business model scalability and financial
stability. We add to this body of knowledge by providing new insights into how entrepreneurs
leverage digital technologies to scale up their intended value capture along with the
exploitation of impact complements. Such impact complements are theorized to be critical for
sustainable business models and we show potential ways in which sustainable entrepreneurs
can achieve them. We further show that digital technologies can enable parallel growth of
environmental value and social finance. This unravels the importance of digital technology
and its supporting functions for sustainable business models. However, the findings also
reveal that this potential for scalability can conflict with social and environmental logic. Our
sample entrepreneurs often consciously limit the connectivity and accessibility provided by
digital technologies due to considerations involving CO2 reduction and local community
support. Thus, there are indications pointing towards a potential tension between logic and its
manifestation in business model components. As our research adds to the literature
investigating the challenging combination of multiple logics in business models and examines
how logics enable and constrain efforts for sustainability.
We further identify the value spillover effect. Through computerized artifacts
entrepreneurs create awareness and educational value, which means that their capture of socio
environmental value is not necessarily tied to the sale of their core products and services. As
such, they are breaking the conventional boundaries of the business model. Based on this and
based on the notion of social movement spillover, we argue that the online communities
formed and the content provided and/or created within these communities are not limited to
the stakeholders directly involved in their creation. Advanced content does not exist in a
vacuum but rather influences other individuals and groups. Our results show that advanced
tools make it possible to mobilize and connect individuals which can result in spillover
effects. We, thus, offer new insights into how computerized technologies can be leveraged to
influence stakeholders to support social and environmental impacts.
Theoretical implications
This article adds to the theoretical development of sustainable business models
conceptualized as a combination of different components that manifest a plural institutional
logic. Previous research in this area has largely focused on the institutional logic of
sustainability and thus considered how environmental, social and commercial logics relate to
each other. However, this can potentially leave out more logics further relevant for this
particular context. We add to this discourse by discussing the influence of emerging
computerized logics on the socio-environmental value creation of sustainable business
models. We explore how computerized logics based on connectivity, openness, accessibility
and generativity relate to other related logics in sustainable business models and identify
complementarities and tensions. As such, this is also one of the first studies that does not rely
on the dichotomous relationship of the two logics but rather aims to combine multiple logics
to broaden the perspective on sustainable business models.
We further add to the stream of emerging research in the field of entrepreneurship that
seeks to combine sustainability and digitalization. We contribute to building a foundation for
this advanced sustainable entrepreneurship. First, we show that an institutional logic
perspective on sustainable business models can provide a common theoretical foundation for
studying the intersection of these previously separate research streams. In addition, it provides
analytical guidance for studying sustainable entrepreneurs' efforts to balance environmental,
social, and commercial value creation in computerized times. Secondly, the identified themes
open rich pathways to advance connections between other research streams such as co-
creation or social movement theory and sustainable entrepreneurship. In particular, we
contribute to the theoretical development of sustainable entrepreneurship by presenting the
concept of esteem overflow. Value spillover draws attention to the capture of socio-
environmental value (e.g., education and raising awareness) that goes beyond targeted
customers and affects additional groups. In particular, va l u e spillover coupled with the role
of advanced technology to enable community building, co-creation activities, and broader
stakeholder integration offers a new perspective on entrepreneurial value creation for
sustainability.
Practical implications
Advanced technologies can substantially contribute to sustainable development goals.
However, how this potential can be realized in practice remains largely unknown, especially
for entrepreneurs seeking to create socio-environmental value through financially viable
business models. This article provides practitioners with important insights into how
advanced technologies can be embedded in the design of sustainable business models. As
such, practitioners can utilize the identified configuration of sustainable business model
components (i.e., blended value proposition, integrative value creation, and multidimensional
value capture) as an inspiring starting point for developing new sustainable business models.
For example, they can draw on the importance of computerized means for the formation of
communities that channel the many individual contributions and efforts of many actors
towards a common goal. This, in turn, can capitalize on socio-environmental value creation
through co-creation activities and lead to spillover effects in value capture elements. This
example demonstrates the potential of the themes identified for the practicum but also points
towards the complex relationships that practitioners should be aware of when designing
sustainable business models.
Creating a viable business model that harmonizes a large number of different value
systems is difficult and advanced technology cannot solve this completely. Despite the
reported complementarities, practitioners should also be aware of the tensions identified in
this article. Advanced solutions increase connectivity and accessibility, but this can counteract
environmental and social aspirations. Computerized technology, as such, is not a panacea for
sustainable development and should be used responsibly, keeping potential logic
contradictions in mind. Building on this, we recommend a critical but not inclination approach
when contemplating the integration of computerized means to enhance the impact of
sustainable business models.
Conclusions
This study aims to determine the effect of business models to increase social value to the
environment. Based on the results of the analysis, the conclusion that can be drawn from this
study is that business visionaries use computerized advances to create mixed incentives for
their partners. To begin with, computerized reasoning makes it possible to catalyze the
creation of socio-environmental prices and secondly, empowers business visionaries to
establish offerings that consolidate ecological, social, and rewards monetary for their partners.
Mix Value Proportion
Our discoveries uncover that business visionaries use computerized advancements to
create blended incentives for their partners. To begin with, computerized reasoning makes it
possible to catalyze the creation of socio-environmental prices and, secondly, empowers
business visionaries to set up offerings that consolidate ecological, social, and monetary
rewards for their partners.
An essential guarantee of the computerized advances illustrated by economical
business visionaries is their capacity to make all-supportable exercises more broadly
accessible, available, and doable. Business visionaries recognize innovative parts of their
business models as integral assets to catalyzing more productive methods of living.
Thus, the rationale of some supported business visionaries' worthy recommendations
is to guarantee the beneficial utilization of their contributions. The computerized stage, in
particular, permits strong and proficient associations beforehand regardless of flexibly and
demand, along these lines supporting the spread of social and ecological incentives as referred
to by one of our members.
"It's a sophisticated market where we're bringing territorial food makers moreover,
metropolitan shoppers together. As of now, there are 400 little and private companies that
need to bring their items to you and me as well, we are taking care to guarantee that they
discover their way from the wide open to the city." (Iota)
Other entrepreneurs elaborate on the difficulty of finding, evaluating, and ultimately
purchasing eco-friendly and locally produced goods. Therefore, their online marketplace aims
to provide a better and more convenient alternative to buying sustainable products in different
stores. This concept of increased convenience through advanced marketplaces has also been
introduced to other types of products in our sample (e.g., different types of food or books).
Other entrepreneurs offer cell phone and web applications that provide efficiency for
stakeholders by analyzing user information and recommending more sustainable alternatives.
For example, Alpha offers an app that provides its users with constant information describing
their mobility behavior and the respective ecological consequences. In addition, the app
instantly suggests other eco-friendly means of transportation to trigger immediate behavioral
changes. The app serves as a catalyst for environmental social value propositions by
simultaneously making users aware of the existence of ecological alternatives and improving
the accessibility and convenience of these alternatives.
The integration of advanced logic enables entrepreneurs to successfully combine
environmental, social and economic value propositions. By embedding advanced technologies
entrepreneurs can offer sustainable products and services at competitive prices. One
entrepreneur, for example, stated that his digital marketplace allows environmentally certified
farmers and potential customers to trade conveniently, leading to the reduction and prevention
of unnecessary waste, while simultaneously observing animal rights in meat production.
Therefore, the computerized marketplace enables efficient transactions by ensuring financial
gains for producers while offering reasonable prices, thereby, incorporating economic value.
Integrative value creation
Our findings suggest that advanced technologies have the potential to increase actor
connectivity in the value creation component. We identify three, often interrelated, sets of
practices of community building, co-creation, and expanding stakeholder integration where
advanced logics facilitate the opening of value creation boundaries, making these components
more integrative.
Entrepreneurs often seek to form vibrant communities around the socio-environmental
challenges they wish to address, for example, through the creation and provision of
information centers, discussion boards on the web, stages, or other computerized networks
and communication tools. One way to approach this is offered by Sigma, which aims to
enable civic participation in public environmental projects through its online community. For
this, Sigma set up a crowdfunding stage with networking tools:
"We are considering focusing more on community building because the basic idea is a
simple tool for citizen participation and customer integration. Because that's actually the
recipe for success. As we can see from the ongoing projects, the need for community is very
much there. We have definitely established ourselves more as a crowdfunding stage for users
to support sustainability projects".
These communities, for example, are depicted through advanced cartographic
representations that show where each actor is located, how they are connected, and what they
contribute to the community (e.g. sharing information, managing additional projects, etc.).
In addition, some entrepreneurs use computerized technology to facilitate co-creation
with their users as exemplified by Beta's mission statement "Powered by community e curated
and nurtured by technology". We found that to realize a specialized online service based on
connectivity, the utilization of customers' individual resources is basic. Value co-creation
enabled in this advanced way can include tangible resources (e.g., sharing objects such as
books), but also intangible user resources. For example, users act as content creators for blogs
and websites that benefit communities and thus businesses (Rho) or articulate ideas for
common public-private projects on the crowdfunding stage (Sigma). In this vein, Zeta allows
customers to advancedly design their own farmland where they select and cultivate plants,
vegetables, and fruits through a gamified user interface. These instructions are then realized
by the company and the locally produced products are delivered to the customers. Thus,
entrepreneurial ventures act as computerized intermediaries transferring advanced inputs into
physical yields. In addition to the active integration of users in value creation, various
companies analyze user information to develop new offerings or improve existing offerings
(e.g., Alpha, Lambda, Epsilon, Omega).
Related to these efforts and permeating the idea of community building and co-
creation is the integration of an increasingly diverse set of stakeholders beyond customers and
suppliers. Through computerized networks, sustainable entrepreneurs can be inclusive when
building their advanced value creation networks as the following quote shows:
"Our worldwide network invites individuals, local businesses, NGOs, volunteers and
supporters to join. Every member has free access to information about implementing and
managing water supply projects. Everyone can be part of it!" (Gamma).
Multidimensional value capture
In terms of the value capture component, advanced logic allows entrepreneurs to
enable impact complementarity (i.e., the intertwining of environmental value capture and
social finance), support the scalability of social environmental value, and facilitate the
spillover of social environmental value through computerized means. This leads to
multidimensional value capture by adding multiple forms of value as well as boundaries and
scales of captured value.
Findings suggest that the advanced logic supporting challenge resolution combines the
capture of socio-environmental and economic values. Entrepreneurs state that the realization
of one value often corresponds to the enhancement of another and vice versa (e.g., Sigma,
Phi). This complementary relationship is withering clear in business models that perform an
intermediary function to connect various actors (stage advanced). Here, each service or
product sold entails capturing social and/or environmental value (e.g., a booking stage for
sustainable accommodation) while simultaneously enabling financial value capture (e.g.,
through charging commission fees). Crowdfunding services for sustainable projects enable a
similar complement of impacts. They raise public awareness of their fundable projects
through computerized channels that allow entrepreneurs to curate projects with the highest
potential impact. Any related action of the crowd whether it is a simple click, donation, or
pledge leads to the capture of financial and socio environmental value. Therefore, different
forms of value are not dichotomous in this business model but can complement each other
when intertwined through computerized means.
We further identify how entrepreneurs leverage the characteristics of advanced
solutions to facilitate the scalability of social environmental value. The generativity of the
computerized aspect of the business model allows entrepreneurs to "incorporate usability
requirements and user opinions" (Kappa) to customize their products. Advanced applications
and infrastructures are customizable and extensible to new products and services. In addition,
they are characterized by a seemingly easy move to other markets (e.g., Epsilon, Zeta). These
aspects enable scalability of some forms of value as suggested by the following comments:
"I wanted to find a model, which has a positive impact on my environment but also
has the classic attributes of a fire up. With another individualized structure, it can be scaled
like the modular venture case. I want to show that both are possible in the 21st century." (Phi).
In addition, findings show that sustainable entrepreneurs increase awareness and
education regarding sustainability issues, which is often an additional outcome of their
business model. We call this value spillover because it is not exclusive to the immediate target
group but has the potential to spill over to various stakeholders leading to the capture of
additional social environmental value for the business. To achieve such spillover, sustainable
entrepreneurs mostly rely on advanced media such as websites, blogs, social media,
networking activities at their respective stages, or community building on the web. Due to this
advanced presence, entrepreneurs do "educational work" (Epsilon) or "work at the level of
awareness" (Tau) and strive to "start movements" (Beta), closely linked to community
building as part of the value creation component.
"I think this happens automatically because of our community. Everyone who comes
to our website has to deal with the topic for better or worse. Everyone who sees our ads will
contact the topic. And if they think about it, it might stay in the back of their mind." (Phi).
Inter- and intra-componential logical tensions
We also identified challenges in relation to combining environmental, social, and
computerized logics expressed in inter- and intra-component logical tensions. The major
tension between social and environmental values and computerized logic stems from the
collision of advanced and physical aspects of business models. Computerized means
theoretically provide the potential for infinite scalability and, as shown, allow for scaling the
capture of multiple forms of value and enable complementarity of impact. However there are
restrictions that arise from the given natural boundaries governed by social and environmental
logic. Products and services often have physical properties and require physical resources to
produce. Intended value creation, thus, must consider social and environmental logic.
An example of this challenge is the contradiction between online accessibility and
regionality. Advanced solutions are potentially less constrained by geographical
considerations, but they can challenge the idea of local production and consumption.
Entrepreneurs seeking regionality often aim to capture value by reducing waste and
supporting local value creation. Consider, for example, Zeta, a gamified internet gardening
app where advanced aspects are potentially highly scalable. However, Zeta's cultivation zone
is located in a rural area in Austria and once harvested the fruits and vegetables are packaged
and shipped to customers. In this business model, the scalability of value capture is enhanced
through their computerized approach but is constrained by environmental considerations of
value creation in terms of farmland availability and distance to the end consumer. Similarly,
Iota offers an online stage for agricultural products that can be accessed in an advanced
manner with almost no constraints. However, their value proposition is limited to stakeholders
within relative geographical proximity due to CO2 transportation considerations as part of
value creation as well as the aim to empower local farmers, which is an important element of
their value capture. This is exemplified through the following quote:
"90% of our suppliers come from within a radius of less than 100 km. Purchasing food
with short transportation distances and organic farming makes a considerable contribution to
climate balance. At the same time, the regional economy and small producers from the
surrounding area are strengthened." (Iota).
Discussion And Implications
Embedding digital technologies in the elementarism of sustainable business models and
emerging digital logic tensions
This article seeks to gain a deeper understanding of how sustainable entrepreneurs
embed advanced technologies in their business models to foster social environmental value
creation. This is the first study to investigate the emerging advanced logics in sustainable
entrepreneurship. We argue that practices enabled by computerized logics support the
interconnectedness of environmental, social, and commercial logics but also entail tensions.
Therefore, we contribute theoretically and empirically to the development of a new topical
and ambitious research field on sustainable business models in an entrepreneurial context.
In sustainable business model design finding ways to calibrate, balance and blend
value is a key endeavor. We add to this by showing that sustainable entrepreneurs can
leverage computerized technology to develop blended value propositions. Sustainable
offerings often lack financial value for customers because sustainable products and services
are associated with higher value creation costs than their less sustainable counterparts. The
literature on sustainable behavior, however, argues that aspects such as time, effort, and
financial cost are important determinants of behavior favorable to the customer environment.
Our findings suggest that selective use of computerized technologies can increase
convenience and efficiency, while lowering costs in concert with a more sustainable way of
life, ultimately providing a more balanced value proposition.
We also offer new insights into the computerized value creation practices of
entrepreneurs. Our findings suggest a broad complementarity between the values of social
logic (e.g., community development, democratic participation, equality) and the affordances
of computerized technologies in value creation elements. By combining multiple advanced
artifacts and infrastructures (e.g., blogs, boards, social media interfaces, stages, etc.) they
create spaces for community interaction, engage in co-creation activities, and expand
stakeholder integration. With these advanced enabled practices, sustainable entrepreneurs
manage the boundaries of their business models, making them more dynamic and open. In
addition, we found the stage approach to be very effective in bringing together multiple
actors. This is especially important for sustainable business models, which are fraught with
additional efforts in managing external relationships as they need to include a variety of
diverse stakeholders. Enacting advanced logic increases the connectivity of actors across
geographical boundaries and enables integrative value creation. We, thus, add to further
establish the link between co-creation and sustainable business model design.
In addition, we identify synergistic relationships between digital applications and
sustainable business models that lead to multidimensional value capture. Extant research on
sustainable entrepreneurs reveals concerns in terms of business model scalability and financial
stability. We add to this body of knowledge by providing new insights into how entrepreneurs
leverage digital technologies to scale up their intended value capture along with the
exploitation of impact complements. Such impact complements are theorized to be critical for
sustainable business models and we show potential ways in which sustainable entrepreneurs
can achieve them. We further show that digital technologies can enable parallel growth of
environmental value and social finance. This unravels the importance of digital technology
and its supporting functions for sustainable business models. However, the findings also
reveal that this potential for scalability can conflict with social and environmental logic. Our
sample entrepreneurs often consciously limit the connectivity and accessibility provided by
digital technologies due to considerations involving CO2 reduction and local community
support. Thus, there are indications pointing towards a potential tension between logic and its
manifestation in business model components. As our research adds to the literature
investigating the challenging combination of multiple logics in business models and examines
how logics enable and constrain efforts for sustainability.
We further identify the value spillover effect. Through computerized artifacts
entrepreneurs create awareness and educational value, which means that their capture of socio
environmental value is not necessarily tied to the sale of their core products and services. As
such, they are breaking the conventional boundaries of the business model. Based on this and
based on the notion of social movement spillover, we argue that the online communities
formed and the content provided and/or created within these communities are not limited to
the stakeholders directly involved in their creation. Advanced content does not exist in a
vacuum but rather influences other individuals and groups. Our results show that advanced
tools make it possible to mobilize and connect individuals which can result in spillover
effects. We, thus, offer new insights into how computerized technologies can be leveraged to
influence stakeholders to support social and environmental impacts.
Theoretical implications
This article adds to the theoretical development of sustainable business models
conceptualized as a combination of different components that manifest a plural institutional
logic. Previous research in this area has largely focused on the institutional logic of
sustainability and thus considered how environmental, social and commercial logics relate to
each other. However, this can potentially leave out more logics further relevant for this
particular context. We add to this discourse by discussing the influence of emerging
computerized logics on the socio-environmental value creation of sustainable business
models. We explore how computerized logics based on connectivity, openness, accessibility
and generativity relate to other related logics in sustainable business models and identify
complementarities and tensions. As such, this is also one of the first studies that does not rely
on the dichotomous relationship of the two logics but rather aims to combine multiple logics
to broaden the perspective on sustainable business models.
We further add to the stream of emerging research in the field of entrepreneurship that
seeks to combine sustainability and digitalization. We contribute to building a foundation for
this advanced sustainable entrepreneurship. First, we show that an institutional logic
perspective on sustainable business models can provide a common theoretical foundation for
studying the intersection of these previously separate research streams. In addition, it provides
analytical guidance for studying sustainable entrepreneurs' efforts to balance environmental,
social, and commercial value creation in computerized times. Secondly, the identified themes
open rich pathways to advance connections between other research streams such as co-
creation or social movement theory and sustainable entrepreneurship. In particular, we
contribute to the theoretical development of sustainable entrepreneurship by presenting the
concept of esteem overflow. Value spillover draws attention to the capture of socio-
environmental value (e.g., education and raising awareness) that goes beyond targeted
customers and affects additional groups. In particular, va l u e spillover coupled with the role
of advanced technology to enable community building, co-creation activities, and broader
stakeholder integration offers a new perspective on entrepreneurial value creation for
sustainability.
Practical implications
Advanced technologies can substantially contribute to sustainable development goals.
However, how this potential can be realized in practice remains largely unknown, especially
for entrepreneurs seeking to create socio-environmental value through financially viable
business models. This article provides practitioners with important insights into how
advanced technologies can be embedded in the design of sustainable business models. As
such, practitioners can utilize the identified configuration of sustainable business model
components (i.e., blended value proposition, integrative value creation, and multidimensional
value capture) as an inspiring starting point for developing new sustainable business models.
For example, they can draw on the importance of computerized means for the formation of
communities that channel the many individual contributions and efforts of many actors
towards a common goal. This, in turn, can capitalize on socio-environmental value creation
through co-creation activities and lead to spillover effects in value capture elements. This
example demonstrates the potential of the themes identified for the practicum but also points
towards the complex relationships that practitioners should be aware of when designing
sustainable business models.
Creating a viable business model that harmonizes a large number of different value
systems is difficult and advanced technology cannot solve this completely. Despite the
reported complementarities, practitioners should also be aware of the tensions identified in
this article. Advanced solutions increase connectivity and accessibility, but this can counteract
environmental and social aspirations. Computerized technology, as such, is not a panacea for
sustainable development and should be used responsibly, keeping potential logic
contradictions in mind. Building on this, we recommend a critical but not inclination approach
when contemplating the integration of computerized means to enhance the impact of
sustainable business models.
Conclusions
This study aims to determine the effect of business models to increase social value to the
environment. Based on the results of the analysis, the conclusion that can be drawn from this
study is that business visionaries use computerized advances to create mixed incentives for
their partners. To begin with, computerized reasoning makes it possible to catalyze the
creation of socio-environmental prices and secondly, empowers business visionaries to
establish offerings that consolidate ecological, social, and rewards monetary for their partners.
Mix Value Proportion
Our discoveries uncover that business visionaries use computerized advancements to
create blended incentives for their partners. To begin with, computerized reasoning makes it
possible to catalyze the creation of socio-environmental prices and, secondly, empowers
business visionaries to set up offerings that consolidate ecological, social, and monetary
rewards for their partners.
An essential guarantee of the computerized advances illustrated by economical
business visionaries is their capacity to make all-supportable exercises more broadly
accessible, available, and doable. Business visionaries recognize innovative parts of their
business models as integral assets to catalyzing more productive methods of living.
Thus, the rationale of some supported business visionaries' worthy recommendations
is to guarantee the beneficial utilization of their contributions. The computerized stage, in
particular, permits strong and proficient associations beforehand regardless of flexibly and
demand, along these lines supporting the spread of social and ecological incentives as referred
to by one of our members.
"It's a sophisticated market where we're bringing territorial food makers moreover,
metropolitan shoppers together. As of now, there are 400 little and private companies that
need to bring their items to you and me as well, we are taking care to guarantee that they
discover their way from the wide open to the city." (Iota)
Other entrepreneurs elaborate on the difficulty of finding, evaluating, and ultimately
purchasing eco-friendly and locally produced goods. Therefore, their online marketplace aims
to provide a better and more convenient alternative to buying sustainable products in different
stores. This concept of increased convenience through advanced marketplaces has also been
introduced to other types of products in our sample (e.g., different types of food or books).
Other entrepreneurs offer cell phone and web applications that provide efficiency for
stakeholders by analyzing user information and recommending more sustainable alternatives.
For example, Alpha offers an app that provides its users with constant information describing
their mobility behavior and the respective ecological consequences. In addition, the app
instantly suggests other eco-friendly means of transportation to trigger immediate behavioral
changes. The app serves as a catalyst for environmental social value propositions by
simultaneously making users aware of the existence of ecological alternatives and improving
the accessibility and convenience of these alternatives.
The integration of advanced logic enables entrepreneurs to successfully combine
environmental, social and economic value propositions. By embedding advanced technologies
entrepreneurs can offer sustainable products and services at competitive prices. One
entrepreneur, for example, stated that his digital marketplace allows environmentally certified
farmers and potential customers to trade conveniently, leading to the reduction and prevention
of unnecessary waste, while simultaneously observing animal rights in meat production.
Therefore, the computerized marketplace enables efficient transactions by ensuring financial
gains for producers while offering reasonable prices, thereby, incorporating economic value.
Integrative value creation
Our findings suggest that advanced technologies have the potential to increase actor
connectivity in the value creation component. We identify three, often interrelated, sets of
practices of community building, co-creation, and expanding stakeholder integration where
advanced logics facilitate the opening of value creation boundaries, making these components
more integrative.
Entrepreneurs often seek to form vibrant communities around the socio-environmental
challenges they wish to address, for example, through the creation and provision of
information centers, discussion boards on the web, stages, or other computerized networks
and communication tools. One way to approach this is offered by Sigma, which aims to
enable civic participation in public environmental projects through its online community. For
this, Sigma set up a crowdfunding stage with networking tools:
"We are considering focusing more on community building because the basic idea is a
simple tool for citizen participation and customer integration. Because that's actually the
recipe for success. As we can see from the ongoing projects, the need for community is very
much there. We have definitely established ourselves more as a crowdfunding stage for users
to support sustainability projects".
These communities, for example, are depicted through advanced cartographic
representations that show where each actor is located, how they are connected, and what they
contribute to the community (e.g. sharing information, managing additional projects, etc.).
In addition, some entrepreneurs use computerized technology to facilitate co-creation
with their users as exemplified by Beta's mission statement "Powered by community e curated
and nurtured by technology". We found that to realize a specialized online service based on
connectivity, the utilization of customers' individual resources is basic. Value co-creation
enabled in this advanced way can include tangible resources (e.g., sharing objects such as
books), but also intangible user resources. For example, users act as content creators for blogs
and websites that benefit communities and thus businesses (Rho) or articulate ideas for
common public-private projects on the crowdfunding stage (Sigma). In this vein, Zeta allows
customers to advancedly design their own farmland where they select and cultivate plants,
vegetables, and fruits through a gamified user interface. These instructions are then realized
by the company and the locally produced products are delivered to the customers. Thus,
entrepreneurial ventures act as computerized intermediaries transferring advanced inputs into
physical yields. In addition to the active integration of users in value creation, various
companies analyze user information to develop new offerings or improve existing offerings
(e.g., Alpha, Lambda, Epsilon, Omega).
Related to these efforts and permeating the idea of community building and co-
creation is the integration of an increasingly diverse set of stakeholders beyond customers and
suppliers. Through computerized networks, sustainable entrepreneurs can be inclusive when
building their advanced value creation networks as the following quote shows:
"Our worldwide network invites individuals, local businesses, NGOs, volunteers and
supporters to join. Every member has free access to information about implementing and
managing water supply projects. Everyone can be part of it!" (Gamma).
Multidimensional value capture
In terms of the value capture component, advanced logic allows entrepreneurs to
enable impact complementarity (i.e., the intertwining of environmental value capture and
social finance), support the scalability of social environmental value, and facilitate the
spillover of social environmental value through computerized means. This leads to
multidimensional value capture by adding multiple forms of value as well as boundaries and
scales of captured value.
Findings suggest that the advanced logic supporting challenge resolution combines the
capture of socio-environmental and economic values. Entrepreneurs state that the realization
of one value often corresponds to the enhancement of another and vice versa (e.g., Sigma,
Phi). This complementary relationship is withering clear in business models that perform an
intermediary function to connect various actors (stage advanced). Here, each service or
product sold entails capturing social and/or environmental value (e.g., a booking stage for
sustainable accommodation) while simultaneously enabling financial value capture (e.g.,
through charging commission fees). Crowdfunding services for sustainable projects enable a
similar complement of impacts. They raise public awareness of their fundable projects
through computerized channels that allow entrepreneurs to curate projects with the highest
potential impact. Any related action of the crowd whether it is a simple click, donation, or
pledge leads to the capture of financial and socio environmental value. Therefore, different
forms of value are not dichotomous in this business model but can complement each other
when intertwined through computerized means.
We further identify how entrepreneurs leverage the characteristics of advanced
solutions to facilitate the scalability of social environmental value. The generativity of the
computerized aspect of the business model allows entrepreneurs to "incorporate usability
requirements and user opinions" (Kappa) to customize their products. Advanced applications
and infrastructures are customizable and extensible to new products and services. In addition,
they are characterized by a seemingly easy move to other markets (e.g., Epsilon, Zeta). These
aspects enable scalability of some forms of value as suggested by the following comments:
"I wanted to find a model, which has a positive impact on my environment but also
has the classic attributes of a fire up. With another individualized structure, it can be scaled
like the modular venture case. I want to show that both are possible in the 21st century." (Phi).
In addition, findings show that sustainable entrepreneurs increase awareness and
education regarding sustainability issues, which is often an additional outcome of their
business model. We call this value spillover because it is not exclusive to the immediate target
group but has the potential to spill over to various stakeholders leading to the capture of
additional social environmental value for the business. To achieve such spillover, sustainable
entrepreneurs mostly rely on advanced media such as websites, blogs, social media,
networking activities at their respective stages, or community building on the web. Due to this
advanced presence, entrepreneurs do "educational work" (Epsilon) or "work at the level of
awareness" (Tau) and strive to "start movements" (Beta), closely linked to community
building as part of the value creation component.
"I think this happens automatically because of our community. Everyone who comes
to our website has to deal with the topic for better or worse. Everyone who sees our ads will
contact the topic. And if they think about it, it might stay in the back of their mind." (Phi).
Inter- and intra-componential logical tensions
We also identified challenges in relation to combining environmental, social, and
computerized logics expressed in inter- and intra-component logical tensions. The major
tension between social and environmental values and computerized logic stems from the
collision of advanced and physical aspects of business models. Computerized means
theoretically provide the potential for infinite scalability and, as shown, allow for scaling the
capture of multiple forms of value and enable complementarity of impact. However there are
restrictions that arise from the given natural boundaries governed by social and environmental
logic. Products and services often have physical properties and require physical resources to
produce. Intended value creation, thus, must consider social and environmental logic.
An example of this challenge is the contradiction between online accessibility and
regionality. Advanced solutions are potentially less constrained by geographical
considerations, but they can challenge the idea of local production and consumption.
Entrepreneurs seeking regionality often aim to capture value by reducing waste and
supporting local value creation. Consider, for example, Zeta, a gamified internet gardening
app where advanced aspects are potentially highly scalable. However, Zeta's cultivation zone
is located in a rural area in Austria and once harvested the fruits and vegetables are packaged
and shipped to customers. In this business model, the scalability of value capture is enhanced
through their computerized approach but is constrained by environmental considerations of
value creation in terms of farmland availability and distance to the end consumer. Similarly,
Iota offers an online stage for agricultural products that can be accessed in an advanced
manner with almost no constraints. However, their value proposition is limited to stakeholders
within relative geographical proximity due to CO2 transportation considerations as part of
value creation as well as the aim to empower local farmers, which is an important element of
their value capture. This is exemplified through the following quote:
"90% of our suppliers come from within a radius of less than 100 km. Purchasing food
with short transportation distances and organic farming makes a considerable contribution to
climate balance. At the same time, the regional economy and small producers from the
surrounding area are strengthened." (Iota).
Discussion And Implications
Embedding digital technologies in the elementarism of sustainable business models and
emerging digital logic tensions
This article seeks to gain a deeper understanding of how sustainable entrepreneurs
embed advanced technologies in their business models to foster social environmental value
creation. This is the first study to investigate the emerging advanced logics in sustainable
entrepreneurship. We argue that practices enabled by computerized logics support the
interconnectedness of environmental, social, and commercial logics but also entail tensions.
Therefore, we contribute theoretically and empirically to the development of a new topical
and ambitious research field on sustainable business models in an entrepreneurial context.
In sustainable business model design finding ways to calibrate, balance and blend
value is a key endeavor. We add to this by showing that sustainable entrepreneurs can
leverage computerized technology to develop blended value propositions. Sustainable
offerings often lack financial value for customers because sustainable products and services
are associated with higher value creation costs than their less sustainable counterparts. The
literature on sustainable behavior, however, argues that aspects such as time, effort, and
financial cost are important determinants of behavior favorable to the customer environment.
Our findings suggest that selective use of computerized technologies can increase
convenience and efficiency, while lowering costs in concert with a more sustainable way of
life, ultimately providing a more balanced value proposition.
We also offer new insights into the computerized value creation practices of
entrepreneurs. Our findings suggest a broad complementarity between the values of social
logic (e.g., community development, democratic participation, equality) and the affordances
of computerized technologies in value creation elements. By combining multiple advanced
artifacts and infrastructures (e.g., blogs, boards, social media interfaces, stages, etc.) they
create spaces for community interaction, engage in co-creation activities, and expand
stakeholder integration. With these advanced enabled practices, sustainable entrepreneurs
manage the boundaries of their business models, making them more dynamic and open. In
addition, we found the stage approach to be very effective in bringing together multiple
actors. This is especially important for sustainable business models, which are fraught with
additional efforts in managing external relationships as they need to include a variety of
diverse stakeholders. Enacting advanced logic increases the connectivity of actors across
geographical boundaries and enables integrative value creation. We, thus, add to further
establish the link between co-creation and sustainable business model design.
In addition, we identify synergistic relationships between digital applications and
sustainable business models that lead to multidimensional value capture. Extant research on
sustainable entrepreneurs reveals concerns in terms of business model scalability and financial
stability. We add to this body of knowledge by providing new insights into how entrepreneurs
leverage digital technologies to scale up their intended value capture along with the
exploitation of impact complements. Such impact complements are theorized to be critical for
sustainable business models and we show potential ways in which sustainable entrepreneurs
can achieve them. We further show that digital technologies can enable parallel growth of
environmental value and social finance. This unravels the importance of digital technology
and its supporting functions for sustainable business models. However, the findings also
reveal that this potential for scalability can conflict with social and environmental logic. Our
sample entrepreneurs often consciously limit the connectivity and accessibility provided by
digital technologies due to considerations involving CO2 reduction and local community
support. Thus, there are indications pointing towards a potential tension between logic and its
manifestation in business model components. As our research adds to the literature
investigating the challenging combination of multiple logics in business models and examines
how logics enable and constrain efforts for sustainability.
We further identify the value spillover effect. Through computerized artifacts
entrepreneurs create awareness and educational value, which means that their capture of socio
environmental value is not necessarily tied to the sale of their core products and services. As
such, they are breaking the conventional boundaries of the business model. Based on this and
based on the notion of social movement spillover, we argue that the online communities
formed and the content provided and/or created within these communities are not limited to
the stakeholders directly involved in their creation. Advanced content does not exist in a
vacuum but rather influences other individuals and groups. Our results show that advanced
tools make it possible to mobilize and connect individuals which can result in spillover
effects. We, thus, offer new insights into how computerized technologies can be leveraged to
influence stakeholders to support social and environmental impacts.
Theoretical implications
This article adds to the theoretical development of sustainable business models
conceptualized as a combination of different components that manifest a plural institutional
logic. Previous research in this area has largely focused on the institutional logic of
sustainability and thus considered how environmental, social and commercial logics relate to
each other. However, this can potentially leave out more logics further relevant for this
particular context. We add to this discourse by discussing the influence of emerging
computerized logics on the socio-environmental value creation of sustainable business
models. We explore how computerized logics based on connectivity, openness, accessibility
and generativity relate to other related logics in sustainable business models and identify
complementarities and tensions. As such, this is also one of the first studies that does not rely
on the dichotomous relationship of the two logics but rather aims to combine multiple logics
to broaden the perspective on sustainable business models.
We further add to the stream of emerging research in the field of entrepreneurship that
seeks to combine sustainability and digitalization. We contribute to building a foundation for
this advanced sustainable entrepreneurship. First, we show that an institutional logic
perspective on sustainable business models can provide a common theoretical foundation for
studying the intersection of these previously separate research streams. In addition, it provides
analytical guidance for studying sustainable entrepreneurs' efforts to balance environmental,
social, and commercial value creation in computerized times. Secondly, the identified themes
open rich pathways to advance connections between other research streams such as co-
creation or social movement theory and sustainable entrepreneurship. In particular, we
contribute to the theoretical development of sustainable entrepreneurship by presenting the
concept of esteem overflow. Value spillover draws attention to the capture of socio-
environmental value (e.g., education and raising awareness) that goes beyond targeted
customers and affects additional groups. In particular, va l u e spillover coupled with the role
of advanced technology to enable community building, co-creation activities, and broader
stakeholder integration offers a new perspective on entrepreneurial value creation for
sustainability.
Practical implications
Advanced technologies can substantially contribute to sustainable development goals.
However, how this potential can be realized in practice remains largely unknown, especially
for entrepreneurs seeking to create socio-environmental value through financially viable
business models. This article provides practitioners with important insights into how
advanced technologies can be embedded in the design of sustainable business models. As
such, practitioners can utilize the identified configuration of sustainable business model
components (i.e., blended value proposition, integrative value creation, and multidimensional
value capture) as an inspiring starting point for developing new sustainable business models.
For example, they can draw on the importance of computerized means for the formation of
communities that channel the many individual contributions and efforts of many actors
towards a common goal. This, in turn, can capitalize on socio-environmental value creation
through co-creation activities and lead to spillover effects in value capture elements. This
example demonstrates the potential of the themes identified for the practicum but also points
towards the complex relationships that practitioners should be aware of when designing
sustainable business models.
Creating a viable business model that harmonizes a large number of different value
systems is difficult and advanced technology cannot solve this completely. Despite the
reported complementarities, practitioners should also be aware of the tensions identified in
this article. Advanced solutions increase connectivity and accessibility, but this can counteract
environmental and social aspirations. Computerized technology, as such, is not a panacea for
sustainable development and should be used responsibly, keeping potential logic
contradictions in mind. Building on this, we recommend a critical but not inclination approach
when contemplating the integration of computerized means to enhance the impact of
sustainable business models.
Conclusions
This study aims to determine the effect of business models to increase social value to the
environment. Based on the results of the analysis, the conclusion that can be drawn from this
study is that business visionaries use computerized advances to create mixed incentives for
their partners. To begin with, computerized reasoning makes it possible to catalyze the
creation of socio-environmental prices and secondly, empowers business visionaries to
establish offerings that consolidate ecological, social, and rewards monetary for their partners.
Mix Value Proportion
Our discoveries uncover that business visionaries use computerized advancements to
create blended incentives for their partners. To begin with, computerized reasoning makes it
possible to catalyze the creation of socio-environmental prices and, secondly, empowers
business visionaries to set up offerings that consolidate ecological, social, and monetary
rewards for their partners.
An essential guarantee of the computerized advances illustrated by economical
business visionaries is their capacity to make all-supportable exercises more broadly
accessible, available, and doable. Business visionaries recognize innovative parts of their
business models as integral assets to catalyzing more productive methods of living.
Thus, the rationale of some supported business visionaries' worthy recommendations
is to guarantee the beneficial utilization of their contributions. The computerized stage, in
particular, permits strong and proficient associations beforehand regardless of flexibly and
demand, along these lines supporting the spread of social and ecological incentives as referred
to by one of our members.
"It's a sophisticated market where we're bringing territorial food makers moreover,
metropolitan shoppers together. As of now, there are 400 little and private companies that
need to bring their items to you and me as well, we are taking care to guarantee that they
discover their way from the wide open to the city." (Iota)
Other entrepreneurs elaborate on the difficulty of finding, evaluating, and ultimately
purchasing eco-friendly and locally produced goods. Therefore, their online marketplace aims
to provide a better and more convenient alternative to buying sustainable products in different
stores. This concept of increased convenience through advanced marketplaces has also been
introduced to other types of products in our sample (e.g., different types of food or books).
Other entrepreneurs offer cell phone and web applications that provide efficiency for
stakeholders by analyzing user information and recommending more sustainable alternatives.
For example, Alpha offers an app that provides its users with constant information describing
their mobility behavior and the respective ecological consequences. In addition, the app
instantly suggests other eco-friendly means of transportation to trigger immediate behavioral
changes. The app serves as a catalyst for environmental social value propositions by
simultaneously making users aware of the existence of ecological alternatives and improving
the accessibility and convenience of these alternatives.
The integration of advanced logic enables entrepreneurs to successfully combine
environmental, social and economic value propositions. By embedding advanced technologies
entrepreneurs can offer sustainable products and services at competitive prices. One
entrepreneur, for example, stated that his digital marketplace allows environmentally certified
farmers and potential customers to trade conveniently, leading to the reduction and prevention
of unnecessary waste, while simultaneously observing animal rights in meat production.
Therefore, the computerized marketplace enables efficient transactions by ensuring financial
gains for producers while offering reasonable prices, thereby, incorporating economic value.
Integrative value creation
Our findings suggest that advanced technologies have the potential to increase actor
connectivity in the value creation component. We identify three, often interrelated, sets of
practices of community building, co-creation, and expanding stakeholder integration where
advanced logics facilitate the opening of value creation boundaries, making these components
more integrative.
Entrepreneurs often seek to form vibrant communities around the socio-environmental
challenges they wish to address, for example, through the creation and provision of
information centers, discussion boards on the web, stages, or other computerized networks
and communication tools. One way to approach this is offered by Sigma, which aims to
enable civic participation in public environmental projects through its online community. For
this, Sigma set up a crowdfunding stage with networking tools:
"We are considering focusing more on community building because the basic idea is a
simple tool for citizen participation and customer integration. Because that's actually the
recipe for success. As we can see from the ongoing projects, the need for community is very
much there. We have definitely established ourselves more as a crowdfunding stage for users
to support sustainability projects".
These communities, for example, are depicted through advanced cartographic
representations that show where each actor is located, how they are connected, and what they
contribute to the community (e.g. sharing information, managing additional projects, etc.).
In addition, some entrepreneurs use computerized technology to facilitate co-creation
with their users as exemplified by Beta's mission statement "Powered by community e curated
and nurtured by technology". We found that to realize a specialized online service based on
connectivity, the utilization of customers' individual resources is basic. Value co-creation
enabled in this advanced way can include tangible resources (e.g., sharing objects such as
books), but also intangible user resources. For example, users act as content creators for blogs
and websites that benefit communities and thus businesses (Rho) or articulate ideas for
common public-private projects on the crowdfunding stage (Sigma). In this vein, Zeta allows
customers to advancedly design their own farmland where they select and cultivate plants,
vegetables, and fruits through a gamified user interface. These instructions are then realized
by the company and the locally produced products are delivered to the customers. Thus,
entrepreneurial ventures act as computerized intermediaries transferring advanced inputs into
physical yields. In addition to the active integration of users in value creation, various
companies analyze user information to develop new offerings or improve existing offerings
(e.g., Alpha, Lambda, Epsilon, Omega).
Related to these efforts and permeating the idea of community building and co-
creation is the integration of an increasingly diverse set of stakeholders beyond customers and
suppliers. Through computerized networks, sustainable entrepreneurs can be inclusive when
building their advanced value creation networks as the following quote shows:
"Our worldwide network invites individuals, local businesses, NGOs, volunteers and
supporters to join. Every member has free access to information about implementing and
managing water supply projects. Everyone can be part of it!" (Gamma).
Multidimensional value capture
In terms of the value capture component, advanced logic allows entrepreneurs to
enable impact complementarity (i.e., the intertwining of environmental value capture and
social finance), support the scalability of social environmental value, and facilitate the
spillover of social environmental value through computerized means. This leads to
multidimensional value capture by adding multiple forms of value as well as boundaries and
scales of captured value.
Findings suggest that the advanced logic supporting challenge resolution combines the
capture of socio-environmental and economic values. Entrepreneurs state that the realization
of one value often corresponds to the enhancement of another and vice versa (e.g., Sigma,
Phi). This complementary relationship is withering clear in business models that perform an
intermediary function to connect various actors (stage advanced). Here, each service or
product sold entails capturing social and/or environmental value (e.g., a booking stage for
sustainable accommodation) while simultaneously enabling financial value capture (e.g.,
through charging commission fees). Crowdfunding services for sustainable projects enable a
similar complement of impacts. They raise public awareness of their fundable projects
through computerized channels that allow entrepreneurs to curate projects with the highest
potential impact. Any related action of the crowd whether it is a simple click, donation, or
pledge leads to the capture of financial and socio environmental value. Therefore, different
forms of value are not dichotomous in this business model but can complement each other
when intertwined through computerized means.
We further identify how entrepreneurs leverage the characteristics of advanced
solutions to facilitate the scalability of social environmental value. The generativity of the
computerized aspect of the business model allows entrepreneurs to "incorporate usability
requirements and user opinions" (Kappa) to customize their products. Advanced applications
and infrastructures are customizable and extensible to new products and services. In addition,
they are characterized by a seemingly easy move to other markets (e.g., Epsilon, Zeta). These
aspects enable scalability of some forms of value as suggested by the following comments:
"I wanted to find a model, which has a positive impact on my environment but also
has the classic attributes of a fire up. With another individualized structure, it can be scaled
like the modular venture case. I want to show that both are possible in the 21st century." (Phi).
In addition, findings show that sustainable entrepreneurs increase awareness and
education regarding sustainability issues, which is often an additional outcome of their
business model. We call this value spillover because it is not exclusive to the immediate target
group but has the potential to spill over to various stakeholders leading to the capture of
additional social environmental value for the business. To achieve such spillover, sustainable
entrepreneurs mostly rely on advanced media such as websites, blogs, social media,
networking activities at their respective stages, or community building on the web. Due to this
advanced presence, entrepreneurs do "educational work" (Epsilon) or "work at the level of
awareness" (Tau) and strive to "start movements" (Beta), closely linked to community
building as part of the value creation component.
"I think this happens automatically because of our community. Everyone who comes
to our website has to deal with the topic for better or worse. Everyone who sees our ads will
contact the topic. And if they think about it, it might stay in the back of their mind." (Phi).
Inter- and intra-componential logical tensions
We also identified challenges in relation to combining environmental, social, and
computerized logics expressed in inter- and intra-component logical tensions. The major
tension between social and environmental values and computerized logic stems from the
collision of advanced and physical aspects of business models. Computerized means
theoretically provide the potential for infinite scalability and, as shown, allow for scaling the
capture of multiple forms of value and enable complementarity of impact. However there are
restrictions that arise from the given natural boundaries governed by social and environmental
logic. Products and services often have physical properties and require physical resources to
produce. Intended value creation, thus, must consider social and environmental logic.
An example of this challenge is the contradiction between online accessibility and
regionality. Advanced solutions are potentially less constrained by geographical
considerations, but they can challenge the idea of local production and consumption.
Entrepreneurs seeking regionality often aim to capture value by reducing waste and
supporting local value creation. Consider, for example, Zeta, a gamified internet gardening
app where advanced aspects are potentially highly scalable. However, Zeta's cultivation zone
is located in a rural area in Austria and once harvested the fruits and vegetables are packaged
and shipped to customers. In this business model, the scalability of value capture is enhanced
through their computerized approach but is constrained by environmental considerations of
value creation in terms of farmland availability and distance to the end consumer. Similarly,
Iota offers an online stage for agricultural products that can be accessed in an advanced
manner with almost no constraints. However, their value proposition is limited to stakeholders
within relative geographical proximity due to CO2 transportation considerations as part of
value creation as well as the aim to empower local farmers, which is an important element of
their value capture. This is exemplified through the following quote:
"90% of our suppliers come from within a radius of less than 100 km. Purchasing food
with short transportation distances and organic farming makes a considerable contribution to
climate balance. At the same time, the regional economy and small producers from the
surrounding area are strengthened." (Iota).
Discussion And Implications
Embedding digital technologies in the elementarism of sustainable business models and
emerging digital logic tensions
This article seeks to gain a deeper understanding of how sustainable entrepreneurs
embed advanced technologies in their business models to foster social environmental value
creation. This is the first study to investigate the emerging advanced logics in sustainable
entrepreneurship. We argue that practices enabled by computerized logics support the
interconnectedness of environmental, social, and commercial logics but also entail tensions.
Therefore, we contribute theoretically and empirically to the development of a new topical
and ambitious research field on sustainable business models in an entrepreneurial context.
In sustainable business model design finding ways to calibrate, balance and blend
value is a key endeavor. We add to this by showing that sustainable entrepreneurs can
leverage computerized technology to develop blended value propositions. Sustainable
offerings often lack financial value for customers because sustainable products and services
are associated with higher value creation costs than their less sustainable counterparts. The
literature on sustainable behavior, however, argues that aspects such as time, effort, and
financial cost are important determinants of behavior favorable to the customer environment.
Our findings suggest that selective use of computerized technologies can increase
convenience and efficiency, while lowering costs in concert with a more sustainable way of
life, ultimately providing a more balanced value proposition.
We also offer new insights into the computerized value creation practices of
entrepreneurs. Our findings suggest a broad complementarity between the values of social
logic (e.g., community development, democratic participation, equality) and the affordances
of computerized technologies in value creation elements. By combining multiple advanced
artifacts and infrastructures (e.g., blogs, boards, social media interfaces, stages, etc.) they
create spaces for community interaction, engage in co-creation activities, and expand
stakeholder integration. With these advanced enabled practices, sustainable entrepreneurs
manage the boundaries of their business models, making them more dynamic and open. In
addition, we found the stage approach to be very effective in bringing together multiple
actors. This is especially important for sustainable business models, which are fraught with
additional efforts in managing external relationships as they need to include a variety of
diverse stakeholders. Enacting advanced logic increases the connectivity of actors across
geographical boundaries and enables integrative value creation. We, thus, add to further
establish the link between co-creation and sustainable business model design.
In addition, we identify synergistic relationships between digital applications and
sustainable business models that lead to multidimensional value capture. Extant research on
sustainable entrepreneurs reveals concerns in terms of business model scalability and financial
stability. We add to this body of knowledge by providing new insights into how entrepreneurs
leverage digital technologies to scale up their intended value capture along with the
exploitation of impact complements. Such impact complements are theorized to be critical for
sustainable business models and we show potential ways in which sustainable entrepreneurs
can achieve them. We further show that digital technologies can enable parallel growth of
environmental value and social finance. This unravels the importance of digital technology
and its supporting functions for sustainable business models. However, the findings also
reveal that this potential for scalability can conflict with social and environmental logic. Our
sample entrepreneurs often consciously limit the connectivity and accessibility provided by
digital technologies due to considerations involving CO2 reduction and local community
support. Thus, there are indications pointing towards a potential tension between logic and its
manifestation in business model components. As our research adds to the literature
investigating the challenging combination of multiple logics in business models and examines
how logics enable and constrain efforts for sustainability.
We further identify the value spillover effect. Through computerized artifacts
entrepreneurs create awareness and educational value, which means that their capture of socio
environmental value is not necessarily tied to the sale of their core products and services. As
such, they are breaking the conventional boundaries of the business model. Based on this and
based on the notion of social movement spillover, we argue that the online communities
formed and the content provided and/or created within these communities are not limited to
the stakeholders directly involved in their creation. Advanced content does not exist in a
vacuum but rather influences other individuals and groups. Our results show that advanced
tools make it possible to mobilize and connect individuals which can result in spillover
effects. We, thus, offer new insights into how computerized technologies can be leveraged to
influence stakeholders to support social and environmental impacts.
Theoretical implications
This article adds to the theoretical development of sustainable business models
conceptualized as a combination of different components that manifest a plural institutional
logic. Previous research in this area has largely focused on the institutional logic of
sustainability and thus considered how environmental, social and commercial logics relate to
each other. However, this can potentially leave out more logics further relevant for this
particular context. We add to this discourse by discussing the influence of emerging
computerized logics on the socio-environmental value creation of sustainable business
models. We explore how computerized logics based on connectivity, openness, accessibility
and generativity relate to other related logics in sustainable business models and identify
complementarities and tensions. As such, this is also one of the first studies that does not rely
on the dichotomous relationship of the two logics but rather aims to combine multiple logics
to broaden the perspective on sustainable business models.
We further add to the stream of emerging research in the field of entrepreneurship that
seeks to combine sustainability and digitalization. We contribute to building a foundation for
this advanced sustainable entrepreneurship. First, we show that an institutional logic
perspective on sustainable business models can provide a common theoretical foundation for
studying the intersection of these previously separate research streams. In addition, it provides
analytical guidance for studying sustainable entrepreneurs' efforts to balance environmental,
social, and commercial value creation in computerized times. Secondly, the identified themes
open rich pathways to advance connections between other research streams such as co-
creation or social movement theory and sustainable entrepreneurship. In particular, we
contribute to the theoretical development of sustainable entrepreneurship by presenting the
concept of esteem overflow. Value spillover draws attention to the capture of socio-
environmental value (e.g., education and raising awareness) that goes beyond targeted
customers and affects additional groups. In particular, va l u e spillover coupled with the role
of advanced technology to enable community building, co-creation activities, and broader
stakeholder integration offers a new perspective on entrepreneurial value creation for
sustainability.
Practical implications
Advanced technologies can substantially contribute to sustainable development goals.
However, how this potential can be realized in practice remains largely unknown, especially
for entrepreneurs seeking to create socio-environmental value through financially viable
business models. This article provides practitioners with important insights into how
advanced technologies can be embedded in the design of sustainable business models. As
such, practitioners can utilize the identified configuration of sustainable business model
components (i.e., blended value proposition, integrative value creation, and multidimensional
value capture) as an inspiring starting point for developing new sustainable business models.
For example, they can draw on the importance of computerized means for the formation of
communities that channel the many individual contributions and efforts of many actors
towards a common goal. This, in turn, can capitalize on socio-environmental value creation
through co-creation activities and lead to spillover effects in value capture elements. This
example demonstrates the potential of the themes identified for the practicum but also points
towards the complex relationships that practitioners should be aware of when designing
sustainable business models.
Creating a viable business model that harmonizes a large number of different value
systems is difficult and advanced technology cannot solve this completely. Despite the
reported complementarities, practitioners should also be aware of the tensions identified in
this article. Advanced solutions increase connectivity and accessibility, but this can counteract
environmental and social aspirations. Computerized technology, as such, is not a panacea for
sustainable development and should be used responsibly, keeping potential logic
contradictions in mind. Building on this, we recommend a critical but not inclination approach
when contemplating the integration of computerized means to enhance the impact of
sustainable business models.
Conclusions
This study aims to determine the effect of business models to increase social value to the
environment. Based on the results of the analysis, the conclusion that can be drawn from this
study is that business visionaries use computerized advances to create mixed incentives for
their partners. To begin with, computerized reasoning makes it possible to catalyze the
creation of socio-environmental prices and secondly, empowers business visionaries to
establish offerings that consolidate ecological, social, and rewards monetary for their partners.
Mix Value Proportion
Our discoveries uncover that business visionaries use computerized advancements to
create blended incentives for their partners. To begin with, computerized reasoning makes it
possible to catalyze the creation of socio-environmental prices and, secondly, empowers
business visionaries to set up offerings that consolidate ecological, social, and monetary
rewards for their partners.
An essential guarantee of the computerized advances illustrated by economical
business visionaries is their capacity to make all-supportable exercises more broadly
accessible, available, and doable. Business visionaries recognize innovative parts of their
business models as integral assets to catalyzing more productive methods of living.
Thus, the rationale of some supported business visionaries' worthy recommendations
is to guarantee the beneficial utilization of their contributions. The computerized stage, in
particular, permits strong and proficient associations beforehand regardless of flexibly and
demand, along these lines supporting the spread of social and ecological incentives as referred
to by one of our members.
"It's a sophisticated market where we're bringing territorial food makers moreover,
metropolitan shoppers together. As of now, there are 400 little and private companies that
need to bring their items to you and me as well, we are taking care to guarantee that they
discover their way from the wide open to the city." (Iota)
Other entrepreneurs elaborate on the difficulty of finding, evaluating, and ultimately
purchasing eco-friendly and locally produced goods. Therefore, their online marketplace aims
to provide a better and more convenient alternative to buying sustainable products in different
stores. This concept of increased convenience through advanced marketplaces has also been
introduced to other types of products in our sample (e.g., different types of food or books).
Other entrepreneurs offer cell phone and web applications that provide efficiency for
stakeholders by analyzing user information and recommending more sustainable alternatives.
For example, Alpha offers an app that provides its users with constant information describing
their mobility behavior and the respective ecological consequences. In addition, the app
instantly suggests other eco-friendly means of transportation to trigger immediate behavioral
changes. The app serves as a catalyst for environmental social value propositions by
simultaneously making users aware of the existence of ecological alternatives and improving
the accessibility and convenience of these alternatives.
The integration of advanced logic enables entrepreneurs to successfully combine
environmental, social and economic value propositions. By embedding advanced technologies
entrepreneurs can offer sustainable products and services at competitive prices. One
entrepreneur, for example, stated that his digital marketplace allows environmentally certified
farmers and potential customers to trade conveniently, leading to the reduction and prevention
of unnecessary waste, while simultaneously observing animal rights in meat production.
Therefore, the computerized marketplace enables efficient transactions by ensuring financial
gains for producers while offering reasonable prices, thereby, incorporating economic value.
Integrative value creation
Our findings suggest that advanced technologies have the potential to increase actor
connectivity in the value creation component. We identify three, often interrelated, sets of
practices of community building, co-creation, and expanding stakeholder integration where
advanced logics facilitate the opening of value creation boundaries, making these components
more integrative.
Entrepreneurs often seek to form vibrant communities around the socio-environmental
challenges they wish to address, for example, through the creation and provision of
information centers, discussion boards on the web, stages, or other computerized networks
and communication tools. One way to approach this is offered by Sigma, which aims to
enable civic participation in public environmental projects through its online community. For
this, Sigma set up a crowdfunding stage with networking tools:
"We are considering focusing more on community building because the basic idea is a
simple tool for citizen participation and customer integration. Because that's actually the
recipe for success. As we can see from the ongoing projects, the need for community is very
much there. We have definitely established ourselves more as a crowdfunding stage for users
to support sustainability projects".
These communities, for example, are depicted through advanced cartographic
representations that show where each actor is located, how they are connected, and what they
contribute to the community (e.g. sharing information, managing additional projects, etc.).
In addition, some entrepreneurs use computerized technology to facilitate co-creation
with their users as exemplified by Beta's mission statement "Powered by community e curated
and nurtured by technology". We found that to realize a specialized online service based on
connectivity, the utilization of customers' individual resources is basic. Value co-creation
enabled in this advanced way can include tangible resources (e.g., sharing objects such as
books), but also intangible user resources. For example, users act as content creators for blogs
and websites that benefit communities and thus businesses (Rho) or articulate ideas for
common public-private projects on the crowdfunding stage (Sigma). In this vein, Zeta allows
customers to advancedly design their own farmland where they select and cultivate plants,
vegetables, and fruits through a gamified user interface. These instructions are then realized
by the company and the locally produced products are delivered to the customers. Thus,
entrepreneurial ventures act as computerized intermediaries transferring advanced inputs into
physical yields. In addition to the active integration of users in value creation, various
companies analyze user information to develop new offerings or improve existing offerings
(e.g., Alpha, Lambda, Epsilon, Omega).
Related to these efforts and permeating the idea of community building and co-
creation is the integration of an increasingly diverse set of stakeholders beyond customers and
suppliers. Through computerized networks, sustainable entrepreneurs can be inclusive when
building their advanced value creation networks as the following quote shows:
"Our worldwide network invites individuals, local businesses, NGOs, volunteers and
supporters to join. Every member has free access to information about implementing and
managing water supply projects. Everyone can be part of it!" (Gamma).
Multidimensional value capture
In terms of the value capture component, advanced logic allows entrepreneurs to
enable impact complementarity (i.e., the intertwining of environmental value capture and
social finance), support the scalability of social environmental value, and facilitate the
spillover of social environmental value through computerized means. This leads to
multidimensional value capture by adding multiple forms of value as well as boundaries and
scales of captured value.
Findings suggest that the advanced logic supporting challenge resolution combines the
capture of socio-environmental and economic values. Entrepreneurs state that the realization
of one value often corresponds to the enhancement of another and vice versa (e.g., Sigma,
Phi). This complementary relationship is withering clear in business models that perform an
intermediary function to connect various actors (stage advanced). Here, each service or
product sold entails capturing social and/or environmental value (e.g., a booking stage for
sustainable accommodation) while simultaneously enabling financial value capture (e.g.,
through charging commission fees). Crowdfunding services for sustainable projects enable a
similar complement of impacts. They raise public awareness of their fundable projects
through computerized channels that allow entrepreneurs to curate projects with the highest
potential impact. Any related action of the crowd whether it is a simple click, donation, or
pledge leads to the capture of financial and socio environmental value. Therefore, different
forms of value are not dichotomous in this business model but can complement each other
when intertwined through computerized means.
We further identify how entrepreneurs leverage the characteristics of advanced
solutions to facilitate the scalability of social environmental value. The generativity of the
computerized aspect of the business model allows entrepreneurs to "incorporate usability
requirements and user opinions" (Kappa) to customize their products. Advanced applications
and infrastructures are customizable and extensible to new products and services. In addition,
they are characterized by a seemingly easy move to other markets (e.g., Epsilon, Zeta). These
aspects enable scalability of some forms of value as suggested by the following comments:
"I wanted to find a model, which has a positive impact on my environment but also
has the classic attributes of a fire up. With another individualized structure, it can be scaled
like the modular venture case. I want to show that both are possible in the 21st century." (Phi).
In addition, findings show that sustainable entrepreneurs increase awareness and
education regarding sustainability issues, which is often an additional outcome of their
business model. We call this value spillover because it is not exclusive to the immediate target
group but has the potential to spill over to various stakeholders leading to the capture of
additional social environmental value for the business. To achieve such spillover, sustainable
entrepreneurs mostly rely on advanced media such as websites, blogs, social media,
networking activities at their respective stages, or community building on the web. Due to this
advanced presence, entrepreneurs do "educational work" (Epsilon) or "work at the level of
awareness" (Tau) and strive to "start movements" (Beta), closely linked to community
building as part of the value creation component.
"I think this happens automatically because of our community. Everyone who comes
to our website has to deal with the topic for better or worse. Everyone who sees our ads will
contact the topic. And if they think about it, it might stay in the back of their mind." (Phi).
Inter- and intra-componential logical tensions
We also identified challenges in relation to combining environmental, social, and
computerized logics expressed in inter- and intra-component logical tensions. The major
tension between social and environmental values and computerized logic stems from the
collision of advanced and physical aspects of business models. Computerized means
theoretically provide the potential for infinite scalability and, as shown, allow for scaling the
capture of multiple forms of value and enable complementarity of impact. However there are
restrictions that arise from the given natural boundaries governed by social and environmental
logic. Products and services often have physical properties and require physical resources to
produce. Intended value creation, thus, must consider social and environmental logic.
An example of this challenge is the contradiction between online accessibility and
regionality. Advanced solutions are potentially less constrained by geographical
considerations, but they can challenge the idea of local production and consumption.
Entrepreneurs seeking regionality often aim to capture value by reducing waste and
supporting local value creation. Consider, for example, Zeta, a gamified internet gardening
app where advanced aspects are potentially highly scalable. However, Zeta's cultivation zone
is located in a rural area in Austria and once harvested the fruits and vegetables are packaged
and shipped to customers. In this business model, the scalability of value capture is enhanced
through their computerized approach but is constrained by environmental considerations of
value creation in terms of farmland availability and distance to the end consumer. Similarly,
Iota offers an online stage for agricultural products that can be accessed in an advanced
manner with almost no constraints. However, their value proposition is limited to stakeholders
within relative geographical proximity due to CO2 transportation considerations as part of
value creation as well as the aim to empower local farmers, which is an important element of
their value capture. This is exemplified through the following quote:
"90% of our suppliers come from within a radius of less than 100 km. Purchasing food
with short transportation distances and organic farming makes a considerable contribution to
climate balance. At the same time, the regional economy and small producers from the
surrounding area are strengthened." (Iota).
Discussion And Implications
Embedding digital technologies in the elementarism of sustainable business models and
emerging digital logic tensions
This article seeks to gain a deeper understanding of how sustainable entrepreneurs
embed advanced technologies in their business models to foster social environmental value
creation. This is the first study to investigate the emerging advanced logics in sustainable
entrepreneurship. We argue that practices enabled by computerized logics support the
interconnectedness of environmental, social, and commercial logics but also entail tensions.
Therefore, we contribute theoretically and empirically to the development of a new topical
and ambitious research field on sustainable business models in an entrepreneurial context.
In sustainable business model design finding ways to calibrate, balance and blend
value is a key endeavor. We add to this by showing that sustainable entrepreneurs can
leverage computerized technology to develop blended value propositions. Sustainable
offerings often lack financial value for customers because sustainable products and services
are associated with higher value creation costs than their less sustainable counterparts. The
literature on sustainable behavior, however, argues that aspects such as time, effort, and
financial cost are important determinants of behavior favorable to the customer environment.
Our findings suggest that selective use of computerized technologies can increase
convenience and efficiency, while lowering costs in concert with a more sustainable way of
life, ultimately providing a more balanced value proposition.
We also offer new insights into the computerized value creation practices of
entrepreneurs. Our findings suggest a broad complementarity between the values of social
logic (e.g., community development, democratic participation, equality) and the affordances
of computerized technologies in value creation elements. By combining multiple advanced
artifacts and infrastructures (e.g., blogs, boards, social media interfaces, stages, etc.) they
create spaces for community interaction, engage in co-creation activities, and expand
stakeholder integration. With these advanced enabled practices, sustainable entrepreneurs
manage the boundaries of their business models, making them more dynamic and open. In
addition, we found the stage approach to be very effective in bringing together multiple
actors. This is especially important for sustainable business models, which are fraught with
additional efforts in managing external relationships as they need to include a variety of
diverse stakeholders. Enacting advanced logic increases the connectivity of actors across
geographical boundaries and enables integrative value creation. We, thus, add to further
establish the link between co-creation and sustainable business model design.
In addition, we identify synergistic relationships between digital applications and
sustainable business models that lead to multidimensional value capture. Extant research on
sustainable entrepreneurs reveals concerns in terms of business model scalability and financial
stability. We add to this body of knowledge by providing new insights into how entrepreneurs
leverage digital technologies to scale up their intended value capture along with the
exploitation of impact complements. Such impact complements are theorized to be critical for
sustainable business models and we show potential ways in which sustainable entrepreneurs
can achieve them. We further show that digital technologies can enable parallel growth of
environmental value and social finance. This unravels the importance of digital technology
and its supporting functions for sustainable business models. However, the findings also
reveal that this potential for scalability can conflict with social and environmental logic. Our
sample entrepreneurs often consciously limit the connectivity and accessibility provided by
digital technologies due to considerations involving CO2 reduction and local community
support. Thus, there are indications pointing towards a potential tension between logic and its
manifestation in business model components. As our research adds to the literature
investigating the challenging combination of multiple logics in business models and examines
how logics enable and constrain efforts for sustainability.
We further identify the value spillover effect. Through computerized artifacts
entrepreneurs create awareness and educational value, which means that their capture of socio
environmental value is not necessarily tied to the sale of their core products and services. As
such, they are breaking the conventional boundaries of the business model. Based on this and
based on the notion of social movement spillover, we argue that the online communities
formed and the content provided and/or created within these communities are not limited to
the stakeholders directly involved in their creation. Advanced content does not exist in a
vacuum but rather influences other individuals and groups. Our results show that advanced
tools make it possible to mobilize and connect individuals which can result in spillover
effects. We, thus, offer new insights into how computerized technologies can be leveraged to
influence stakeholders to support social and environmental impacts.
Theoretical implications
This article adds to the theoretical development of sustainable business models
conceptualized as a combination of different components that manifest a plural institutional
logic. Previous research in this area has largely focused on the institutional logic of
sustainability and thus considered how environmental, social and commercial logics relate to
each other. However, this can potentially leave out more logics further relevant for this
particular context. We add to this discourse by discussing the influence of emerging
computerized logics on the socio-environmental value creation of sustainable business
models. We explore how computerized logics based on connectivity, openness, accessibility
and generativity relate to other related logics in sustainable business models and identify
complementarities and tensions. As such, this is also one of the first studies that does not rely
on the dichotomous relationship of the two logics but rather aims to combine multiple logics
to broaden the perspective on sustainable business models.
We further add to the stream of emerging research in the field of entrepreneurship that
seeks to combine sustainability and digitalization. We contribute to building a foundation for
this advanced sustainable entrepreneurship. First, we show that an institutional logic
perspective on sustainable business models can provide a common theoretical foundation for
studying the intersection of these previously separate research streams. In addition, it provides
analytical guidance for studying sustainable entrepreneurs' efforts to balance environmental,
social, and commercial value creation in computerized times. Secondly, the identified themes
open rich pathways to advance connections between other research streams such as co-
creation or social movement theory and sustainable entrepreneurship. In particular, we
contribute to the theoretical development of sustainable entrepreneurship by presenting the
concept of esteem overflow. Value spillover draws attention to the capture of socio-
environmental value (e.g., education and raising awareness) that goes beyond targeted
customers and affects additional groups. In particular, va l u e spillover coupled with the role
of advanced technology to enable community building, co-creation activities, and broader
stakeholder integration offers a new perspective on entrepreneurial value creation for
sustainability.
Practical implications
Advanced technologies can substantially contribute to sustainable development goals.
However, how this potential can be realized in practice remains largely unknown, especially
for entrepreneurs seeking to create socio-environmental value through financially viable
business models. This article provides practitioners with important insights into how
advanced technologies can be embedded in the design of sustainable business models. As
such, practitioners can utilize the identified configuration of sustainable business model
components (i.e., blended value proposition, integrative value creation, and multidimensional
value capture) as an inspiring starting point for developing new sustainable business models.
For example, they can draw on the importance of computerized means for the formation of
communities that channel the many individual contributions and efforts of many actors
towards a common goal. This, in turn, can capitalize on socio-environmental value creation
through co-creation activities and lead to spillover effects in value capture elements. This
example demonstrates the potential of the themes identified for the practicum but also points
towards the complex relationships that practitioners should be aware of when designing
sustainable business models.
Creating a viable business model that harmonizes a large number of different value
systems is difficult and advanced technology cannot solve this completely. Despite the
reported complementarities, practitioners should also be aware of the tensions identified in
this article. Advanced solutions increase connectivity and accessibility, but this can counteract
environmental and social aspirations. Computerized technology, as such, is not a panacea for
sustainable development and should be used responsibly, keeping potential logic
contradictions in mind. Building on this, we recommend a critical but not inclination approach
when contemplating the integration of computerized means to enhance the impact of
sustainable business models.
Conclusions
This study aims to determine the effect of business models to increase social value to the
environment. Based on the results of the analysis, the conclusion that can be drawn from this
study is that business visionaries use computerized advances to create mixed incentives for
their partners. To begin with, computerized reasoning makes it possible to catalyze the
creation of socio-environmental prices and secondly, empowers business visionaries to
establish offerings that consolidate ecological, social, and rewards monetary for their partners.
Mix Value Proportion
Our discoveries uncover that business visionaries use computerized advancements to
create blended incentives for their partners. To begin with, computerized reasoning makes it
possible to catalyze the creation of socio-environmental prices and, secondly, empowers
business visionaries to set up offerings that consolidate ecological, social, and monetary
rewards for their partners.
An essential guarantee of the computerized advances illustrated by economical
business visionaries is their capacity to make all-supportable exercises more broadly
accessible, available, and doable. Business visionaries recognize innovative parts of their
business models as integral assets to catalyzing more productive methods of living.
Thus, the rationale of some supported business visionaries' worthy recommendations
is to guarantee the beneficial utilization of their contributions. The computerized stage, in
particular, permits strong and proficient associations beforehand regardless of flexibly and
demand, along these lines supporting the spread of social and ecological incentives as referred
to by one of our members.
"It's a sophisticated market where we're bringing territorial food makers moreover,
metropolitan shoppers together. As of now, there are 400 little and private companies that
need to bring their items to you and me as well, we are taking care to guarantee that they
discover their way from the wide open to the city." (Iota)
Other entrepreneurs elaborate on the difficulty of finding, evaluating, and ultimately
purchasing eco-friendly and locally produced goods. Therefore, their online marketplace aims
to provide a better and more convenient alternative to buying sustainable products in different
stores. This concept of increased convenience through advanced marketplaces has also been
introduced to other types of products in our sample (e.g., different types of food or books).
Other entrepreneurs offer cell phone and web applications that provide efficiency for
stakeholders by analyzing user information and recommending more sustainable alternatives.
For example, Alpha offers an app that provides its users with constant information describing
their mobility behavior and the respective ecological consequences. In addition, the app
instantly suggests other eco-friendly means of transportation to trigger immediate behavioral
changes. The app serves as a catalyst for environmental social value propositions by
simultaneously making users aware of the existence of ecological alternatives and improving
the accessibility and convenience of these alternatives.
The integration of advanced logic enables entrepreneurs to successfully combine
environmental, social and economic value propositions. By embedding advanced technologies
entrepreneurs can offer sustainable products and services at competitive prices. One
entrepreneur, for example, stated that his digital marketplace allows environmentally certified
farmers and potential customers to trade conveniently, leading to the reduction and prevention
of unnecessary waste, while simultaneously observing animal rights in meat production.
Therefore, the computerized marketplace enables efficient transactions by ensuring financial
gains for producers while offering reasonable prices, thereby, incorporating economic value.
Integrative value creation
Our findings suggest that advanced technologies have the potential to increase actor
connectivity in the value creation component. We identify three, often interrelated, sets of
practices of community building, co-creation, and expanding stakeholder integration where
advanced logics facilitate the opening of value creation boundaries, making these components
more integrative.
Entrepreneurs often seek to form vibrant communities around the socio-environmental
challenges they wish to address, for example, through the creation and provision of
information centers, discussion boards on the web, stages, or other computerized networks
and communication tools. One way to approach this is offered by Sigma, which aims to
enable civic participation in public environmental projects through its online community. For
this, Sigma set up a crowdfunding stage with networking tools:
"We are considering focusing more on community building because the basic idea is a
simple tool for citizen participation and customer integration. Because that's actually the
recipe for success. As we can see from the ongoing projects, the need for community is very
much there. We have definitely established ourselves more as a crowdfunding stage for users
to support sustainability projects".
These communities, for example, are depicted through advanced cartographic
representations that show where each actor is located, how they are connected, and what they
contribute to the community (e.g. sharing information, managing additional projects, etc.).
In addition, some entrepreneurs use computerized technology to facilitate co-creation
with their users as exemplified by Beta's mission statement "Powered by community e curated
and nurtured by technology". We found that to realize a specialized online service based on
connectivity, the utilization of customers' individual resources is basic. Value co-creation
enabled in this advanced way can include tangible resources (e.g., sharing objects such as
books), but also intangible user resources. For example, users act as content creators for blogs
and websites that benefit communities and thus businesses (Rho) or articulate ideas for
common public-private projects on the crowdfunding stage (Sigma). In this vein, Zeta allows
customers to advancedly design their own farmland where they select and cultivate plants,
vegetables, and fruits through a gamified user interface. These instructions are then realized
by the company and the locally produced products are delivered to the customers. Thus,
entrepreneurial ventures act as computerized intermediaries transferring advanced inputs into
physical yields. In addition to the active integration of users in value creation, various
companies analyze user information to develop new offerings or improve existing offerings
(e.g., Alpha, Lambda, Epsilon, Omega).
Related to these efforts and permeating the idea of community building and co-
creation is the integration of an increasingly diverse set of stakeholders beyond customers and
suppliers. Through computerized networks, sustainable entrepreneurs can be inclusive when
building their advanced value creation networks as the following quote shows:
"Our worldwide network invites individuals, local businesses, NGOs, volunteers and
supporters to join. Every member has free access to information about implementing and
managing water supply projects. Everyone can be part of it!" (Gamma).
Multidimensional value capture
In terms of the value capture component, advanced logic allows entrepreneurs to
enable impact complementarity (i.e., the intertwining of environmental value capture and
social finance), support the scalability of social environmental value, and facilitate the
spillover of social environmental value through computerized means. This leads to
multidimensional value capture by adding multiple forms of value as well as boundaries and
scales of captured value.
Findings suggest that the advanced logic supporting challenge resolution combines the
capture of socio-environmental and economic values. Entrepreneurs state that the realization
of one value often corresponds to the enhancement of another and vice versa (e.g., Sigma,
Phi). This complementary relationship is withering clear in business models that perform an
intermediary function to connect various actors (stage advanced). Here, each service or
product sold entails capturing social and/or environmental value (e.g., a booking stage for
sustainable accommodation) while simultaneously enabling financial value capture (e.g.,
through charging commission fees). Crowdfunding services for sustainable projects enable a
similar complement of impacts. They raise public awareness of their fundable projects
through computerized channels that allow entrepreneurs to curate projects with the highest
potential impact. Any related action of the crowd whether it is a simple click, donation, or
pledge leads to the capture of financial and socio environmental value. Therefore, different
forms of value are not dichotomous in this business model but can complement each other
when intertwined through computerized means.
We further identify how entrepreneurs leverage the characteristics of advanced
solutions to facilitate the scalability of social environmental value. The generativity of the
computerized aspect of the business model allows entrepreneurs to "incorporate usability
requirements and user opinions" (Kappa) to customize their products. Advanced applications
and infrastructures are customizable and extensible to new products and services. In addition,
they are characterized by a seemingly easy move to other markets (e.g., Epsilon, Zeta). These
aspects enable scalability of some forms of value as suggested by the following comments:
"I wanted to find a model, which has a positive impact on my environment but also
has the classic attributes of a fire up. With another individualized structure, it can be scaled
like the modular venture case. I want to show that both are possible in the 21st century." (Phi).
In addition, findings show that sustainable entrepreneurs increase awareness and
education regarding sustainability issues, which is often an additional outcome of their
business model. We call this value spillover because it is not exclusive to the immediate target
group but has the potential to spill over to various stakeholders leading to the capture of
additional social environmental value for the business. To achieve such spillover, sustainable
entrepreneurs mostly rely on advanced media such as websites, blogs, social media,
networking activities at their respective stages, or community building on the web. Due to this
advanced presence, entrepreneurs do "educational work" (Epsilon) or "work at the level of
awareness" (Tau) and strive to "start movements" (Beta), closely linked to community
building as part of the value creation component.
"I think this happens automatically because of our community. Everyone who comes
to our website has to deal with the topic for better or worse. Everyone who sees our ads will
contact the topic. And if they think about it, it might stay in the back of their mind." (Phi).
Inter- and intra-componential logical tensions
We also identified challenges in relation to combining environmental, social, and
computerized logics expressed in inter- and intra-component logical tensions. The major
tension between social and environmental values and computerized logic stems from the
collision of advanced and physical aspects of business models. Computerized means
theoretically provide the potential for infinite scalability and, as shown, allow for scaling the
capture of multiple forms of value and enable complementarity of impact. However there are
restrictions that arise from the given natural boundaries governed by social and environmental
logic. Products and services often have physical properties and require physical resources to
produce. Intended value creation, thus, must consider social and environmental logic.
An example of this challenge is the contradiction between online accessibility and
regionality. Advanced solutions are potentially less constrained by geographical
considerations, but they can challenge the idea of local production and consumption.
Entrepreneurs seeking regionality often aim to capture value by reducing waste and
supporting local value creation. Consider, for example, Zeta, a gamified internet gardening
app where advanced aspects are potentially highly scalable. However, Zeta's cultivation zone
is located in a rural area in Austria and once harvested the fruits and vegetables are packaged
and shipped to customers. In this business model, the scalability of value capture is enhanced
through their computerized approach but is constrained by environmental considerations of
value creation in terms of farmland availability and distance to the end consumer. Similarly,
Iota offers an online stage for agricultural products that can be accessed in an advanced
manner with almost no constraints. However, their value proposition is limited to stakeholders
within relative geographical proximity due to CO2 transportation considerations as part of
value creation as well as the aim to empower local farmers, which is an important element of
their value capture. This is exemplified through the following quote:
"90% of our suppliers come from within a radius of less than 100 km. Purchasing food
with short transportation distances and organic farming makes a considerable contribution to
climate balance. At the same time, the regional economy and small producers from the
surrounding area are strengthened." (Iota).
Discussion And Implications
Embedding digital technologies in the elementarism of sustainable business models and
emerging digital logic tensions
This article seeks to gain a deeper understanding of how sustainable entrepreneurs
embed advanced technologies in their business models to foster social environmental value
creation. This is the first study to investigate the emerging advanced logics in sustainable
entrepreneurship. We argue that practices enabled by computerized logics support the
interconnectedness of environmental, social, and commercial logics but also entail tensions.
Therefore, we contribute theoretically and empirically to the development of a new topical
and ambitious research field on sustainable business models in an entrepreneurial context.
In sustainable business model design finding ways to calibrate, balance and blend
value is a key endeavor. We add to this by showing that sustainable entrepreneurs can
leverage computerized technology to develop blended value propositions. Sustainable
offerings often lack financial value for customers because sustainable products and services
are associated with higher value creation costs than their less sustainable counterparts. The
literature on sustainable behavior, however, argues that aspects such as time, effort, and
financial cost are important determinants of behavior favorable to the customer environment.
Our findings suggest that selective use of computerized technologies can increase
convenience and efficiency, while lowering costs in concert with a more sustainable way of
life, ultimately providing a more balanced value proposition.
We also offer new insights into the computerized value creation practices of
entrepreneurs. Our findings suggest a broad complementarity between the values of social
logic (e.g., community development, democratic participation, equality) and the affordances
of computerized technologies in value creation elements. By combining multiple advanced
artifacts and infrastructures (e.g., blogs, boards, social media interfaces, stages, etc.) they
create spaces for community interaction, engage in co-creation activities, and expand
stakeholder integration. With these advanced enabled practices, sustainable entrepreneurs
manage the boundaries of their business models, making them more dynamic and open. In
addition, we found the stage approach to be very effective in bringing together multiple
actors. This is especially important for sustainable business models, which are fraught with
additional efforts in managing external relationships as they need to include a variety of
diverse stakeholders. Enacting advanced logic increases the connectivity of actors across
geographical boundaries and enables integrative value creation. We, thus, add to further
establish the link between co-creation and sustainable business model design.
In addition, we identify synergistic relationships between digital applications and
sustainable business models that lead to multidimensional value capture. Extant research on
sustainable entrepreneurs reveals concerns in terms of business model scalability and financial
stability. We add to this body of knowledge by providing new insights into how entrepreneurs
leverage digital technologies to scale up their intended value capture along with the
exploitation of impact complements. Such impact complements are theorized to be critical for
sustainable business models and we show potential ways in which sustainable entrepreneurs
can achieve them. We further show that digital technologies can enable parallel growth of
environmental value and social finance. This unravels the importance of digital technology
and its supporting functions for sustainable business models. However, the findings also
reveal that this potential for scalability can conflict with social and environmental logic. Our
sample entrepreneurs often consciously limit the connectivity and accessibility provided by
digital technologies due to considerations involving CO2 reduction and local community
support. Thus, there are indications pointing towards a potential tension between logic and its
manifestation in business model components. As our research adds to the literature
investigating the challenging combination of multiple logics in business models and examines
how logics enable and constrain efforts for sustainability.
We further identify the value spillover effect. Through computerized artifacts
entrepreneurs create awareness and educational value, which means that their capture of socio
environmental value is not necessarily tied to the sale of their core products and services. As
such, they are breaking the conventional boundaries of the business model. Based on this and
based on the notion of social movement spillover, we argue that the online communities
formed and the content provided and/or created within these communities are not limited to
the stakeholders directly involved in their creation. Advanced content does not exist in a
vacuum but rather influences other individuals and groups. Our results show that advanced
tools make it possible to mobilize and connect individuals which can result in spillover
effects. We, thus, offer new insights into how computerized technologies can be leveraged to
influence stakeholders to support social and environmental impacts.
Theoretical implications
This article adds to the theoretical development of sustainable business models
conceptualized as a combination of different components that manifest a plural institutional
logic. Previous research in this area has largely focused on the institutional logic of
sustainability and thus considered how environmental, social and commercial logics relate to
each other. However, this can potentially leave out more logics further relevant for this
particular context. We add to this discourse by discussing the influence of emerging
computerized logics on the socio-environmental value creation of sustainable business
models. We explore how computerized logics based on connectivity, openness, accessibility
and generativity relate to other related logics in sustainable business models and identify
complementarities and tensions. As such, this is also one of the first studies that does not rely
on the dichotomous relationship of the two logics but rather aims to combine multiple logics
to broaden the perspective on sustainable business models.
We further add to the stream of emerging research in the field of entrepreneurship that
seeks to combine sustainability and digitalization. We contribute to building a foundation for
this advanced sustainable entrepreneurship. First, we show that an institutional logic
perspective on sustainable business models can provide a common theoretical foundation for
studying the intersection of these previously separate research streams. In addition, it provides
analytical guidance for studying sustainable entrepreneurs' efforts to balance environmental,
social, and commercial value creation in computerized times. Secondly, the identified themes
open rich pathways to advance connections between other research streams such as co-
creation or social movement theory and sustainable entrepreneurship. In particular, we
contribute to the theoretical development of sustainable entrepreneurship by presenting the
concept of esteem overflow. Value spillover draws attention to the capture of socio-
environmental value (e.g., education and raising awareness) that goes beyond targeted
customers and affects additional groups. In particular, va l u e spillover coupled with the role
of advanced technology to enable community building, co-creation activities, and broader
stakeholder integration offers a new perspective on entrepreneurial value creation for
sustainability.
Practical implications
Advanced technologies can substantially contribute to sustainable development goals.
However, how this potential can be realized in practice remains largely unknown, especially
for entrepreneurs seeking to create socio-environmental value through financially viable
business models. This article provides practitioners with important insights into how
advanced technologies can be embedded in the design of sustainable business models. As
such, practitioners can utilize the identified configuration of sustainable business model
components (i.e., blended value proposition, integrative value creation, and multidimensional
value capture) as an inspiring starting point for developing new sustainable business models.
For example, they can draw on the importance of computerized means for the formation of
communities that channel the many individual contributions and efforts of many actors
towards a common goal. This, in turn, can capitalize on socio-environmental value creation
through co-creation activities and lead to spillover effects in value capture elements. This
example demonstrates the potential of the themes identified for the practicum but also points
towards the complex relationships that practitioners should be aware of when designing
sustainable business models.
Creating a viable business model that harmonizes a large number of different value
systems is difficult and advanced technology cannot solve this completely. Despite the
reported complementarities, practitioners should also be aware of the tensions identified in
this article. Advanced solutions increase connectivity and accessibility, but this can counteract
environmental and social aspirations. Computerized technology, as such, is not a panacea for
sustainable development and should be used responsibly, keeping potential logic
contradictions in mind. Building on this, we recommend a critical but not inclination approach
when contemplating the integration of computerized means to enhance the impact of
sustainable business models.
Conclusions
This study aims to determine the effect of business models to increase social value to the
environment. Based on the results of the analysis, the conclusion that can be drawn from this
study is that business visionaries use computerized advances to create mixed incentives for
their partners. To begin with, computerized reasoning makes it possible to catalyze the
creation of socio-environmental prices and secondly, empowers business visionaries to
establish offerings that consolidate ecological, social, and rewards monetary for their partners.
Mix Value Proportion
Our discoveries uncover that business visionaries use computerized advancements to
create blended incentives for their partners. To begin with, computerized reasoning makes it
possible to catalyze the creation of socio-environmental prices and, secondly, empowers
business visionaries to set up offerings that consolidate ecological, social, and monetary
rewards for their partners.
An essential guarantee of the computerized advances illustrated by economical
business visionaries is their capacity to make all-supportable exercises more broadly
accessible, available, and doable. Business visionaries recognize innovative parts of their
business models as integral assets to catalyzing more productive methods of living.
Thus, the rationale of some supported business visionaries' worthy recommendations
is to guarantee the beneficial utilization of their contributions. The computerized stage, in
particular, permits strong and proficient associations beforehand regardless of flexibly and
demand, along these lines supporting the spread of social and ecological incentives as referred
to by one of our members.
"It's a sophisticated market where we're bringing territorial food makers moreover,
metropolitan shoppers together. As of now, there are 400 little and private companies that
need to bring their items to you and me as well, we are taking care to guarantee that they
discover their way from the wide open to the city." (Iota)
Other entrepreneurs elaborate on the difficulty of finding, evaluating, and ultimately
purchasing eco-friendly and locally produced goods. Therefore, their online marketplace aims
to provide a better and more convenient alternative to buying sustainable products in different
stores. This concept of increased convenience through advanced marketplaces has also been
introduced to other types of products in our sample (e.g., different types of food or books).
Other entrepreneurs offer cell phone and web applications that provide efficiency for
stakeholders by analyzing user information and recommending more sustainable alternatives.
For example, Alpha offers an app that provides its users with constant information describing
their mobility behavior and the respective ecological consequences. In addition, the app
instantly suggests other eco-friendly means of transportation to trigger immediate behavioral
changes. The app serves as a catalyst for environmental social value propositions by
simultaneously making users aware of the existence of ecological alternatives and improving
the accessibility and convenience of these alternatives.
The integration of advanced logic enables entrepreneurs to successfully combine
environmental, social and economic value propositions. By embedding advanced technologies
entrepreneurs can offer sustainable products and services at competitive prices. One
entrepreneur, for example, stated that his digital marketplace allows environmentally certified
farmers and potential customers to trade conveniently, leading to the reduction and prevention
of unnecessary waste, while simultaneously observing animal rights in meat production.
Therefore, the computerized marketplace enables efficient transactions by ensuring financial
gains for producers while offering reasonable prices, thereby, incorporating economic value.
Integrative value creation
Our findings suggest that advanced technologies have the potential to increase actor
connectivity in the value creation component. We identify three, often interrelated, sets of
practices of community building, co-creation, and expanding stakeholder integration where
advanced logics facilitate the opening of value creation boundaries, making these components
more integrative.
Entrepreneurs often seek to form vibrant communities around the socio-environmental
challenges they wish to address, for example, through the creation and provision of
information centers, discussion boards on the web, stages, or other computerized networks
and communication tools. One way to approach this is offered by Sigma, which aims to
enable civic participation in public environmental projects through its online community. For
this, Sigma set up a crowdfunding stage with networking tools:
"We are considering focusing more on community building because the basic idea is a
simple tool for citizen participation and customer integration. Because that's actually the
recipe for success. As we can see from the ongoing projects, the need for community is very
much there. We have definitely established ourselves more as a crowdfunding stage for users
to support sustainability projects".
These communities, for example, are depicted through advanced cartographic
representations that show where each actor is located, how they are connected, and what they
contribute to the community (e.g. sharing information, managing additional projects, etc.).
In addition, some entrepreneurs use computerized technology to facilitate co-creation
with their users as exemplified by Beta's mission statement "Powered by community e curated
and nurtured by technology". We found that to realize a specialized online service based on
connectivity, the utilization of customers' individual resources is basic. Value co-creation
enabled in this advanced way can include tangible resources (e.g., sharing objects such as
books), but also intangible user resources. For example, users act as content creators for blogs
and websites that benefit communities and thus businesses (Rho) or articulate ideas for
common public-private projects on the crowdfunding stage (Sigma). In this vein, Zeta allows
customers to advancedly design their own farmland where they select and cultivate plants,
vegetables, and fruits through a gamified user interface. These instructions are then realized
by the company and the locally produced products are delivered to the customers. Thus,
entrepreneurial ventures act as computerized intermediaries transferring advanced inputs into
physical yields. In addition to the active integration of users in value creation, various
companies analyze user information to develop new offerings or improve existing offerings
(e.g., Alpha, Lambda, Epsilon, Omega).
Related to these efforts and permeating the idea of community building and co-
creation is the integration of an increasingly diverse set of stakeholders beyond customers and
suppliers. Through computerized networks, sustainable entrepreneurs can be inclusive when
building their advanced value creation networks as the following quote shows:
"Our worldwide network invites individuals, local businesses, NGOs, volunteers and
supporters to join. Every member has free access to information about implementing and
managing water supply projects. Everyone can be part of it!" (Gamma).
Multidimensional value capture
In terms of the value capture component, advanced logic allows entrepreneurs to
enable impact complementarity (i.e., the intertwining of environmental value capture and
social finance), support the scalability of social environmental value, and facilitate the
spillover of social environmental value through computerized means. This leads to
multidimensional value capture by adding multiple forms of value as well as boundaries and
scales of captured value.
Findings suggest that the advanced logic supporting challenge resolution combines the
capture of socio-environmental and economic values. Entrepreneurs state that the realization
of one value often corresponds to the enhancement of another and vice versa (e.g., Sigma,
Phi). This complementary relationship is withering clear in business models that perform an
intermediary function to connect various actors (stage advanced). Here, each service or
product sold entails capturing social and/or environmental value (e.g., a booking stage for
sustainable accommodation) while simultaneously enabling financial value capture (e.g.,
through charging commission fees). Crowdfunding services for sustainable projects enable a
similar complement of impacts. They raise public awareness of their fundable projects
through computerized channels that allow entrepreneurs to curate projects with the highest
potential impact. Any related action of the crowd whether it is a simple click, donation, or
pledge leads to the capture of financial and socio environmental value. Therefore, different
forms of value are not dichotomous in this business model but can complement each other
when intertwined through computerized means.
We further identify how entrepreneurs leverage the characteristics of advanced
solutions to facilitate the scalability of social environmental value. The generativity of the
computerized aspect of the business model allows entrepreneurs to "incorporate usability
requirements and user opinions" (Kappa) to customize their products. Advanced applications
and infrastructures are customizable and extensible to new products and services. In addition,
they are characterized by a seemingly easy move to other markets (e.g., Epsilon, Zeta). These
aspects enable scalability of some forms of value as suggested by the following comments:
"I wanted to find a model, which has a positive impact on my environment but also
has the classic attributes of a fire up. With another individualized structure, it can be scaled
like the modular venture case. I want to show that both are possible in the 21st century." (Phi).
In addition, findings show that sustainable entrepreneurs increase awareness and
education regarding sustainability issues, which is often an additional outcome of their
business model. We call this value spillover because it is not exclusive to the immediate target
group but has the potential to spill over to various stakeholders leading to the capture of
additional social environmental value for the business. To achieve such spillover, sustainable
entrepreneurs mostly rely on advanced media such as websites, blogs, social media,
networking activities at their respective stages, or community building on the web. Due to this
advanced presence, entrepreneurs do "educational work" (Epsilon) or "work at the level of
awareness" (Tau) and strive to "start movements" (Beta), closely linked to community
building as part of the value creation component.
"I think this happens automatically because of our community. Everyone who comes
to our website has to deal with the topic for better or worse. Everyone who sees our ads will
contact the topic. And if they think about it, it might stay in the back of their mind." (Phi).
Inter- and intra-componential logical tensions
We also identified challenges in relation to combining environmental, social, and
computerized logics expressed in inter- and intra-component logical tensions. The major
tension between social and environmental values and computerized logic stems from the
collision of advanced and physical aspects of business models. Computerized means
theoretically provide the potential for infinite scalability and, as shown, allow for scaling the
capture of multiple forms of value and enable complementarity of impact. However there are
restrictions that arise from the given natural boundaries governed by social and environmental
logic. Products and services often have physical properties and require physical resources to
produce. Intended value creation, thus, must consider social and environmental logic.
An example of this challenge is the contradiction between online accessibility and
regionality. Advanced solutions are potentially less constrained by geographical
considerations, but they can challenge the idea of local production and consumption.
Entrepreneurs seeking regionality often aim to capture value by reducing waste and
supporting local value creation. Consider, for example, Zeta, a gamified internet gardening
app where advanced aspects are potentially highly scalable. However, Zeta's cultivation zone
is located in a rural area in Austria and once harvested the fruits and vegetables are packaged
and shipped to customers. In this business model, the scalability of value capture is enhanced
through their computerized approach but is constrained by environmental considerations of
value creation in terms of farmland availability and distance to the end consumer. Similarly,
Iota offers an online stage for agricultural products that can be accessed in an advanced
manner with almost no constraints. However, their value proposition is limited to stakeholders
within relative geographical proximity due to CO2 transportation considerations as part of
value creation as well as the aim to empower local farmers, which is an important element of
their value capture. This is exemplified through the following quote:
"90% of our suppliers come from within a radius of less than 100 km. Purchasing food
with short transportation distances and organic farming makes a considerable contribution to
climate balance. At the same time, the regional economy and small producers from the
surrounding area are strengthened." (Iota).
Discussion And Implications
Embedding digital technologies in the elementarism of sustainable business models and
emerging digital logic tensions
This article seeks to gain a deeper understanding of how sustainable entrepreneurs
embed advanced technologies in their business models to foster social environmental value
creation. This is the first study to investigate the emerging advanced logics in sustainable
entrepreneurship. We argue that practices enabled by computerized logics support the
interconnectedness of environmental, social, and commercial logics but also entail tensions.
Therefore, we contribute theoretically and empirically to the development of a new topical
and ambitious research field on sustainable business models in an entrepreneurial context.
In sustainable business model design finding ways to calibrate, balance and blend
value is a key endeavor. We add to this by showing that sustainable entrepreneurs can
leverage computerized technology to develop blended value propositions. Sustainable
offerings often lack financial value for customers because sustainable products and services
are associated with higher value creation costs than their less sustainable counterparts. The
literature on sustainable behavior, however, argues that aspects such as time, effort, and
financial cost are important determinants of behavior favorable to the customer environment.
Our findings suggest that selective use of computerized technologies can increase
convenience and efficiency, while lowering costs in concert with a more sustainable way of
life, ultimately providing a more balanced value proposition.
We also offer new insights into the computerized value creation practices of
entrepreneurs. Our findings suggest a broad complementarity between the values of social
logic (e.g., community development, democratic participation, equality) and the affordances
of computerized technologies in value creation elements. By combining multiple advanced
artifacts and infrastructures (e.g., blogs, boards, social media interfaces, stages, etc.) they
create spaces for community interaction, engage in co-creation activities, and expand
stakeholder integration. With these advanced enabled practices, sustainable entrepreneurs
manage the boundaries of their business models, making them more dynamic and open. In
addition, we found the stage approach to be very effective in bringing together multiple
actors. This is especially important for sustainable business models, which are fraught with
additional efforts in managing external relationships as they need to include a variety of
diverse stakeholders. Enacting advanced logic increases the connectivity of actors across
geographical boundaries and enables integrative value creation. We, thus, add to further
establish the link between co-creation and sustainable business model design.
In addition, we identify synergistic relationships between digital applications and
sustainable business models that lead to multidimensional value capture. Extant research on
sustainable entrepreneurs reveals concerns in terms of business model scalability and financial
stability. We add to this body of knowledge by providing new insights into how entrepreneurs
leverage digital technologies to scale up their intended value capture along with the
exploitation of impact complements. Such impact complements are theorized to be critical for
sustainable business models and we show potential ways in which sustainable entrepreneurs
can achieve them. We further show that digital technologies can enable parallel growth of
environmental value and social finance. This unravels the importance of digital technology
and its supporting functions for sustainable business models. However, the findings also
reveal that this potential for scalability can conflict with social and environmental logic. Our
sample entrepreneurs often consciously limit the connectivity and accessibility provided by
digital technologies due to considerations involving CO2 reduction and local community
support. Thus, there are indications pointing towards a potential tension between logic and its
manifestation in business model components. As our research adds to the literature
investigating the challenging combination of multiple logics in business models and examines
how logics enable and constrain efforts for sustainability.
We further identify the value spillover effect. Through computerized artifacts
entrepreneurs create awareness and educational value, which means that their capture of socio
environmental value is not necessarily tied to the sale of their core products and services. As
such, they are breaking the conventional boundaries of the business model. Based on this and
based on the notion of social movement spillover, we argue that the online communities
formed and the content provided and/or created within these communities are not limited to
the stakeholders directly involved in their creation. Advanced content does not exist in a
vacuum but rather influences other individuals and groups. Our results show that advanced
tools make it possible to mobilize and connect individuals which can result in spillover
effects. We, thus, offer new insights into how computerized technologies can be leveraged to
influence stakeholders to support social and environmental impacts.
Theoretical implications
This article adds to the theoretical development of sustainable business models
conceptualized as a combination of different components that manifest a plural institutional
logic. Previous research in this area has largely focused on the institutional logic of
sustainability and thus considered how environmental, social and commercial logics relate to
each other. However, this can potentially leave out more logics further relevant for this
particular context. We add to this discourse by discussing the influence of emerging
computerized logics on the socio-environmental value creation of sustainable business
models. We explore how computerized logics based on connectivity, openness, accessibility
and generativity relate to other related logics in sustainable business models and identify
complementarities and tensions. As such, this is also one of the first studies that does not rely
on the dichotomous relationship of the two logics but rather aims to combine multiple logics
to broaden the perspective on sustainable business models.
We further add to the stream of emerging research in the field of entrepreneurship that
seeks to combine sustainability and digitalization. We contribute to building a foundation for
this advanced sustainable entrepreneurship. First, we show that an institutional logic
perspective on sustainable business models can provide a common theoretical foundation for
studying the intersection of these previously separate research streams. In addition, it provides
analytical guidance for studying sustainable entrepreneurs' efforts to balance environmental,
social, and commercial value creation in computerized times. Secondly, the identified themes
open rich pathways to advance connections between other research streams such as co-
creation or social movement theory and sustainable entrepreneurship. In particular, we
contribute to the theoretical development of sustainable entrepreneurship by presenting the
concept of esteem overflow. Value spillover draws attention to the capture of socio-
environmental value (e.g., education and raising awareness) that goes beyond targeted
customers and affects additional groups. In particular, va l u e spillover coupled with the role
of advanced technology to enable community building, co-creation activities, and broader
stakeholder integration offers a new perspective on entrepreneurial value creation for
sustainability.
Practical implications
Advanced technologies can substantially contribute to sustainable development goals.
However, how this potential can be realized in practice remains largely unknown, especially
for entrepreneurs seeking to create socio-environmental value through financially viable
business models. This article provides practitioners with important insights into how
advanced technologies can be embedded in the design of sustainable business models. As
such, practitioners can utilize the identified configuration of sustainable business model
components (i.e., blended value proposition, integrative value creation, and multidimensional
value capture) as an inspiring starting point for developing new sustainable business models.
For example, they can draw on the importance of computerized means for the formation of
communities that channel the many individual contributions and efforts of many actors
towards a common goal. This, in turn, can capitalize on socio-environmental value creation
through co-creation activities and lead to spillover effects in value capture elements. This
example demonstrates the potential of the themes identified for the practicum but also points
towards the complex relationships that practitioners should be aware of when designing
sustainable business models.
Creating a viable business model that harmonizes a large number of different value
systems is difficult and advanced technology cannot solve this completely. Despite the
reported complementarities, practitioners should also be aware of the tensions identified in
this article. Advanced solutions increase connectivity and accessibility, but this can counteract
environmental and social aspirations. Computerized technology, as such, is not a panacea for
sustainable development and should be used responsibly, keeping potential logic
contradictions in mind. Building on this, we recommend a critical but not inclination approach
when contemplating the integration of computerized means to enhance the impact of
sustainable business models.
Conclusions
This study aims to determine the effect of business models to increase social value to the
environment. Based on the results of the analysis, the conclusion that can be drawn from this
study is that business visionaries use computerized advances to create mixed incentives for
their partners. To begin with, computerized reasoning makes it possible to catalyze the
creation of socio-environmental prices and secondly, empowers business visionaries to
establish offerings that consolidate ecological, social, and rewards monetary for their partners.
Mix Value Proportion
Our discoveries uncover that business visionaries use computerized advancements to
create blended incentives for their partners. To begin with, computerized reasoning makes it
possible to catalyze the creation of socio-environmental prices and, secondly, empowers
business visionaries to set up offerings that consolidate ecological, social, and monetary
rewards for their partners.
An essential guarantee of the computerized advances illustrated by economical
business visionaries is their capacity to make all-supportable exercises more broadly
accessible, available, and doable. Business visionaries recognize innovative parts of their
business models as integral assets to catalyzing more productive methods of living.
Thus, the rationale of some supported business visionaries' worthy recommendations
is to guarantee the beneficial utilization of their contributions. The computerized stage, in
particular, permits strong and proficient associations beforehand regardless of flexibly and
demand, along these lines supporting the spread of social and ecological incentives as referred
to by one of our members.
"It's a sophisticated market where we're bringing territorial food makers moreover,
metropolitan shoppers together. As of now, there are 400 little and private companies that
need to bring their items to you and me as well, we are taking care to guarantee that they
discover their way from the wide open to the city." (Iota)
Other entrepreneurs elaborate on the difficulty of finding, evaluating, and ultimately
purchasing eco-friendly and locally produced goods. Therefore, their online marketplace aims
to provide a better and more convenient alternative to buying sustainable products in different
stores. This concept of increased convenience through advanced marketplaces has also been
introduced to other types of products in our sample (e.g., different types of food or books).
Other entrepreneurs offer cell phone and web applications that provide efficiency for
stakeholders by analyzing user information and recommending more sustainable alternatives.
For example, Alpha offers an app that provides its users with constant information describing
their mobility behavior and the respective ecological consequences. In addition, the app
instantly suggests other eco-friendly means of transportation to trigger immediate behavioral
changes. The app serves as a catalyst for environmental social value propositions by
simultaneously making users aware of the existence of ecological alternatives and improving
the accessibility and convenience of these alternatives.
The integration of advanced logic enables entrepreneurs to successfully combine
environmental, social and economic value propositions. By embedding advanced technologies
entrepreneurs can offer sustainable products and services at competitive prices. One
entrepreneur, for example, stated that his digital marketplace allows environmentally certified
farmers and potential customers to trade conveniently, leading to the reduction and prevention
of unnecessary waste, while simultaneously observing animal rights in meat production.
Therefore, the computerized marketplace enables efficient transactions by ensuring financial
gains for producers while offering reasonable prices, thereby, incorporating economic value.
Integrative value creation
Our findings suggest that advanced technologies have the potential to increase actor
connectivity in the value creation component. We identify three, often interrelated, sets of
practices of community building, co-creation, and expanding stakeholder integration where
advanced logics facilitate the opening of value creation boundaries, making these components
more integrative.
Entrepreneurs often seek to form vibrant communities around the socio-environmental
challenges they wish to address, for example, through the creation and provision of
information centers, discussion boards on the web, stages, or other computerized networks
and communication tools. One way to approach this is offered by Sigma, which aims to
enable civic participation in public environmental projects through its online community. For
this, Sigma set up a crowdfunding stage with networking tools:
"We are considering focusing more on community building because the basic idea is a
simple tool for citizen participation and customer integration. Because that's actually the
recipe for success. As we can see from the ongoing projects, the need for community is very
much there. We have definitely established ourselves more as a crowdfunding stage for users
to support sustainability projects".
These communities, for example, are depicted through advanced cartographic
representations that show where each actor is located, how they are connected, and what they
contribute to the community (e.g. sharing information, managing additional projects, etc.).
In addition, some entrepreneurs use computerized technology to facilitate co-creation
with their users as exemplified by Beta's mission statement "Powered by community e curated
and nurtured by technology". We found that to realize a specialized online service based on
connectivity, the utilization of customers' individual resources is basic. Value co-creation
enabled in this advanced way can include tangible resources (e.g., sharing objects such as
books), but also intangible user resources. For example, users act as content creators for blogs
and websites that benefit communities and thus businesses (Rho) or articulate ideas for
common public-private projects on the crowdfunding stage (Sigma). In this vein, Zeta allows
customers to advancedly design their own farmland where they select and cultivate plants,
vegetables, and fruits through a gamified user interface. These instructions are then realized
by the company and the locally produced products are delivered to the customers. Thus,
entrepreneurial ventures act as computerized intermediaries transferring advanced inputs into
physical yields. In addition to the active integration of users in value creation, various
companies analyze user information to develop new offerings or improve existing offerings
(e.g., Alpha, Lambda, Epsilon, Omega).
Related to these efforts and permeating the idea of community building and co-
creation is the integration of an increasingly diverse set of stakeholders beyond customers and
suppliers. Through computerized networks, sustainable entrepreneurs can be inclusive when
building their advanced value creation networks as the following quote shows:
"Our worldwide network invites individuals, local businesses, NGOs, volunteers and
supporters to join. Every member has free access to information about implementing and
managing water supply projects. Everyone can be part of it!" (Gamma).
Multidimensional value capture
In terms of the value capture component, advanced logic allows entrepreneurs to
enable impact complementarity (i.e., the intertwining of environmental value capture and
social finance), support the scalability of social environmental value, and facilitate the
spillover of social environmental value through computerized means. This leads to
multidimensional value capture by adding multiple forms of value as well as boundaries and
scales of captured value.
Findings suggest that the advanced logic supporting challenge resolution combines the
capture of socio-environmental and economic values. Entrepreneurs state that the realization
of one value often corresponds to the enhancement of another and vice versa (e.g., Sigma,
Phi). This complementary relationship is withering clear in business models that perform an
intermediary function to connect various actors (stage advanced). Here, each service or
product sold entails capturing social and/or environmental value (e.g., a booking stage for
sustainable accommodation) while simultaneously enabling financial value capture (e.g.,
through charging commission fees). Crowdfunding services for sustainable projects enable a
similar complement of impacts. They raise public awareness of their fundable projects
through computerized channels that allow entrepreneurs to curate projects with the highest
potential impact. Any related action of the crowd whether it is a simple click, donation, or
pledge leads to the capture of financial and socio environmental value. Therefore, different
forms of value are not dichotomous in this business model but can complement each other
when intertwined through computerized means.
We further identify how entrepreneurs leverage the characteristics of advanced
solutions to facilitate the scalability of social environmental value. The generativity of the
computerized aspect of the business model allows entrepreneurs to "incorporate usability
requirements and user opinions" (Kappa) to customize their products. Advanced applications
and infrastructures are customizable and extensible to new products and services. In addition,
they are characterized by a seemingly easy move to other markets (e.g., Epsilon, Zeta). These
aspects enable scalability of some forms of value as suggested by the following comments:
"I wanted to find a model, which has a positive impact on my environment but also
has the classic attributes of a fire up. With another individualized structure, it can be scaled
like the modular venture case. I want to show that both are possible in the 21st century." (Phi).
In addition, findings show that sustainable entrepreneurs increase awareness and
education regarding sustainability issues, which is often an additional outcome of their
business model. We call this value spillover because it is not exclusive to the immediate target
group but has the potential to spill over to various stakeholders leading to the capture of
additional social environmental value for the business. To achieve such spillover, sustainable
entrepreneurs mostly rely on advanced media such as websites, blogs, social media,
networking activities at their respective stages, or community building on the web. Due to this
advanced presence, entrepreneurs do "educational work" (Epsilon) or "work at the level of
awareness" (Tau) and strive to "start movements" (Beta), closely linked to community
building as part of the value creation component.
"I think this happens automatically because of our community. Everyone who comes
to our website has to deal with the topic for better or worse. Everyone who sees our ads will
contact the topic. And if they think about it, it might stay in the back of their mind." (Phi).
Inter- and intra-componential logical tensions
We also identified challenges in relation to combining environmental, social, and
computerized logics expressed in inter- and intra-component logical tensions. The major
tension between social and environmental values and computerized logic stems from the
collision of advanced and physical aspects of business models. Computerized means
theoretically provide the potential for infinite scalability and, as shown, allow for scaling the
capture of multiple forms of value and enable complementarity of impact. However there are
restrictions that arise from the given natural boundaries governed by social and environmental
logic. Products and services often have physical properties and require physical resources to
produce. Intended value creation, thus, must consider social and environmental logic.
An example of this challenge is the contradiction between online accessibility and
regionality. Advanced solutions are potentially less constrained by geographical
considerations, but they can challenge the idea of local production and consumption.
Entrepreneurs seeking regionality often aim to capture value by reducing waste and
supporting local value creation. Consider, for example, Zeta, a gamified internet gardening
app where advanced aspects are potentially highly scalable. However, Zeta's cultivation zone
is located in a rural area in Austria and once harvested the fruits and vegetables are packaged
and shipped to customers. In this business model, the scalability of value capture is enhanced
through their computerized approach but is constrained by environmental considerations of
value creation in terms of farmland availability and distance to the end consumer. Similarly,
Iota offers an online stage for agricultural products that can be accessed in an advanced
manner with almost no constraints. However, their value proposition is limited to stakeholders
within relative geographical proximity due to CO2 transportation considerations as part of
value creation as well as the aim to empower local farmers, which is an important element of
their value capture. This is exemplified through the following quote:
"90% of our suppliers come from within a radius of less than 100 km. Purchasing food
with short transportation distances and organic farming makes a considerable contribution to
climate balance. At the same time, the regional economy and small producers from the
surrounding area are strengthened." (Iota).
Discussion And Implications
Embedding digital technologies in the elementarism of sustainable business models and
emerging digital logic tensions
This article seeks to gain a deeper understanding of how sustainable entrepreneurs
embed advanced technologies in their business models to foster social environmental value
creation. This is the first study to investigate the emerging advanced logics in sustainable
entrepreneurship. We argue that practices enabled by computerized logics support the
interconnectedness of environmental, social, and commercial logics but also entail tensions.
Therefore, we contribute theoretically and empirically to the development of a new topical
and ambitious research field on sustainable business models in an entrepreneurial context.
In sustainable business model design finding ways to calibrate, balance and blend
value is a key endeavor. We add to this by showing that sustainable entrepreneurs can
leverage computerized technology to develop blended value propositions. Sustainable
offerings often lack financial value for customers because sustainable products and services
are associated with higher value creation costs than their less sustainable counterparts. The
literature on sustainable behavior, however, argues that aspects such as time, effort, and
financial cost are important determinants of behavior favorable to the customer environment.
Our findings suggest that selective use of computerized technologies can increase
convenience and efficiency, while lowering costs in concert with a more sustainable way of
life, ultimately providing a more balanced value proposition.
We also offer new insights into the computerized value creation practices of
entrepreneurs. Our findings suggest a broad complementarity between the values of social
logic (e.g., community development, democratic participation, equality) and the affordances
of computerized technologies in value creation elements. By combining multiple advanced
artifacts and infrastructures (e.g., blogs, boards, social media interfaces, stages, etc.) they
create spaces for community interaction, engage in co-creation activities, and expand
stakeholder integration. With these advanced enabled practices, sustainable entrepreneurs
manage the boundaries of their business models, making them more dynamic and open. In
addition, we found the stage approach to be very effective in bringing together multiple
actors. This is especially important for sustainable business models, which are fraught with
additional efforts in managing external relationships as they need to include a variety of
diverse stakeholders. Enacting advanced logic increases the connectivity of actors across
geographical boundaries and enables integrative value creation. We, thus, add to further
establish the link between co-creation and sustainable business model design.
In addition, we identify synergistic relationships between digital applications and
sustainable business models that lead to multidimensional value capture. Extant research on
sustainable entrepreneurs reveals concerns in terms of business model scalability and financial
stability. We add to this body of knowledge by providing new insights into how entrepreneurs
leverage digital technologies to scale up their intended value capture along with the
exploitation of impact complements. Such impact complements are theorized to be critical for
sustainable business models and we show potential ways in which sustainable entrepreneurs
can achieve them. We further show that digital technologies can enable parallel growth of
environmental value and social finance. This unravels the importance of digital technology
and its supporting functions for sustainable business models. However, the findings also
reveal that this potential for scalability can conflict with social and environmental logic. Our
sample entrepreneurs often consciously limit the connectivity and accessibility provided by
digital technologies due to considerations involving CO2 reduction and local community
support. Thus, there are indications pointing towards a potential tension between logic and its
manifestation in business model components. As our research adds to the literature
investigating the challenging combination of multiple logics in business models and examines
how logics enable and constrain efforts for sustainability.
We further identify the value spillover effect. Through computerized artifacts
entrepreneurs create awareness and educational value, which means that their capture of socio
environmental value is not necessarily tied to the sale of their core products and services. As
such, they are breaking the conventional boundaries of the business model. Based on this and
based on the notion of social movement spillover, we argue that the online communities
formed and the content provided and/or created within these communities are not limited to
the stakeholders directly involved in their creation. Advanced content does not exist in a
vacuum but rather influences other individuals and groups. Our results show that advanced
tools make it possible to mobilize and connect individuals which can result in spillover
effects. We, thus, offer new insights into how computerized technologies can be leveraged to
influence stakeholders to support social and environmental impacts.
Theoretical implications
This article adds to the theoretical development of sustainable business models
conceptualized as a combination of different components that manifest a plural institutional
logic. Previous research in this area has largely focused on the institutional logic of
sustainability and thus considered how environmental, social and commercial logics relate to
each other. However, this can potentially leave out more logics further relevant for this
particular context. We add to this discourse by discussing the influence of emerging
computerized logics on the socio-environmental value creation of sustainable business
models. We explore how computerized logics based on connectivity, openness, accessibility
and generativity relate to other related logics in sustainable business models and identify
complementarities and tensions. As such, this is also one of the first studies that does not rely
on the dichotomous relationship of the two logics but rather aims to combine multiple logics
to broaden the perspective on sustainable business models.
We further add to the stream of emerging research in the field of entrepreneurship that
seeks to combine sustainability and digitalization. We contribute to building a foundation for
this advanced sustainable entrepreneurship. First, we show that an institutional logic
perspective on sustainable business models can provide a common theoretical foundation for
studying the intersection of these previously separate research streams. In addition, it provides
analytical guidance for studying sustainable entrepreneurs' efforts to balance environmental,
social, and commercial value creation in computerized times. Secondly, the identified themes
open rich pathways to advance connections between other research streams such as co-
creation or social movement theory and sustainable entrepreneurship. In particular, we
contribute to the theoretical development of sustainable entrepreneurship by presenting the
concept of esteem overflow. Value spillover draws attention to the capture of socio-
environmental value (e.g., education and raising awareness) that goes beyond targeted
customers and affects additional groups. In particular, va l u e spillover coupled with the role
of advanced technology to enable community building, co-creation activities, and broader
stakeholder integration offers a new perspective on entrepreneurial value creation for
sustainability.
Practical implications
Advanced technologies can substantially contribute to sustainable development goals.
However, how this potential can be realized in practice remains largely unknown, especially
for entrepreneurs seeking to create socio-environmental value through financially viable
business models. This article provides practitioners with important insights into how
advanced technologies can be embedded in the design of sustainable business models. As
such, practitioners can utilize the identified configuration of sustainable business model
components (i.e., blended value proposition, integrative value creation, and multidimensional
value capture) as an inspiring starting point for developing new sustainable business models.
For example, they can draw on the importance of computerized means for the formation of
communities that channel the many individual contributions and efforts of many actors
towards a common goal. This, in turn, can capitalize on socio-environmental value creation
through co-creation activities and lead to spillover effects in value capture elements. This
example demonstrates the potential of the themes identified for the practicum but also points
towards the complex relationships that practitioners should be aware of when designing
sustainable business models.
Creating a viable business model that harmonizes a large number of different value
systems is difficult and advanced technology cannot solve this completely. Despite the
reported complementarities, practitioners should also be aware of the tensions identified in
this article. Advanced solutions increase connectivity and accessibility, but this can counteract
environmental and social aspirations. Computerized technology, as such, is not a panacea for
sustainable development and should be used responsibly, keeping potential logic
contradictions in mind. Building on this, we recommend a critical but not inclination approach
when contemplating the integration of computerized means to enhance the impact of
sustainable business models.
Conclusions
This study aims to determine the effect of business models to increase social value to the
environment. Based on the results of the analysis, the conclusion that can be drawn from this
study is that business visionaries use computerized advances to create mixed incentives for
their partners. To begin with, computerized reasoning makes it possible to catalyze the
creation of socio-environmental prices and secondly, empowers business visionaries to
establish offerings that consolidate ecological, social, and rewards monetary for their partners.
Mix Value Proportion
Our discoveries uncover that business visionaries use computerized advancements to
create blended incentives for their partners. To begin with, computerized reasoning makes it
possible to catalyze the creation of socio-environmental prices and, secondly, empowers
business visionaries to set up offerings that consolidate ecological, social, and monetary
rewards for their partners.
An essential guarantee of the computerized advances illustrated by economical
business visionaries is their capacity to make all-supportable exercises more broadly
accessible, available, and doable. Business visionaries recognize innovative parts of their
business models as integral assets to catalyzing more productive methods of living.
Thus, the rationale of some supported business visionaries' worthy recommendations
is to guarantee the beneficial utilization of their contributions. The computerized stage, in
particular, permits strong and proficient associations beforehand regardless of flexibly and
demand, along these lines supporting the spread of social and ecological incentives as referred
to by one of our members.
"It's a sophisticated market where we're bringing territorial food makers moreover,
metropolitan shoppers together. As of now, there are 400 little and private companies that
need to bring their items to you and me as well, we are taking care to guarantee that they
discover their way from the wide open to the city." (Iota)
Other entrepreneurs elaborate on the difficulty of finding, evaluating, and ultimately
purchasing eco-friendly and locally produced goods. Therefore, their online marketplace aims
to provide a better and more convenient alternative to buying sustainable products in different
stores. This concept of increased convenience through advanced marketplaces has also been
introduced to other types of products in our sample (e.g., different types of food or books).
Other entrepreneurs offer cell phone and web applications that provide efficiency for
stakeholders by analyzing user information and recommending more sustainable alternatives.
For example, Alpha offers an app that provides its users with constant information describing
their mobility behavior and the respective ecological consequences. In addition, the app
instantly suggests other eco-friendly means of transportation to trigger immediate behavioral
changes. The app serves as a catalyst for environmental social value propositions by
simultaneously making users aware of the existence of ecological alternatives and improving
the accessibility and convenience of these alternatives.
The integration of advanced logic enables entrepreneurs to successfully combine
environmental, social and economic value propositions. By embedding advanced technologies
entrepreneurs can offer sustainable products and services at competitive prices. One
entrepreneur, for example, stated that his digital marketplace allows environmentally certified
farmers and potential customers to trade conveniently, leading to the reduction and prevention
of unnecessary waste, while simultaneously observing animal rights in meat production.
Therefore, the computerized marketplace enables efficient transactions by ensuring financial
gains for producers while offering reasonable prices, thereby, incorporating economic value.
Integrative value creation
Our findings suggest that advanced technologies have the potential to increase actor
connectivity in the value creation component. We identify three, often interrelated, sets of
practices of community building, co-creation, and expanding stakeholder integration where
advanced logics facilitate the opening of value creation boundaries, making these components
more integrative.
Entrepreneurs often seek to form vibrant communities around the socio-environmental
challenges they wish to address, for example, through the creation and provision of
information centers, discussion boards on the web, stages, or other computerized networks
and communication tools. One way to approach this is offered by Sigma, which aims to
enable civic participation in public environmental projects through its online community. For
this, Sigma set up a crowdfunding stage with networking tools:
"We are considering focusing more on community building because the basic idea is a
simple tool for citizen participation and customer integration. Because that's actually the
recipe for success. As we can see from the ongoing projects, the need for community is very
much there. We have definitely established ourselves more as a crowdfunding stage for users
to support sustainability projects".
These communities, for example, are depicted through advanced cartographic
representations that show where each actor is located, how they are connected, and what they
contribute to the community (e.g. sharing information, managing additional projects, etc.).
In addition, some entrepreneurs use computerized technology to facilitate co-creation
with their users as exemplified by Beta's mission statement "Powered by community e curated
and nurtured by technology". We found that to realize a specialized online service based on
connectivity, the utilization of customers' individual resources is basic. Value co-creation
enabled in this advanced way can include tangible resources (e.g., sharing objects such as
books), but also intangible user resources. For example, users act as content creators for blogs
and websites that benefit communities and thus businesses (Rho) or articulate ideas for
common public-private projects on the crowdfunding stage (Sigma). In this vein, Zeta allows
customers to advancedly design their own farmland where they select and cultivate plants,
vegetables, and fruits through a gamified user interface. These instructions are then realized
by the company and the locally produced products are delivered to the customers. Thus,
entrepreneurial ventures act as computerized intermediaries transferring advanced inputs into
physical yields. In addition to the active integration of users in value creation, various
companies analyze user information to develop new offerings or improve existing offerings
(e.g., Alpha, Lambda, Epsilon, Omega).
Related to these efforts and permeating the idea of community building and co-
creation is the integration of an increasingly diverse set of stakeholders beyond customers and
suppliers. Through computerized networks, sustainable entrepreneurs can be inclusive when
building their advanced value creation networks as the following quote shows:
"Our worldwide network invites individuals, local businesses, NGOs, volunteers and
supporters to join. Every member has free access to information about implementing and
managing water supply projects. Everyone can be part of it!" (Gamma).
Multidimensional value capture
In terms of the value capture component, advanced logic allows entrepreneurs to
enable impact complementarity (i.e., the intertwining of environmental value capture and
social finance), support the scalability of social environmental value, and facilitate the
spillover of social environmental value through computerized means. This leads to
multidimensional value capture by adding multiple forms of value as well as boundaries and
scales of captured value.
Findings suggest that the advanced logic supporting challenge resolution combines the
capture of socio-environmental and economic values. Entrepreneurs state that the realization
of one value often corresponds to the enhancement of another and vice versa (e.g., Sigma,
Phi). This complementary relationship is withering clear in business models that perform an
intermediary function to connect various actors (stage advanced). Here, each service or
product sold entails capturing social and/or environmental value (e.g., a booking stage for
sustainable accommodation) while simultaneously enabling financial value capture (e.g.,
through charging commission fees). Crowdfunding services for sustainable projects enable a
similar complement of impacts. They raise public awareness of their fundable projects
through computerized channels that allow entrepreneurs to curate projects with the highest
potential impact. Any related action of the crowd whether it is a simple click, donation, or
pledge leads to the capture of financial and socio environmental value. Therefore, different
forms of value are not dichotomous in this business model but can complement each other
when intertwined through computerized means.
We further identify how entrepreneurs leverage the characteristics of advanced
solutions to facilitate the scalability of social environmental value. The generativity of the
computerized aspect of the business model allows entrepreneurs to "incorporate usability
requirements and user opinions" (Kappa) to customize their products. Advanced applications
and infrastructures are customizable and extensible to new products and services. In addition,
they are characterized by a seemingly easy move to other markets (e.g., Epsilon, Zeta). These
aspects enable scalability of some forms of value as suggested by the following comments:
"I wanted to find a model, which has a positive impact on my environment but also
has the classic attributes of a fire up. With another individualized structure, it can be scaled
like the modular venture case. I want to show that both are possible in the 21st century." (Phi).
In addition, findings show that sustainable entrepreneurs increase awareness and
education regarding sustainability issues, which is often an additional outcome of their
business model. We call this value spillover because it is not exclusive to the immediate target
group but has the potential to spill over to various stakeholders leading to the capture of
additional social environmental value for the business. To achieve such spillover, sustainable
entrepreneurs mostly rely on advanced media such as websites, blogs, social media,
networking activities at their respective stages, or community building on the web. Due to this
advanced presence, entrepreneurs do "educational work" (Epsilon) or "work at the level of
awareness" (Tau) and strive to "start movements" (Beta), closely linked to community
building as part of the value creation component.
"I think this happens automatically because of our community. Everyone who comes
to our website has to deal with the topic for better or worse. Everyone who sees our ads will
contact the topic. And if they think about it, it might stay in the back of their mind." (Phi).
Inter- and intra-componential logical tensions
We also identified challenges in relation to combining environmental, social, and
computerized logics expressed in inter- and intra-component logical tensions. The major
tension between social and environmental values and computerized logic stems from the
collision of advanced and physical aspects of business models. Computerized means
theoretically provide the potential for infinite scalability and, as shown, allow for scaling the
capture of multiple forms of value and enable complementarity of impact. However there are
restrictions that arise from the given natural boundaries governed by social and environmental
logic. Products and services often have physical properties and require physical resources to
produce. Intended value creation, thus, must consider social and environmental logic.
An example of this challenge is the contradiction between online accessibility and
regionality. Advanced solutions are potentially less constrained by geographical
considerations, but they can challenge the idea of local production and consumption.
Entrepreneurs seeking regionality often aim to capture value by reducing waste and
supporting local value creation. Consider, for example, Zeta, a gamified internet gardening
app where advanced aspects are potentially highly scalable. However, Zeta's cultivation zone
is located in a rural area in Austria and once harvested the fruits and vegetables are packaged
and shipped to customers. In this business model, the scalability of value capture is enhanced
through their computerized approach but is constrained by environmental considerations of
value creation in terms of farmland availability and distance to the end consumer. Similarly,
Iota offers an online stage for agricultural products that can be accessed in an advanced
manner with almost no constraints. However, their value proposition is limited to stakeholders
within relative geographical proximity due to CO2 transportation considerations as part of
value creation as well as the aim to empower local farmers, which is an important element of
their value capture. This is exemplified through the following quote:
"90% of our suppliers come from within a radius of less than 100 km. Purchasing food
with short transportation distances and organic farming makes a considerable contribution to
climate balance. At the same time, the regional economy and small producers from the
surrounding area are strengthened." (Iota).
Discussion And Implications
Embedding digital technologies in the elementarism of sustainable business models and
emerging digital logic tensions
This article seeks to gain a deeper understanding of how sustainable entrepreneurs
embed advanced technologies in their business models to foster social environmental value
creation. This is the first study to investigate the emerging advanced logics in sustainable
entrepreneurship. We argue that practices enabled by computerized logics support the
interconnectedness of environmental, social, and commercial logics but also entail tensions.
Therefore, we contribute theoretically and empirically to the development of a new topical
and ambitious research field on sustainable business models in an entrepreneurial context.
In sustainable business model design finding ways to calibrate, balance and blend
value is a key endeavor. We add to this by showing that sustainable entrepreneurs can
leverage computerized technology to develop blended value propositions. Sustainable
offerings often lack financial value for customers because sustainable products and services
are associated with higher value creation costs than their less sustainable counterparts. The
literature on sustainable behavior, however, argues that aspects such as time, effort, and
financial cost are important determinants of behavior favorable to the customer environment.
Our findings suggest that selective use of computerized technologies can increase
convenience and efficiency, while lowering costs in concert with a more sustainable way of
life, ultimately providing a more balanced value proposition.
We also offer new insights into the computerized value creation practices of
entrepreneurs. Our findings suggest a broad complementarity between the values of social
logic (e.g., community development, democratic participation, equality) and the affordances
of computerized technologies in value creation elements. By combining multiple advanced
artifacts and infrastructures (e.g., blogs, boards, social media interfaces, stages, etc.) they
create spaces for community interaction, engage in co-creation activities, and expand
stakeholder integration. With these advanced enabled practices, sustainable entrepreneurs
manage the boundaries of their business models, making them more dynamic and open. In
addition, we found the stage approach to be very effective in bringing together multiple
actors. This is especially important for sustainable business models, which are fraught with
additional efforts in managing external relationships as they need to include a variety of
diverse stakeholders. Enacting advanced logic increases the connectivity of actors across
geographical boundaries and enables integrative value creation. We, thus, add to further
establish the link between co-creation and sustainable business model design.
In addition, we identify synergistic relationships between digital applications and
sustainable business models that lead to multidimensional value capture. Extant research on
sustainable entrepreneurs reveals concerns in terms of business model scalability and financial
stability. We add to this body of knowledge by providing new insights into how entrepreneurs
leverage digital technologies to scale up their intended value capture along with the
exploitation of impact complements. Such impact complements are theorized to be critical for
sustainable business models and we show potential ways in which sustainable entrepreneurs
can achieve them. We further show that digital technologies can enable parallel growth of
environmental value and social finance. This unravels the importance of digital technology
and its supporting functions for sustainable business models. However, the findings also
reveal that this potential for scalability can conflict with social and environmental logic. Our
sample entrepreneurs often consciously limit the connectivity and accessibility provided by
digital technologies due to considerations involving CO2 reduction and local community
support. Thus, there are indications pointing towards a potential tension between logic and its
manifestation in business model components. As our research adds to the literature
investigating the challenging combination of multiple logics in business models and examines
how logics enable and constrain efforts for sustainability.
We further identify the value spillover effect. Through computerized artifacts
entrepreneurs create awareness and educational value, which means that their capture of socio
environmental value is not necessarily tied to the sale of their core products and services. As
such, they are breaking the conventional boundaries of the business model. Based on this and
based on the notion of social movement spillover, we argue that the online communities
formed and the content provided and/or created within these communities are not limited to
the stakeholders directly involved in their creation. Advanced content does not exist in a
vacuum but rather influences other individuals and groups. Our results show that advanced
tools make it possible to mobilize and connect individuals which can result in spillover
effects. We, thus, offer new insights into how computerized technologies can be leveraged to
influence stakeholders to support social and environmental impacts.
Theoretical implications
This article adds to the theoretical development of sustainable business models
conceptualized as a combination of different components that manifest a plural institutional
logic. Previous research in this area has largely focused on the institutional logic of
sustainability and thus considered how environmental, social and commercial logics relate to
each other. However, this can potentially leave out more logics further relevant for this
particular context. We add to this discourse by discussing the influence of emerging
computerized logics on the socio-environmental value creation of sustainable business
models. We explore how computerized logics based on connectivity, openness, accessibility
and generativity relate to other related logics in sustainable business models and identify
complementarities and tensions. As such, this is also one of the first studies that does not rely
on the dichotomous relationship of the two logics but rather aims to combine multiple logics
to broaden the perspective on sustainable business models.
We further add to the stream of emerging research in the field of entrepreneurship that
seeks to combine sustainability and digitalization. We contribute to building a foundation for
this advanced sustainable entrepreneurship. First, we show that an institutional logic
perspective on sustainable business models can provide a common theoretical foundation for
studying the intersection of these previously separate research streams. In addition, it provides
analytical guidance for studying sustainable entrepreneurs' efforts to balance environmental,
social, and commercial value creation in computerized times. Secondly, the identified themes
open rich pathways to advance connections between other research streams such as co-
creation or social movement theory and sustainable entrepreneurship. In particular, we
contribute to the theoretical development of sustainable entrepreneurship by presenting the
concept of esteem overflow. Value spillover draws attention to the capture of socio-
environmental value (e.g., education and raising awareness) that goes beyond targeted
customers and affects additional groups. In particular, va l u e spillover coupled with the role
of advanced technology to enable community building, co-creation activities, and broader
stakeholder integration offers a new perspective on entrepreneurial value creation for
sustainability.
Practical implications
Advanced technologies can substantially contribute to sustainable development goals.
However, how this potential can be realized in practice remains largely unknown, especially
for entrepreneurs seeking to create socio-environmental value through financially viable
business models. This article provides practitioners with important insights into how
advanced technologies can be embedded in the design of sustainable business models. As
such, practitioners can utilize the identified configuration of sustainable business model
components (i.e., blended value proposition, integrative value creation, and multidimensional
value capture) as an inspiring starting point for developing new sustainable business models.
For example, they can draw on the importance of computerized means for the formation of
communities that channel the many individual contributions and efforts of many actors
towards a common goal. This, in turn, can capitalize on socio-environmental value creation
through co-creation activities and lead to spillover effects in value capture elements. This
example demonstrates the potential of the themes identified for the practicum but also points
towards the complex relationships that practitioners should be aware of when designing
sustainable business models.
Creating a viable business model that harmonizes a large number of different value
systems is difficult and advanced technology cannot solve this completely. Despite the
reported complementarities, practitioners should also be aware of the tensions identified in
this article. Advanced solutions increase connectivity and accessibility, but this can counteract
environmental and social aspirations. Computerized technology, as such, is not a panacea for
sustainable development and should be used responsibly, keeping potential logic
contradictions in mind. Building on this, we recommend a critical but not inclination approach
when contemplating the integration of computerized means to enhance the impact of
sustainable business models.
Conclusions
This study aims to determine the effect of business models to increase social value to the
environment. Based on the results of the analysis, the conclusion that can be drawn from this
study is that business visionaries use computerized advances to create mixed incentives for
their partners. To begin with, computerized reasoning makes it possible to catalyze the
creation of socio-environmental prices and secondly, empowers business visionaries to
establish offerings that consolidate ecological, social, and rewards monetary for their partners.
Mix Value Proportion
Our discoveries uncover that business visionaries use computerized advancements to
create blended incentives for their partners. To begin with, computerized reasoning makes it
possible to catalyze the creation of socio-environmental prices and, secondly, empowers
business visionaries to set up offerings that consolidate ecological, social, and monetary
rewards for their partners.
An essential guarantee of the computerized advances illustrated by economical
business visionaries is their capacity to make all-supportable exercises more broadly
accessible, available, and doable. Business visionaries recognize innovative parts of their
business models as integral assets to catalyzing more productive methods of living.
Thus, the rationale of some supported business visionaries' worthy recommendations
is to guarantee the beneficial utilization of their contributions. The computerized stage, in
particular, permits strong and proficient associations beforehand regardless of flexibly and
demand, along these lines supporting the spread of social and ecological incentives as referred
to by one of our members.
"It's a sophisticated market where we're bringing territorial food makers moreover,
metropolitan shoppers together. As of now, there are 400 little and private companies that
need to bring their items to you and me as well, we are taking care to guarantee that they
discover their way from the wide open to the city." (Iota)
Other entrepreneurs elaborate on the difficulty of finding, evaluating, and ultimately
purchasing eco-friendly and locally produced goods. Therefore, their online marketplace aims
to provide a better and more convenient alternative to buying sustainable products in different
stores. This concept of increased convenience through advanced marketplaces has also been
introduced to other types of products in our sample (e.g., different types of food or books).
Other entrepreneurs offer cell phone and web applications that provide efficiency for
stakeholders by analyzing user information and recommending more sustainable alternatives.
For example, Alpha offers an app that provides its users with constant information describing
their mobility behavior and the respective ecological consequences. In addition, the app
instantly suggests other eco-friendly means of transportation to trigger immediate behavioral
changes. The app serves as a catalyst for environmental social value propositions by
simultaneously making users aware of the existence of ecological alternatives and improving
the accessibility and convenience of these alternatives.
The integration of advanced logic enables entrepreneurs to successfully combine
environmental, social and economic value propositions. By embedding advanced technologies
entrepreneurs can offer sustainable products and services at competitive prices. One
entrepreneur, for example, stated that his digital marketplace allows environmentally certified
farmers and potential customers to trade conveniently, leading to the reduction and prevention
of unnecessary waste, while simultaneously observing animal rights in meat production.
Therefore, the computerized marketplace enables efficient transactions by ensuring financial
gains for producers while offering reasonable prices, thereby, incorporating economic value.
Integrative value creation
Our findings suggest that advanced technologies have the potential to increase actor
connectivity in the value creation component. We identify three, often interrelated, sets of
practices of community building, co-creation, and expanding stakeholder integration where
advanced logics facilitate the opening of value creation boundaries, making these components
more integrative.
Entrepreneurs often seek to form vibrant communities around the socio-environmental
challenges they wish to address, for example, through the creation and provision of
information centers, discussion boards on the web, stages, or other computerized networks
and communication tools. One way to approach this is offered by Sigma, which aims to
enable civic participation in public environmental projects through its online community. For
this, Sigma set up a crowdfunding stage with networking tools:
"We are considering focusing more on community building because the basic idea is a
simple tool for citizen participation and customer integration. Because that's actually the
recipe for success. As we can see from the ongoing projects, the need for community is very
much there. We have definitely established ourselves more as a crowdfunding stage for users
to support sustainability projects".
These communities, for example, are depicted through advanced cartographic
representations that show where each actor is located, how they are connected, and what they
contribute to the community (e.g. sharing information, managing additional projects, etc.).
In addition, some entrepreneurs use computerized technology to facilitate co-creation
with their users as exemplified by Beta's mission statement "Powered by community e curated
and nurtured by technology". We found that to realize a specialized online service based on
connectivity, the utilization of customers' individual resources is basic. Value co-creation
enabled in this advanced way can include tangible resources (e.g., sharing objects such as
books), but also intangible user resources. For example, users act as content creators for blogs
and websites that benefit communities and thus businesses (Rho) or articulate ideas for
common public-private projects on the crowdfunding stage (Sigma). In this vein, Zeta allows
customers to advancedly design their own farmland where they select and cultivate plants,
vegetables, and fruits through a gamified user interface. These instructions are then realized
by the company and the locally produced products are delivered to the customers. Thus,
entrepreneurial ventures act as computerized intermediaries transferring advanced inputs into
physical yields. In addition to the active integration of users in value creation, various
companies analyze user information to develop new offerings or improve existing offerings
(e.g., Alpha, Lambda, Epsilon, Omega).
Related to these efforts and permeating the idea of community building and co-
creation is the integration of an increasingly diverse set of stakeholders beyond customers and
suppliers. Through computerized networks, sustainable entrepreneurs can be inclusive when
building their advanced value creation networks as the following quote shows:
"Our worldwide network invites individuals, local businesses, NGOs, volunteers and
supporters to join. Every member has free access to information about implementing and
managing water supply projects. Everyone can be part of it!" (Gamma).
Multidimensional value capture
In terms of the value capture component, advanced logic allows entrepreneurs to
enable impact complementarity (i.e., the intertwining of environmental value capture and
social finance), support the scalability of social environmental value, and facilitate the
spillover of social environmental value through computerized means. This leads to
multidimensional value capture by adding multiple forms of value as well as boundaries and
scales of captured value.
Findings suggest that the advanced logic supporting challenge resolution combines the
capture of socio-environmental and economic values. Entrepreneurs state that the realization
of one value often corresponds to the enhancement of another and vice versa (e.g., Sigma,
Phi). This complementary relationship is withering clear in business models that perform an
intermediary function to connect various actors (stage advanced). Here, each service or
product sold entails capturing social and/or environmental value (e.g., a booking stage for
sustainable accommodation) while simultaneously enabling financial value capture (e.g.,
through charging commission fees). Crowdfunding services for sustainable projects enable a
similar complement of impacts. They raise public awareness of their fundable projects
through computerized channels that allow entrepreneurs to curate projects with the highest
potential impact. Any related action of the crowd whether it is a simple click, donation, or
pledge leads to the capture of financial and socio environmental value. Therefore, different
forms of value are not dichotomous in this business model but can complement each other
when intertwined through computerized means.
We further identify how entrepreneurs leverage the characteristics of advanced
solutions to facilitate the scalability of social environmental value. The generativity of the
computerized aspect of the business model allows entrepreneurs to "incorporate usability
requirements and user opinions" (Kappa) to customize their products. Advanced applications
and infrastructures are customizable and extensible to new products and services. In addition,
they are characterized by a seemingly easy move to other markets (e.g., Epsilon, Zeta). These
aspects enable scalability of some forms of value as suggested by the following comments:
"I wanted to find a model, which has a positive impact on my environment but also
has the classic attributes of a fire up. With another individualized structure, it can be scaled
like the modular venture case. I want to show that both are possible in the 21st century." (Phi).
In addition, findings show that sustainable entrepreneurs increase awareness and
education regarding sustainability issues, which is often an additional outcome of their
business model. We call this value spillover because it is not exclusive to the immediate target
group but has the potential to spill over to various stakeholders leading to the capture of
additional social environmental value for the business. To achieve such spillover, sustainable
entrepreneurs mostly rely on advanced media such as websites, blogs, social media,
networking activities at their respective stages, or community building on the web. Due to this
advanced presence, entrepreneurs do "educational work" (Epsilon) or "work at the level of
awareness" (Tau) and strive to "start movements" (Beta), closely linked to community
building as part of the value creation component.
"I think this happens automatically because of our community. Everyone who comes
to our website has to deal with the topic for better or worse. Everyone who sees our ads will
contact the topic. And if they think about it, it might stay in the back of their mind." (Phi).
Inter- and intra-componential logical tensions
We also identified challenges in relation to combining environmental, social, and
computerized logics expressed in inter- and intra-component logical tensions. The major
tension between social and environmental values and computerized logic stems from the
collision of advanced and physical aspects of business models. Computerized means
theoretically provide the potential for infinite scalability and, as shown, allow for scaling the
capture of multiple forms of value and enable complementarity of impact. However there are
restrictions that arise from the given natural boundaries governed by social and environmental
logic. Products and services often have physical properties and require physical resources to
produce. Intended value creation, thus, must consider social and environmental logic.
An example of this challenge is the contradiction between online accessibility and
regionality. Advanced solutions are potentially less constrained by geographical
considerations, but they can challenge the idea of local production and consumption.
Entrepreneurs seeking regionality often aim to capture value by reducing waste and
supporting local value creation. Consider, for example, Zeta, a gamified internet gardening
app where advanced aspects are potentially highly scalable. However, Zeta's cultivation zone
is located in a rural area in Austria and once harvested the fruits and vegetables are packaged
and shipped to customers. In this business model, the scalability of value capture is enhanced
through their computerized approach but is constrained by environmental considerations of
value creation in terms of farmland availability and distance to the end consumer. Similarly,
Iota offers an online stage for agricultural products that can be accessed in an advanced
manner with almost no constraints. However, their value proposition is limited to stakeholders
within relative geographical proximity due to CO2 transportation considerations as part of
value creation as well as the aim to empower local farmers, which is an important element of
their value capture. This is exemplified through the following quote:
"90% of our suppliers come from within a radius of less than 100 km. Purchasing food
with short transportation distances and organic farming makes a considerable contribution to
climate balance. At the same time, the regional economy and small producers from the
surrounding area are strengthened." (Iota).
Discussion And Implications
Embedding digital technologies in the elementarism of sustainable business models and
emerging digital logic tensions
This article seeks to gain a deeper understanding of how sustainable entrepreneurs
embed advanced technologies in their business models to foster social environmental value
creation. This is the first study to investigate the emerging advanced logics in sustainable
entrepreneurship. We argue that practices enabled by computerized logics support the
interconnectedness of environmental, social, and commercial logics but also entail tensions.
Therefore, we contribute theoretically and empirically to the development of a new topical
and ambitious research field on sustainable business models in an entrepreneurial context.
In sustainable business model design finding ways to calibrate, balance and blend
value is a key endeavor. We add to this by showing that sustainable entrepreneurs can
leverage computerized technology to develop blended value propositions. Sustainable
offerings often lack financial value for customers because sustainable products and services
are associated with higher value creation costs than their less sustainable counterparts. The
literature on sustainable behavior, however, argues that aspects such as time, effort, and
financial cost are important determinants of behavior favorable to the customer environment.
Our findings suggest that selective use of computerized technologies can increase
convenience and efficiency, while lowering costs in concert with a more sustainable way of
life, ultimately providing a more balanced value proposition.
We also offer new insights into the computerized value creation practices of
entrepreneurs. Our findings suggest a broad complementarity between the values of social
logic (e.g., community development, democratic participation, equality) and the affordances
of computerized technologies in value creation elements. By combining multiple advanced
artifacts and infrastructures (e.g., blogs, boards, social media interfaces, stages, etc.) they
create spaces for community interaction, engage in co-creation activities, and expand
stakeholder integration. With these advanced enabled practices, sustainable entrepreneurs
manage the boundaries of their business models, making them more dynamic and open. In
addition, we found the stage approach to be very effective in bringing together multiple
actors. This is especially important for sustainable business models, which are fraught with
additional efforts in managing external relationships as they need to include a variety of
diverse stakeholders. Enacting advanced logic increases the connectivity of actors across
geographical boundaries and enables integrative value creation. We, thus, add to further
establish the link between co-creation and sustainable business model design.
In addition, we identify synergistic relationships between digital applications and
sustainable business models that lead to multidimensional value capture. Extant research on
sustainable entrepreneurs reveals concerns in terms of business model scalability and financial
stability. We add to this body of knowledge by providing new insights into how entrepreneurs
leverage digital technologies to scale up their intended value capture along with the
exploitation of impact complements. Such impact complements are theorized to be critical for
sustainable business models and we show potential ways in which sustainable entrepreneurs
can achieve them. We further show that digital technologies can enable parallel growth of
environmental value and social finance. This unravels the importance of digital technology
and its supporting functions for sustainable business models. However, the findings also
reveal that this potential for scalability can conflict with social and environmental logic. Our
sample entrepreneurs often consciously limit the connectivity and accessibility provided by
digital technologies due to considerations involving CO2 reduction and local community
support. Thus, there are indications pointing towards a potential tension between logic and its
manifestation in business model components. As our research adds to the literature
investigating the challenging combination of multiple logics in business models and examines
how logics enable and constrain efforts for sustainability.
We further identify the value spillover effect. Through computerized artifacts
entrepreneurs create awareness and educational value, which means that their capture of socio
environmental value is not necessarily tied to the sale of their core products and services. As
such, they are breaking the conventional boundaries of the business model. Based on this and
based on the notion of social movement spillover, we argue that the online communities
formed and the content provided and/or created within these communities are not limited to
the stakeholders directly involved in their creation. Advanced content does not exist in a
vacuum but rather influences other individuals and groups. Our results show that advanced
tools make it possible to mobilize and connect individuals which can result in spillover
effects. We, thus, offer new insights into how computerized technologies can be leveraged to
influence stakeholders to support social and environmental impacts.
Theoretical implications
This article adds to the theoretical development of sustainable business models
conceptualized as a combination of different components that manifest a plural institutional
logic. Previous research in this area has largely focused on the institutional logic of
sustainability and thus considered how environmental, social and commercial logics relate to
each other. However, this can potentially leave out more logics further relevant for this
particular context. We add to this discourse by discussing the influence of emerging
computerized logics on the socio-environmental value creation of sustainable business
models. We explore how computerized logics based on connectivity, openness, accessibility
and generativity relate to other related logics in sustainable business models and identify
complementarities and tensions. As such, this is also one of the first studies that does not rely
on the dichotomous relationship of the two logics but rather aims to combine multiple logics
to broaden the perspective on sustainable business models.
We further add to the stream of emerging research in the field of entrepreneurship that
seeks to combine sustainability and digitalization. We contribute to building a foundation for
this advanced sustainable entrepreneurship. First, we show that an institutional logic
perspective on sustainable business models can provide a common theoretical foundation for
studying the intersection of these previously separate research streams. In addition, it provides
analytical guidance for studying sustainable entrepreneurs' efforts to balance environmental,
social, and commercial value creation in computerized times. Secondly, the identified themes
open rich pathways to advance connections between other research streams such as co-
creation or social movement theory and sustainable entrepreneurship. In particular, we
contribute to the theoretical development of sustainable entrepreneurship by presenting the
concept of esteem overflow. Value spillover draws attention to the capture of socio-
environmental value (e.g., education and raising awareness) that goes beyond targeted
customers and affects additional groups. In particular, va l u e spillover coupled with the role
of advanced technology to enable community building, co-creation activities, and broader
stakeholder integration offers a new perspective on entrepreneurial value creation for
sustainability.
Practical implications
Advanced technologies can substantially contribute to sustainable development goals.
However, how this potential can be realized in practice remains largely unknown, especially
for entrepreneurs seeking to create socio-environmental value through financially viable
business models. This article provides practitioners with important insights into how
advanced technologies can be embedded in the design of sustainable business models. As
such, practitioners can utilize the identified configuration of sustainable business model
components (i.e., blended value proposition, integrative value creation, and multidimensional
value capture) as an inspiring starting point for developing new sustainable business models.
For example, they can draw on the importance of computerized means for the formation of
communities that channel the many individual contributions and efforts of many actors
towards a common goal. This, in turn, can capitalize on socio-environmental value creation
through co-creation activities and lead to spillover effects in value capture elements. This
example demonstrates the potential of the themes identified for the practicum but also points
towards the complex relationships that practitioners should be aware of when designing
sustainable business models.
Creating a viable business model that harmonizes a large number of different value
systems is difficult and advanced technology cannot solve this completely. Despite the
reported complementarities, practitioners should also be aware of the tensions identified in
this article. Advanced solutions increase connectivity and accessibility, but this can counteract
environmental and social aspirations. Computerized technology, as such, is not a panacea for
sustainable development and should be used responsibly, keeping potential logic
contradictions in mind. Building on this, we recommend a critical but not inclination approach
when contemplating the integration of computerized means to enhance the impact of
sustainable business models.
Conclusions
This study aims to determine the effect of business models to increase social value to the
environment. Based on the results of the analysis, the conclusion that can be drawn from this
study is that business visionaries use computerized advances to create mixed incentives for
their partners. To begin with, computerized reasoning makes it possible to catalyze the
creation of socio-environmental prices and secondly, empowers business visionaries to
establish offerings that consolidate ecological, social, and rewards monetary for their partners.
Mix Value Proportion
Our discoveries uncover that business visionaries use computerized advancements to
create blended incentives for their partners. To begin with, computerized reasoning makes it
possible to catalyze the creation of socio-environmental prices and, secondly, empowers
business visionaries to set up offerings that consolidate ecological, social, and monetary
rewards for their partners.
An essential guarantee of the computerized advances illustrated by economical
business visionaries is their capacity to make all-supportable exercises more broadly
accessible, available, and doable. Business visionaries recognize innovative parts of their
business models as integral assets to catalyzing more productive methods of living.
Thus, the rationale of some supported business visionaries' worthy recommendations
is to guarantee the beneficial utilization of their contributions. The computerized stage, in
particular, permits strong and proficient associations beforehand regardless of flexibly and
demand, along these lines supporting the spread of social and ecological incentives as referred
to by one of our members.
"It's a sophisticated market where we're bringing territorial food makers moreover,
metropolitan shoppers together. As of now, there are 400 little and private companies that
need to bring their items to you and me as well, we are taking care to guarantee that they
discover their way from the wide open to the city." (Iota)
Other entrepreneurs elaborate on the difficulty of finding, evaluating, and ultimately
purchasing eco-friendly and locally produced goods. Therefore, their online marketplace aims
to provide a better and more convenient alternative to buying sustainable products in different
stores. This concept of increased convenience through advanced marketplaces has also been
introduced to other types of products in our sample (e.g., different types of food or books).
Other entrepreneurs offer cell phone and web applications that provide efficiency for
stakeholders by analyzing user information and recommending more sustainable alternatives.
For example, Alpha offers an app that provides its users with constant information describing
their mobility behavior and the respective ecological consequences. In addition, the app
instantly suggests other eco-friendly means of transportation to trigger immediate behavioral
changes. The app serves as a catalyst for environmental social value propositions by
simultaneously making users aware of the existence of ecological alternatives and improving
the accessibility and convenience of these alternatives.
The integration of advanced logic enables entrepreneurs to successfully combine
environmental, social and economic value propositions. By embedding advanced technologies
entrepreneurs can offer sustainable products and services at competitive prices. One
entrepreneur, for example, stated that his digital marketplace allows environmentally certified
farmers and potential customers to trade conveniently, leading to the reduction and prevention
of unnecessary waste, while simultaneously observing animal rights in meat production.
Therefore, the computerized marketplace enables efficient transactions by ensuring financial
gains for producers while offering reasonable prices, thereby, incorporating economic value.
Integrative value creation
Our findings suggest that advanced technologies have the potential to increase actor
connectivity in the value creation component. We identify three, often interrelated, sets of
practices of community building, co-creation, and expanding stakeholder integration where
advanced logics facilitate the opening of value creation boundaries, making these components
more integrative.
Entrepreneurs often seek to form vibrant communities around the socio-environmental
challenges they wish to address, for example, through the creation and provision of
information centers, discussion boards on the web, stages, or other computerized networks
and communication tools. One way to approach this is offered by Sigma, which aims to
enable civic participation in public environmental projects through its online community. For
this, Sigma set up a crowdfunding stage with networking tools:
"We are considering focusing more on community building because the basic idea is a
simple tool for citizen participation and customer integration. Because that's actually the
recipe for success. As we can see from the ongoing projects, the need for community is very
much there. We have definitely established ourselves more as a crowdfunding stage for users
to support sustainability projects".
These communities, for example, are depicted through advanced cartographic
representations that show where each actor is located, how they are connected, and what they
contribute to the community (e.g. sharing information, managing additional projects, etc.).
In addition, some entrepreneurs use computerized technology to facilitate co-creation
with their users as exemplified by Beta's mission statement "Powered by community e curated
and nurtured by technology". We found that to realize a specialized online service based on
connectivity, the utilization of customers' individual resources is basic. Value co-creation
enabled in this advanced way can include tangible resources (e.g., sharing objects such as
books), but also intangible user resources. For example, users act as content creators for blogs
and websites that benefit communities and thus businesses (Rho) or articulate ideas for
common public-private projects on the crowdfunding stage (Sigma). In this vein, Zeta allows
customers to advancedly design their own farmland where they select and cultivate plants,
vegetables, and fruits through a gamified user interface. These instructions are then realized
by the company and the locally produced products are delivered to the customers. Thus,
entrepreneurial ventures act as computerized intermediaries transferring advanced inputs into
physical yields. In addition to the active integration of users in value creation, various
companies analyze user information to develop new offerings or improve existing offerings
(e.g., Alpha, Lambda, Epsilon, Omega).
Related to these efforts and permeating the idea of community building and co-
creation is the integration of an increasingly diverse set of stakeholders beyond customers and
suppliers. Through computerized networks, sustainable entrepreneurs can be inclusive when
building their advanced value creation networks as the following quote shows:
"Our worldwide network invites individuals, local businesses, NGOs, volunteers and
supporters to join. Every member has free access to information about implementing and
managing water supply projects. Everyone can be part of it!" (Gamma).
Multidimensional value capture
In terms of the value capture component, advanced logic allows entrepreneurs to
enable impact complementarity (i.e., the intertwining of environmental value capture and
social finance), support the scalability of social environmental value, and facilitate the
spillover of social environmental value through computerized means. This leads to
multidimensional value capture by adding multiple forms of value as well as boundaries and
scales of captured value.
Findings suggest that the advanced logic supporting challenge resolution combines the
capture of socio-environmental and economic values. Entrepreneurs state that the realization
of one value often corresponds to the enhancement of another and vice versa (e.g., Sigma,
Phi). This complementary relationship is withering clear in business models that perform an
intermediary function to connect various actors (stage advanced). Here, each service or
product sold entails capturing social and/or environmental value (e.g., a booking stage for
sustainable accommodation) while simultaneously enabling financial value capture (e.g.,
through charging commission fees). Crowdfunding services for sustainable projects enable a
similar complement of impacts. They raise public awareness of their fundable projects
through computerized channels that allow entrepreneurs to curate projects with the highest
potential impact. Any related action of the crowd whether it is a simple click, donation, or
pledge leads to the capture of financial and socio environmental value. Therefore, different
forms of value are not dichotomous in this business model but can complement each other
when intertwined through computerized means.
We further identify how entrepreneurs leverage the characteristics of advanced
solutions to facilitate the scalability of social environmental value. The generativity of the
computerized aspect of the business model allows entrepreneurs to "incorporate usability
requirements and user opinions" (Kappa) to customize their products. Advanced applications
and infrastructures are customizable and extensible to new products and services. In addition,
they are characterized by a seemingly easy move to other markets (e.g., Epsilon, Zeta). These
aspects enable scalability of some forms of value as suggested by the following comments:
"I wanted to find a model, which has a positive impact on my environment but also
has the classic attributes of a fire up. With another individualized structure, it can be scaled
like the modular venture case. I want to show that both are possible in the 21st century." (Phi).
In addition, findings show that sustainable entrepreneurs increase awareness and
education regarding sustainability issues, which is often an additional outcome of their
business model. We call this value spillover because it is not exclusive to the immediate target
group but has the potential to spill over to various stakeholders leading to the capture of
additional social environmental value for the business. To achieve such spillover, sustainable
entrepreneurs mostly rely on advanced media such as websites, blogs, social media,
networking activities at their respective stages, or community building on the web. Due to this
advanced presence, entrepreneurs do "educational work" (Epsilon) or "work at the level of
awareness" (Tau) and strive to "start movements" (Beta), closely linked to community
building as part of the value creation component.
"I think this happens automatically because of our community. Everyone who comes
to our website has to deal with the topic for better or worse. Everyone who sees our ads will
contact the topic. And if they think about it, it might stay in the back of their mind." (Phi).
Inter- and intra-componential logical tensions
We also identified challenges in relation to combining environmental, social, and
computerized logics expressed in inter- and intra-component logical tensions. The major
tension between social and environmental values and computerized logic stems from the
collision of advanced and physical aspects of business models. Computerized means
theoretically provide the potential for infinite scalability and, as shown, allow for scaling the
capture of multiple forms of value and enable complementarity of impact. However there are
restrictions that arise from the given natural boundaries governed by social and environmental
logic. Products and services often have physical properties and require physical resources to
produce. Intended value creation, thus, must consider social and environmental logic.
An example of this challenge is the contradiction between online accessibility and
regionality. Advanced solutions are potentially less constrained by geographical
considerations, but they can challenge the idea of local production and consumption.
Entrepreneurs seeking regionality often aim to capture value by reducing waste and
supporting local value creation. Consider, for example, Zeta, a gamified internet gardening
app where advanced aspects are potentially highly scalable. However, Zeta's cultivation zone
is located in a rural area in Austria and once harvested the fruits and vegetables are packaged
and shipped to customers. In this business model, the scalability of value capture is enhanced
through their computerized approach but is constrained by environmental considerations of
value creation in terms of farmland availability and distance to the end consumer. Similarly,
Iota offers an online stage for agricultural products that can be accessed in an advanced
manner with almost no constraints. However, their value proposition is limited to stakeholders
within relative geographical proximity due to CO2 transportation considerations as part of
value creation as well as the aim to empower local farmers, which is an important element of
their value capture. This is exemplified through the following quote:
"90% of our suppliers come from within a radius of less than 100 km. Purchasing food
with short transportation distances and organic farming makes a considerable contribution to
climate balance. At the same time, the regional economy and small producers from the
surrounding area are strengthened." (Iota).
Discussion And Implications
Embedding digital technologies in the elementarism of sustainable business models and
emerging digital logic tensions
This article seeks to gain a deeper understanding of how sustainable entrepreneurs
embed advanced technologies in their business models to foster social environmental value
creation. This is the first study to investigate the emerging advanced logics in sustainable
entrepreneurship. We argue that practices enabled by computerized logics support the
interconnectedness of environmental, social, and commercial logics but also entail tensions.
Therefore, we contribute theoretically and empirically to the development of a new topical
and ambitious research field on sustainable business models in an entrepreneurial context.
In sustainable business model design finding ways to calibrate, balance and blend
value is a key endeavor. We add to this by showing that sustainable entrepreneurs can
leverage computerized technology to develop blended value propositions. Sustainable
offerings often lack financial value for customers because sustainable products and services
are associated with higher value creation costs than their less sustainable counterparts. The
literature on sustainable behavior, however, argues that aspects such as time, effort, and
financial cost are important determinants of behavior favorable to the customer environment.
Our findings suggest that selective use of computerized technologies can increase
convenience and efficiency, while lowering costs in concert with a more sustainable way of
life, ultimately providing a more balanced value proposition.
We also offer new insights into the computerized value creation practices of
entrepreneurs. Our findings suggest a broad complementarity between the values of social
logic (e.g., community development, democratic participation, equality) and the affordances
of computerized technologies in value creation elements. By combining multiple advanced
artifacts and infrastructures (e.g., blogs, boards, social media interfaces, stages, etc.) they
create spaces for community interaction, engage in co-creation activities, and expand
stakeholder integration. With these advanced enabled practices, sustainable entrepreneurs
manage the boundaries of their business models, making them more dynamic and open. In
addition, we found the stage approach to be very effective in bringing together multiple
actors. This is especially important for sustainable business models, which are fraught with
additional efforts in managing external relationships as they need to include a variety of
diverse stakeholders. Enacting advanced logic increases the connectivity of actors across
geographical boundaries and enables integrative value creation. We, thus, add to further
establish the link between co-creation and sustainable business model design.
In addition, we identify synergistic relationships between digital applications and
sustainable business models that lead to multidimensional value capture. Extant research on
sustainable entrepreneurs reveals concerns in terms of business model scalability and financial
stability. We add to this body of knowledge by providing new insights into how entrepreneurs
leverage digital technologies to scale up their intended value capture along with the
exploitation of impact complements. Such impact complements are theorized to be critical for
sustainable business models and we show potential ways in which sustainable entrepreneurs
can achieve them. We further show that digital technologies can enable parallel growth of
environmental value and social finance. This unravels the importance of digital technology
and its supporting functions for sustainable business models. However, the findings also
reveal that this potential for scalability can conflict with social and environmental logic. Our
sample entrepreneurs often consciously limit the connectivity and accessibility provided by
digital technologies due to considerations involving CO2 reduction and local community
support. Thus, there are indications pointing towards a potential tension between logic and its
manifestation in business model components. As our research adds to the literature
investigating the challenging combination of multiple logics in business models and examines
how logics enable and constrain efforts for sustainability.
We further identify the value spillover effect. Through computerized artifacts
entrepreneurs create awareness and educational value, which means that their capture of socio
environmental value is not necessarily tied to the sale of their core products and services. As
such, they are breaking the conventional boundaries of the business model. Based on this and
based on the notion of social movement spillover, we argue that the online communities
formed and the content provided and/or created within these communities are not limited to
the stakeholders directly involved in their creation. Advanced content does not exist in a
vacuum but rather influences other individuals and groups. Our results show that advanced
tools make it possible to mobilize and connect individuals which can result in spillover
effects. We, thus, offer new insights into how computerized technologies can be leveraged to
influence stakeholders to support social and environmental impacts.
Theoretical implications
This article adds to the theoretical development of sustainable business models
conceptualized as a combination of different components that manifest a plural institutional
logic. Previous research in this area has largely focused on the institutional logic of
sustainability and thus considered how environmental, social and commercial logics relate to
each other. However, this can potentially leave out more logics further relevant for this
particular context. We add to this discourse by discussing the influence of emerging
computerized logics on the socio-environmental value creation of sustainable business
models. We explore how computerized logics based on connectivity, openness, accessibility
and generativity relate to other related logics in sustainable business models and identify
complementarities and tensions. As such, this is also one of the first studies that does not rely
on the dichotomous relationship of the two logics but rather aims to combine multiple logics
to broaden the perspective on sustainable business models.
We further add to the stream of emerging research in the field of entrepreneurship that
seeks to combine sustainability and digitalization. We contribute to building a foundation for
this advanced sustainable entrepreneurship. First, we show that an institutional logic
perspective on sustainable business models can provide a common theoretical foundation for
studying the intersection of these previously separate research streams. In addition, it provides
analytical guidance for studying sustainable entrepreneurs' efforts to balance environmental,
social, and commercial value creation in computerized times. Secondly, the identified themes
open rich pathways to advance connections between other research streams such as co-
creation or social movement theory and sustainable entrepreneurship. In particular, we
contribute to the theoretical development of sustainable entrepreneurship by presenting the
concept of esteem overflow. Value spillover draws attention to the capture of socio-
environmental value (e.g., education and raising awareness) that goes beyond targeted
customers and affects additional groups. In particular, va l u e spillover coupled with the role
of advanced technology to enable community building, co-creation activities, and broader
stakeholder integration offers a new perspective on entrepreneurial value creation for
sustainability.
Practical implications
Advanced technologies can substantially contribute to sustainable development goals.
However, how this potential can be realized in practice remains largely unknown, especially
for entrepreneurs seeking to create socio-environmental value through financially viable
business models. This article provides practitioners with important insights into how
advanced technologies can be embedded in the design of sustainable business models. As
such, practitioners can utilize the identified configuration of sustainable business model
components (i.e., blended value proposition, integrative value creation, and multidimensional
value capture) as an inspiring starting point for developing new sustainable business models.
For example, they can draw on the importance of computerized means for the formation of
communities that channel the many individual contributions and efforts of many actors
towards a common goal. This, in turn, can capitalize on socio-environmental value creation
through co-creation activities and lead to spillover effects in value capture elements. This
example demonstrates the potential of the themes identified for the practicum but also points
towards the complex relationships that practitioners should be aware of when designing
sustainable business models.
Creating a viable business model that harmonizes a large number of different value
systems is difficult and advanced technology cannot solve this completely. Despite the
reported complementarities, practitioners should also be aware of the tensions identified in
this article. Advanced solutions increase connectivity and accessibility, but this can counteract
environmental and social aspirations. Computerized technology, as such, is not a panacea for
sustainable development and should be used responsibly, keeping potential logic
contradictions in mind. Building on this, we recommend a critical but not inclination approach
when contemplating the integration of computerized means to enhance the impact of
sustainable business models.
Conclusions
This study aims to determine the effect of business models to increase social value to the
environment. Based on the results of the analysis, the conclusion that can be drawn from this
study is that business visionaries use computerized advances to create mixed incentives for
their partners. To begin with, computerized reasoning makes it possible to catalyze the
creation of socio-environmental prices and secondly, empowers business visionaries to
establish offerings that consolidate ecological, social, and rewards monetary for their partners.
Mix Value Proportion
Our discoveries uncover that business visionaries use computerized advancements to
create blended incentives for their partners. To begin with, computerized reasoning makes it
possible to catalyze the creation of socio-environmental prices and, secondly, empowers
business visionaries to set up offerings that consolidate ecological, social, and monetary
rewards for their partners.
An essential guarantee of the computerized advances illustrated by economical
business visionaries is their capacity to make all-supportable exercises more broadly
accessible, available, and doable. Business visionaries recognize innovative parts of their
business models as integral assets to catalyzing more productive methods of living.
Thus, the rationale of some supported business visionaries' worthy recommendations
is to guarantee the beneficial utilization of their contributions. The computerized stage, in
particular, permits strong and proficient associations beforehand regardless of flexibly and
demand, along these lines supporting the spread of social and ecological incentives as referred
to by one of our members.
"It's a sophisticated market where we're bringing territorial food makers moreover,
metropolitan shoppers together. As of now, there are 400 little and private companies that
need to bring their items to you and me as well, we are taking care to guarantee that they
discover their way from the wide open to the city." (Iota)
Other entrepreneurs elaborate on the difficulty of finding, evaluating, and ultimately
purchasing eco-friendly and locally produced goods. Therefore, their online marketplace aims
to provide a better and more convenient alternative to buying sustainable products in different
stores. This concept of increased convenience through advanced marketplaces has also been
introduced to other types of products in our sample (e.g., different types of food or books).
Other entrepreneurs offer cell phone and web applications that provide efficiency for
stakeholders by analyzing user information and recommending more sustainable alternatives.
For example, Alpha offers an app that provides its users with constant information describing
their mobility behavior and the respective ecological consequences. In addition, the app
instantly suggests other eco-friendly means of transportation to trigger immediate behavioral
changes. The app serves as a catalyst for environmental social value propositions by
simultaneously making users aware of the existence of ecological alternatives and improving
the accessibility and convenience of these alternatives.
The integration of advanced logic enables entrepreneurs to successfully combine
environmental, social and economic value propositions. By embedding advanced technologies
entrepreneurs can offer sustainable products and services at competitive prices. One
entrepreneur, for example, stated that his digital marketplace allows environmentally certified
farmers and potential customers to trade conveniently, leading to the reduction and prevention
of unnecessary waste, while simultaneously observing animal rights in meat production.
Therefore, the computerized marketplace enables efficient transactions by ensuring financial
gains for producers while offering reasonable prices, thereby, incorporating economic value.
Integrative value creation
Our findings suggest that advanced technologies have the potential to increase actor
connectivity in the value creation component. We identify three, often interrelated, sets of
practices of community building, co-creation, and expanding stakeholder integration where
advanced logics facilitate the opening of value creation boundaries, making these components
more integrative.
Entrepreneurs often seek to form vibrant communities around the socio-environmental
challenges they wish to address, for example, through the creation and provision of
information centers, discussion boards on the web, stages, or other computerized networks
and communication tools. One way to approach this is offered by Sigma, which aims to
enable civic participation in public environmental projects through its online community. For
this, Sigma set up a crowdfunding stage with networking tools:
"We are considering focusing more on community building because the basic idea is a
simple tool for citizen participation and customer integration. Because that's actually the
recipe for success. As we can see from the ongoing projects, the need for community is very
much there. We have definitely established ourselves more as a crowdfunding stage for users
to support sustainability projects".
These communities, for example, are depicted through advanced cartographic
representations that show where each actor is located, how they are connected, and what they
contribute to the community (e.g. sharing information, managing additional projects, etc.).
In addition, some entrepreneurs use computerized technology to facilitate co-creation
with their users as exemplified by Beta's mission statement "Powered by community e curated
and nurtured by technology". We found that to realize a specialized online service based on
connectivity, the utilization of customers' individual resources is basic. Value co-creation
enabled in this advanced way can include tangible resources (e.g., sharing objects such as
books), but also intangible user resources. For example, users act as content creators for blogs
and websites that benefit communities and thus businesses (Rho) or articulate ideas for
common public-private projects on the crowdfunding stage (Sigma). In this vein, Zeta allows
customers to advancedly design their own farmland where they select and cultivate plants,
vegetables, and fruits through a gamified user interface. These instructions are then realized
by the company and the locally produced products are delivered to the customers. Thus,
entrepreneurial ventures act as computerized intermediaries transferring advanced inputs into
physical yields. In addition to the active integration of users in value creation, various
companies analyze user information to develop new offerings or improve existing offerings
(e.g., Alpha, Lambda, Epsilon, Omega).
Related to these efforts and permeating the idea of community building and co-
creation is the integration of an increasingly diverse set of stakeholders beyond customers and
suppliers. Through computerized networks, sustainable entrepreneurs can be inclusive when
building their advanced value creation networks as the following quote shows:
"Our worldwide network invites individuals, local businesses, NGOs, volunteers and
supporters to join. Every member has free access to information about implementing and
managing water supply projects. Everyone can be part of it!" (Gamma).
Multidimensional value capture
In terms of the value capture component, advanced logic allows entrepreneurs to
enable impact complementarity (i.e., the intertwining of environmental value capture and
social finance), support the scalability of social environmental value, and facilitate the
spillover of social environmental value through computerized means. This leads to
multidimensional value capture by adding multiple forms of value as well as boundaries and
scales of captured value.
Findings suggest that the advanced logic supporting challenge resolution combines the
capture of socio-environmental and economic values. Entrepreneurs state that the realization
of one value often corresponds to the enhancement of another and vice versa (e.g., Sigma,
Phi). This complementary relationship is withering clear in business models that perform an
intermediary function to connect various actors (stage advanced). Here, each service or
product sold entails capturing social and/or environmental value (e.g., a booking stage for
sustainable accommodation) while simultaneously enabling financial value capture (e.g.,
through charging commission fees). Crowdfunding services for sustainable projects enable a
similar complement of impacts. They raise public awareness of their fundable projects
through computerized channels that allow entrepreneurs to curate projects with the highest
potential impact. Any related action of the crowd whether it is a simple click, donation, or
pledge leads to the capture of financial and socio environmental value. Therefore, different
forms of value are not dichotomous in this business model but can complement each other
when intertwined through computerized means.
We further identify how entrepreneurs leverage the characteristics of advanced
solutions to facilitate the scalability of social environmental value. The generativity of the
computerized aspect of the business model allows entrepreneurs to "incorporate usability
requirements and user opinions" (Kappa) to customize their products. Advanced applications
and infrastructures are customizable and extensible to new products and services. In addition,
they are characterized by a seemingly easy move to other markets (e.g., Epsilon, Zeta). These
aspects enable scalability of some forms of value as suggested by the following comments:
"I wanted to find a model, which has a positive impact on my environment but also
has the classic attributes of a fire up. With another individualized structure, it can be scaled
like the modular venture case. I want to show that both are possible in the 21st century." (Phi).
In addition, findings show that sustainable entrepreneurs increase awareness and
education regarding sustainability issues, which is often an additional outcome of their
business model. We call this value spillover because it is not exclusive to the immediate target
group but has the potential to spill over to various stakeholders leading to the capture of
additional social environmental value for the business. To achieve such spillover, sustainable
entrepreneurs mostly rely on advanced media such as websites, blogs, social media,
networking activities at their respective stages, or community building on the web. Due to this
advanced presence, entrepreneurs do "educational work" (Epsilon) or "work at the level of
awareness" (Tau) and strive to "start movements" (Beta), closely linked to community
building as part of the value creation component.
"I think this happens automatically because of our community. Everyone who comes
to our website has to deal with the topic for better or worse. Everyone who sees our ads will
contact the topic. And if they think about it, it might stay in the back of their mind." (Phi).
Inter- and intra-componential logical tensions
We also identified challenges in relation to combining environmental, social, and
computerized logics expressed in inter- and intra-component logical tensions. The major
tension between social and environmental values and computerized logic stems from the
collision of advanced and physical aspects of business models. Computerized means
theoretically provide the potential for infinite scalability and, as shown, allow for scaling the
capture of multiple forms of value and enable complementarity of impact. However there are
restrictions that arise from the given natural boundaries governed by social and environmental
logic. Products and services often have physical properties and require physical resources to
produce. Intended value creation, thus, must consider social and environmental logic.
An example of this challenge is the contradiction between online accessibility and
regionality. Advanced solutions are potentially less constrained by geographical
considerations, but they can challenge the idea of local production and consumption.
Entrepreneurs seeking regionality often aim to capture value by reducing waste and
supporting local value creation. Consider, for example, Zeta, a gamified internet gardening
app where advanced aspects are potentially highly scalable. However, Zeta's cultivation zone
is located in a rural area in Austria and once harvested the fruits and vegetables are packaged
and shipped to customers. In this business model, the scalability of value capture is enhanced
through their computerized approach but is constrained by environmental considerations of
value creation in terms of farmland availability and distance to the end consumer. Similarly,
Iota offers an online stage for agricultural products that can be accessed in an advanced
manner with almost no constraints. However, their value proposition is limited to stakeholders
within relative geographical proximity due to CO2 transportation considerations as part of
value creation as well as the aim to empower local farmers, which is an important element of
their value capture. This is exemplified through the following quote:
"90% of our suppliers come from within a radius of less than 100 km. Purchasing food
with short transportation distances and organic farming makes a considerable contribution to
climate balance. At the same time, the regional economy and small producers from the
surrounding area are strengthened." (Iota).
Discussion And Implications
Embedding digital technologies in the elementarism of sustainable business models and
emerging digital logic tensions
This article seeks to gain a deeper understanding of how sustainable entrepreneurs
embed advanced technologies in their business models to foster social environmental value
creation. This is the first study to investigate the emerging advanced logics in sustainable
entrepreneurship. We argue that practices enabled by computerized logics support the
interconnectedness of environmental, social, and commercial logics but also entail tensions.
Therefore, we contribute theoretically and empirically to the development of a new topical
and ambitious research field on sustainable business models in an entrepreneurial context.
In sustainable business model design finding ways to calibrate, balance and blend
value is a key endeavor. We add to this by showing that sustainable entrepreneurs can
leverage computerized technology to develop blended value propositions. Sustainable
offerings often lack financial value for customers because sustainable products and services
are associated with higher value creation costs than their less sustainable counterparts. The
literature on sustainable behavior, however, argues that aspects such as time, effort, and
financial cost are important determinants of behavior favorable to the customer environment.
Our findings suggest that selective use of computerized technologies can increase
convenience and efficiency, while lowering costs in concert with a more sustainable way of
life, ultimately providing a more balanced value proposition.
We also offer new insights into the computerized value creation practices of
entrepreneurs. Our findings suggest a broad complementarity between the values of social
logic (e.g., community development, democratic participation, equality) and the affordances
of computerized technologies in value creation elements. By combining multiple advanced
artifacts and infrastructures (e.g., blogs, boards, social media interfaces, stages, etc.) they
create spaces for community interaction, engage in co-creation activities, and expand
stakeholder integration. With these advanced enabled practices, sustainable entrepreneurs
manage the boundaries of their business models, making them more dynamic and open. In
addition, we found the stage approach to be very effective in bringing together multiple
actors. This is especially important for sustainable business models, which are fraught with
additional efforts in managing external relationships as they need to include a variety of
diverse stakeholders. Enacting advanced logic increases the connectivity of actors across
geographical boundaries and enables integrative value creation. We, thus, add to further
establish the link between co-creation and sustainable business model design.
In addition, we identify synergistic relationships between digital applications and
sustainable business models that lead to multidimensional value capture. Extant research on
sustainable entrepreneurs reveals concerns in terms of business model scalability and financial
stability. We add to this body of knowledge by providing new insights into how entrepreneurs
leverage digital technologies to scale up their intended value capture along with the
exploitation of impact complements. Such impact complements are theorized to be critical for
sustainable business models and we show potential ways in which sustainable entrepreneurs
can achieve them. We further show that digital technologies can enable parallel growth of
environmental value and social finance. This unravels the importance of digital technology
and its supporting functions for sustainable business models. However, the findings also
reveal that this potential for scalability can conflict with social and environmental logic. Our
sample entrepreneurs often consciously limit the connectivity and accessibility provided by
digital technologies due to considerations involving CO2 reduction and local community
support. Thus, there are indications pointing towards a potential tension between logic and its
manifestation in business model components. As our research adds to the literature
investigating the challenging combination of multiple logics in business models and examines
how logics enable and constrain efforts for sustainability.
We further identify the value spillover effect. Through computerized artifacts
entrepreneurs create awareness and educational value, which means that their capture of socio
environmental value is not necessarily tied to the sale of their core products and services. As
such, they are breaking the conventional boundaries of the business model. Based on this and
based on the notion of social movement spillover, we argue that the online communities
formed and the content provided and/or created within these communities are not limited to
the stakeholders directly involved in their creation. Advanced content does not exist in a
vacuum but rather influences other individuals and groups. Our results show that advanced
tools make it possible to mobilize and connect individuals which can result in spillover
effects. We, thus, offer new insights into how computerized technologies can be leveraged to
influence stakeholders to support social and environmental impacts.
Theoretical implications
This article adds to the theoretical development of sustainable business models
conceptualized as a combination of different components that manifest a plural institutional
logic. Previous research in this area has largely focused on the institutional logic of
sustainability and thus considered how environmental, social and commercial logics relate to
each other. However, this can potentially leave out more logics further relevant for this
particular context. We add to this discourse by discussing the influence of emerging
computerized logics on the socio-environmental value creation of sustainable business
models. We explore how computerized logics based on connectivity, openness, accessibility
and generativity relate to other related logics in sustainable business models and identify
complementarities and tensions. As such, this is also one of the first studies that does not rely
on the dichotomous relationship of the two logics but rather aims to combine multiple logics
to broaden the perspective on sustainable business models.
We further add to the stream of emerging research in the field of entrepreneurship that
seeks to combine sustainability and digitalization. We contribute to building a foundation for
this advanced sustainable entrepreneurship. First, we show that an institutional logic
perspective on sustainable business models can provide a common theoretical foundation for
studying the intersection of these previously separate research streams. In addition, it provides
analytical guidance for studying sustainable entrepreneurs' efforts to balance environmental,
social, and commercial value creation in computerized times. Secondly, the identified themes
open rich pathways to advance connections between other research streams such as co-
creation or social movement theory and sustainable entrepreneurship. In particular, we
contribute to the theoretical development of sustainable entrepreneurship by presenting the
concept of esteem overflow. Value spillover draws attention to the capture of socio-
environmental value (e.g., education and raising awareness) that goes beyond targeted
customers and affects additional groups. In particular, va l u e spillover coupled with the role
of advanced technology to enable community building, co-creation activities, and broader
stakeholder integration offers a new perspective on entrepreneurial value creation for
sustainability.
Practical implications
Advanced technologies can substantially contribute to sustainable development goals.
However, how this potential can be realized in practice remains largely unknown, especially
for entrepreneurs seeking to create socio-environmental value through financially viable
business models. This article provides practitioners with important insights into how
advanced technologies can be embedded in the design of sustainable business models. As
such, practitioners can utilize the identified configuration of sustainable business model
components (i.e., blended value proposition, integrative value creation, and multidimensional
value capture) as an inspiring starting point for developing new sustainable business models.
For example, they can draw on the importance of computerized means for the formation of
communities that channel the many individual contributions and efforts of many actors
towards a common goal. This, in turn, can capitalize on socio-environmental value creation
through co-creation activities and lead to spillover effects in value capture elements. This
example demonstrates the potential of the themes identified for the practicum but also points
towards the complex relationships that practitioners should be aware of when designing
sustainable business models.
Creating a viable business model that harmonizes a large number of different value
systems is difficult and advanced technology cannot solve this completely. Despite the
reported complementarities, practitioners should also be aware of the tensions identified in
this article. Advanced solutions increase connectivity and accessibility, but this can counteract
environmental and social aspirations. Computerized technology, as such, is not a panacea for
sustainable development and should be used responsibly, keeping potential logic
contradictions in mind. Building on this, we recommend a critical but not inclination approach
when contemplating the integration of computerized means to enhance the impact of
sustainable business models.
Conclusions
This study aims to determine the effect of business models to increase social value to the
environment. Based on the results of the analysis, the conclusion that can be drawn from this
study is that business visionaries use computerized advances to create mixed incentives for
their partners. To begin with, computerized reasoning makes it possible to catalyze the
creation of socio-environmental prices and secondly, empowers business visionaries to
establish offerings that consolidate ecological, social, and rewards monetary for their partners.
Mix Value Proportion
Our discoveries uncover that business visionaries use computerized advancements to
create blended incentives for their partners. To begin with, computerized reasoning makes it
possible to catalyze the creation of socio-environmental prices and, secondly, empowers
business visionaries to set up offerings that consolidate ecological, social, and monetary
rewards for their partners.
An essential guarantee of the computerized advances illustrated by economical
business visionaries is their capacity to make all-supportable exercises more broadly
accessible, available, and doable. Business visionaries recognize innovative parts of their
business models as integral assets to catalyzing more productive methods of living.
Thus, the rationale of some supported business visionaries' worthy recommendations
is to guarantee the beneficial utilization of their contributions. The computerized stage, in
particular, permits strong and proficient associations beforehand regardless of flexibly and
demand, along these lines supporting the spread of social and ecological incentives as referred
to by one of our members.
"It's a sophisticated market where we're bringing territorial food makers moreover,
metropolitan shoppers together. As of now, there are 400 little and private companies that
need to bring their items to you and me as well, we are taking care to guarantee that they
discover their way from the wide open to the city." (Iota)
Other entrepreneurs elaborate on the difficulty of finding, evaluating, and ultimately
purchasing eco-friendly and locally produced goods. Therefore, their online marketplace aims
to provide a better and more convenient alternative to buying sustainable products in different
stores. This concept of increased convenience through advanced marketplaces has also been
introduced to other types of products in our sample (e.g., different types of food or books).
Other entrepreneurs offer cell phone and web applications that provide efficiency for
stakeholders by analyzing user information and recommending more sustainable alternatives.
For example, Alpha offers an app that provides its users with constant information describing
their mobility behavior and the respective ecological consequences. In addition, the app
instantly suggests other eco-friendly means of transportation to trigger immediate behavioral
changes. The app serves as a catalyst for environmental social value propositions by
simultaneously making users aware of the existence of ecological alternatives and improving
the accessibility and convenience of these alternatives.
The integration of advanced logic enables entrepreneurs to successfully combine
environmental, social and economic value propositions. By embedding advanced technologies
entrepreneurs can offer sustainable products and services at competitive prices. One
entrepreneur, for example, stated that his digital marketplace allows environmentally certified
farmers and potential customers to trade conveniently, leading to the reduction and prevention
of unnecessary waste, while simultaneously observing animal rights in meat production.
Therefore, the computerized marketplace enables efficient transactions by ensuring financial
gains for producers while offering reasonable prices, thereby, incorporating economic value.
Integrative value creation
Our findings suggest that advanced technologies have the potential to increase actor
connectivity in the value creation component. We identify three, often interrelated, sets of
practices of community building, co-creation, and expanding stakeholder integration where
advanced logics facilitate the opening of value creation boundaries, making these components
more integrative.
Entrepreneurs often seek to form vibrant communities around the socio-environmental
challenges they wish to address, for example, through the creation and provision of
information centers, discussion boards on the web, stages, or other computerized networks
and communication tools. One way to approach this is offered by Sigma, which aims to
enable civic participation in public environmental projects through its online community. For
this, Sigma set up a crowdfunding stage with networking tools:
"We are considering focusing more on community building because the basic idea is a
simple tool for citizen participation and customer integration. Because that's actually the
recipe for success. As we can see from the ongoing projects, the need for community is very
much there. We have definitely established ourselves more as a crowdfunding stage for users
to support sustainability projects".
These communities, for example, are depicted through advanced cartographic
representations that show where each actor is located, how they are connected, and what they
contribute to the community (e.g. sharing information, managing additional projects, etc.).
In addition, some entrepreneurs use computerized technology to facilitate co-creation
with their users as exemplified by Beta's mission statement "Powered by community e curated
and nurtured by technology". We found that to realize a specialized online service based on
connectivity, the utilization of customers' individual resources is basic. Value co-creation
enabled in this advanced way can include tangible resources (e.g., sharing objects such as
books), but also intangible user resources. For example, users act as content creators for blogs
and websites that benefit communities and thus businesses (Rho) or articulate ideas for
common public-private projects on the crowdfunding stage (Sigma). In this vein, Zeta allows
customers to advancedly design their own farmland where they select and cultivate plants,
vegetables, and fruits through a gamified user interface. These instructions are then realized
by the company and the locally produced products are delivered to the customers. Thus,
entrepreneurial ventures act as computerized intermediaries transferring advanced inputs into
physical yields. In addition to the active integration of users in value creation, various
companies analyze user information to develop new offerings or improve existing offerings
(e.g., Alpha, Lambda, Epsilon, Omega).
Related to these efforts and permeating the idea of community building and co-
creation is the integration of an increasingly diverse set of stakeholders beyond customers and
suppliers. Through computerized networks, sustainable entrepreneurs can be inclusive when
building their advanced value creation networks as the following quote shows:
"Our worldwide network invites individuals, local businesses, NGOs, volunteers and
supporters to join. Every member has free access to information about implementing and
managing water supply projects. Everyone can be part of it!" (Gamma).
Multidimensional value capture
In terms of the value capture component, advanced logic allows entrepreneurs to
enable impact complementarity (i.e., the intertwining of environmental value capture and
social finance), support the scalability of social environmental value, and facilitate the
spillover of social environmental value through computerized means. This leads to
multidimensional value capture by adding multiple forms of value as well as boundaries and
scales of captured value.
Findings suggest that the advanced logic supporting challenge resolution combines the
capture of socio-environmental and economic values. Entrepreneurs state that the realization
of one value often corresponds to the enhancement of another and vice versa (e.g., Sigma,
Phi). This complementary relationship is withering clear in business models that perform an
intermediary function to connect various actors (stage advanced). Here, each service or
product sold entails capturing social and/or environmental value (e.g., a booking stage for
sustainable accommodation) while simultaneously enabling financial value capture (e.g.,
through charging commission fees). Crowdfunding services for sustainable projects enable a
similar complement of impacts. They raise public awareness of their fundable projects
through computerized channels that allow entrepreneurs to curate projects with the highest
potential impact. Any related action of the crowd whether it is a simple click, donation, or
pledge leads to the capture of financial and socio environmental value. Therefore, different
forms of value are not dichotomous in this business model but can complement each other
when intertwined through computerized means.
We further identify how entrepreneurs leverage the characteristics of advanced
solutions to facilitate the scalability of social environmental value. The generativity of the
computerized aspect of the business model allows entrepreneurs to "incorporate usability
requirements and user opinions" (Kappa) to customize their products. Advanced applications
and infrastructures are customizable and extensible to new products and services. In addition,
they are characterized by a seemingly easy move to other markets (e.g., Epsilon, Zeta). These
aspects enable scalability of some forms of value as suggested by the following comments:
"I wanted to find a model, which has a positive impact on my environment but also
has the classic attributes of a fire up. With another individualized structure, it can be scaled
like the modular venture case. I want to show that both are possible in the 21st century." (Phi).
In addition, findings show that sustainable entrepreneurs increase awareness and
education regarding sustainability issues, which is often an additional outcome of their
business model. We call this value spillover because it is not exclusive to the immediate target
group but has the potential to spill over to various stakeholders leading to the capture of
additional social environmental value for the business. To achieve such spillover, sustainable
entrepreneurs mostly rely on advanced media such as websites, blogs, social media,
networking activities at their respective stages, or community building on the web. Due to this
advanced presence, entrepreneurs do "educational work" (Epsilon) or "work at the level of
awareness" (Tau) and strive to "start movements" (Beta), closely linked to community
building as part of the value creation component.
"I think this happens automatically because of our community. Everyone who comes
to our website has to deal with the topic for better or worse. Everyone who sees our ads will
contact the topic. And if they think about it, it might stay in the back of their mind." (Phi).
Inter- and intra-componential logical tensions
We also identified challenges in relation to combining environmental, social, and
computerized logics expressed in inter- and intra-component logical tensions. The major
tension between social and environmental values and computerized logic stems from the
collision of advanced and physical aspects of business models. Computerized means
theoretically provide the potential for infinite scalability and, as shown, allow for scaling the
capture of multiple forms of value and enable complementarity of impact. However there are
restrictions that arise from the given natural boundaries governed by social and environmental
logic. Products and services often have physical properties and require physical resources to
produce. Intended value creation, thus, must consider social and environmental logic.
An example of this challenge is the contradiction between online accessibility and
regionality. Advanced solutions are potentially less constrained by geographical
considerations, but they can challenge the idea of local production and consumption.
Entrepreneurs seeking regionality often aim to capture value by reducing waste and
supporting local value creation. Consider, for example, Zeta, a gamified internet gardening
app where advanced aspects are potentially highly scalable. However, Zeta's cultivation zone
is located in a rural area in Austria and once harvested the fruits and vegetables are packaged
and shipped to customers. In this business model, the scalability of value capture is enhanced
through their computerized approach but is constrained by environmental considerations of
value creation in terms of farmland availability and distance to the end consumer. Similarly,
Iota offers an online stage for agricultural products that can be accessed in an advanced
manner with almost no constraints. However, their value proposition is limited to stakeholders
within relative geographical proximity due to CO2 transportation considerations as part of
value creation as well as the aim to empower local farmers, which is an important element of
their value capture. This is exemplified through the following quote:
"90% of our suppliers come from within a radius of less than 100 km. Purchasing food
with short transportation distances and organic farming makes a considerable contribution to
climate balance. At the same time, the regional economy and small producers from the
surrounding area are strengthened." (Iota).
Discussion And Implications
Embedding digital technologies in the elementarism of sustainable business models and
emerging digital logic tensions
This article seeks to gain a deeper understanding of how sustainable entrepreneurs
embed advanced technologies in their business models to foster social environmental value
creation. This is the first study to investigate the emerging advanced logics in sustainable
entrepreneurship. We argue that practices enabled by computerized logics support the
interconnectedness of environmental, social, and commercial logics but also entail tensions.
Therefore, we contribute theoretically and empirically to the development of a new topical
and ambitious research field on sustainable business models in an entrepreneurial context.
In sustainable business model design finding ways to calibrate, balance and blend
value is a key endeavor. We add to this by showing that sustainable entrepreneurs can
leverage computerized technology to develop blended value propositions. Sustainable
offerings often lack financial value for customers because sustainable products and services
are associated with higher value creation costs than their less sustainable counterparts. The
literature on sustainable behavior, however, argues that aspects such as time, effort, and
financial cost are important determinants of behavior favorable to the customer environment.
Our findings suggest that selective use of computerized technologies can increase
convenience and efficiency, while lowering costs in concert with a more sustainable way of
life, ultimately providing a more balanced value proposition.
We also offer new insights into the computerized value creation practices of
entrepreneurs. Our findings suggest a broad complementarity between the values of social
logic (e.g., community development, democratic participation, equality) and the affordances
of computerized technologies in value creation elements. By combining multiple advanced
artifacts and infrastructures (e.g., blogs, boards, social media interfaces, stages, etc.) they
create spaces for community interaction, engage in co-creation activities, and expand
stakeholder integration. With these advanced enabled practices, sustainable entrepreneurs
manage the boundaries of their business models, making them more dynamic and open. In
addition, we found the stage approach to be very effective in bringing together multiple
actors. This is especially important for sustainable business models, which are fraught with
additional efforts in managing external relationships as they need to include a variety of
diverse stakeholders. Enacting advanced logic increases the connectivity of actors across
geographical boundaries and enables integrative value creation. We, thus, add to further
establish the link between co-creation and sustainable business model design.
In addition, we identify synergistic relationships between digital applications and
sustainable business models that lead to multidimensional value capture. Extant research on
sustainable entrepreneurs reveals concerns in terms of business model scalability and financial
stability. We add to this body of knowledge by providing new insights into how entrepreneurs
leverage digital technologies to scale up their intended value capture along with the
exploitation of impact complements. Such impact complements are theorized to be critical for
sustainable business models and we show potential ways in which sustainable entrepreneurs
can achieve them. We further show that digital technologies can enable parallel growth of
environmental value and social finance. This unravels the importance of digital technology
and its supporting functions for sustainable business models. However, the findings also
reveal that this potential for scalability can conflict with social and environmental logic. Our
sample entrepreneurs often consciously limit the connectivity and accessibility provided by
digital technologies due to considerations involving CO2 reduction and local community
support. Thus, there are indications pointing towards a potential tension between logic and its
manifestation in business model components. As our research adds to the literature
investigating the challenging combination of multiple logics in business models and examines
how logics enable and constrain efforts for sustainability.
We further identify the value spillover effect. Through computerized artifacts
entrepreneurs create awareness and educational value, which means that their capture of socio
environmental value is not necessarily tied to the sale of their core products and services. As
such, they are breaking the conventional boundaries of the business model. Based on this and
based on the notion of social movement spillover, we argue that the online communities
formed and the content provided and/or created within these communities are not limited to
the stakeholders directly involved in their creation. Advanced content does not exist in a
vacuum but rather influences other individuals and groups. Our results show that advanced
tools make it possible to mobilize and connect individuals which can result in spillover
effects. We, thus, offer new insights into how computerized technologies can be leveraged to
influence stakeholders to support social and environmental impacts.
Theoretical implications
This article adds to the theoretical development of sustainable business models
conceptualized as a combination of different components that manifest a plural institutional
logic. Previous research in this area has largely focused on the institutional logic of
sustainability and thus considered how environmental, social and commercial logics relate to
each other. However, this can potentially leave out more logics further relevant for this
particular context. We add to this discourse by discussing the influence of emerging
computerized logics on the socio-environmental value creation of sustainable business
models. We explore how computerized logics based on connectivity, openness, accessibility
and generativity relate to other related logics in sustainable business models and identify
complementarities and tensions. As such, this is also one of the first studies that does not rely
on the dichotomous relationship of the two logics but rather aims to combine multiple logics
to broaden the perspective on sustainable business models.
We further add to the stream of emerging research in the field of entrepreneurship that
seeks to combine sustainability and digitalization. We contribute to building a foundation for
this advanced sustainable entrepreneurship. First, we show that an institutional logic
perspective on sustainable business models can provide a common theoretical foundation for
studying the intersection of these previously separate research streams. In addition, it provides
analytical guidance for studying sustainable entrepreneurs' efforts to balance environmental,
social, and commercial value creation in computerized times. Secondly, the identified themes
open rich pathways to advance connections between other research streams such as co-
creation or social movement theory and sustainable entrepreneurship. In particular, we
contribute to the theoretical development of sustainable entrepreneurship by presenting the
concept of esteem overflow. Value spillover draws attention to the capture of socio-
environmental value (e.g., education and raising awareness) that goes beyond targeted
customers and affects additional groups. In particular, va l u e spillover coupled with the role
of advanced technology to enable community building, co-creation activities, and broader
stakeholder integration offers a new perspective on entrepreneurial value creation for
sustainability.
Practical implications
Advanced technologies can substantially contribute to sustainable development goals.
However, how this potential can be realized in practice remains largely unknown, especially
for entrepreneurs seeking to create socio-environmental value through financially viable
business models. This article provides practitioners with important insights into how
advanced technologies can be embedded in the design of sustainable business models. As
such, practitioners can utilize the identified configuration of sustainable business model
components (i.e., blended value proposition, integrative value creation, and multidimensional
value capture) as an inspiring starting point for developing new sustainable business models.
For example, they can draw on the importance of computerized means for the formation of
communities that channel the many individual contributions and efforts of many actors
towards a common goal. This, in turn, can capitalize on socio-environmental value creation
through co-creation activities and lead to spillover effects in value capture elements. This
example demonstrates the potential of the themes identified for the practicum but also points
towards the complex relationships that practitioners should be aware of when designing
sustainable business models.
Creating a viable business model that harmonizes a large number of different value
systems is difficult and advanced technology cannot solve this completely. Despite the
reported complementarities, practitioners should also be aware of the tensions identified in
this article. Advanced solutions increase connectivity and accessibility, but this can counteract
environmental and social aspirations. Computerized technology, as such, is not a panacea for
sustainable development and should be used responsibly, keeping potential logic
contradictions in mind. Building on this, we recommend a critical but not inclination approach
when contemplating the integration of computerized means to enhance the impact of
sustainable business models.
Conclusions
This study aims to determine the effect of business models to increase social value to the
environment. Based on the results of the analysis, the conclusion that can be drawn from this
study is that business visionaries use computerized advances to create mixed incentives for
their partners. To begin with, computerized reasoning makes it possible to catalyze the
creation of socio-environmental prices and secondly, empowers business visionaries to
establish offerings that consolidate ecological, social, and rewards monetary for their partners.
