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Business model innovation may strengthen and deepen organizational resilience, resulting in a

sustainable competitive advantage. As a result, it progressively becomes a major source of
company’s performance improvement and growth.
A sustainable business model addresses a far broader range of stakeholders than traditional

business models, including the environment, climate and society as main stakeholders.
Sustainable business models can be considered as an extension of traditional business models
(including value proposition and creation, value capture and delivery), with the environment,
climate and society as primary stakeholders. Here the value creation can be considered from the
perspectives of both monetary and non-monetary value.

A business model needs to maintain sustainability and requires constant change. Within an
ongoing business the business model innovation process is often considered as a change from
one business model to another. This refers to business model substitutions that provide
customers such items or services that were previously unavailable. Sustainable business model
innovation can result in the creation of a new business model, the updating of an existing business

model, or the reconfiguration and integration of several business models. As a result, innovation
provides a new value offer to consumers and creates a new value framework to support an
organization's long-term success.
It is worth noting that business model innovation is an iterative process rather than a one-time
occurrence. A sustainable business model innovation intends to add, upgrade, or rearrange

various value generating aspects and resources. It is typical that stakeholders in sustainable
business innovation are multifaceted. From innovation process perspective it could be considered
that the process of sustainable innovation within a company is iterative and continuous. Business
model innovation is important in a start up phase of a company while it is defining the contents
and relationships of various core elements of doing business.

Transitioning towards more sustainable business models

Sustainable development can be integrated into business model innovation. A company’s
approach to do sustainable business necessitates an expansion from economic sustainability to

social sustainability and ecological sustainability. The development of the design thinking
component raises the complexity of the innovation process and places greater demands on the
organization's collaboration and co-creation abilities to incorporate its partners.

A solid business model should be evaluated from the perspective of the customers, since they
are the core component of business models and critical resources for the company’s existence.
Although business models do not have to be totally built with customers in mind, their perspectives
should be incorporated into the innovation and assessment process.

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