Sustainable business model: A review and framework development

Integrating sustainability into business functions of organisations is a challenge faced by practitioners. They need to understand what aspects must be considered to achieve effective sustainability implementation. Few studies review current sustainable business models and reveal essential aspects that must be possessed by these models. This study aims to discuss the available sustainable business models and identify the main features of the models. Conceptual research is applied in this study to synthesise the current sustainable business models in the literature. The study reveals nine main aspects to consider, including sustainability, information technology, circular economy, value chain, core values, value creation, organisational values, performance management, and stakeholder engagement. The proposed framework would help the practitioners to capture important aspects of the sustainability implementation. These aspects would guide them to effectively embed sustainability into an organisation's business functions and fulfil stakeholder expectations.