What if the most interesting thing about a business model for sustainability is not simply what it promises to achieve, but how it changes the relationships around it?

Who creates value?
Who captures it?
Who bears the risks and responsibilities?
And who gets a voice in shaping how the business model works?

These question lies at the heart of a new Special Issue of Business & Society edited by Romana Rauter, Abel Diaz Gonzalez, Florian Lüdeke-Freund, Maya Hoveskog, Nikolay A. Dentchev, and John Elkington.

Looking beyond the promise of sustainability

Business models for sustainability (BMfS) have become an important way of thinking about how organizations can create sustainable value, develop new products and services, build circular systems, collaborate across sectors but also respond to the current complex societal challenges.
But what happens when we look a little closer?

A business model for sustainability does not exist in isolation. It operates in context and through relationships, with customers, employees, communities, suppliers, governments, investors, and other stakeholders. Both academic work and practice have examples of different ways a BMfS can also shape how power, risk, and responsibility are distributed.
That is the perspective that the editorial team, drawing on both academic depth and practical experience, is bringing into focus with this Special Issue.

Romana Rauter describes the motivation behind the Special Issue:

We are really excited to see the different perspectives and contexts that researchers will bring to this conversation.

Romana Rauter
Associate Professor of Sustainability and Innovation Management at the
Department of Environmental Systems Sciences, University of Graz

This is one of the reasons the call caught my attention. As a PhD researcher working on sustainable entrepreneurship and innovation in Sub-Saharan Africa, I am particularly interested in how sustainability-oriented business models take shape in different institutional and resource environments.
Because context matters. A business model that works in one setting may work very differently somewhere else. The institutions, infrastructures, resources, relationships, and stakeholder expectations surrounding it can all influence how value is created, captured, and shared.

The Special Issue explicitly invites research that explores these differences, including research from non-Western contexts. It is also an invitation to look at the less visible side of sustainability, what the editors call the “dark sides” of BMfS.

An invitation to contribute

 We hope to receive contributions that show how business models for sustainability are shaped by the contexts in which they operate, and, in turn, how they shape those contexts.

Abel Diaz Gonzalez
Assistant Professor in the Department of Organization, Strategy, and
Entrepreneurship at the School of Business and Economics, Maastricht University

For me, what makes the call particularly interesting is this openness.
It creates space not only to ask whether business models contribute to sustainability, but also to explore how they do so, under what conditions, and with what consequences. It creates a space where research can help us imagine and understand business models that contribute to a more sustainable future without losing sight of the people, communities, and societies that make that future possible.

Interested in exploring these questions through your own research?

For the full call, submission guidelines, and contact details, please consult the official Special Issue announcement