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Research on Sustainable Business Model Patterns: Status quo, Methodological Issues, and a Research Agenda

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Book cover Sustainable Business Models

Abstract

This chapter describes avenues for future research to develop a “sustainable business model pattern language.” The chapter reflects on how sustainable business model (SBM) patterns can be identified, described, and turned into a design language to support the development of more sustainable organisations. Such organisations solve ecological, social, and economic problems through new approaches to proposing, delivering, capturing, and creating value. Theoretical and conceptual elements as well as methodological issues of developing an SBM pattern language are discussed. The value of using patterns in practice is illustrated with two business model innovation tools, one analogue and one digital, that use different patterns, including revenue and pricing, circular economy, and SBM patterns. Finally, questions for future research are proposed.

“The people can shape buildings for themselves, and have done it for centuries by using languages which I call pattern languages. A pattern language gives each person who uses it, the power to create an infinite variety of new and unique buildings, just as his ordinary language gives him the power to create an infinite variety of sentences.”

(Alexander 1979, p. 167)

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Also referred to as “business models for sustainability” (e.g., Wells 2013). Both terms are used interchangeably in this chapter.

  2. 2.

    Since 2002, the Iba Lab at Keio University & CreativeShift Lab created 67 pattern languages including 1610 patterns; see http://web.sfc.keio.ac.jp/~iba/languages.html (as of April 2018).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. ESCP Europe Business School, Berlin, Germany

    Florian Lüdeke-Freund

  2. Católica Lisbon School of Business & Economics, Lisbon, Portugal

    René Bohnsack

  3. HMKW Berlin & UX Berlin Innovation Consulting, Berlin, Germany

    Henning Breuer

  4. Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Lorenzo Massa

Authors
  1. Florian Lüdeke-Freund
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  2. René Bohnsack
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  3. Henning Breuer
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  4. Lorenzo Massa
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Florian Lüdeke-Freund .

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  1. Aarhus University, Herning, Denmark

    Annabeth Aagaard

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Lüdeke-Freund, F., Bohnsack, R., Breuer, H., Massa, L. (2019). Research on Sustainable Business Model Patterns: Status quo, Methodological Issues, and a Research Agenda. In: Aagaard, A. (eds) Sustainable Business Models. Palgrave Studies in Sustainable Business In Association with Future Earth. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93275-0_2

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