{"id":{"repo_id":"cambridge","oai_identifier":"oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/385905"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/cambridge/oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/385905","repository":{"repo_id":"cambridge","name":"Cambridge University","base_url":"https://api.repository.cam.ac.uk/server/oai/request"},"display":{"title":"Stakeholders in sustainable business model innovation","abstract":"Current literature emphasises the importance of stakeholders as part of sustainable business model innovation. However, despite its relevance to the topic, there is limited understanding of how stakeholders are involved in an entrepreneurial business’ sustainable business model innovation process. This research sets out to understand how to strengthen stakeholder’s involvement in the sustainable business model innovation process of entrepreneurial businesses. Specifically, this research focuses on entrepreneurial businesses undergoing sustainable business model innovation with a radical sustainable innovation. The research aims to make theoretical and practical contributions to the fields of sustainable business model innovation with a particular focus on stakeholders. It aims to accelerate the sustainability transition by supporting entrepreneurial businesses to involve stakeholders in the sustainable business model innovation process. The research adopts a qualitative approach to study this phenomenon by conducting 13 case studies to understand how entrepreneurial businesses work with their stakeholders during the sustainable business model innovation process. Through analysing the case studies, the research identifies activities that the entrepreneurial business and their stakeholders conduct throughout the sustainable business model innovation process of “propose”, “assemble” and “elaborate”, contributing 9 findings to literature: Finding #1: Focal firms engage stakeholders with value proposition framing early in the sustainable business model innovation process. They achieve this typically through identifying suitable early stakeholders and communicating with them about the sustainable innovation and value proposition. Finding #2: Focal firms formalise engagement with early stakeholders after successful pilot-level implementation which helped them formalise their relationship with early stakeholders. Finding #3: Focal firms develop and iterate their sustainable business models. This is typically based on their understanding of their value chain and stakeholder’s feedback. Finding #4: Focal firms orchestrate stakeholders to align business models. This is typically done by identifying the roles and responsibilities of stakeholders required for value creation and delivery of their sustainable business model and open communication with stakeholders. Finding #5: For orchestration to successfully happen, stakeholders, on agreeing with their orchestrated role, participate by aligning their business model or sustainability strategy with the focal firm’s sustainable business model. Finding #6: Stakeholders committing to supporting the entrepreneur’s sustainable business model can support the growth of the focal firm’s business. Finding #7: Some entrepreneurial stakeholders co-orchestrate the sustainable business model. This typically happens as the stakeholder identifies further opportunities based on the sustainable innovation, changing the trajectory of the entrepreneur’s sustainable business model innovation process. Finding #8: Entrepreneurs and their stakeholders collaborate on implementing newly identified value propositions and business models identified by the stakeholders when they both find the right opportunity to do so during the sustainable business model innovation process. Finding #9: Entrepreneurs and stakeholders embrace changes in roles and responsibilities as they go through the sustainable business model innovation process. Taking an evolutionary lens, the research then proposes an evolutionary framework and conceptual model to describe how entrepreneurial businesses work with their stakeholders throughout the sustainable business model innovation process, highlighting the influences they have on each other. This synthesis of the analysed data led to 13 insights. One of the key insights identified a bottleneck in the sustainable business model process and a support was developed to help entrepreneurial businesses involve stakeholders and tackle the bottleneck. The framework and support developed helps to strengthen stakeholder’s involvement in the sustainable business model innovation process. . The result from the research describes the dynamic involvement stakeholders have in the sustainable business model innovation process of entrepreneurial businesses. The insights from this research can guide further research on sustainable business model innovation. It has also produced specific insights to help entrepreneurial businesses and their stakeholders structure their activities better throughout their sustainable business model innovation process.","abstract_html":"Current literature emphasises the importance of stakeholders as part of sustainable business model innovation. However, despite its relevance to the topic, there is limited understanding of how stakeholders are involved in an entrepreneurial business’ sustainable business model innovation process. This research sets out to understand how to strengthen stakeholder’s involvement in the sustainable business model innovation process of entrepreneurial businesses. Specifically, this research focuses on entrepreneurial businesses undergoing sustainable business model innovation with a radical sustainable innovation. The research aims to make theoretical and practical contributions to the fields of sustainable business model innovation with a particular focus on stakeholders. It aims to accelerate the sustainability transition by supporting entrepreneurial businesses to involve stakeholders in the sustainable business model innovation process. The research adopts a qualitative approach to study this phenomenon by conducting 13 case studies to understand how entrepreneurial businesses work with their stakeholders during the sustainable business model innovation process. Through analysing the case studies, the research identifies activities that the entrepreneurial business and their stakeholders conduct throughout the sustainable business model innovation process of “propose”, “assemble” and “elaborate”, contributing 9 findings to literature: Finding #1: Focal firms engage stakeholders with value proposition framing early in the sustainable business model innovation process. They achieve this typically through identifying suitable early stakeholders and communicating with them about the sustainable innovation and value proposition. Finding #2: Focal firms formalise engagement with early stakeholders after successful pilot-level implementation which helped them formalise their relationship with early stakeholders. Finding #3: Focal firms develop and iterate their sustainable business models. This is typically based on their understanding of their value chain and stakeholder’s feedback. Finding #4: Focal firms orchestrate stakeholders to align business models. This is typically done by identifying the roles and responsibilities of stakeholders required for value creation and delivery of their sustainable business model and open communication with stakeholders. Finding #5: For orchestration to successfully happen, stakeholders, on agreeing with their orchestrated role, participate by aligning their business model or sustainability strategy with the focal firm’s sustainable business model. Finding #6: Stakeholders committing to supporting the entrepreneur’s sustainable business model can support the growth of the focal firm’s business. Finding #7: Some entrepreneurial stakeholders co-orchestrate the sustainable business model. This typically happens as the stakeholder identifies further opportunities based on the sustainable innovation, changing the trajectory of the entrepreneur’s sustainable business model innovation process. Finding #8: Entrepreneurs and their stakeholders collaborate on implementing newly identified value propositions and business models identified by the stakeholders when they both find the right opportunity to do so during the sustainable business model innovation process. Finding #9: Entrepreneurs and stakeholders embrace changes in roles and responsibilities as they go through the sustainable business model innovation process. Taking an evolutionary lens, the research then proposes an evolutionary framework and conceptual model to describe how entrepreneurial businesses work with their stakeholders throughout the sustainable business model innovation process, highlighting the influences they have on each other. This synthesis of the analysed data led to 13 insights. One of the key insights identified a bottleneck in the sustainable business model process and a support was developed to help entrepreneurial businesses involve stakeholders and tackle the bottleneck. The framework and support developed helps to strengthen stakeholder’s involvement in the sustainable business model innovation process. . The result from the research describes the dynamic involvement stakeholders have in the sustainable business model innovation process of entrepreneurial businesses. The insights from this research can guide further research on sustainable business model innovation. It has also produced specific insights to help entrepreneurial businesses and their stakeholders structure their activities better throughout their sustainable business model innovation process.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Hsien, Li Jie"],"institution":"University of Cambridge","degree_name":null,"degree_level":"Doctoral","degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":["Evans, Steve"],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2024,"date_issued":"2024-12-28","date_published":"2024-12-28","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:24:32Z","subjects":["sustainability","circular business model","evolutionary theory","stakeholders","sustainable business model innovation"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":["https://apollo8-f-pro.lib.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/5f56d360-d7a0-4669-888e-66e7943d782a/download","http://purl.org/NET/rdflicense/allrightsreserved"],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.119346","outbound_label":"DOI","outbound_source":"dc:identifier.doi"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor.advisor","label":"Advisor","values":["Evans, Steve"]},{"key":"dc:contributor.sponsor","label":"Sponsor","values":["AGENCY FOR SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND RESEARCH (A*STAR)"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Hsien, Li Jie"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.issued","label":"Date","values":["2024-12-28"]},{"key":"dc:publisher.institution","label":"Dc Publisher Institution","values":["University of Cambridge"]},{"key":"dc:relation.isreferencedby.uri","label":"Dc Relation Isreferencedby URI","values":["https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/385905"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"dc:type.qualificationlevel","label":"Dc Type Qualificationlevel","values":["Doctoral"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["sustainability","circular business model","evolutionary theory","stakeholders","sustainable business model innovation"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["https://apollo8-f-pro.lib.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/5f56d360-d7a0-4669-888e-66e7943d782a/download","http://purl.org/NET/rdflicense/allrightsreserved"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.doi","label":"DOI","values":["https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.119346"]},{"key":"dc:identifier.uri","label":"Identifier URI","values":["https://apollo8-f-pro.lib.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/ab3e8fae-bdc7-459c-867c-a226e23e1f32/download"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Current literature emphasises the importance of stakeholders as part of sustainable business model innovation. However, despite its relevance to the topic, there is limited understanding of how stakeholders are involved in an entrepreneurial business’ sustainable business model innovation process. This research sets out to understand how to strengthen stakeholder’s involvement in the sustainable business model innovation process of entrepreneurial businesses. Specifically, this research focuses on entrepreneurial businesses undergoing sustainable business model innovation with a radical sustainable innovation. The research aims to make theoretical and practical contributions to the fields of sustainable business model innovation with a particular focus on stakeholders. It aims to accelerate the sustainability transition by supporting entrepreneurial businesses to involve stakeholders in the sustainable business model innovation process. The research adopts a qualitative approach to study this phenomenon by conducting 13 case studies to understand how entrepreneurial businesses work with their stakeholders during the sustainable business model innovation process. Through analysing the case studies, the research identifies activities that the entrepreneurial business and their stakeholders conduct throughout the sustainable business model innovation process of “propose”, “assemble” and “elaborate”, contributing 9 findings to literature: Finding #1: Focal firms engage stakeholders with value proposition framing early in the sustainable business model innovation process. They achieve this typically through identifying suitable early stakeholders and communicating with them about the sustainable innovation and value proposition. Finding #2: Focal firms formalise engagement with early stakeholders after successful pilot-level implementation which helped them formalise their relationship with early stakeholders. Finding #3: Focal firms develop and iterate their sustainable business models. This is typically based on their understanding of their value chain and stakeholder’s feedback. Finding #4: Focal firms orchestrate stakeholders to align business models. This is typically done by identifying the roles and responsibilities of stakeholders required for value creation and delivery of their sustainable business model and open communication with stakeholders. Finding #5: For orchestration to successfully happen, stakeholders, on agreeing with their orchestrated role, participate by aligning their business model or sustainability strategy with the focal firm’s sustainable business model. Finding #6: Stakeholders committing to supporting the entrepreneur’s sustainable business model can support the growth of the focal firm’s business. Finding #7: Some entrepreneurial stakeholders co-orchestrate the sustainable business model. This typically happens as the stakeholder identifies further opportunities based on the sustainable innovation, changing the trajectory of the entrepreneur’s sustainable business model innovation process. Finding #8: Entrepreneurs and their stakeholders collaborate on implementing newly identified value propositions and business models identified by the stakeholders when they both find the right opportunity to do so during the sustainable business model innovation process. Finding #9: Entrepreneurs and stakeholders embrace changes in roles and responsibilities as they go through the sustainable business model innovation process. Taking an evolutionary lens, the research then proposes an evolutionary framework and conceptual model to describe how entrepreneurial businesses work with their stakeholders throughout the sustainable business model innovation process, highlighting the influences they have on each other. This synthesis of the analysed data led to 13 insights. One of the key insights identified a bottleneck in the sustainable business model process and a support was developed to help entrepreneurial businesses involve stakeholders and tackle the bottleneck. The framework and support developed helps to strengthen stakeholder’s involvement in the sustainable business model innovation process. . The result from the research describes the dynamic involvement stakeholders have in the sustainable business model innovation process of entrepreneurial businesses. The insights from this research can guide further research on sustainable business model innovation. It has also produced specific insights to help entrepreneurial businesses and their stakeholders structure their activities better throughout their sustainable business model innovation process."]},{"key":"dc:format.checksum.md5","label":"Dc Format Checksum Md5","values":["ebc1b44df77696d6e0a3b10ab11b0f5b","87eda9de84448d1f82354d60eee3eb5f"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Stakeholders in sustainable business model innovation"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor.advisor":["Evans, Steve"],"dc:contributor.sponsor":["AGENCY FOR SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND RESEARCH (A*STAR)"],"dc:creator":["Hsien, Li Jie"],"dc:date.issued":["2024-12-28"],"dc:description.abstract":["Current literature emphasises the importance of stakeholders as part of sustainable business model innovation. However, despite its relevance to the topic, there is limited understanding of how stakeholders are involved in an entrepreneurial business’ sustainable business model innovation process. This research sets out to understand how to strengthen stakeholder’s involvement in the sustainable business model innovation process of entrepreneurial businesses. Specifically, this research focuses on entrepreneurial businesses undergoing sustainable business model innovation with a radical sustainable innovation. The research aims to make theoretical and practical contributions to the fields of sustainable business model innovation with a particular focus on stakeholders. It aims to accelerate the sustainability transition by supporting entrepreneurial businesses to involve stakeholders in the sustainable business model innovation process. The research adopts a qualitative approach to study this phenomenon by conducting 13 case studies to understand how entrepreneurial businesses work with their stakeholders during the sustainable business model innovation process. Through analysing the case studies, the research identifies activities that the entrepreneurial business and their stakeholders conduct throughout the sustainable business model innovation process of “propose”, “assemble” and “elaborate”, contributing 9 findings to literature: Finding #1: Focal firms engage stakeholders with value proposition framing early in the sustainable business model innovation process. They achieve this typically through identifying suitable early stakeholders and communicating with them about the sustainable innovation and value proposition. Finding #2: Focal firms formalise engagement with early stakeholders after successful pilot-level implementation which helped them formalise their relationship with early stakeholders. Finding #3: Focal firms develop and iterate their sustainable business models. This is typically based on their understanding of their value chain and stakeholder’s feedback. Finding #4: Focal firms orchestrate stakeholders to align business models. This is typically done by identifying the roles and responsibilities of stakeholders required for value creation and delivery of their sustainable business model and open communication with stakeholders. Finding #5: For orchestration to successfully happen, stakeholders, on agreeing with their orchestrated role, participate by aligning their business model or sustainability strategy with the focal firm’s sustainable business model. Finding #6: Stakeholders committing to supporting the entrepreneur’s sustainable business model can support the growth of the focal firm’s business. Finding #7: Some entrepreneurial stakeholders co-orchestrate the sustainable business model. This typically happens as the stakeholder identifies further opportunities based on the sustainable innovation, changing the trajectory of the entrepreneur’s sustainable business model innovation process. Finding #8: Entrepreneurs and their stakeholders collaborate on implementing newly identified value propositions and business models identified by the stakeholders when they both find the right opportunity to do so during the sustainable business model innovation process. Finding #9: Entrepreneurs and stakeholders embrace changes in roles and responsibilities as they go through the sustainable business model innovation process. Taking an evolutionary lens, the research then proposes an evolutionary framework and conceptual model to describe how entrepreneurial businesses work with their stakeholders throughout the sustainable business model innovation process, highlighting the influences they have on each other. This synthesis of the analysed data led to 13 insights. One of the key insights identified a bottleneck in the sustainable business model process and a support was developed to help entrepreneurial businesses involve stakeholders and tackle the bottleneck. The framework and support developed helps to strengthen stakeholder’s involvement in the sustainable business model innovation process. . The result from the research describes the dynamic involvement stakeholders have in the sustainable business model innovation process of entrepreneurial businesses. The insights from this research can guide further research on sustainable business model innovation. It has also produced specific insights to help entrepreneurial businesses and their stakeholders structure their activities better throughout their sustainable business model innovation process."],"dc:format.checksum.md5":["ebc1b44df77696d6e0a3b10ab11b0f5b","87eda9de84448d1f82354d60eee3eb5f"],"dc:identifier.doi":["https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.119346"],"dc:identifier.uri":["https://apollo8-f-pro.lib.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/ab3e8fae-bdc7-459c-867c-a226e23e1f32/download"],"dc:publisher.institution":["University of Cambridge"],"dc:relation.isreferencedby.uri":["https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/385905"],"dc:rights":["https://apollo8-f-pro.lib.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/5f56d360-d7a0-4669-888e-66e7943d782a/download","http://purl.org/NET/rdflicense/allrightsreserved"],"dc:subject":["sustainability","circular business model","evolutionary theory","stakeholders","sustainable business model innovation"],"dc:title":["Stakeholders in sustainable business model innovation"],"dc:type":["Thesis"],"dc:type.qualificationlevel":["Doctoral"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:24:32Z"}