Towards a holistic framework for sustainable value analysis in business models: A tool for sustainable development

This article analyzes how the concept of sustainable value is used in the business model literature to understand and structure the concepts used in analyzing the value creation process in business models to date. We found that in discussing sustainable business models, sustainable value, a term encompassing the environmental, social, and economic benefits of a given model, has been used in place of the conventional term, value. However, the conceptual implications of this substitution have not been sufficiently addressed. A systematic literature review reveals both positive and negative perspectives of value as well as the misuse of several multilevel value concepts. We categorize these concepts according to their meaning, differences, similarities, and implications. As a result, we propose a holistic framework that structures them, integrates both positive and negative perspectives of value, and proposes an activity-based analysis for sustainable value in business models. The contributions of this paper are twofold: theoretically, it structures value concepts in order to better understand the sustainable value process in business models, and practically, it offers a tool for sustainable development by providing a framework to analyze sustainable value in a variety of business models as a basis for improvement in sustainability.