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Open Business Model of Eco-Innovation for Sustainability Development

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Economic and Business Aspects of Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (21 June 2025) | Viewed by 2138

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Marketing, Trade and World Forestry, Technical University in Zvolen, T. G. Masaryka 24, 960 01 Zvolen, Slovakia
Interests: innovation management; innovation analysis and innovation strategy; clusters
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Guest Editor
Department of Communications, University of Žilina, Zilina, Slovakia
Interests: business ethics; psychology for managers; communication techniques

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Not only businesses, but also society as a whole, require a broader and more systematic understanding of sustainability challenges and the ways in which they can play a role when solving such challenges. Profitable innovations appear to be the strongest players in sustainable models. They are becoming an essential element of innovative business models that lead to sustainability. A sustainable model represents the ability to maintain itself at a certain level and meets current needs without compromising future generations. Such models are based on expanding core assets and capabilities to solve significant environmental and social challenges in their local context. A sustainable business model is one that at least considers all stakeholders, assesses and addresses environmental impacts, and is transparent and thorough. Such a model creates new sources of value and a competitive advantage for a business in this way. A business model of innovation for sustainability development is a change in the way a company operates in order to create positive impacts or to reduce negative consequences for the environment and society. These business models do not focus on economic returns but emphasize the importance of incorporating the concept of sustainability into the company's business model. Incorporating innovations based on sustainable development into business models is a new challenge for companies. This challenge becomes greater as a company seeks to obtain a competitive advantage and simultaneously considers the social and environmental impacts associated with its productive activities, as well as the adoption of sustainable management that must exist in the composition of the entire production chain of activities. Therefore, the sustainability strategy must cover the whole spectrum, from suppliers to final consumers.

The full potential value of sustainable business innovation will only be achieved if the new business model incorporates metrics that examine people’s attitudes within the whole supply chain into the company’s networks and ecosystems to expand impacts and benefits.

This Special Issue of Sustainability, titled “Open Business Model of Eco-Innovation for Sustainability Development”, is intended to serve as a platform for sharing research findings and insights into this topic.

This Special Issue welcomes studies that consider the business models to environmental, social, and economic aspects of innovation supporting sustainable development. Within this framework, studies should focus on innovations to business models representing positive change aimed at significant or visible progress towards sustainable development by reducing environmental impacts or achieving a more efficient and responsible use of natural resources, as well as other related arguments.

We look forward to receiving your original research contributions.

Dr. Erika Loučanová
Dr. Zuzana Štofková
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • business model
  • innovation
  • sustainability
  • stakeholders
  • supply chain
  • environment
  • social environment or society
  • economy

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

36 pages, 2220 KiB  
Article
Business Models of Public Smart Services for Sustainable Development
by Patrícia Janošková, Filip Bajza, Katarína Repková-Štofková, Zuzana Štofková and Erika Loučanová
Sustainability 2024, 16(17), 7420; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16177420 - 28 Aug 2024
Viewed by 1410
Abstract
The smart city concept has entered the public debate over the last decade as a concept for the development of urban space for the efficiency, improvement and availability of public and private services and sustainability. The Business Models Canvas is most often used [...] Read more.
The smart city concept has entered the public debate over the last decade as a concept for the development of urban space for the efficiency, improvement and availability of public and private services and sustainability. The Business Models Canvas is most often used in the literature for the creation of business models of smart services. On the basis of the above, we investigated whether the Business Models Canvas is the most used tool for creating business models for public smart services in Slovakia and whether cities and municipalities need to evaluate their models for the provision of public smart services. However, there is no commonly used methodology for evaluating smart city business models to help both practitioners and researchers choose the best option. The goal of the research is to create a tool for evaluating business models of public smart services in smart cities. The base method used was the Delphi method, based on the previous primary (content) analysis process of the Business Model Canvas best practices. In total, 709 towns and villages participated in the primary research. Subsequently, the obtained data were evaluated and used for further research using the Delphi method, in which 28 experts participated. The research was carried out between 2020 and 2023 in Slovakia. Primary research confirmed that the Business Models Canvas is the most used tool for creating business models for public smart services in Slovakia and cities and municipalities need to evaluate their models for the provision of public smart services. Areas and basic building blocks were also identified for the design of the evaluation methodology of business models for public smart services. The proposal of the methodology for evaluating business smodels for public smart services in Slovakia was implemented using the Delphi method with the cooperation of 28 experts. Based on the results of the Delphi method, a methodological procedure for evaluating business models for public smart services was established. The methodology proposed in the paper is a simple, organized, flexible and transparent system that facilitates the work of evaluators of business models of public smart services and marketing. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Open Business Model of Eco-Innovation for Sustainability Development)
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