Sustainable Trajectories for Business Model Innovation

Insights from Visual Thinking

Abstract

This paper introduces a visual approach to sustainable business model innovation that helps business model designers conceptualise how sustainability can be integrated in business models. Drawings are used to illustrate four sustainable trajectories for business model innovation. The visualisation of trajectories helps to open the “black box” of sustainable value creation by enabling different understandings of value creation from a business model perspective. The paper also introduces and exemplifies the concept of “multi-lens” thinking for sustainable business model innovation, which entails combining insights from several perspectives.