How a business model’s sustainability and scalability interact

ABSTRACT

Changes in current business create modern mechanisms for businesses to determine what they aim for and the achievement of their high performance. The ability to maintain high performance becomes a guide for business continuity. The mechanism that can adopt such assumption is a business model that has the ability to generate outcomes in every market situation. Business ventures are continuously aiming at developing feasible business models for solving challenges in the society. The significance of a business model in determining the sustainability and scalability of business performance has been widely acknowledged in the literature. A characteristic that explains the adaptability of a business model is its sustainability and scalability. As factors that ensure efficiency of work, sustainability and scalability can be applied to the concept of a business model as the ability of businesses to maintain higher performance through their operations. The study aims at determining how business model sustainability and scalability interact in different conditions. The study presents the concept of sustainability and scalability with explanations to determine the performance of business. Dwelling on literature on business models and innovation adoption, the study developed a business model built on the triangle of optimization of economic, social, and environmental value. The study applied the business model to Bcomp, a clean-tech venture with the mission of producing of linen-based composite material. The study tested the sustainability and scalability of the business performance and found an interaction between business model sustainability and scalability.

KEYWORDS:

• Sustainability
• scalability
• business models

Notes

¹ In Switzerland, the government has voted to stop nuclear energy production by 2050 and is taking actions to meet this objective. For instance, the Swiss government has registered a reduction of about 10% of CO₂ emissions in 2018 compared to 1990 (Swiss Federal Office of Energy, 2018). Finding a way to produce that does not harm the environment, or that even reinforces it, will be the norm for industries and businesses around the globe.

² For instance, the famous incubator, Impact Hub, has created a specific branch dedicated to the circular economy, called Circular Economy Transition, and large groups, such as Circular Economy Switzerland, have emerged.