Business Models for Multiple Value Creation: Exploring Strategic Changes in Organisations Enabling to Address Societal Challenges

Abstract

We live in a society where companies are requested to address societal challenges, a move that implies a transition. To make this transition a new generation of business models should be created. A business model describes the logic of value creation between parties. Three movements should be embedded in business models, namely, from single to multiple values creating logic, from organisation-centric to organising in value cycles, and from addressing needs of a single actor to needs of multiple actors. Value creation should be founded on three alternative principles providing strategic direction, namely, lifespan extension, servitisation, and design for decomposition. Movements and principles give way to three archetypes of business models, namely, platforms, community, and circular business models. They show a changing logic of value creation take and give shape to the transition of society. This contribution ends by addressing a debate on the nature of value creation ranging from depletion via eco-efficiency and circularity towards value restoration and regeneration economies.