Sustainability orientation in business models of Swiss start-ups
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Authors
Author (Corporation)
Publication date
2021
Typ of student thesis
Course of study
Collections
Type
04B - Conference paper
Editors
Gerber, Aurona
Editor (Corporation)
Supervisor
Parent work
Proceedings of Society 5.0 Conference 2021
Special issue
DOI of the original publication
Link
Series
Series number
18
Volume
2
Issue / Number
Pages / Duration
98-117
Patent number
Publisher / Publishing institution
Place of publication / Event location
Online
Edition
Version
Programming language
Assignee
Practice partner / Client
Abstract
Research on Sustainable Business Models of start-ups currently focuses on those which pursue a sustainability goal as a main aspect and at least also follow an ethical motivation, possibly in addition to the profit motive. This paper aims to firstly identify useful criteria for describing sustainability in business models and secondly does an investigation on the sustainability orientation and implementation in business models of participating start-ups in the Swiss Innovation Challenge, a business plan competition. As sustainability was no criterion in the application process, many of the start-ups didn’t have a strong sustainability orientation. It will be examined to what extent these start-ups take sustainability aspects into account, and which ones in detail. Secondly, it is examined which business model types are used here in order to identify prevailing types and patterns for start-ups that are not selected for their sustainability orientation. The 25 start-up teams were interviewed with a semi-structured interview guide, including an evaluations of sustainability criteria. Almost all start-ups have a strong profit orientation and many also consider sustainability in their business model, though mostly with only one field of action. The linear business model is dominant and only few start-ups contribute to the circular economy. Another outcome of the survey is that the sustainable business model patterns should be adapted for this target group of start-ups not geared towards sustainability for future research.
Keywords
Subject (DDC)
330 - Wirtschaft
Event
Society 5.0 conference. Integrating digital world and real world to resolve challenges in business and society
Exhibition start date
Exhibition end date
Conference start date
22.06.2021
Conference end date
24.06.2021
Date of the last check
ISBN
ISSN
Language
English
Created during FHNW affiliation
Yes
Strategic action fields FHNW
Publication status
Published
Review
Peer review of the complete publication
Open access category
Green
License
Citation
MILOW, Uta, 2021. Sustainability orientation in business models of Swiss start-ups. In: Aurona GERBER und Knut HINKELMANN (Hrsg.), Proceedings of Society 5.0 Conference 2021. Online. 2021. S. 98–117. 18. Verfügbar unter: https://doi.org/10.26041/fhnw-7055