Leveraging business model innovation for sustainability. Tentative principles to support true co-creation between students and SMEs

Abstract

Recent trends and challenges surrounding sustainability and digitalization have forced businesses to rethink their business models. Business model innovation for sustainability (BMIfS) aims to enable companies to better meet these challenges and to operate within planetary boundaries while ensuring their long-term success. Several authors have iterated the importance of co-creation and collaboration with multiple stakeholders for BMIfS. Educational settings can provide an ideal environment to engage multiple stakeholders collaboratively. However, the educational facet in supporting SMEs in meeting the challenges of BMIfS appears insufficiently addressed. In particular, the practical implementation of co-creative learning activities to strengthen students’ and businesses’ capabilities for BMIfS is weakly researched and developed. This paper contributes by addressing the challenges of true co-creation for BMIfS between students and SMEs in educational settings. Built on insights from two illustrative educational initiatives, several underlying causes for these challenges are discussed. Based on these observations and the authors’ experiences, seven tentative principles are presented to support the design of educational co-creative BMIfS with students and SMEs. For future research, the paper suggests taking design-based and longitudinal research approaches to improve education for sustainability resulting in better students’ and businesses’ capabilities for BMIfS as well as assessing its transformational impact for SMEs.