IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v15y2023i18p14007-d1244611.html

Transformative Business Models for Decarbonization: Insights from Prize-Winning Start-Ups at the Web Summit

Author

Listed:
  • Evaldo Costa

    (DINÂMIA’CET-Iscte, Centro de Estudos Sobre a Mudança Socioeconómica e o Território, Iscte-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, 1649-026 Lisboa, Portugal)

  • Margarida Fontes

    (LNEG—Laboratório Nacional de Energia e Geologia, 1649-038 Lisboa, Portugal)

  • Nuno Bento

    (DINÂMIA’CET-Iscte, Centro de Estudos Sobre a Mudança Socioeconómica e o Território, Iscte-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, 1649-026 Lisboa, Portugal)

Abstract

The increasing social pressure for decarbonization has placed businesses under considerable scrutiny to actively reduce carbon emissions. A critical step towards achieving this objective is to shift conventional production and consumption systems to more sustainable alternatives. Thus, there is an emergent need to understand the patterns and drivers of the transformative business models (BMs) that underpin that shift. This study adopts a mixed-methods approach that integrates different literature streams—including Sustainability Transitions Theory (STT), Strategic Niche Management (SNM), and the Business Models approach—and stakeholders’ interviews to investigate the key elements of business models that lead towards sustainable practices. This research examines the organizational arrangements of European start-ups operating between 2014 and 2020. The transformation towards decarbonized production and consumption is characterized by an efficient combination of business strategies that incorporate advanced technologies (ATs), such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and its algorithms, along with sustainable elements, resulting in transformative business models. By exploring the driving elements behind the transition to low-carbon approaches, this study fills a significant gap in the existing literature on business models. The findings from this research also hold relevance for policymakers to promote decarbonization.

Suggested Citation

  • Evaldo Costa & Margarida Fontes & Nuno Bento, 2023. "Transformative Business Models for Decarbonization: Insights from Prize-Winning Start-Ups at the Web Summit," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(18), pages 1-23, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:18:p:14007-:d:1244611
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/18/14007/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/18/14007/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jarrod Grainger-Brown & Shirin Malekpour, 2019. "Implementing the Sustainable Development Goals: A Review of Strategic Tools and Frameworks Available to Organisations," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(5), pages 1-18, March.
    2. Verhoef, Peter C. & Broekhuizen, Thijs & Bart, Yakov & Bhattacharya, Abhi & Qi Dong, John & Fabian, Nicolai & Haenlein, Michael, 2021. "Digital transformation: A multidisciplinary reflection and research agenda," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 889-901.
    3. Steve Evans & Doroteya Vladimirova & Maria Holgado & Kirsten Van Fossen & Miying Yang & Elisabete A. Silva & Claire Y. Barlow, 2017. "Business Model Innovation for Sustainability: Towards a Unified Perspective for Creation of Sustainable Business Models," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(5), pages 597-608, July.
    4. Simon Cadez & Albert Czerny & Peter Letmathe, 2019. "Stakeholder pressures and corporate climate change mitigation strategies," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(1), pages 1-14, January.
    5. Markard, Jochen & Raven, Rob & Truffer, Bernhard, 2012. "Sustainability transitions: An emerging field of research and its prospects," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(6), pages 955-967.
    6. Cristina Sousa & Evaldo Costa, 2022. "Types of Policies for the Joint Diffusion of Electric Vehicles with Renewable Energies and Their Use Worldwide," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(20), pages 1-19, October.
    7. Peter Wells, 2019. "Business Model Innovation at the Interface Between Global Production Systems and Local Demand," Springer Books, in: Peter Wells (ed.), Contemporary Operations and Logistics, chapter 0, pages 45-60, Springer.
    8. Rafael Ziegler & Cynthia Poirier & Marie Lacasse & Evan Murray, 2023. "Circular Economy and Cooperatives—An Exploratory Survey," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-17, January.
    9. Jafari-Sadeghi, Vahid & Garcia-Perez, Alexeis & Candelo, Elena & Couturier, Jerome, 2021. "Exploring the impact of digital transformation on technology entrepreneurship and technological market expansion: The role of technology readiness, exploration and exploitation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 100-111.
    10. Nambisan, Satish & Wright, Mike & Feldman, Maryann, 2019. "The digital transformation of innovation and entrepreneurship: Progress, challenges and key themes," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(8), pages 1-1.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Adriano Martins de Souza & Fabio Neves Puglieri & Antonio Carlos de Francisco, 2024. "Competitive Advantages of Sustainable Startups: Systematic Literature Review and Future Research Directions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(17), pages 1-24, September.
    2. Efa Muleta Boru & Junseok Hwang & Abdi Yuya Ahmad, 2025. "Governance and Institutional Frameworks in Ethiopian Integrated Agro-Industrial Parks: Enhancing Innovation Ecosystems and Multi Stakeholder Coordination for Global Market Competitiveness," Economies, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-28, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hu, Jinjin & Huo, Dong & Wu, Delin, 2024. "Digital economy development and venture capital networks: Empirical evidence from China," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 203(C).
    2. Deheng Xiao & Can Zhang & Yongjian Huang, 2024. "Digital economy policy and enterprise digital transformation: Evidence from innovation and structural effect," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 45(4), pages 2348-2359, June.
    3. Verma, Pratima & Kumar, Vimal & Yalcin, Haydar & Daim, Tugrul, 2023. "Organizational architecture of strategic entrepreneurial firms for digital transformation: A bibliometric analysis," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    4. Sascha Fuerst & Odille Sanchez-Dominguez & Miguel Angel Rodriguez-Montes, 2023. "The Role of Digital Technology within the Business Model of Sustainable Entrepreneurship," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(14), pages 1-17, July.
    5. Jinkai Liang & Ke Du & Dandan Chen, 2023. "The Effect of Digitalization on Ambidextrous Innovation in Manufacturing Enterprises: A Perspective of Empowering and Enabling," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(16), pages 1-23, August.
    6. Pi-Hui Chung & Cheng-Yu Lee, 2024. "The Attitude of Family Firms Toward Digital Transformation: From the Organizational Learning Perspective," Advances in Management and Applied Economics, SCIENPRESS Ltd, vol. 14(4), pages 1-2.
    7. Zhu, Xiumei & Li, Yue, 2023. "The use of data-driven insight in ambidextrous digital transformation: How do resource orchestration, organizational strategic decision-making, and organizational agility matter?," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 196(C).
    8. Aleksandar M. Damnjanović & Milan Rašković & Svetozar D. Janković & Boris Jevtić & Volodymyr N. Skoropad & Zoran D. Marković & Violeta Lukić-Vujadinović & Zoran Injac & Srđan Marinković, 2025. "AI-Enabled Strategic Transformation and Sustainable Outcomes in Serbian SMEs," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(19), pages 1-33, September.
    9. Liu, Zixu & Zhou, Jianghua & Li, Jizhen, 2023. "How do family firms respond strategically to the digital transformation trend: Disclosing symbolic cues or making substantive changes?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 155(PA).
    10. Peiyan Zhou & Shuya Zhou & Ming Zhang & Shujuan Miao, 2022. "Executive Overconfidence, Digital Transformation and Environmental Innovation: The Role of Moderated Mediator," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(10), pages 1-28, May.
    11. María Belén Prados-Peña & Francisco Jesús Gálvez-Sánchez & Pedro Núñez-Cacho & Valentín Molina-Moreno, 2024. "Intention to purchase sustainable craft products: a moderated mediation analysis of the adoption of sustainability in the craft sector," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 26(1), pages 775-797, January.
    12. Qiwei Zhou & Shuang Cheng & Feiqiang Fu & Jingmin Zhang & Yingxu Jiang, 2025. "Enterprise digital transformation as a double-edged sword for employees: an investigation based on the Job Demands-Resources model," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 12(1), pages 1-16, December.
    13. Zahoor, Nadia & Zopiatis, Anastasios & Adomako, Samuel & Lamprinakos, Grigorios, 2023. "The micro-foundations of digitally transforming SMEs: How digital literacy and technology interact with managerial attributes," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    14. Ancillai, Chiara & Sabatini, Andrea & Gatti, Marco & Perna, Andrea, 2023. "Digital technology and business model innovation: A systematic literature review and future research agenda," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 188(C).
    15. Kazunori Minetaki & Teruyuki Bunno & Hiroki Idota, 2026. "The Challenge of Digital Transformation for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in Japan," The Review of Socionetwork Strategies, Springer, vol. 20(1), pages 107-121, April.
    16. Xiao, Zhongyi & Li, Yuanling & Xiang, Cheng, 2025. "Do suppliers value customer firms' digital transformation? Evidence from trade credit provision," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    17. Belitski, Maksim & Korosteleva, Julia & Piscitello, Lucia, 2023. "Digital affordances and entrepreneurial dynamics: New evidence from European regions," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    18. Karolina Bähr & Alexander Fliaster, 2023. "The twofold transition: Framing digital innovations and incumbents' value propositions for sustainability," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(2), pages 920-935, February.
    19. Lihua Chen & Yilang Chen, 2023. "A Metaorganizations Perspective on Digital Innovation and Corporate Social Responsibility: Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(14), pages 1-19, July.
    20. Wang, Lu & Chen, Lifeng & Zhong, Shengyang & Zhou, Qunmi, 2025. "How executive green perception affect high-quality growth: Evidence from Chinese listed companies," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 108(PB).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:18:p:14007-:d:1244611. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager The email address of this maintainer does not seem to be valid anymore. Please ask MDPI Indexing Manager to update the entry or send us the correct address (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.