Digital Sustainable Development and New Business Models – a Literature Review

The concept of sustainability, until a few years ago, was clearly opposed to that of innovation, because it seemed difficult to reconcile the needs of innovation, the results of which often had a considerable impact on the environment, with the paradigm of sustainability, which instead is based on the rationalization of the exploitation of raw materials and respect for the environment. Today, however, it is clear that innovation plays a fundamental role in the development of sustainable development models. This is why there is a growing need to develop business models that, in addition to being innovative, are also sustainable. There are now countless studies that address the relationship of the concept of sustainability with the most different social, economic and obviously ecological paradigms, but it seemed to us that in such a vast and transversal field it was necessary to begin to rationalize the real impact of the idea of sustainability applied to some essential trends, such as innovation and new digital tools and models.