The overall framework for leaders is now changing and a reassessment of traditional economic and financial models is called for to foster the green and circular transition. The Nordic countries may offer some of the values and leadership trends needed to implement sustainable leadership. Sustainable leadership is necessary to attract new generations of customers and employees, and to drive the great transition to a green economy. Leaders need new competences and new values to prepare their companies for the new market conditions and geopolitical situation. Managing businesses’ impacts throughout the value chain is the new normal and sustainability is a business imperative. In this regard, the Sustainable Development Goals can offer guidance. The Nordic societies have proven to be forerunners in terms of developing SDG-oriented business strategies, and their economies remained resilient and stable through the financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic. Using the Nordic example, this book discusses how the transformation of business models, organizations, and societies, as well as the pricing of externalities, will be essential to operating within the boundaries of a fair and sustainable world. The book introduces a UN SDG Fund and explains the value of sending executives on “Højskole” – a Danish journey of lifelong learning and the continuous acquisition of new leadership skills and values. In addition, it presents the new concepts of the “Strategic House” and “Purpose Gap,” while adapting Porter’s value chain into a Circular Organization Model. The book also features a catalogue of proven methods and guidelines to assist companies in transforming their businesses towards sustainability, ESG, and regenerative impacts.

Governance and Business Models for Sustainable Capitalism touches upon many of the central themes of today’s debate on business and society. In particular, it brings attention to a recurrent tension between efficiency, innovation, and productivity on the one hand, and fairness, equity, and sustainability on the other. The book argues that we need radical rethinking of business models and economic governance, beyond the classical doctrine, which sees social and ecological responsibility as lying with public-policy regulation of purely profit-seeking firms. In spite of the popular CSR agenda, business – as we know it today – is both too transient and too limited in its motivation to carry the regulatory burden. We need to adopt a much wider concept of 'partnered governance', where advanced states and pioneering companies work together to raise the social and environmental bar. The book suggests that civil engagements based on moral rather than formal rights, and amplified through the media, may provide a healthy challenge both to autocratic planning and to solely profit-centered commercialization. The book also proposes a triple cycle theory of innovation for sustainability: a novel framing of the efficacy of green and prosocial entrepreneurship as intertwined with political visions and supportive institutions. In addition, the book offers reflections on the ways in which further digital robotizaton may enable transition to an ‘Agora Economy’ where productive efficiency is combined with expanded civic freedoms. Aimed primarily at researchers, academics, and students in the fields of political economy, business and society, corporate governance, business ethics, corporate social responsibility, and sustainability, the book will additionally be of value to practitioners, supplying them with information regarding the challenges associated with the shaping of sustainable or ‘civilised’ market capitalism for a better world.

This book provides a clear, critical, and timely analysis of the state of corporate sustainability within the context of the climate crisis. It offers not only a substantive critique of the current efforts but also clarity about the changes needed and how to implement them. The book goes beyond the more common debate on shareholder capitalism vs. stakeholder capitalism to explain the shortcomings of the current approach to sustainability in business, which the author describes as sustainability-as-usual. Using strategic design lenses, the author proposes a new model of awakened sustainability, which offers a transformational shift in corporate sustainability to ensure companies fairly and effectively address the climate crisis. The book presents the numerous changes needed in the environment in which companies operate to enable awakened sustainability and how these changes can be realized. Grounded in the scientific community’s calls for urgent action on climate change, this groundbreaking text provides scholars with an evaluation of current and future trends in corporate sustainability. It connects the dots between the progress made in the last five decades and the opportunities entailed in the work on a regenerative and just vision for companies in this decade and beyond.

This book offers innovative ideas and frameworks for sustainable strategizing to advance business by scaling-up its positive impact, which is so urgently needed at this time in the 21st century. It shows practitioners how to effectively deal with socio-ecological systems’ disruptions to their operating environments and play an active role in transforming markets toward a sustainable future. In short, the book demonstrates how to make business sense of sustainability, highlighting new approaches and examples that translate sustainability into strategy and action. The ultimate goal is to provide a path toward a thriving future for both business and society. This book was written for strategy practitioners and decision makers who want to understand why sustainable strategizing is important in today’s business world and are seeking actionable business knowledge they can apply in their companies. It was also written for students of management and can be used as a supplemental text to support traditional graduate and undergraduate management courses.

Business Models for Sustainability breaks new ground by combining three important insights. First, achieving sustainability requires socio-technical transitions that entail new technologies, production processes, lifestyles, and consumption patterns. Second, firms play crucial roles in mediating between sustainable production and consumption. Third, radical innovations require organizational innovations and new business models. Peter Wells successfully combines these big picture ideas with rich in-depth case studies drawing on years of accumulated expertise. Highly recommended. Frank W. Geels, University of Manchester, UK and Chairman of the Sustainability Transitions Research Network With increasing awareness that innovative technology alone is insufficient to make sustainable lifestyles a reality, this book brings into sharp focus the need to create radical new business models. This insightful book provides a theoretically grounded but also realistic account of how the design of business models can be a critical component in the overall transition to sustainability, and one that transcends the usual focus on innovative technology. Weaving together key principles and components for business sustainability, the book highlights five very different pathways to the future for sectors ranging from microbreweries and printing through to clothing, mobility and plastics. Business has only just started the first few tentative steps towards a very different approach to creating and sustaining value, but this book concludes that enormous opportunities will emerge alongside new ways of creating and capturing value. Academics and postgraduate students in the fields of sustainable business, business organisations and industrial ecology will find this book brings a greater understanding of business strategy and structure to the discipline. While traditionally referenced and structured, this academic book is accessibly written with key principles that may also appeal to the consultant community.

This book provides a rich overview and takes a closer look at the current state of theory and practice in the field of sustainable business models. The chapters in this book examine and analyze existing and new approaches towards sustainable business models and showcase the implementation of sustainable business through both quantitative and qualitative studies, including several case studies and many practical examples. It approaches these issues from the standpoints of diverse business disciplines to yield new insights and ideas that are relevant from both an academic and professional perspective. In its essence, the book examines how firms’ value creation processes can be driven by sustainability and social responsibility and how this impacts business and society. Readers will find a range of sustainable business models that have been employed and are being pioneered in various industries around the globe – which are thoroughly investigated and discussed, and put into a comprehensive conceptual framework.