Towards a sufficiency-driven business model : Experiences and opportunities

Summary, in English

Business model innovation is an important lever for change to tackle pressing sustainability issues. In this paper, 'sufficiency' is proposed as a driver of business model innovation for sustainability. Sufficiency-driven business models seek to moderate overall resource consumption by curbing demand through education and consumer engagement, making products that last longer and avoiding built-in obsolescence, focusing on satisfying 'needs' rather than promoting 'wants' and fast-fashion, conscious sales and marketing techniques, new revenue models, or innovative technology solutions. This paper uses a case study approach to investigate how companies might use sufficiency as a driver for innovation and asserts that there can be a good business case for sufficiency. Business models of exemplar cases are analysed and insights are gained that will contribute to future research, policy makers and businesses interested in exploring sufficiency.

• Author: N. M.P. Bocken; S. W. Short
• Department/s: Mechanical Engineering with Industrial Design Engineering (M.Sc.Eng.)
• Publishing year: 2016-03-01
• Language: English
• Pages: 41-61
• Publication/Series: Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions
• Volume: 18
• Links: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.eist.2015.07.010
• Document type: Journal article
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Topic: Environmental Sciences
• Keywords: Frugal innovation; Product longevity; Slow consumption; Sustainability; Sustainable consumption
• Status: Published
• ISBN/ISSN/Other: ISSN: 2210-4224