sustainability Article Improving the E-Commerce Business Model in a Sustainable Environment Mingwei Sun 1 , Katarzyna Grondys 2, * , Nazim Hajiyev 3 and Pavel Zhukov 4   Citation: Sun, M.; Grondys, K.; Hajiyev, N.; Zhukov, P. Improving the E-Commerce Business Model in a Sustainable Environment. Sustainability 2021, 13, 12667. https:// doi.org/10.3390/su132212667 Academic Editor: Adnan ul Haque Received: 13 October 2021 Accepted: 11 November 2021 Published: 16 November 2021 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). 1 College of Computer Science and Technology, Tonghua Normal University, Tonghua 134000, China; sunmingwei7@163.com 2 Faculty Management, Czestochowa University of Technology (CUT), 42-201 Czestochowa, Poland 3 Department of Economics and Business Administration, Azerbaijan State University of Economics (UNEC), Baku 1001, Azerbaijan; n.hajiyev@unec.edu.az 4 Department of Public Finance, Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, 117437 Moscow, Russia; Paul-joukov@yandex.ru * Correspondence: katarzyna.grondys@pcz.pl Abstract: The purpose of this study is to develop a comprehensive methodological approach to assess the sustainability of the e-commerce business model based on the integration of key performance indicators into a single vector of business model sustainability. The proposed vector approach allows for predicting and evaluating the effects of different kinds of measures, identifying and implementing the most effective tools for sustainable e-commerce business development. The methodology of this study is based on correlation, cluster and regression analysis. The scientific contribution of this study is the proposed methodological approach, which not only allows one to analyze business model sustainability, but also to compare companies in a competitive environment to determine the priorities of their functioning to achieve leadership positions on the background of sustainable development. The correlation analysis proved that in modern conditions, both economic and environmental components are significant for business model effectiveness in e-commerce. The clustering of the studied e-commerce companies provided an opportunity to take into account the peculiarities of the studied companies, to group them by similar performance indicators. This made it possible to develop more accurate regression models for each cluster. In this case, there is a correlation between the sustainability vector of the business model of a company and its assignment to a particular cluster. The conducted modeling and determination of the level of business model sustainability allowed for determining a relationship between it and the performance of e-commerce companies in the context of economic, environmental and social dimensions. At the same time, the results show that increasing the sustainability vector brings a company closer to the business sustainability benchmark. Keywords: business model; clustering; correlation; e-commerce; regression; sustainability 1. Introduction The pace and scale of technological change over the past decade has led to a revolution in business, including retail. Around the world, there has been intense growth in the e- commerce market (retail sales that are conducted through electronic channels). The World Economic Forum predicts that this trend will continue and that in 2026 online commerce will account on average for more than 40% of all retail sales [1]. E-commerce can be seen as a natural consequence of information society development, although classical theories of information society do not directly refer to this phenomenon. In modern conditions, Information and Communications Technology (ICT) is among the most important produc- tion resources and is the basis for e-commerce functioning as well as a significant factor of socio-economic development. E-commerce is a qualitatively new formation, provides a multifunctional service society and is a means to meet the needs of consumers [2]. E-traders Sustainability 2021, 13, 12667. https://doi.org/10.3390/su132212667 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability