sustainability Article The Business Model in Sustainability Transitions: A Conceptualization Roberto Hernández-Chea 1 , Akriti Jain 2, * , Nancy M. P. Bocken 1,3 and Anjula Gurtoo 2   Citation: Hernández-Chea, R.; Jain, A.; Bocken, N.M.P.; Gurtoo, A. The Business Model in Sustainability Transitions: A Conceptualization. Sustainability 2021, 13, 5763. https:// doi.org/10.3390/su13115763 Academic Editor: Luis Jesús Belmonte-Ureña Received: 13 April 2021 Accepted: 11 May 2021 Published: 21 May 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 The International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics (IIIEE), Lund University, Tegnérsplatsen 4, 223 50 Lund, Sweden; robherchea@gmail.com (R.H.-C.); nancy.bocken@maastrichtuniversity.nl (N.M.P.B.) 2 Centre for Society and Policy, Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Science—Bangalore, Mathikere, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560012, India; anjula@iisc.ac.in 3 Maastricht Sustainability Institute, School of Business and Economics, Maastricht University, Tapijn 11 Building D, 6200 MD Maastricht, The Netherlands * Correspondence: akritijain@iisc.ac.in Abstract: Business models direct a firm’s activity to move in coherence with the objectives of the business. Current literature suggests business models can act as vital forces to facilitate sustain- ability transitions and highlights the urgent research call to understand the role of business model innovations in stimulating sustainability transitions. This paper addresses this research need by investigating how firms create business model innovations for system-level transformation towards sustainability. Through a systematic literature review and deductive content analysis methodology, we identify and categorize different combinations of innovative activities in a firm’s business model. Furthermore, two cases are illustrated to demonstrate the proposed conceptual model. The proposed conceptualization bridges a significant gap in the theme of sustainability and business and presents a defensible and researchable problem for transitions literature. Specifically, we find (1) shared vision and strategic dialogues among firms in different sectors as essential to develop value propositions and leverage business opportunities for sustainability in the long run; (2) companies ensure sustainable value creation and value delivery in the medium term through creation of an interdependent network of the green supply chain and collaboration with stakeholders; (3) in the short term, companies adopt sustainable practices, controlling daily operations, conducting awareness campaigns and experimenting with collaborations to deliver values based on sustainable practices. Keywords: sustainable business models (SBM); activity-system approach; circular economy; sustain- ability transition; transition management; transitions studies 1. Introduction Increasing environmental concerns and associated stricter regulations have directed the attention of researchers and practitioners alike towards the potential role of multiple actors in a system to accelerate sustainability transitions [1,2]. Among them, the business model, as a tool to bring system-wide sustainability changes, has received increasing attention in the literature [3]. This study investigates the role of business models in sustain- ability transitions. Specifically, we ask the research question: what is the role of sustainable business models’ activity system in sustainability transitions? Business models embrace a wide range of operational and strategic activities [4]. Wirtz et al. [5] described business models as representative of firm activities which help the business secure competitive advantage and involve all stakeholders of the firm, including customers and partners (see also [4,6,7]). In line with this, sustainable business models take into account ecological, social and financial concerns embedded into business activities, as well as interactions with a wide range of stakeholders to implement activities [8,9]. Sustainable business models differ from dominant unsustainable ones (e.g., the linear economy business model) by either incorporating concepts to pursue sustainability and integrating sustainability or Sustainability 2021, 13, 5763. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13115763 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability