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This chapter analyses the paradigmatic change of the process of value creation leading to a redesign of business modelling (BM). It explores changes in the nature of value creation and how this is reflected in the logic of a new generation of BM. The chapter discusses the essence of BM with regard to value creation. The contemporary discourse on value creation mainly, but implicitly, concerns financial value creation. A BM shows how value creation is organized. Conventionally, this leads to a three-step approach of the actual value created, the distribution and the capture. Regardless of the nature of an economy, value creation is the shared task of economic actors. The chapter discusses the crossroads of value creation and the specific economic school of thought from which it originates. The best-known business modelling tool in corporate practice is the business model canvas, which has been widely adopted since its publication.

In this chapter, we explore the nature of strategy. We have touched upon the subject in earlier chapters but here we present a typology of strategies. We define strategy as a route consisting of a set of deliberate actions leading to realizing your sustainable value proposition. Strategy can be approached as a plan or a process. Six strategies are distinguished: (1) eco-efficiency, (2) product as a service, (3) use optimization, (4) lifespan extension, (5) cascading, and (6) community building. Each of these strategies can be used as a stand-alone strategy or in a balanced combination while developing one of the business model archetypes. Which of these strategies or combinations you choose depends on the specific circumstances and stakeholders involved and the context in which you are seeking to realize your business model, as well as the underlying value proposition. A functional strategy is fundamentally a matter of clear, reasoned and actionable choices.

In this chapter, the central question is which core activities you will undertake in order to achieve your goal, organizing your value proposition with success. Because you are working towards a specific goal, and with selected strategies, it is useful to state which (core) activities are necessary to realize your sustainable business model. The idea of a core activity is that a specific part of the organizational activities can be seen as the speciality of a company, a network, or a community: it tells what they are really good at. Core activities should contribute to operationalizing the chosen strategy, thus contributing to the realization of the overall goal, coherent with the value proposition. We offer a core activities framework based on the conventional sustainability trio: reduce, reuse, recycle. This has evolved over the years into a whole family—commonly referred to as the RE-strategies and presented here as the 13 REs.

This book is designed to support you to work through the ten building blocks of the Business Model Template (BMT), grouped into three stages, from left to right and top to bottom. The underlying idea is to develop a business model from scratch by following the various steps in the Business Model Template in a straightforward and almost linear manner. There is nothing wrong with your first attempt at developing a business model. But there are many other possible routes. Here we outline five possible alternatives: (1) Idea-driven, (2) Proposition-driven, (3) Network-driven, (4) Impact-driven, and (5) Competence-driven. Depending on your circumstances, the networks you have access to, and the nature of the idea you would like to pursue, an alternative route might be worth looking at. You can still use all of the building blocks of the Business Model Template, but in a different order. That part is up to you.

In this chapter, we will address the motive to start developing a business model and the context in which you are doing so. It is important to use this first building block of the Business Model Template (BMT) to carefully look for the social and ecological components and the context of your idea. The idea of looking carefully at the context is essential because this will steer the possibilities and choices that you have at a later stage. In this way, you can also expand your line of reasoning and motivation into one in which sustainability is central. Looking at a context with respect to its complexity is of the essence: trying your best to discover what truly matters, as well as where you see the opportunities to do things. Getting clear about what motivates you to start working on a specific issue is, after all, the basis for all the steps that are still to come.

We live in a time of social transition. Everywhere in society, cracks are appearing. The only answer to these developments is to organize in radically different ways, saying goodbye to the present linear economy. That is what transition is all about. The search for new forms of value creation and the triple transition necessitates different business models. In turn this implies behavioural change, which may be the biggest challenge and greatest barrier to achieving a transition to a sustainable, circular, and inclusive economy. This book deliberately does not address the issue of change and transition. That would require yet another book. But to finish off we provide an overview of the obstacles and challenges of creating fundamental change. We say goodbye by providing you with the six elements of a successful business model. The key message of this last chapter is that mainstreaming sustainable business models is by no means a given, but over time will become the new normal.

The BMT provides the building blocks to develop a logic for a business model. In such a model the nature of value creation, how value creation is organized, and how transactions are taking shape are operationalized so that they meet the proposition. Practice shows that at present business models aimed at capturing multiple value creation can be divided into three major categories: (1) platform business models, (2) community-based (or collective) business models, and (3) circular business models. The three archetypes differ mainly in the way in which they create value, as well as the objective, the mechanism through which value creation takes place, and the infrastructural and technological requirements. When using the BMT, it is useful to consider at an early stage which business model archetype is dominant in the realization of the intended value proposition. Choosing a business model archetype might look straightforward, but it can be quite a tricky task.

Looking for your Dream provides a second tool to help you build your business model in this first stage of the Business Model Template (BMT). You have previously indicated which major social and/or ecological issues you want to solve. Now you will determine what the result of that solution could be. Look for a solution that goes beyond just tackling one issue. The Dream building block demands thinking big: it is a Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal (BHAG) on which you are going to work. How and why will your business model idea really make a difference? In order to not get lost in thinking about dreams, you could make use of various tools such as scenarios, metaphors or framing, all of which are addressed in this chapter. Putting all the steps in this chapter together, you will have dreamed up something big that you want to go for.

The external test is the tenth and final building block of the first and second stage of the Business Model Template (BMT). You will test the viability of the business model concept you have developed so far. You can test your business model idea against all kinds of criteria. If you do not have much time, perform your check on the basis of the very concise set of seven questions we provide. But we also provide many other tools in this chapter. Please bear in mind that you must be well-prepared when looking for feedback. Look for people you know or hope will respond critically and constructively. Going through the External Test steps may mean that you need to partially adjust some elements of your business model before you move on. So be it. Remember that every version of your business model in this stage is a beta version and that feedback will help to make it better.

The purpose of the Business Model Template (BMT) is to help you turn your idea into a viable project or organization. To illustrate this, two real-life case studies are offered in this chapter. Firstly, the KipCaravan project, which is a mobile home—a caravan—for chickens. It involves low-scale egg production in several locations. Secondly, the Sun at School NSV2 project in the city of Nijmegen. For both projects you will find a step-by-step description of the different routes followed. As you will see, the interpretation of the building blocks is different for every project and there is no best order in which to stack the building blocks. Bear in mind that both projects are still up and running successfully at the time of writing. These examples are shown in simplified versions and with the benefit of hindsight, of course. Perhaps the essence of doing business is having the courage to start without a ready-made recipe.

This chapter unpacks the Impact building block. It seeks to determine the impact that your business model will have on the broader social, ecological, economic, and material environment. We think it is important to clarify the short- and long-term effects of your business model. Framing and defining this building block is often challenging. It can be defined in a general sense, but can also be focused on specific stakeholders, a raw material, or a specific context or a relevant combination of indicators. Indicators are also increasingly linked to measuring and reporting methods. We offer various methods to test the set of indicators and link them to reporting standards. Keep a keen eye on the practical feasibility, as well as the costs involved in measuring and reporting. Identifying proper and useful indicators and measuring and monitoring them are easier said than done. Whatever you do, stick to the motto Keep it Simple.

We are confronted with increasingly pressing questions about economic and social transition. Things have to change, but how? We believe that this change is concerned with three closely related challenges, which we call the triple transition—climate, energy, and circularity. These challenges combined result in a call for radical and major changes in the configuration of our economies and for the reconsideration and redesign of our systems. The fact remains that we live in organized societies and economies in which together we need to shape these transitions. Central to this book stands the premise that transition requires new forms of value creation materialized in the new generation of sustainable and circular business models. To make this possible the Business Model Template (BMT) was developed. The purpose of this chapter is to introduce you to the structure and style of this book and how the BMT is presented in the various chapters.

The central question in this building block of the Business Model Template (BMT) is identifying what stakeholders and other parties are pivotal for your success. Here you make an overview of them, not only determining who they are but also what interests they have in relation to your business model. Numerous tools have been developed to identify stakeholders. We will provide you with various tools to make a balanced identification. Defining the interests, influence and interrelationships between the stakeholders in your network helps to determine the connections that must be reinforced or made in order for your business model to function. In addition it helps in understanding who can play a crucial role in helping to create a fit between your business model and its environment. Finally, reflection on the key stakeholders and their roles is vital because of the input for the choice of strategy underpinning your business model.

A business model is a description of how value creation is organized, underpinned by a value proposition. Such a proposition solves a problem or appeals to new, often yet undiscovered needs. Value creation has several facets. This building block offers a framework of five positions of value creation from which to choose and links it to strategies you can use. This in turn is then linked to the possibility of creating change with your business model-to-be. The more precisely you align the nature of those values and the change you would like to create, the better you will be able to design an appropriate (organizational) logic at a later stage. Formulating a clear and compelling value proposition is crucial in the development of a business model. It gives direction to the strategy, to the stakeholders with whom you could take these steps, and to what impact you expect to realize.

A transition from a linear economy to a more sustainable and circular economy requires different business models. In this chapter, we provide you with an introduction to the nature and logic of business models. In essence, a business model is a description of how value creation between parties or partners is organized, at a particular moment, in a specific context, and given available resources. Conventional business modelling approaches have several weaknesses—the main point of criticism being their focus on creating financial value. With the Business Model Template (BMT), we try to resolve most of these criticisms. To do so we introduce three archetypal business models: the platform, community, and circular economy business models. This chapter provides an overview on how, over three stages and ten building blocks that together make up the Business Model Template, these archetypal business models will be used.

Talent detection intends to support lifelong sports participation, reduce dropouts and stimulate sports at the elite level. For this purpose it is important to reveal the specific profile which directs children to the sports that connect to their strengths and preferences. This study evaluated a perceptuomotor skills assessment as part of talent detection for table tennis, a sport in which perceptuomotor skills are considered essential to cope with the difficult technical aspects. Primary school children (n = 121) and gifted young table tennis players (n = 146) were assessed using the Dutch perceptuomotor skills assessment measuring “ball control” and “gross motor function”. A discriminant function analysis confirmed the added value by identifying primary school children fitting the table tennis perceptuomotor profile of the young gifted table tennis players (28%). General linear model analyses for the assessment’s individual test items showed that the table tennis players outperformed their primary school peers on all “ball control” items (P < 0.001). In conclusion, the assessment appears to be of added value for talent detection in table tennis at this young age. Longitudinal studies need to reveal the predictive value for sports participation and elite sports.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present several insights on how disruptive technologies potentially impact the eco-performance of entire supply chains, by providing performance improvements compared to existing technologies, enabling more efficient manufacturing methods and affecting the entire structure of the supply chain. Design/methodology/approach To illustrate the authors’ position, a case from the construction sector is presented, for which the feasibility and impact of 3D printing technology has been studied. The empirical study focuses on the effect of the use of 3D printing technology on the building supply chain, aimed primarily at manufacturing companies in construction, but including suppliers, architects and designers as well. Findings 3D printing of concrete potentially provides several improvements in manufacturing performance, such as a shortening of lead times, integration of functions and allowing for reduced material usage, therefore possibly turning production steps within the construction supply chain obsolete while also reducing logistical and production efforts. Research limitations/implications Whether disruptive technologies other than 3D printing have a similar potential is unknown. Though the case study shows the potential of disruptive technologies in impacting supply chains, the authors realize that more empirical work is needed to understand the underlying mechanisms. Originality/value The originality of this paper lies in relating disruptive technological advancements to manufacturing technologies and transitions of supply chains’ eco-performance.

In this chapter, the authors continue the systematisation by adding an assessment aid, although a word of caution is needed. They present different aspects that they believe are relevant to any notion of social sustainability. The authors operationalise social sustainability in terms of stakeholder, knowledge, learning and organisational issues, where the last can be seen in terms of co-ordination mechanisms and organisational structures. The chapter describes the instrument. In general, an instrument in the form of a questionnaire can have at least three forms. First, it can be a categorisation structure. Second, it is possible to attach ordinal scales to answers. Third, a questionnaire can have the form of a construct that is measured and of which the outcome is an indication of a certain correct or incorrect state of affairs. With respect to both the individual level of description and the various kinds of organisational levels of description, the authors try to operationalise units, teams, groups, firms and societies.

This chapter describes preliminary studies conducted at the request of National Institute for Sustainable Development (NIDO) and Philips to examine what is possible in the area of the social sustainability of products. The data and results referred are taken from the reports of the research study. Sustainability is a theme that suits the culture of Philips. Given Philips' culture and approach, it should not be surprising that NIDO decided to approach the company in connection with the 'people' side of sustainable products. Through this project Philips has acquired access to a tool to measure the social sustainability of its products. The tool enables Philips to determine which social sustainability criteria are perceived as important by its stakeholders and whether its current products meet these criteria. Although Philips is already very open about its affairs via its website, further research into other ways of reaching customers is needed.

Contains fulltext : 172071.PDF (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access) Forecasting future performance in youth table tennis players based on current performance is complex due to, among other things, differences between youth players in growth, development, maturity, context and table tennis experience. Talent development programmes might benefit from an assessment of underlying perceptuo-motor skills for table tennis, which is hypothesized to determine the players' potential concerning the perceptuo-motor domain. The Dutch perceptuo-motor skills assessment intends to measure the perceptuo-motor potential for table tennis in youth players by assessing the underlying skills crucial for developing technical and tactical qualities. Untrained perceptuo-motor tasks are used as these are suggested to represent a player's future potential better than specific sport skills themselves as the latter depend on exposure to the sport itself. This study evaluated the value of the perceptuo-motor skills assessment for a talent developmental programme by evaluating its predictive validity for competition participation and performance in 48 young table tennis players (7-11 years). Players were tested on their perceptuo-motor skills once during a regional talent day, and the subsequent competition results were recorded half-yearly over a period of 2.5 years. Logistic regression analysis showed that test scores did not predict future competition participation (p >0.05). Yet, the Generalized Estimating Equations analysis, including the test items 'aiming at target', 'throwing a ball', and 'eye-hand coordination' in the best fitting model, revealed that the outcomes of the perceptuo-motor skills assessment were significant predictors for future competition results (R2 = 51%). Since the test age influences the perceptuo-motor skills assessment's outcome, another multivariable model was proposed including test age as a covariate (R2 = 53%). This evaluation demonstrates promising prospects for the perceptuo-motor skills assessment to be included in a talent development programme. Future studies are needed to clarify the predictive value in a larger sample of youth competition players over a longer period in time.

Redesigning IT systems for specific user groups encompasses a lot of effort with respect to analysing and understanding user behaviour. The goal of this paper is to provide insights into patterns of behaviour of agricultural users, during the usage of a decision support system called OPTIRas (TM). This system aids agricultural users in their cultivar selection activities. We analyse logs resulting from OPTIRas (TM), and we get insights into user's navigational patterns. We claim that the results of our analysis can be used to support the redesign of decision support systems in order to address specific agricultural users' characteristics. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The new challenge for organisations is to deal with the complex issue of sustainability. However, the confusion surrounding "sustainability" hinders its implementation. This article formulates a framework consisting of three aspects to analyse the conceptual developments that underlie "sustainability": the artefact ("what"), goal orientation ("relative versus absolute") and (behavioural) interaction ("static versus dynamic"). The study of conceptual foundations underpins the framework. Contributions in both the theoretical (definitions) and the practical (indicators) spheres are analysed. The discussion about sustainability takes place in firms. Therefore, organisational developments are used as a reference timeline. Based on observations and analyses, this article suggests a new course for the sustainability discussion and its implications for the organisational context: a knowledge approach focussing on transparency and dialogue. This also implies that the emphasis in the sustainability discussion is changing from a merely environmental to an organisational and societal perspective.

In small businesses with no employees, learning environments have a low learning readiness. Consequently, learners need to rely on their own agency to shape their learning experiences. Results from a study of agricultural entrepreneurs indicated that the components of motivation and self-regulated learning strategies shape learner’s agency and explain learning environment configuration in small businesses with no employees. Configuration of the learning environment was found to be a weak determinant of the learning performance of these learners. However, results showed that prior performance of learners in small businesses with no employees dictates how their agencyoperates and what learning effect is achieved; higher prior performance results in higher learning effects. We conclude that mechanisms that underlie learning in traditional learning environments work similarly in learning environments insmall businesses with no employees.

This chapter supports the argument that innovation is a special case of knowledge management; it is about knowledge creation. With economic profit as its driving force, innovation is mostly short term and commercial, feeding the question whether innovation really can be applied to ecological and social systems. The problem concerns the goal of innovation: what does it suppose to realize? In this chapter, we combine knowledge management (KM) and innovation concepts with sustainability and we argue that as long as the emphasis in innovation is on “profit” and not on “people” and “planet” (the three P’s of sustainability) we have no guiding mechanism for innovation, namely the existence of a sustainable future. In a sustainable perspective, innovation becomes an instrument that benefits society at large. In this chapter, we explore concepts behind issues of KM and innovation through literature review and we argue along three lines of thinking. First, we demonstrate that innovation is knowledge creation at an individual and collective level. Second, we argue that innovation should be a means and not a goal. Third, we offer a perspective to operationalize the relationship between knowledge, innovation and sustainability. Sustainability as an issue requires adaptation of human and social systems to ever-changing environments. This continuous need for change demands people to constantly develop and obtain new knowledge to realize the balance between system and environment. We conclude this chapter by introducing concepts on Knowledge of Sustainability (KoS) and Sustainability of Knowledge (SoK) that form the synthesis of our discussion, and we set the outline of a framework for sustainable innovation.

Ecologically based simulations models have been used extensively in sustainability research from the beginning and still dominate the field. Current simulation models of sustainability are limited in addressing the central role human behavior has within this domain. We argue that simulations for sustainability should incorporate plausible cognitive and social actors to obtain insights in the problems related to sustainability. Such actors need to be equipped with functions of perception, mobility, learning, communication, and coordination to form a simulation model for social sustainability.

The Dutch agricultural sector is facing major challenges, which can affect the entrepreneurial farming activities. One of the major challenges is the adoption of practices leading to sustainable agriculture. Therefore, it is relevant to investigate the knowledge of the main actors in agriculture: the farmers. In this project, the way farmers structure their knowledge is studied. The study was completed through filling questionnaires by interviewing them. It was revealed that farmers possess knowledge of their own about their enterprise, but they also receive knowledge from external sources. Through this organized survey, we identified the concepts that farmers associate with sustainable agriculture. However, it is not clear whether the famers’ knowledge is sufficient and suitable to adopt sustainable practices.

In innovating its planning processes, passenger involvement in dispatching is one of the directions the Netherlands Railways is exploring. Multi-agent systems (MAS) provide a way to study the organizational aspects of the dispatching task that aims to bridge functional differences between passengers and dispatchers. In this study, besides the technical, especially the coordinating and organizational implications of such a change will be investigated. Two versions of a multi-agent system have been constructed: NS-MAS 1 and NS-MAS 2. The involvement of active passengers as is realized in NS-MAS 1, provides the organizational specifications of realizing dispatcher-passenger communication. Furthermore, this implementation provides indications for bridging the functional differences between passengers and dispatchers. NS-MAS 2 operates with simulated passive passengers, based on statistical data of passenger movements, and implements the coordination possibilities taking into account passenger involvement in dispatching.

Organizational knowledge and knowledge management can only be studied successfully if two basic requirements are fulfilled: (1) determination of what knowledge is about and which carriers of knowledge are allowed and (2) the mechanisms that provide the interaction between the carriers (actors and software agents). We therefore have to step down to a lower level of aggregation, that is to say, to actors, to (shared) mental models, to agents and to the interaction between them. In order to guide the study of these constituting elements we formulate two questions. (A) What is the difference between information and knowledge and what consequences does this difference have for corporate and organizational issues? (B) If the human individual is one kind of actor, what other kind of actors (or agents) can we discern, what characteristics do the various actors have and what mechanisms are used to collaborate in Multi-Actor Systems (MAS)?

Creating adaptive systems becomes increasingly attractive in the context of specific groups of users, such as agricultural users. This group of users seems to differ with respect to information processing, knowledge management and learning styles. In this work we aim to offer directions toward increasing decision support systems usability, by tailoring toward user learning styles. The results show that decision support systems need to be redesigned toward providing agricultural users with a more efficient time management and study environment, and facilitating group interaction.

Sustainability is a system’s concept and regards the dynamic balance between a dynamic artificial system and its dynamic environment. For an organization to survive as a social system it needs to be adaptive and effective while interacting and coevolving with its environment. In order to be sustainable an organization needs two things: (1) knowledge about its impacts on the world and (2) the capacity to learn and renew or innovate in response. This article explores the notion of social (or organizational) sustainability in relationship with knowledge, knowledge processing, learning and adaptation. The sustainability performance of organizational activities is considered to be a function of its impact on vitals capitals in the world. Social (or organizational) sustainability is defined as a disposition or capability of an organization to realize this balance and has two fundaments: an adaptivity-based theory and a capital-based theory. The first is the organization’s ability to adapt to environmental challenges, while maintaining its own basic pattern of identity. The second is the ability to interact with the environment in such a way that it does not degrade levels of vital capitals beyond levels required by humans (and their future generations) for their well-being. These are also the internal and external dimensions of sustainability, linking knowledge ecology with natural and social ecology. Organizational sustainability performance is in part a function of knowledge management and of the knowledge processes within an organization. In this article we present a Four Dynamics Framework with two new concepts, illustrating the role of sustainability targeted knowledge management (KM). Concerning knowledge content, KM needs to focus on high quality Knowledge of Sustainability (KoS), whereas by enhancing a continuous and sustainable knowledge creation & innovation process in the organization it realizes what we call sustainability of knowledge (SoK). Both outcome and process need good metrics, and measurement and reporting tools.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to propose a re‐orientation of the way the concept of sustainability is dealt with in relation to information systems, positioning human behaviour and the processing of knowledge at the centre of the concept.Design/methodology/approachThe concept of sustainability of knowledge (SoK), which refers to processes that govern knowledge, is employed to define sustainable information systems (SIS). Following this definition, knowledge aspects are employed to tackle the notion of sustainability. The sustainability approach presented in this paper is then translated into requirements needed for designing a SIS.FindingsThree knowledge aspects are found to be relevant for the design of SIS: adaptability, offloading and knowledge evaluation. The service oriented‐based architecture (SOA) seems to be appropriate to support the proposed approach.Research limitations/implicationsThe conceptual approach proposed need to be evaluated by case studies to be performed in different organizations.Originality/valueA knowledge based perspective is proposed to re‐orient the notion of sustainability. Moreover, an SOA architecture is used to design a system based on the proposed approach.