Business model innovation for the SDGs - drivers, barriers and success practices
Name of applicant
Francesco Rosati
Institution
Technical University of Denmark
Amount
DKK 4,526,169
Year
2020
Type of grant
Semper Ardens: Accelerate
What?
The project will allow Associate Professor Francesco Rosati to establish a research team investigating how innovation and entrepreneurship can support business in providing solutions to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Particularly, the project aims to create new knowledge on the role of business model innovation for the achievement of the SDGs, while identifying the most important drivers and barriers influencing the implementation of business model innovations for the SDGs. The project also aims to develop tools and approaches supporting companies in adopting, and benefitting from, SDG-driven business model innovations.
Why?
The Business & Sustainable Development Commission predicts that contributing to the SDGs can create market opportunities worth an estimated US$12 trillion a year in business savings and revenue by 2030, and generating 380 million new jobs. The SDGs can help business to identify and prioritize unmet customer and stakeholder needs, leading to the development of innovative forms of value proposition, value delivery and value capture. Thus, the SDGs can be used by companies to develop innovative business models. However, academic literature and business practice still lack knowledge on the relationship between the SDGs and business model innovation, and particularly on the drivers, barriers and success practices related to the adoption of business model innovation for the SDGs.
How?
The project will generate knowledge on the relationship between business model innovation and the SDGs, by combining a variety of research methods - ranging from literature and practice reviews to qualitative and quantitative research methods. This will allow the researchers to explore the phenomenon of business model innovation for the SDGs from various perspectives and benefit from the integration of different ways of generating knowledge.