An Ontology for Strongly Sustainable Business Models: Defining an Enterprise Framework Compatible With Natural and Social Science

Organization and Environment

Volumn 29, Issue 1, 2016, Pages 97-123

  Upward, Antony ^a   Jones, Peter ^a  

^a OCAD UNIVERSITY   (Canada)

Author keywords

business model; business strategy; corporate social responsibility; ecosystems; enterprise ontology; reflexive modernization; socially desirable value; strong sustainability

Indexed keywords

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY; CORPORATE STRATEGY; ECOLOGICAL ECONOMICS; PROFITABILITY; SUSTAINABILITY;

EID: 84956601901     PISSN: 10860266     EISSN: 15527417     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/1086026615592933     Document Type: Article

References (126)

1. R.L.AckoffF.E.Emery (1972). On purposeful systems: An interdisciplinary analysis of individual and social behavior as a system of purposeful events. Chicago, IL: Aldine-Atherton.
2. H.AkkermansJ.Gordijn (2006). Ontology engineering, scientific method and the research agenda. In (Eds.), Managing knowledge in a world of networks (pp. 112-125). Heidelberg, Germany: Springer Berlin.
3. M.M.Al-debeiD.Avison (2010). Developing a unified framework of the business model concept. European Journal of Information Systems, 19, 359-376.
4. T.F.H.AllenT.W.HoekstraJ.A.Tainter (2003). Supply-side sustainability. New York, NY: Columbia University Press.
5. R.AltH.Zimmermann (2014). Status of business model and electronic market research: An interview with Alexander Osterwalder. Electronic Markets, 24, 243-249.
6. B.AnderssonM.BergholtzA.EdirisuriyaT.IlayperumaP.JohannessonJ.GordijnH.. Weigand (2006). Towards a reference ontology for business models. In (Eds.), Conceptual modeling-ER 2006 (pp. 482-496). Heidelberg, Germany: Springer Berlin.
7. R.U.Ayres (2008). Sustainability economics: Where do we stand?Ecological Economics, 67, 281-310.
8. P.Bansal (2011). Five principles of a sustainable business model. Retrieved from nbs.net/five-principles-of-a-sustainable-business-model/
9. R.Barker (1989). CASE method: Entity relationship modelling. Wokingham, England: Addison-Wesley.
10. J.H.Barkow (2006). Introduction. In (Ed.), Missing the revolution: Darwinism for social scientists (pp. 3-59). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
11. U.BeckW.BonssC.Lau (2003). The theory of reflexive modernization. Theory, Culture & Society, 20(2), 1-33.
12. J.M.Benyus (2002). Biomimicry: Innovation inspired by nature. New York, NY: Perennial.
13. B Lab. (2008). B Corporation-Declaration. Retrieved from bcorporation.net/declaration
14. C.Blattberg (Ed.). (2000). Welfare: Towards the patriotic corporation. From pluralist to patriotic politics: Putting practices first (pp. 172-184). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
15. N.M.P.BockenS.W.ShortP.RanaS.Evans (2014). A literature and practice review to develop sustainable business model archetypes. Journal of Cleaner Production, 65, 42-56.
16. F.BoonsF.Lüdeke-Freund (2013). Business models for sustainable innovation: State-of-the-art and steps towards a research agenda. Journal of Cleaner Production, 45, 9-19.
17. G.BromanJ.HolmbergK.Robèrt (2000). Simplicity without reduction: Thinking upstream towards the sustainable society. Interfaces, 30(3), 13-25.
18. A.C.Bullinger (2008). Innovation and ontologies: Structuring the early stages of innovation management. Wiesbaden, Germany: Gabler Verlag.
19. Business Alliance for Local Living Economies. (2012). Be a localist. Retrieved from bealocalist.org/about-us
20. W.R.CattonJr.R.E.Dunlap (1978). Environmental sociology: A new paradigm. The American Sociologist, 13(1), 41-49.
21. E.CavagnaroG.H.Curiel (2012). The three levels of sustainability. Sheffield, England: GreenLeaf.
22. P.P.Chen (1976). The entity-relationship model: Toward a unified view of data. ACM Transactions on Database Systems, 1, 9-36.
23. H.Chesbrough (2010). Business model innovation: Opportunities and barriers. Long Range Planning, 43, 354-363.
24. A.ClarkT.RoseD.RichingsM.GallT.PetersonT.KoryckiT.. Brown (2009, 2010, 2011). Model of a sustainable organization. Retrieved from thecqi.org/Community/Special-Interest-Groups-SIGs/Deming-SIG/The-Sustainable-Organisation/
25. A.ClevenP.GublerK.M.Huner (2009). Design alternatives for the evaluation of design science research artifacts. In Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Design Science Research in Information Systems and Technology (Article No. 19). New York, NY: ACM.
26. P.J.Crutzen (2002). Geology of mankind. Nature, 415, 23.
27. H.E.Daly (1987). The economic growth debate: What some economists have learned but many have not. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 14, 323-336.
28. T.DonaldsonL.E.Preston (1995). The stakeholder theory of the corporation: Concepts, evidence, and implications. Academy of Management Review, 20(1), 65-91.
29. B.Doppelt (2012). From me to we: The five transformational commitments required to rescue the planet, your organization, and your life. Sheffield, England: Greenleaf.
30. P.F.Drucker (1974). Management: Tasks, responsibilities, practices. New York, NY: Harper & Row.
31. E.Durkheim (1982). The rules of sociological method, and selected texts on sociology and its method (, Ed., & W.D.Walls, Trans.). London, England: Macmillan.
32. R.A.Easterlin (2001). Income and happiness: Towards a unified theory. The Economic Journal, 111, 465-484.
33. R.G.EcclesI.IoannoG.Serafeim (2012, February4). Essay: Is there an optimal degree of sustainability?London, England: Ethical Corporation. Retrieved from www.ethicalcorp.com/business-strategy/essay-there-optimal-degree-sustainability
34. J.R.Ehrenfeld (2000a). Colorless green ideas sleep furiously: Is the emergence of “sustainable” practices meaningful?Reflections, 1(4), 34-47.
35. J.R.Ehrenfeld (2000b). Industrial ecology: Paradigm shift or normal science?American Behavioral Scientist, 44, 229-244.
36. K.E.ErikssonK.Robèrt (1991). From the big bang to sustainable societies. Acta Oncologica, 30(6), 5-14.
37. B.L.FredricksonM.F.Losada (2005). Positive affect and the complex dynamics of human flourishing. The American Psychologist, 60, 678-686.
38. R.E.Freeman (1984). Strategic management: A stakeholder approach. Boston, MA: Pitman.
39. A.L.FriedmanS.Miles (2006). Stakeholders: Theory and practice. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
40. N.Georgescu-Roegen (1975). Energy and economic myths. Southern Economic Journal, 41, 347-381.
41. Global Initiative for Sustainability Ratings. (2015). About GISR: Vision and mission. Retrieved from ratesustainability.org/about/
42. A.GriffithsJ.A.Petrick (2001). Corporate architectures for sustainability. International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 21, 1573-1585.
43. T.R.Gruber (1993). A translation approach to portable ontology specifications. Knowledge Acquisition, 5, 199-220.
44. N.GuarinoC.Welty (2002). Evaluating ontological decisions with ontoclean. Communications of the ACM, 45(2), 61-65.
45. C.B.Handy (1991). What is a company for? [Michael Shanks memorial lecture]. RSA Journal, March, 231-243.
46. C.B.Handy (2002). What’s a business for?Harvard Business Review, 80, 49-56.
47. N.HanshawA.Osterwalder (2015). The business model canvas: Why and how organizations around the world adopt it. (A field report from Strategyzer). Retrieved from www.slideshare.net/JanKyhnau/bmcresearchreport-45241920
48. C.HansonJ.RanganathanC.IcelandJ.Finisdore (2012). The corporate ecosystem services review: Guidelines for identifying business risks and opportunities arising from ecosystem change, Version 2.0. Washington DC: World Resources Institute.
49. S.L.Hart (1995). A natural-resource-based view of the firm. Academy of Management Review, 20, 986-1014.
50. S.L.HartS.Sharma (2004). Engaging fringe stakeholders for competitive imagination. Academy of Management Executive, 18(1), 7-18.
51. P.Hawken (2010). The ecology of commerce: A declaration of sustainability (Rev. ed.). New York, NY: Harper Business. (Original work published 1993)
52. P.HeikkurinenT.Ketola (2012). Corporate responsibility and identity: From a stakeholder to an awareness approach. Business Strategy and the Environment, 21, 326-337.
53. R.Holifield (2009). Actor-network theory as a critical approach to environmental justice: A case against synthesis with urban political ecology. Antipode, 41, 637-658.
54. J.HörischR.E.FreemanS.Schaltegger (2014). Applying stakeholder theory in sustainability management: Links, similarities, dissimilarities, and a conceptual framework. Organization & Environment, 27, 328-346.
55. P.Hoverstadt (2008). The fractal organization: Creating sustainable organizations with the viable system model. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
56. G.Hutchins (2012). The nature of business: Redesigning for resilience. Totnes, England: Green Books.
57. H.ItamiK.Nishino (2010). Killing two birds with one stone: Profit for now and learning for the future. Long Range Planning, 43, 364-369.
58. M.C.Jackson (2000). Systems approaches to management. New York, NY: Kluwer Academic/Plenum.
59. J.Jesson (2011). Doing your literature review: Traditional and systematic techniques. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
60. C.JolibertM.Max-NeefF.RauschmayerJ.Paavola (2011). Should we care about the needs of non-humans? Needs assessment: A tool for environmental conflict resolution and sustainable organization of living beings. Environmental Policy and Governance, 21, 259-269.
61. P.H.JonesK.M.C.Dye (2000, September). A methodology and system for designing organizational ontologies. Paper presented at the First International Workshop on Theory and Applications of Knowledge Management, Greenwich, England.
62. P.H.JonesA.Upward (2014, October15–17). Caring for the future: The systemic design of flourishing enterprises. The Third Symposium of Relating Systems Thinking and Design (RSD3), Oslo, Norway, 3(1), 1-8.
63. H.B.Jorgensen (1993). The “green account” of the Danish Steel Works Ltd. Social and Environmental Accounting, 13(1), 2-5.
64. R.S.KaplanD.P.Norton (1996). The balanced scorecard: Translating strategy into action. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.
65. J.A.Kay (1997). The stakeholder corporation. In (Eds.), Stakeholder capitalism (pp. 124-141). London, England: Macmillan.
66. C.L.M.KeyesJ.Haidt (2003). Introduction. In (Eds.), Flourishing: Positive psychology and the life well lived (pp. 1-14). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
67. A.P.Kinzig (2001). Bridging disciplinary divides to address environmental and intellectual challenges. Ecosystems, 4, 709-715.
68. R.D.KlassenC.P.McLaughlin (1996). The impact of environmental management on firm performance. Management Science, 42, 1199-1214.
69. J.T.Klein (2004). Interdisciplinarity and complexity: An evolving relationship. Emergence: Complexity and Organization, 6(1), 2-10.
70. J.KorhonenF.Von MalmborgP.A.StrachanJ.R.Ehrenfeld (2004). Editorial: Management and policy aspects of industrial ecology: An emerging research agenda. Business Strategy and the Environment, 13, 289-305.
71. W.KuechlerV.Vaishnavi (2008). On theory development in design science research: Anatomy of a research project. European Journal of Information Systems, 17, 489-504.
72. C.LaszloJ.BrownJ.R.EhrenfeldM.GorhamI.Barros-PoseL.RobsonD.L.. Cooperrider (2014). Flourishing enterprise: The new spirit of business. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
73. B.Latour (2013). An inquiry into modes of existence. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
74. L.LaverdureA.Conn (2010). Improving business sustainability: Adaptive systems to fit the rapidly changing business environment (Sustainable Business Strategy and Architecture Consulting Partners). Retrieved from www.sbsapartners.com/ideas/Improving-Business-Sustainability-4dnld.pdf
75. J.LawJ.Urry (2004). Enacting the social. Economy and Society, 33(3), 390-410.
76. P.A.Lawn (2001). Scale, prices, and biophysical assessments. Ecological Economics, 38, 369-382.
77. R.Layard (2003). Happiness: Has social science got a clue?London, England: London School of Economics.
78. T.W.MaloneP.WeillR.K.LaiV.T.D’UrsoG.A.HermanT.G.ApelS.L.Woerner (2006, May). Do some business models perform better than others? (Working Paper No. 226). Boston: MIT Center for Coordination Science.
79. S.T.MarchG.F.Smith (1995). Design and natural science research on information technology. Decision Support Systems, 15, 251-266.
80. J.MarcusE.C.KuruczB.A.Colbert (2010). Conceptions of the business-society-nature interface: Implications for management scholarship. Business & Society, 49, 402-438.
81. M.Max-NeefA.ElizaldeM.Hopenhayn (1991). Human scale development: Conception, application and further reflections. Uppsala, Sweden: Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation, Apex Press.
82. W.McDonoughM.Braungart (2002). Cradle to cradle: Remaking the way we make things. New York, NY: North Point Press.
83. P.McLaughlin (2012). Ecological modernization in evolutionary perspective. Organization & Environment, 25, 178-196.
84. S.A.MelnykJ.D.HansonR.J.Calantone (2010). Hitting the target.. but missing the point: Resolving the paradox of strategic transition. Long Range Planning, 43, 555-574.
85. A.P.J.MolG.Spaargaren (2006). Toward a sociology of environmental flows: A new agenda for twenty-first-century environmental sociology. In (Eds.), Governing environmental flows: Global challenges to social theory (pp. 39-82). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
86. E.Neumayer (2013). Weak versus strong sustainability: Exploring the limits of two opposing paradigms (4th ed.). Cheltenham, England: Edward Elgar.
87. W.NormanC.Macdonald (2004). Getting to the bottom of “triple bottom line.”Business Ethics Quarterly, 14, 243-262.
88. R.NormannR.Ramirez (1993). From value change to value constellation: Designing interactive strategy. Harvard Business Review, 71, 65-77.
89. D.E.O’Leary (2010). Enterprise ontologies: Review and an activity theory approach. International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, 11, 336-352.
90. A.Osterwalder (2004). The business model ontology: A proposition in a design science approach. L’Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales de l’Université de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland. Retrieved from www.hec.unil.ch/aosterwa/PhD/Osterwalder_PhD_BM_Ontology.pdf
91. A.OsterwalderY.Pigneur (2005). Clarifying business models: Origins, present, and future of the concept. Communications of AIS, 2005(16), 1-25.
92. A.OsterwalderY.Pigneur (2009). Business model generation: A handbook for visionaries, game changers, and challengers (, Eds.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
93. E.Ostrom (2008). The challenge of common-pool resources. Environment, 50(4), 8-20. Retrieved from www.environmentmagazine.org/Archives/Back%20Issues/July-August%202008/ostrom-full.html
94. W.G.Ouchi (1980). Markets, bureaucracies, and clans. Administrative Science Quarterly, 25, 129-141.
95. H.Ozbekhan (1970). The predicament of mankind, quest for structured responses to growing world-wide complexities and uncertainties: A proposal (No. 1). New York, NY: The Club of Rome.
96. B.D.Parrish (2010). Sustainability-driven entrepreneurship: Principles of organization design. Journal of Business Venturing, 25, 510-523.
97. T.ParseyE.Topp (2010). An emerging business model: Meaningful value & design thinking (the Shift Alliance business modelling tool). Innovation Journal, 2010, 41-44.
98. M.E.Porter (1991). America’s green strategy. Scientific American, 264, 168-179.
99. M.Redclift (1998). Dances with wolves? Interdisciplinary research on the global environment. Global Environmental Change, 8, 177-182.
100. K.RobèrtG.BromanG.Basile (2013). Analyzing the concept of planetary boundaries from a strategic sustainability perspective: How does humanity avoid tipping the planet?Ecology and Society, 18(2), Article 5. Retrieved from www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol18/iss2/art5/
101. K.RobèrtF.B.Schmidt-BleekD.AloisideJ.LarderelG.BasileJ.L.JansenR.KuehrM.. Wackernagel (2002). Strategic sustainable development—selection, design and synergies of applied tools. Journal of Cleaner Production, 10, 197-214.
102. J.RockströmW.SteffenK.NooneÅ.PerssonF.S.ChapinIII.E.LambinJ.. Foley (2009). Planetary boundaries: Exploring the safe operating space for humanity. Ecology and Society, 14(2), Article 32. Retrieved from www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol14/iss2/art32/
103. S.SchalteggerM.BeckmannE.G.Hansen (2013). Transdisciplinarity in corporate sustainability: Mapping the field. Business Strategy and the Environment, 22, 219-229.
104. S.SchalteggerR.Burritt (2005). Corporate sustainability. In (Eds.), The international yearbook of environmental and resource economics 2005/2006: A survey of current issues (Rev. ed., pp. 185-222). Cheltenham, England: Edward Elgar.
105. S.SchalteggerF.Lüdeke-FreundE.G.Hansen (2012). Business cases for sustainability: The role of business model innovation for corporate sustainability. International Journal of Innovation and Sustainable Development, 6, 95-119.
106. M.Schwaninger (2008). Organising for sustainability. International Journal of Applied Systemic Studies, 2(1), 40-48.
107. M.Starik (1995). Should trees have managerial standing? Toward stakeholder status for nonhuman nature. Journal of Business Ethics, 14, 207-217.
108. W.E.SteadJ.G.SteadM.Starik (2004). Sustainable strategic management. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe.
109. W.StubbsC.Cocklin (2008). Conceptualizing a “sustainability business model.”Organization & Environment, 21, 103-127.
110. L.TayE.Diener (2011). Needs and subjective well-being around the world. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 101, 354-365.
111. D.J.Teece (2010). Business models, business strategy and innovation. Long Range Planning, 43, 172-194.
112. E.L.Trist (1981). The evolution of socio-technical systems. Toronto, ON, Canada: Ontario Ministry of Labour.
113. G.Turner (2014). Is global collapse imminent? An updated comparison of the limits to growth with historical data. (MSSI Research Paper No. 4). Melbourne, VIC, Australia: Melbourne University Sustainability Society Institute.
114. W.Ulrich (1993). Some difficulties of ecological thinking, considered from a critical systems perspective: A plea for critical holism. Systems Practice, 6, 583-611.
115. A.Upward (2013). Towards an ontology and canvas for strongly sustainable business models: A systemic design science exploration. (Masters of Environmental Studies/Graduate Diploma in Business + Environment, York University, Faculty of Environmental Studies and Schulich School of Business), 1–1116 (i–xxii). Retrieved from hdl.handle.net/10315/20777
116. M.UscholdM.Gruninger (1996). Ontologies: Principles, methods and applications. Knowledge Engineering Review, 11, 93-136.
117. P.A.Victor (2008). Managing without growth. Cheltenham, England: Edward Elgar.
118. H.von ScheelA.RosenbergM.von Rosing (2011). The importance of a business model. In (Eds.), Applying real-world BPM in an SAP environment (pp. 23-54). Bonn, Germany: SAP Press.
119. G.WhitemanB.WalkerP.Perego (2013). Planetary boundaries: Ecological foundations for corporate sustainability. Journal of Management Studies, 50, 307-336.
120. B.WillardG.KendallP.LeungC.ParkM.RichA.Upward (2014). Future fit business benchmark. London, England: The Natural Step Canada and 3D Investment Foundation.
121. World Business Council for Sustainable Development. (2010). Vision 2050: The new agenda for business in brief. Conches-Geneva, Switzerland.
122. World Business Council for Sustainable Development. (2015). Action 2020–setting the pace for progress. Retrieved from wbcsd.org/action2020.
123. World Commission on Environment and Development. (1987). Report of the world commission on environment and development: Our common future (the Brundtland Commission Report). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
124. World Watch Institute. (n.d.). State of the world. Retrieved from worldwatch.org/bookstore/state-of-the-world
125. M.YunusB.MoingeonL.Lehmann-Ortega (2010). Building social business models: Lessons from the Grameen experience. Long Range Planning, 43, 308-325.
126. C.ZottR.H.AmitL.Massa (2011). The business model: Recent developments and future research. Journal of Management, 37(3), 2-25.