تحلیل کتاب‌شناختی و ارائه مسیر پژوهش‌های آتی حوزه مدل‌های کسب و کار پایدار و نوآور

Purpose: Sustainable business model innovation (SBMI) is one of the widely studied concepts in management, sustainability, and innovation literature. Considering the continuous interest of researchers in this field, the subject of systematic review of the research process, identification of research gaps, and drawing the research perspective for the future, it seems necessary that this research aims to contribute to this endeavor. The purpose of this paper is to review the current status and progress of SBMI research by conducting a bibliometric analysis of the existing literature and presenting the direction of future research.
Methodology: Based on the objective, this research employs an applied, descriptive approach, utilizing rigorous scientific techniques. To ensure a comprehensive review, we applied the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. To cover the relevant literature comprehensively, we conducted a search using the ISI Web of Science (WOS) and Scopus databases. Keywords related to the subject area were used to identify relevant documents published between 1994 and April 2024. The identified 4375 English-language documents were subsequently analyzed using Vosviewer software and R (Bibliometrix syntax).
Findings: China, England, Italy, Germany, Spain, the United States, India, Brazil, and the Netherlands are the top countries in terms of the number of published articles and scientific documents. England, the Netherlands, China, Italy, Germany, the United States, Sweden, Brazil, Canada, and Spain lead in terms of citation rate. Our country ranks 35th globally with 59 published articles and 21st in total citations (1140). Notably, Nancy Bocken from Maastricht University, Netherlands, is a leading researcher in this field, with 40 publications and 5224 citations. The most influential publications focus on sustainable and innovative business models. Sustainability magazine (impact factor 3.3) is the top publication with 748 articles. The most cited article is "A literature and practice review to develop sustainable business model archetypes" by Bocken et al (2014). We conducted co-occurrence analyses of keywords (six clusters), trend topics (25 topics), thematic evolution and strategic diagrams (four time frames), co-author network analysis (six clusters), and co-citation analysis (five clusters). The strategic diagram was analyzed across four distinct time periods. Notably, during the third and fourth periods (2020–2024), main topics and motor themes emerged, encompassing green innovation, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), environmental performance, sustainability-driven design thinking, technological innovation, family businesses, frugal innovation, blockchain technology, big data analytics, Industry 4.0, base of the pyramid (BOP) strategies, environmental policy, renewable energy, climate change, and sustainable operations. Transversal, overarching, and foundational themes include knowledge sharing, sustainable development, the circular economy and business model, business sustainability, entrepreneurial orientation, digital transformation, technological innovation, social innovation, the sharing economy, and sustainable competitive advantage. Concurrently, topics such as China and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have exhibited a declining trend.
Conclusion: The increasing number of publications in recent years underscores the growing interest of researchers in this field. To delve deeper into collaborative networks within this research community, a co-authorship analysis was conducted, focusing on authors with at least five publications (77 authors). Key research clusters (subtopics) identified through this analysis include:
1. consequences of implementing a sustainable business model innovation (corporate level and creating competitive advantage and financial performance-environmental level and company effects-social level and corporate social responsibility, etc.),
2. external drivers of sustainable business model innovation (UN sustainable development goals, climate change, renewable energy, technical innovations, covid-19, china's development, etc.),
3. core business activities in the sustainable business model innovation (value creation, value proposition, value delivery, value capture, etc.),
4. digital technologies in sustainable business model innovation (artificial intelligence, big data, digitization, etc.),
5. internal drivers of sustainable business model innovation (entrepreneurship, organizational entrepreneurship, business environment, social organization, etc.),
6. providing social value through sustainable business model innovation (base of the pyramid, frugal innovation, social innovation, etc.).
Historical research streams (more than five years old) include design, internet, electronic health services, human resource management, sustainability transition, corporate social responsibility, sustainable business models, environmental design, multi-level approaches, public policy, sustainability management, models and co-evolution, dynamic capabilities, China's development, emerging markets, non-technological innovation, and social innovation.
Recent research trends (within the past five years) have focused on sustainability, circular economy, sustainable development, innovation, business model innovation, sustainable innovation, small and medium enterprises, green innovation, digital transformation, digitization, sharing economy, energy transition, entrepreneurial orientation, sustainable performance, financial performance, supply chain management, sustainable competitive advantage, service innovation, technological innovation, family business, frugal innovation, sustainability-based policymaking, and environmental policy. A comprehensive keyword analysis using the Biblioshiny extension tool identified 3964 unique keywords, repeated 25878 times. By categorizing these keywords based on the sustainable business model canvas framework proposed by Bocken et al (2018), we identified key drivers and consequences of sustainable business model innovation.