Adding an Ethical and Spiritual Dimension to Sustainable Business Models

Abstract

This conceptual paper argues for the explicit inclusion of the inherent ethical and spiritual dimensions of sustainability in approaches to business models. The main characteristics of literature on sustainable business models are reviewed. Based on some of the main tenets of ecofeminism and Buddhism, it is observed that some important aspects of sustainability’s ethical and spiritual dimensions in the business context are not mentioned or are relegated to a marginal role in the existent literature. To fill this gap, I propose and illustrate a new approach to the creation of sustainable business models, partly inspired by an existent framework that includes some ethics-related elements. This new approach promotes a contextual and relational view of businesses and the cyclical development of the value-related processes underlying business logic. The salient elements of the new model are the multifaceted meanings of value for stakeholders in the specific contexts in which businesses operate, care for and assume responsibility for their various stakeholders. These include the natural environment and the production and consumption mechanisms that aim to satisfy basic needs and promote eudaimonic well-being for consumers and employees.