Digital sustainable entrepreneurship: A business model perspective on embedding digital technologies for social and environmental value creation

Abstract

This article explores how sustainable entrepreneurs embed digital technologies in their business models to leverage social and environmental value creation. To this end, we draw on the institutional logics perspective of sustainable business models. The article contributes to research on sustainable business models and entrepreneurship by showing that digital technologies enable novel configurations of sustainable business model components: a blended value proposition, integrative value creation, and multidimensional value capture. Moreover, we discuss the complementarities and tensions of a digital logic and logics of sustainability that clarify and advance the link between these concepts in an entrepreneurial context. This further adds to the theoretical development of sustainable business models as manifestations of multiple institutional logics. The article yields practical implications by describing possibilities and drawbacks of digital technologies for designing sustainable business models.