Caroline Gauthier

Business Models for Sustainability Energy Efficiency in Urban Districts

The disruptive nature of many sustainability solutions may be the main barrier to their implementation and dispersal: adopting a business model perspective may help address this problem. Previous literature has explored how organizations can convert their supply chains and customer interfaces toward a sustainability focus, but has generally not considered links to other business model elements—such as value propositions and financial models—in exploring business model transitions. Moreover, the implementation of sustainable solutions often relies on projects being implemented and managed collectively, so that organizations need to adapt their business models to deliver value propositions collectively, a phenomenon that research on business models for sustainability should address. This article addresses these issues by exploring changes in business model elements in detail via an in-depth qualitative study of two French sustainable urban projects—Caserne de Bonne and IssyGrid®. Our results show, first, that it is worth considering the role played by business model elements (the value proposition and the financial model) that literature does not usually discuss in enabling the management of or transition to business models for sustainability. Second, considering all four business model elements allows us to develop a typology of their transformations in organizations working toward sustainable solutions. Third, introducing the necessary collective dimension of sustainable solutions highlights the role of agency in facilitating their development and adoption.

Market orientation: synthesis and new theoretical directions

The research devoted to market orientation has multiplied since the seminal works of Kohli and Jaworski (1990) and of Narver and Slater (1990). These were primarily structured around the question of the relation between market orientation and organizational performance, which was largely resolved with the publication of three meta-analyses (Rodriguez Cano, Carrillat and Jaramillo, 2004; Kirca, Jayachandran and Bearden, 2005; Ellis, 2006). Two questions remain under-explored: that of the definition of the concept, and that of its implementation. In relation to the first topic, this article proposes integrating existing approaches to market orientation, currently few in number. As well as providing a more complete definition and a better structuring of the concept, this approach leads to a better understanding of its links with organizational performance. In terms of the second topic, the article offers an assessment of the existing methods, as a basis for future directions of research.

Creating Value While Avoiding its Destruction Through R&D Management and Innovation

Value creation and capture remain a key but quite a challenging objective for many organizations. RD i.e. learning through failure, learning by deviating and investigating motivations for not participating in innovation communities.

Business model performance: five key drivers

The purpose of this paper is to help readers to better understand and manage the key drivers of business model performance.,This paper investigates research on business model performance to identify and illustrate five static and dynamic performance drivers.,While performance mechanisms linked to traditional business model components remain instrumental for business model success, the authors argue that managers need to adopt a more dynamic view, emphasizing how changing combinations of drivers matter over a firm’s life cycle.,The proposed approach combines insights from multiple theoretical perspective into an actionable framework for management practitioners.

Acculturation and Advertising: Evidence from South Korea

To enrich the literature on the links between communication strategies and acculturation, this study first proposes an in-situ research approach as a complement to the widely explored ex-situ acculturation perspective. South Korea provides an exemplary case for the analysis of this phenomenon due to its strongly dominant traditional culture and its recent relative cultural invasion in the context of market globalization. The study then explores the values conveyed by advertisements vs. the values used by consumers in the interpretation of these advertisements, investigating two dimensions: use, as represented by community (food) vs. personal products (cosmetics), and origin, i.e. local vs. global products. Our results primarily suggest that traditional values coexist with non-traditional values in the advertising content rather than in the values used by consumers. Additionally, a large set of non-traditional values are used by consumers, evidencing a high level of in-situ acculturation.

An ultimate contribution of sustainable development to management sciences

The sustainable development model of the organisation is more and more plebiscited. This article contributes to the understanding of such an infatuation. It shows that beyond the already identified objectives, the model proposes a radically different way of thinking for the manager. Managerial implications are developed.