Krzysztof Dembek

Sustainable business model research and practice: Emerging field or passing fancy?

This article reflects on the current state of the dynamically growing research and practice on sustainable business models (SBMs), motivated by the question of whether dealing with SBMs is just a passing fancy or an emerging field, maybe even a field in its own right. We follow Ehrenfeld (2004), who asked a similar question for the field of industrial ecology in this journal, and reflect on the major beliefs and concepts underpinning SBM research and practice, tools and resources, authorities, and the related community of actors. These elements are considered characteristics of a field and must be institutionalised in academia, industry and government for a field to emerge and progress. We therefore also identify some institutionalisation tendencies. As a result, we conclude that SBM research and practice show traits of an emerging field. It is however too early to foresee if it will develop as a sub-field within already established domains (“sub-field hypothesis”) or as a stand-alone field (“standalone hypothesis”). We argue that the sub-field and the stand-alone positioning may hamper the unfolding of the field’s full potential. Instead, we propose that the SBM field needs to assume the role of an integrative field to break existing academic niches and silos and maximise practical impact (“integration hypothesis”). Our observations indicate that the SBM field is indeed developing into an integrative field and force. But we need to better understand and strengthen this development, for example by crafting a dedicated SBM research programme. A series of critical reviews could be a starting point for such an endeavour.

Sensation Seeking and the Integrated Model of Intercultural Communication Competence

There is a recent body of research that draws a connection between sensation seeking and intercultural communication. In the present study, the relationship between sensation seeking and variables that contribute to intercultural communication competence are explored in the context of the Integrated Model of Intercultural Communication Competence. Four hypotheses were proposed. Results from structural equation modeling supported two of the proposed hypotheses. Though there was no direct relationship between sensation seeking and ICC, the results supported previous findings that sensation seeking has a positive relationship with ICC in the presence of mediating variables. The implications of the findings are discussed.