An Appreciative Inquiry Into Sustainable Business Model Innovation

Abstract

Considering the immense impact of the private sector on globally prevailing social and environmental issues, it is clear that businesses need to undergo fundamental change. As incremental change approaches are insufficient to address significant sustainability issues, there are increasing calls for transformative change such as through Sustainable Business Model Innovation (SBMI). While Sustainable Business Models (SBM) are recognised as among the best strategies to improve business sustainability there is a lack of insights on how exactly businesses can adopt SBMs. The understanding is even more limited in the case of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) which are crucial for a more sustainable future. A unique change methodology is needed to explore and support this type of transformative organisational change while allowing for diversity of organisational member’s lived experiences. This paper uses a conceptual research method paired with empirical data to propose Appreciative Inquiry (AI) as a new theoretical lens for the field of SBMI, drawing on a research study that applied AI as a framework to guide empirical research on SBMI. Semi-structured interviews based on AI’s methodology were conducted with 30 SMEs in Australia. This facilitated generative interviews and insights into the often hidden capabilities and change-capacity of SMEs. This paper contributes a new lens to the growing body of research on SBMs by synthesising AI’s theory of change with the concept of SBMI. Preliminary findings suggest AI’s potential to provide a fresh perspective to explore and facilitate SBMI.