To Establish Enterprises’ Long-Term Competitive Advantages by Sustainable Business Models Design: A Case From China

Abstract

Traditional economic-oriented business models often have problems when faced with increasingly serious sustainability challenges. The advent of Industry 4.0 makes it necessary to transform sustainability challenges into competitive advantages for enterprises. Using a case study of a Chinese enterprise named GEM, this paper attempts to explore how sustainability challenges can be transformed to create competitive advantages. The research provides three conclusions: First, enterprises can transform sustainability challenges into competitive advantages by developing a sustainable business model, with environmental, social, and economic values; Second, a value proposition is the soul of the sustainable business model. Enterprises need not only focus on “how to do” but they must pay even more attention to “what to do”, so it is advisable to integrate a value proposition into the enterprise strategy and business process; Finally, a sustainable value proposition consists of sustainable economic, environmental, and social values, and their individual importance varies in sustainable business models for different industries where the demand for environmental and social value is increasingly important.