ABSTRACT
Research in the new field of sustainable development and corporate social responsibility (CSR) has generated a considerable body of knowledge over the last decades. However, while most of the research was conducted (1) focusing on the motivations for embracing sustainable development as a managerial imperative, (2) conceptualizing what it means to be a sustainable organization, and (3) trying to understand implications on firms’ financial performance, little is known about the operationalization of sustainability within and/or across firms (Devinney, 2013). This chapter reviews the recent literature about sustainable development and CSR and highlights the emergence of the business model construct as a pertinent unit of analysis for conducting research on the unanswered question of how firms operationalize sustainability and transform their business model(s) to achieve economic but also social and environmental value over time.
