Sustainable business models through service design

In the face of growing sustainability challenges, pressure on businesses to decouple environmental impacts from growth is mounting. New sustainable business models can be a systemic driver for change in industry and the wider business innovation literature suggests that strategic design approaches can be at the heart of business model innovation. One such approach, service design, involves solving problems through a service response, which unlocks value for each stakeholder in a value chain. Nevertheless, the value of service design to sustainable business is still often overlooked. Through a literature review and five illustrative case studies this paper systematically analyses how businesses can leverage service design for sustainable business model innovation. The research highlights how service design can support sustainable business model innovation by uncovering strategic as well as operational synergies between these complementary fields.