Session 5

“Business & Society Paper Development Workshop: ‘Collaborative Cross-Sector Business Models for Sustainability”
Florian Lüdeke-Freund, ESCP Europe Business School, Germany, Esben R. G. Pedersen, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark and Irene Henriques, York University, Canada

This session will serve as an interactive paper development workshop together with (some of) the guest editors of a planned Business & Society special issue on “Collaborative Cross-Sector Business Models for Sustainability”. The deadline for final paper submission to the journal is 1st December 2018.
In the last few decades, there has been a wave of interest in business models, which has also impacted the debates about corporate sustainability and corporate social responsibility. But what is often missing or lost in the business model discussions is the fact that the development of businesses is often dependent on the collaboration of multiple actors such as suppliers, customers, universities, and government – namely cross-sector collaboration.
Therefore, the purpose of this session, and later the Business & Society special issue, is to explore the role of cross-sector collaboration and partnerships for new and potentially sustainable business models and sharing platforms. To date, collaboration with stakeholders has often been lumped together and drawn as a ‘key partners’ box in the business model canvas, which in turn leads to an underrepresentation of partners and networks, or stakeholders in general, in dominating business model frameworks and theories. Addressing collaborative models will blur the boundaries of conventional business model thinking, which remains dominated by well-defined boxes and clear-cut boundaries.
This session aims at motivating authors to explore the theoretical, conceptual and practical areas where narrow perspectives on customers and suppliers are extended or replaced by considering the whole range of possible stakeholders related to business models and sharing platforms. The aim is to develop insights about how collaborative business models and sharing platforms can be stimulated, managed and led to outcomes that are beneficial for both business and society.
Possible topics include (but are not limited to):
• When do collaborative business models supplement or replace conventional business models?
• What types of sharing and collaboration are needed for social innovations to thrive?
• How do hybridization approaches inform collective action models?
• How is economic, social and environmental value(s) balanced among the different actors in collaborative business models?
• How is value created, delivered and captured from cross-sector collaboration shared among actors from business and society?
• What tensions, dilemmas and paradoxes emerge when managing and operating collaborative business models for sustainability?
A more extensive list can be found in the full call for papers through this link.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Participating in this session requires a short paper, i.e. submitting an extended abstract only will not qualify for this session. A minimum of 10 double-spaced pages, excluding references and exhibits, is required. Note that submission of a short paper to the session is not a precondition for submission of a full paper to the Special Issue. In case of questions, please contact

5a
Fair profitability along Food Value Chains: Actors, mechanisms and experiences to promote rural growth and sustainable development
Marcela Ciubotaru
University of Siena, Italy

Cross-sector partnerships and start-ups creation from a circular business model: the Alisea case
Silvia Cantele
University of Verona, Italy

Conceptualizing Shared Sustainable Business Models – Illustrations From Swedish Energy
Ivan Riumkin, Maria Bengtsson, Herman Stål
Umeå School of Business, Economics, and Statistics, Sweden

Exploring Collaborative Cross-Sector Networks in a Regional Context
Vessela Warren1, Mark Loon2
1University of Worcester, UK; 2Bath SPA University, UK

5b
Permeable Circles of Collaboration: Towards an Open Collaborative Business Modelling Approach for Sustainability
Inge Oskam, Jeroen Kraaijenbrink
Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands

Collaborative Construction: How Institutional Entrepreneurs with limited Access to Resources Innovate to fill Institutional Voids in Emerging Markets
Urs Jäger1, Carlos Martinez2
1INCAE Business School, Costa Rica; 2University of St. Gallen, Switzerland

New Business Models for New Buildings: Smart Buildings Business Model Innovation
Lara Anne Hale
Copenhagen Business School, Denmark

WORKING APART TOGETHER. Towards a typology for communities addressing wicked problems
Moniek Kamm1,2, Niels Faber2, Jan Jonker2
1Saxion UAS; 2 Radboud University, The Netherlands