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Operationalizing leverage points in business model design for sustainable systems change

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 May 2024

Cadence Hsien  and
Steve Evans
Cadence Hsien*
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge, United Kingdom Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology, Agency for Science, Technology & Research, Singapore
Steve Evans
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
*
ljh95@cam.ac.uk

Abstract

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Systems change can help to address sustainability challenges and interventions at deep leverage points of a system can be applied to do so. By studying 9 sustainable entrepreneurial businesses, this paper looked at how entrepreneurial firms used their business to intervene at deep leverage points to facilitate systems change. We then proposed how deep leverage points can be operationalized by developing an approach for sustainable business model innovation and how entrepreneurs can consciously target leverage points when designing their business models to influence sustainable systems change.

Keywords

business modelssustainabilityecosystemsystems entrepreneur
Type
Design for Sustainability
Information
Proceedings of the Design Society , Volume 4: DESIGN 2024 , May 2024 , pp. 1299 - 1308
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
The Author(s), 2024.

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