Romana Rauter, University of Graz

Abel Diaz Gonzalez, Maastricht University

Florian Lüdeke-Freund, ESCP Business School

Maya Hoveskog, Halmstad University

Nikolay A. Dentchev, University of National and World Economy

John Elkington, Volans

Contemporary business–society relationships face unprecedented strain due to corporate political influence, externalization of ecological and social costs, rapid technological change, and interconnected ecological and geopolitical crises. Current management approaches prove inadequate for advancing sustainable and equitable outcomes, requiring new analytical frameworks that examine how value is created, captured, and distributed among diverse stakeholders, and how power, risk, and responsibility are allocated across organizational and institutional boundaries.

The business models for sustainability perspective offers a promising lens for understanding these systemic dynamics by directing attention to the organizational arrangements and mechanisms through which sustainable value is created and distributed, power is exercised, and responsibilities are allocated. This special issue seeks theoretical and empirical contributions that explore how BMfS negotiate and reshape business–society relationships, including their potential to create more equitable outcomes and their capacity to reproduce inequalities or shift risks to vulnerable populations.

Appel publié par Business & Society. Lire l'appel complet sur le site de l'éditeur. Fiche de l'appel sur kerostig.

Potential topics

• What insights do business models for sustainability (BMfS) offer into the dynamics of business–society relationships in the contemporary context?
• In what ways do existing BMfS facilitate the (re)negotiation of value creation and capture mechanisms and processes, as well as the distribution of power, risk, and responsibility?
• Under what conditions do BMfS reproduce inequality, shift risks to vulnerable actors, create new dependencies, or reinforce private control over societal problems?
• Which critical perspectives can help in studying the 'dark sides' of BMfS and corresponding business–society relationships?
• How do BMfS operate differently across sectors, regions, and institutional environments, particularly in non-Western contexts?
• Which theories, including inter- and multidisciplinary approaches, are and can be used to study BMfS as facilitators of business–society relationships?
• What methodological approaches and innovations can aid in the study of the value creation and capture logics that enable, constrain, or actively reshape the terms on which business–society relationships depend?

Timeline

• November 15, 2026: Abstract submission deadline for Virtual Paper Development Workshop
• December 1, 2026: Virtual Paper Development Workshop
• January 1, 2027: Virtual Paper Development Workshop
• May 1, 2027: Full paper submission window opens
• June 30, 2027: Full paper submission deadline
• September 1, 2027: Editorial decisions for first review phase
• January 31, 2028: Second submission deadline
• April 1, 2028: Editorial decisions for second review phase
• August 31, 2028: Third submission deadline
• October 1, 2028: Editorial decisions for third review phase
• December 30, 2028: Final submission deadline

Associate editors

• Lea Stadtler, Grenoble Ecole de Management