Business model innovation for disruptive sustainability: a theorizing review on how interdependencies between business model components reshape the problem-solution nexus

Journal article

Global sustainability challenges demand large, rapid and systemic transformation of the systems that underpin modern life. Disruption is increasingly discussed as a trigger of these transformations, but the drivers of disruption have remained unclear. While much of the existing literature focuses on technological innovation as a potential driver, limited although growing attention has been paid to non-technological sources. This paper explores business model innovation as a non-technological driver of disruptive sustainability. We define disruptive sustainability as far-reaching changes in more than one dimension of socio-technical systems, triggered by a high-intensity effect, towards realising environmental, social and economic goals. We conduct a theorizing review of academic literature on the last mile in low-income and lower-middle income countries. We develop an explanatory model of how interdependencies between business model innovation components drive disruptive sustainability by re-defining the problem-solution nexus at different depths. Our contributions are threefold. First, we expand the conceptualization of disruptive sustainability by unpacking the crucial aspect of depth of change. We suggest that disruptions can trigger shallow, medium or deep change within and across dimensions of socio-technical systems. Second, we explain how the interdependencies between different business model innovation components drive disruptive sustainability by changing the problem-solution nexus at different depths. Third, based on these contributions, we develop a tool which guides stakeholders in driving disruptive sustainability in three distinct steps linked to different degrees of depth.

Authors: Schmidt, M; Brophy, A; Trotter, P

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Journal: Research Policy
• Volume: 55
• Issue: 8
• Article number: 105533
• Publication date: 2026-06-11
• Acceptance date: 2026-05-16
• DOI: 10.1016/j.respol.2026.105533
• EISSN: 1873-7625
• ISSN: 0048-7333
• Language: English
• Keywords: disruptive sustainability; business model innovation; sustainable development; lowincome countries; last mile; review