Valentine Georget, Senior Lecturer at Université Côte d'Azur, and Thierry Rayna, Professor of Innovation Management at i3-CRG, won the best paper award at the Business Models conference held in Maastricht from June 21 to 23, 2023.

The paper poses this topical question: How can we be profitable while having a positive impact on the environment and society as a whole? These different questions are the genesis of this research. Thus, through this research, the two winners seek to understand how organizations are innovating to integrate the notion of impact into the heart of their business models. These various crucial questions are posed at both theoretical and empirical levels. To answer this crucial question, they conducted a four-phase research-intervention (David et al., 2012): (1) an exploratory phase, (2) a methodological tool-building phase, (3) an experimental phase and (4) an evaluation phase. The results of the exploratory phase of this research highlight a lack of exhaustive theoretical and practical vision of the business model, impact and ecosystem dimensions. And yet, such a comprehensive vision is necessary to enable business model innovation for impact. Based on these observations - from the exploratory phase - this research proposes a methodology based on the combination of three tools - 360° business model (Rayna & Striukova, 2014, 2016), impact mapping and ecosystem mapping - to innovate in business model for impact.

The aim of this research is threefold: (1) to understand how to reconcile economic profitability and positive impact, (2) to propose a methodology for integrating impact at the heart of organizations' business models, and (3) to experiment with this methodology to understand its organizational implications.

This work will be followed by (1) the creation of executive education training and (2) the longitudinal study which is still underway to improve this methodology and continue to observe the evolutions and changes brought about by the use of the methodology.

To find out more, click here the Polytechnique Insight article