A systematic review of sustainable business models : opportunities, challenges, and future research directions

Increased environmental awareness has inspired the industrial community to develop sustainable business models (SBMs). Accordingly, SBM has become a trendy topic in the research community. This review analyses SBM to understand its significance, emerging trends, opportunities, challenges, and future trends benefitting academics and practitioners. The literature review was performed using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) framework. Sixty-three relevant research articles were extracted from the Scopus database and reviewed in this study. Bibliometric and network analysis were conducted to construct cluster domains and to find emerging research areas. Bibliometric analysis shows that SBM evolved from sustainable development and innovation. The network analysis reveals five emerging areas: SBM strategies, challenges in developing SBMs, drivers of SBMs, the role of innovation in SBMs, and digital technologies in the SBM. Furthermore, this review indicates that most studies on SBM are quantitative, focusing on the manufacturing industry. Future research directions of SBM have also been offered based on the findings of this study.