Sustainable Business Models: Bridging Theory and Practice Through an Integrative Conceptual Review

Abstract

Sustainable business models (SBMs) describe how organizations create, deliver, and capture value while simultaneously generating economic, environmental, and social benefits for a broad set of stakeholders. Although the field has expanded rapidly since the late 2000s, the literature remains conceptually dispersed: definitions proliferate, design tools and archetypes coexist without integration, and findings on the link between sustainability practices and firm performance remain inconsistent. To address this fragmentation, this study conducts a PRISMA 2020-guided systematic literature review of foundational and recent contributions published between 2008 and 2025. Of 300 records identified through database searching, 30 studies met the eligibility criteria and were synthesized qualitatively; these are interpreted together with complementary theoretical and methodological literature. Rather than reporting bibliometric indicators, the review synthesizes the field across three dimensions: the evolution of the SBM concept, its dominant design logics and archetypes, and its contemporary thematic landscape. The findings trace a progression from foundational triple-bottom-line conceptualization, through archetype- and tool-based design approaches such as the Triple-Layered Business Model Canvas and pattern taxonomies, toward digitally enabled, circular, and resilience-oriented models. These patterns are interpreted through complementary theoretical lenses—the resource-based and natural-resource-based views, dynamic capabilities, information-processing theory, and stakeholder theory. The review consolidates these insights into an integrative conceptual framework that links theoretical foundations, value-design dimensions, enabling capabilities, and triple-bottom-line outcomes. It further discusses implications for managers and outlines a research agenda emphasizing digital and circular enablers, longitudinal designs, and the under-examined context of emerging markets, with an applied emphasis on Central Asia and Kazakhstan.