A Strategic Marketing Perspective on Sustainable Business Model Tensions

Companies striving for a sustainable future face contradictions between societal and environmental imperatives and the competitive pressures of the marketplace. Sustainable business models (SBMs) are inherently tension-laden, encompassing contradictory or misaligned demands that companies must manage simultaneously. Despite their importance, little is known about how these tensions can be understood from a strategic marketing perspective, which focuses on how companies offer customer value, build competitiveness, and manage their presence in specific markets over time. This gap constrains the potential of SBMs, as strategic marketing actions cannot be fully harnessed to address pressing sustainability challenges, such as overproduction, overconsumption, and the persistence of unsustainable business models in the market. Therefore, the purpose of this dissertation is to explore and analyze SBM tensions from a strategic marketing perspective. Specifically, the research phenomenon is examined using customer value propositions (CVPs), which are strategic marketing tools for defining and articulating how companies aim to provide value to their customers. The dissertation comprises an introductory section and three individual scientific articles. Each article examines tensions in the strategic marketing of SBMs from a distinct perspective, focusing on a specific dimension that is particularly relevant to strategic marketing in the sustainability context. Article I is a conceptual study that adopts a systems perspective to explore how a company’s motivational orientation to protect sustainable systems is operationalized within the strategic marketing tensions of SBMs. Articles II and III are empirical, multiple-case studies conducted in the context of the textile and fashion industry. Article II applies a market perspective, identifying the tensions that emerge as sustainable alternatives become legitimized and compete within a specific marketplace. Article III takes a product perspective, exploring how companies communicate proposed customer value across the product’s use cycle. To synthesize the insights of the study, three research propositions are presented. These propositions frame SBM tensions as signals that enable sustainability-oriented actions, emphasize the importance of directing attention to the system, market, and product levels, and propose reframing CVPs as strategic marketing mechanisms for engaging with SBM tensions. Overall, the main contribution of the dissertation is to enrich the discussion on SBM tensions by integrating a strategic marketing perspective. Moreover, the dissertation encourages managers to view SBM tensions not merely as barriers or challenges to their sustainability efforts, but as enablers that can support sustainability transitions.