Managing the transition to sustainable business models: the role of leadership and measuring shared value creation

This project aims to contribute to the development of shared value measurement models and an understanding of the antecedents of transformational/sustainability leadership. The study adopts a stages model in which organizations and their leaders move from lower to higher degrees of shared value creation. A vital role thereby is played by the mindsets and attitudes of the leadership of organization vis-à-vis their followers both inside and outside the organization. The research deals with three related questions: (1) what type of leadership is particularly appropriate for shared value creation; (2) what are the main drivers of change and how can leaders overcome internal and external barriers to change, deal with structural inertia and promote structural transformation; (3) how to measure (shared) value creation in relation to stages of business model development and which combinations of value created for the stakeholder(s) ? including society and nature ? constitute shared value? This study integrates a number of isolated research areas and which we aim to make a contribution to: business model innovation, leadership, value creation, partnership studies, the business case for sustainability, transformation processes. A variety of techniques and methods that have been used by the consortium partners separately will be combined, further validated and applied to a number of case studies. Each of these case studies represents a ?wicked problem? for which stakeholder involvement is not only necessary to address the issue, but also as part of the research methodology. The main research approach t will therefore be qualitative and action oriented.