Advancing the Twin Transition: Digital Technologies in Sustainable Service Ecosystems and the Circular Economy

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10125/112416

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    Financing Sustainable Innovation: How VC and CVC Shape Start-up Autonomy, Networks, and Culture
    (2026-01-06) Werbik, Alexander; Bitzer, Valerie; Griesbach, David
    In the context of the twin transition, sustainability must be understood not only in ecological or social terms, but also as a firm’s capacity for long-term adaptability and innovation. For start-ups in particular, innovation is an essential factor for long-term market survival in rapidly evolving market environments. Accordingly, understanding how different types of financial partners - such as venture capital (VC) and corporate venture capital (CVC) - shape the conditions under which innovation emerges becomes a critical concern for research and practice. It conceptualizes sustainability and the circular economy not from a mere business model perspective, but more broadly as a firm’s capacity to sustain innovation and generate long-term value for society. Based on a quantitative survey with Swiss start-ups, the findings show that VC-backed firms report higher autonomy – an essential condition for long-term, sustainability-oriented innovation. CVC-backed start-ups exhibit more heterogeneous patterns, especially regarding network access and decision-making freedom. The findings underscore the importance of aligning investor models with the innovation needs of sustainability-driven ventures.
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    Decoding the Twin Transformation in B2B Firms – A Taxonomy of Digital and Sustainable Business Model Approaches
    (2026-01-06) Drees, Lisa; Maass, Carolin
    The megatrends of sustainability and digitalization are influencing everyday business life. The synergy of both results in the so-called twin transformation. Firms are decisive both in the sustainable design of digital technologies and in the digital achievement of sustainability goals. Therefore, this paper focuses on the classification of twin transformation approaches. In particular, the question is examined as to which approaches are used in business models of B2B firms. For this aim, a taxonomy is developed that enables the systematic analysis of existing conceptual and empirical approaches along the business model. The final taxonomy comprises 23 characteristics in seven dimensions and three meta-characteristics (value proposition, value creation and delivery, and value capture). The results of the taxonomy can be expanded and validated in future research by conducting an interview study with firms to discover dependencies among twin transformation practices.
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    Digital Sustainability Definitions: The Same but Different
    (2026-01-06) Schoormann, Thorsten; Paeplow, Johanna; Möller, Frederik
    Although the Information Systems (IS) discipline began its quest to contribute to sustainability several decades ago, we can recently observe new research streams emerging in this context. Among these streams is digital sustainability, highlighting the expanding diffusion of digital technologies and data. Considering the established IS genres on sustainability, we wondered whether the concept of digital sustainability is ‘new wine in old wineskins’ or has novel, unique characteristics. By surveying a sample of 37 papers from various areas, we identified 31 distinct definitions and disassembled them according to their digital component, sustainability component, relation between the components, impact, and user scope. The analysis showed similarities between digital sustainability and existing research streams, but also differences in terms of goal variety, socio-technical stance, and role of (advanced) digital technologies.
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