Science of Science and Management of S.& T. ›› 2021, Vol. 42 ›› Issue (02): 59-77.

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Sustainable Business Model of Platform Context: Logic and Implementation

  

  1. (1. School of Economics and Management, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China;2. Research Center for Technological Innovation, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China)
  • Online:2021-02-10 Published:2021-03-10

Abstract: Under the influence of the concept of sustainable competition, the traditional business model has been
given new content of value creation. Business model is the logic of how to "make money" and an effective means to
realize strategic competition. In recent years, with a new round of technological revolution spreading all over the world,
digital technologies such as Internet, big data, block chain and artificial intelligence have accelerated their penetration into
all kinds of organization operation management and business systems, which has become an important underlying technical
support to promote enterprise technological change and realize business model innovation, and has derived two economic
models in the digital context of platform economy and sharing economy form. Accordingly, in the new economic
forms such as platform economy and shared economy, internet platform firms have become the micro organization carrier
under the new platform context. Platform firms realize the aggregation of various resources by platform strategic thinking
and platform specific network effect, and realize the creation of economic value by relying on business model innovation.
Under the platform context, forming the platform, users and users. There are many kinds of value creation relationships between
users, platform and society, platform, user and society. Platform business model, which is accompanied by platform
enterprises, has become the most significant business model innovation since the 21st century. Platform based business
model innovation provides new forms and solutions to solve the common social and environmental problems faced by human
society. However, the reality that can not be ignored is that in recent years, many new social problems have emerged
in the process of platform business model innovation, which has brought severe challenges to the traditional business
model dominated by market logic. How to realize the transformation and innovation from platform business model to platform

sustainable business model has also become a prominent topic of research.

Firstly, this paper reviews the connotation of business model and sustainable business model, and clarifies the core
connotation and internal logic of business model from the perspective of transaction structure, technology, organization
and management, value creation and strategy. The sustainable business model is based on stakeholder theory and corporate
social responsibility, which not only creates value for customers, but also creates comprehensive value for society and
natural environment. In the supply chain of sustainable business model, suppliers are also responsible for the company's
stakeholders. At the customer interface incentive level, sustainable business model encourages sustainable consumption,
and customers are responsible for their consumption and the company's stakeholders. Finally, in the aspect of financial performance,
it reflects the appropriate allocation of economic costs and benefits among the participants, and considers the
ecological and social impact of the company, so as to clarify the systematic transcendence of sustainable business model
as a new theoretical paradigm to the theoretical meaning of traditional business model. Furthermore, this paper discusses
the new value logic and reconstruction of the business model of platform enterprises under the guidance of sustainability,
and focuses on the realization of the sustainable business model under two subdivision scenarios under the platform context.
The sustainable business model of shared platform mainly focuses on the recycling and sustainable utilization of resources
and the social reconfiguration to achieve sustainability and create comprehensive value and shared value. Under
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平台情境下的可持续性商业模式:逻辑与实现 第02期
the platform economy, the platform firms based on commercial transactions is mainly based on the embedded concept of
corporate social responsibility. By embedding the corresponding social responsibility practice issues or social responsibility
practice platform interface, the related social environment problems in the operation process of the platform can be
solved by the power of the platform business ecosystem, so as to create sustainable comprehensive value, or by building a
social responsibility practice platform or social innovation platform based on a certain social problem driven by sustainable
oriented entrepreneurship of social entrepreneurship or co benefit entrepreneurship, and build a benefit organization
to drive the platform sustainable business model and innovation. In the future, the research on sustainable business
model in the context of platform needs to be further explored from two aspects, one is the basic theory of endogenous integration
and governance of corporate social responsibility, the other is empirical research about driving factors, impact effects
and evaluation of sustainable business model.

Key words: sustainable business model(SBM), platform enterprise, corporate social responsibility(CSR), shared economy, platform economy, scene