Sustainable value and trade-offs: exploring situational logics and power relations in a UK brewery's malt supply network business model

Conceptualising firms from a business ecosystem, value-, or supply- network perspective captures the boundary-spanning nature of value creation. However, the relationship dynamics that enable or inhibit sustainable value creation, as well as the understanding of how to resolve trade-offs in sustainable supply chain management (SSCM), need to be better understood. To explore these, we present a comparative case study of how situational logics and power relations are embedded in business models within a UK brewer and its malt supply chain. The exploratory case illustrates how network-centric business model innovation (BMI) resolves the trade-off between economic and environmental value through the prioritisation of sustainability-related ‘cultural’ resources. These findings suggest that organisations seeking to implement sustainable supply networks need to pay greater attention to how they use business model innovation to institutionalise situational logics that enable or inhibit sustainable value creation and resolve trade-offs.

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Brennan G, Tennant M. Sustainable value and trade‐offs: Exploring situational logics and power relations in a UK brewery's malt supply network business model. Bus Strat Env. 2018;27:621–630. doi: 10.1002/bse.2067, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.2067. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving.