Designing Business Models in Sustainability-Driven Hybrid Organizations: Configurations of Organizational Activities in B Corps

Abstract

Sustainability-driven hybrid organizations are characterized by for-profit activities centered around specific social and environmental missions. Therefore, designing their business models is essential for structuring organizational activities to achieve the proposed social and environmental goals. Current literature lacks a comprehensive understanding of how business models are designed in such organizations, especially regarding how sustainability-related activities are combined. This study advances understanding of business model design in sustainability-driven hybrids by distinguishing between integrated and differentiated archetypes and examining their key organizational activities through the lens of the business model for sustainability literature. By applying a crisp-set qualitative comparative analysis of B Corps data, we examine how various sustainability-related activities are combined in integrated and differentiated business models. We identify distinct configurations of sustainability-related activities – six associated with integrated business models and two with differentiated ones. Our findings enhance understanding of the business models adopted by sustainability-driven hybrids, emphasizing the importance of combining specific sustainability activities in their design. Moreover, our findings show that integrated business model designs, in sustainability-driven hybrids, typically combine multiple value functions (e.g., maintaining, unlocking, and sharing value), thereby enabling stronger alignment between economic and sustainability goals. In contrast, differentiated business models tend to focus on a single value function, reflecting more specialized business model designs. This evidence helps clarify how different configurations underpin integrated and differentiated models, enriching the discussion of these two archetypes.