Business Sustainability Maturity Model

This conceptual paper in sustainable business research introduces a business sustainability maturity model as an innovative solution to support companies move towards sustainable development. Such model offers the possibility for each firm to individually assess its position regarding five sustainability maturity levels and, as a consequence, build a tailored as well as a common strategy along its network of relationships and influence to progress towards higher levels of sustainable development. The maturity model suggested is based on the belief that business sustainability is a continuous process of evolution in which a company will be continuously seeking to achieve its vision of sustainable development in uninterrupted cycles of improvement, where at each new cycle the firm starts the process at a higher level of business sustainability performance. The referred model is therefore dynamic to incorporate changes along the way and enable its own evolution following the firm’s and its network partners’ progress towards the sustainability vision. The research on which this paper is based combines expertise in science and technology policy, R&D and innovation management, team performance and organisational learning, strategy alignment and integrated business performance, knowledge management and technology foresighting.