Synchronising Stakeholder Roles: How Do Stakeholders Actively and Dynamically Shape Networked Business Models for Sustainability?

Tackling sustainability challenges requires coordinated actions across diverse stakeholders. Sustainability-oriented innovation thus demands networked business models for sustainability (NBMfS), where focal companies and stakeholders co-create value through interdependent but coordinated roles. Using multiple case studies, this paper maps the stakeholders' roles in developing an NBMfS and traces their transformation over time. We identify three novel roles in sustainability contexts (seeker, negotiator, innovator) and conceptualise synergistic roles (sustainability pioneer, strategist, influencer, administrator) emerging through enlargement, enrichment and simplification. We propose the Sustainable Business–Stakeholder Role Synchronisation framework, theorising a temporal and dynamic theory of networked BMfS innovation, where the synchronisation between NBMfS development phases and stakeholder network dynamics drives role transformation that in turn impacts on sustainable change.