Author: Di Lu
, Xiao-Ming Miao
, Tian-tian Shang
& Ting-ting Gu
Summary:
There is growing attention in theories and practices to achieve sustainable business models (SBMs). However, achieving SBMs for incumbents is an arduous and challenging process. Based on the literature on SBMs and managerial cognition, we explore how managers use their cognitive processes to adapt business models to environmental changes. Based on the study of a Chinese incumbent, this paper reveals the evolution process of incumbents’s SBMs in the manufacturing sector and indicates managers’s effective cognitive processes under different environmental conditions. This study attempts to open the black box of the link between cognitive processes and SBMs, reveal the role of cognitive heuristics, and provide practice guidance for incumbent firms to achieve sustainable development.
