Developing a holistic framework to understand the contribution of sustainable public procurement to the development of more sustainable business models

Abstract

The concept of sustainable development has encouraged companies to re-asses the 9 way they do business. The integration of sustainability requirements into the 10 procurement process, leading to sustainable procurement, can motivate companies to 11 develop more sustainable business models. 12 Although there has been increasing research on sustainable procurement and business 13 models alike, attention for the contribution of sustainable procurement to the 14 development of more sustainable business models is lacking. This paper provides an 15 in-depth analysis on the links between the procurement process and the development 16 towards more sustainable business models. By the application of the constant 17 comparative analysis, initially categories and concepts were taken from the fields of 18 procurement, business models and corporate sustainability, leading to the 19 development of a preliminary framework. Validation by experts in the fields gave 20 input to further develop the framework as it is showed in this paper. This framework 21 helps to better understand the contribution of a sustainability focus during the 22 procurement process on the development of more sustainable business models. It is 23 suggested to test this framework further by applying it to generate empirical data.