Courtship for Business Model Innovation: Early Stage Value Negotiation for the Sustainability of Smart Homes

The research contributes to business models for sustainability (BMfS) literature with insights into the role of value negotiations in the design-implementation gap of collaborative business model innovation. It looks at the phenomenon of so-called courtship in the early formation of collaboration for business model innovation; wherein organizations contest justifications for smart home business partnerships based on orders of worth, including that of sustainability as a ‘green’ order of worth. It considers the case of the VELUX Group with the release of their smart home device VELUX Active and the development of business ecosystems from the remote-control wireless devices of 2005 to the smart home groupings of 2020 to better understand why there is not more widespread implementation of business models designed for sustainability. The research finds that although a green order of worth, representing sustainability value, may be frequently argued, that market and industrial orders of worth have demonstrated greater maturity in arguments and value reframing that determine the basis of smart home collaborations. Further, it supports a growing body of research suggesting that business model innovation processes are experimental and gradual, and that iterative structural prototypes and piloting of sustainability activities can potentially bridge the design-implementation gap.