Designing business models for creating and capturing shared value: An activity-system perspective

Business models define configurations of activities that jointly enable a firm to create and capture value. The value paradigm is shifting from sharing created value to creating shared value in which firms and societies jointly create and share value to nurture more benefits for a sustainable business-environment symbiosis. Drawing on this logic, we develop a framework for designing business models that enable creation and capture of shared value. Our model builds on the practice theory and activity system and depicts business models as complex adaptive systems that co-evolve with markets. Using the shared value framework proposed by Porter and Kramer (2011) we propose three design themes namely the Product-Market Design (PMD), the Value Chain Design (VCD) and the Social Cluster Design (SCD). We specify features of each school from the activity perspective. Subsequently, we will discuss implications of our framework for theory, practice and management education and illuminate some directions for future research.