Open Access

Jing Lin, Clotilde Rohleder

• In the last decade, both sustainability and business models for sustainability have increased in importance. Sustainability issues have become the focus of discussion. These issues are interlinked and often negatively impact each other. They are complex and include socio-ecological dilemmas, exist in almost every aspect of our society (economic, environmental, social), and are hard to formulate. They may have multiple, incompatible solutions, competing objectives, and open timeframes. Previous research has not developed satisfactory ways to comprehend and solve problems of this nature. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) the widely used method to assess sustainable development has reached its limitation to achieve sustainable social goals. System Dynamics (SD) is a valuable methodology that enhances understanding of the structure and internal dynamic behaviours of large, complex, and dynamic systems, leading to improved decision-making. It offers a philosophy and set of tools for modelling, analysing, and simulating dynamic systems. This research applied system dynamics methods in conjunction with simulation software to assess the potential impact of a solution on environmental, social, and economic aspects of a complex system, aims to gain insights into the system's behaviour and identify the potential consequences of interventions or policy changes across multiple dimensions. This paper responds to the urgent need for a new business model by presenting a concept for an adapted dynamic business modelling for sustainability (aDBMfS) using system dynamics. Case studies in the smartphone industry are applied.