Business strategy, Business models and Internet Start-ups



Business strategy, Business models and Internet Start-ups

Introduction

One increasingly predominant notion of sustainable development originated in the mid-1990s from the world of business, and is part of a larger trend that developed in response to increased public and political pressure to respond to the environmental crisis. A crucial component of this development is to see sustainability as resting on three essential pillars, namely the environment, society, and economics (or what literature commonly refers to as the triple bottom line). This type of analysis can be found in corporate reports, variously termed social responsibility, corporate responsibility, or sustainable development reports (Smith & Lohrke, 2008). Frequently, such reports apply the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines—principles and indicators to measure and report economic, environmental, and social performance (Miller et al., 2009). Economic indicators include things like financial performance and contributions to sustainability efforts, infrastructure development, or portfolio development. Environmental indicators include carbon emissions development, recycling efforts, energy production and consumption, effects on biodiversity, water use, emission, and waste. Social indicators include amount and type of employment, turnover rate, collective bargaining rights, rates of injury, and levels of education, healthcare, and corruption (Kushf, 2004).

Although these reports provide the reader with a wide variety of information, they often lack data and detail, don't explain interaction within and between different categories, do not provide scales of importance, nor make transparent how and why particular criteria developed as they did (Roco & Bainbridge, 2003).

Another version of the “triple bottom line” approach to sustainable development is to design “win-win-win” initiatives leading to combined benefits for the three pillars. A classic example would be for a business to develop successful “green” products that would increase its economic profit and create jobs. Limited “win-win” (two pillar) initiatives are also encouraged in this perspective. A major policy advocated by European Union and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries consists of tax-shifting programs to raise the share of environmental taxes while diminishing taxes on labor (Hammond et al., 1999). This policy is also known as the “double dividend” (reducing both the amount of pollution and labor costs).

Discussion

Sustainable Development is a general concept which is embodied in the business objectives by integrating nature and ecology, to consider that any activity has an impact on the environment and social territory, and set of ethics in economic activity. In the commercial, marketing, design, this is materialized by the giving of direction in economic activity. After experiencing the era of strategy and marketing, the era of quality, total quality management, innovation industry passes in an era of overall performance.

The elements that make up the business strategy, determined by evaluation of several factors. Typically, these elements are part of the business plan of the newly established company. Nevertheless, the analyzed factors can be used for the formulation of strategies both old and new companies. Among these factors - the characteristics of the environment, such as the consumer market situation, competitive situation, economic and political climate in the country, its socio-cultural ...