Alternative business models for a sustainable automotive industry

This chapter argues that business models, conceived as coherent sets of practice, structure and value creation, form a critical bridge between consumption and production. In terms of achieving greater sustainability, this bridge has been somewhat ignored by studies to date; yet without it SCP will not survive the competitive pressures of the marketplace. Using the example of the global automotive industry the chapter further argues that the existing generic business model results in an industry structurally unable to achieve sustainability no matter what the character of technological innovations introduced into new cars. In contrast, a range of alternative business models is reviewed with a view to understanding how changes in such practices can provide the foundations for more sustainable industry. The chapter concludes that government policy should not simply assume that new regulation and new technology would inevitably result in a more sustainable industry