Adding sustainable value in product-service systems business models design: A conceptual review towards a framework proposal

Product-Service Systems (PSS) are offered to deliver superior value propositions to customers while achieving better results for business organizations. To achieve these benefits, PSS business models should be designed to cover improvements in sustainability's economic, environmental, and social dimensions. Nevertheless, these sustainable aspects regarding PSS business model are dispersed in the literature and generally not considered when developing a PSS. In this sense, this study is a conceptual literature review aiming to synthesize PSS and business model publications from a sustainable value perspective. The review was developed in three stages to cover a diversity of publications on PSS and business model. Based on the literature content analysis, this paper deals with PSS value architecture components: value proposition, creation, delivery, capture, and value network. A set of opportunities to enhance sustainable production and consumption were pointed out with regard to the PSS business model's value architecture components and sub-components. Creating sustainable value propositions could be improved by maximizing utilization of resources and skills, employing effective operations, and aligning the product-service system solution with the triple concern people-planet-profit. The developed framework aims at contributing to both the development of theory on PSS and servitized business models. In addition, the framework also contributes to enhance PSS business models focusing on sustainable and responsible practices.