Enhancing Sustainability with the Triple-Layered Business Model Canvas: Insights from the Fruit and Vegetable Industry in Spain

Abstract

Developing more sustainable business models (BMs) has become increasingly crucial for the survival of agri-food industries as environmental and social pressures are escalating, and the fruit and vegetable (F&V) industry is no exception to this pattern. However, sustainable business modelling is still poorly understood despite its importance to managers, scientists, and policymakers confronting the complexities of business environment changes. The purpose of this research was to explore new approaches for the transition toward more sustainable BMs in the Spanish F&V industry. We used the Triple Layered Business Model Canvas (TLBMC) methodological framework and data gathered from different sources to elucidate how sustainability concerns are integrated in BMs for F&V in a way that can deliver value on a triple bottom line of economic profit, environmental protection, and social fairness. The study focuses first on the F&V sector as a whole and then on a selected Spanish F&V company taken as functional units of analysis, respectively. Results indicate that, overall, sustainability goals can be represented appropriately within the TLBMC framework both at sector and company level, allowing guidance of the creative process of communicating and implementing business model (BM) improvements. This is despite the challenges encountered in terms of complexity of the F&V industry and the limited data for several areas, especially in the environmental and social layers. The sectoral perspective helps to portray the whole picture of the impacts associated with sustainable F&V production and marketing, which is a prior step that supports companies to embed sustainability concerns in their business system. New BMs can be generated by innovating strategically in a series of domains to improve F&V value propositions in terms of sustainability targets.

1. Introduction

Sustainability transition is affecting all components of the food system, fundamentally changing the way food is produced, marketed, and consumed [1,2,3]. This is being largely driven by the major breakthroughs in national and international commitments toward the adoption of transformative agendas for ensuring food security and nutrition whilst strengthening sustainability and supporting inclusive livelihoods in agriculture and food systems [4,5]. Yet, there is a globally growing consensus about the need to move toward different food systems with less land and fewer fertilizers and pesticides, less food waste, a high-tech food chain that requires fewer resources and energy, and more equitable distribution of costs and revenues among supply chain participants.

In this changing environment, one of the major challenges in the agri-food sector is the pressing need for the adoption of more sustainable business models (BMs) which take into consideration environmental, social, and governance factors in order to create long-term value for investors, consumers, and the society as a whole [6,7,8]. Indeed, developing more sustainable BMs is becoming increasingly crucial for the survival of agri-food industries as environmental and social pressures are escalating. Pressures originate from different types of stakeholders (workers, consumers, value chain participants, local communities, government, NGOs), and largely result from resource scarcity, the climate-land-water-biodiversity crises, and socio-economic inequalities [1,9]. Sustainability commitments constrain food businesses to produce and market food of the best possible quality, in sufficient quantity for a growing population, trying at the same time to minimize the environmental impacts generated, and even to regenerate the environment in which food is produced.

Food production should also adapt to and comply with new policy orientations which all have more focus on sustainability. In the European Union (EU), the main policies include the new CAP 2023–2027 and its new instruments like eco-schemes [10], the EU Farm to Fork Strategy within the framework of the European Green Deal and the climate neutrality objective by 2050 [11], the EU 2030 Biodiversity Strategy for protecting nature and ecosystems [12], the EU fiscal policies to mitigate climate change including the foreseen Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) as a tool that will force foreign importers to cover the cost of their carbon emissions [13]. This is in addition to other national and regional policies increasingly more sustainability-oriented [14].

The fruit and vegetable (F&V) sector is no exception to this ongoing path toward further sustainability [15,16,17]. In Spain, F&V represents the most relevant agricultural sector in terms of production, added value, export propension, job creation, and maintenance of the population in rural areas [18,19,20]. Spanish F&V production reached 28 million tons in 2020 with an average production value of EUR 15,800 million, which places Spain as the leading producer in the EU and the fifth globally [21]. F&V production represents 50% of the Spanish plant production, and 30% of the total agricultural production. In addition, 50% of the national production is destined for foreign markets, generating in 2020 EUR 14,600 million and a positive trade balance of about EUR 11,200 million [21].

The Spanish F&V supply chain is highly adapted to the type of market it serves, involving a wide range of products and a huge variety of agents operating from the producers to the end consumers [22]. Figure 1 summarizes the schematic diagram of the F&V supply chain covering both fresh and processed products, and portraying the main stages, participants, areas of activity, and their respective interrelations.

Sustainability is at the heart of the challenges the Spanish F&V industry will face in the future [17]. Major challenges can be summarized as follows: (i) food safety requiring precise control of products that allows quick corrective actions in the event of any incident; (ii) quality and freshness within increasingly integrated and agile value chains; (iii) traceability and transparency based on data that move from the field to the consumer and also in the opposite direction; (iv) environmental sustainability tending toward the control and reduction of environmental impacts through measuring footprints, optimizing the use of water, fertilizers, energy, and phytosanitary products, minimizing food loss, and improving biodiversity; (v) social sustainability ensuring a decent income for farmers, generation of employment, gender equality, and contributing to integrate minorities and promote rural territories; (vi) cost efficiency through applying precise and real-time control of all costs per unit of marketed products, with a vision from the field to the market, and making efficient use of all human and material resources; (vii) integration of management and collaboration from the field to the market in a highly demanding value chain in terms of quality and costs; (viii) digitization of operations and data flows as a key tool to measure and obtain tangible improvements in all business activities, particularly in the field of environmental sustainability, as it helps to make better decisions and automate many actions aimed at the efficient use of scarce resources such as water, fertilizers, phytosanitary products, energy, and materials for containers and packaging. In addition, digitization facilitates the reduction of food waste from the field to the market, the synchronization of pre- and postharvest, as well as logistical efficiency and more segmented and precise marketing [24,25].

In this context, sustainable BMs play a crucial role in addressing the overmentioned challenges that the F&V sector is and will be facing in ensuring access to safe, nutritious, and affordable products while protecting the environment and the well-being of consumers and stakeholders. It can be hypothesized that sustainability transition coupled with supply chain innovations prompt new BMs in the F&V sector that enable the move from the standard economic-centered BMs towards more sustainable BMs, explicitly integrating environmental and social concerns. However, sustainable business modelling is still poorly understood despite its importance to managers, scientists, and policymakers confronting the complexities of business environment changes [7]. While sustainable BMs are an emerging topic in the whole agri-food industry including the F&V sector, few tools exist yet to support companies and organizations implementing them [26]. This clearly reflects the lack of knowledge about how sustainability objectives can virtually be implemented in BMs of the F&V sector to deliver not only economic but also environmental and social value.

Therefore, this study aims to explore innovative approaches to support the F&V sector practitioners in undertaking transformative solutions in terms of transition toward more sustainable BMs. To this end, we use the Triple Layered Business Model Canvas (TLBMC) as a novel strategic management framework for enhancing sustainable value creation schemes, and data gathered from different sources, to elucidate how sustainability concerns are integrated in BMs for F&V, in such a way as to deliver value on a triple bottom line of economic profit, environmental protection, and social fairness. The study focuses both on the F&V sector as a whole (meso-level) and on a selected Spanish F&V company (micro-level) taken as functional units of analysis, respectively. It is worth-noting that despite the increasing interest concerning the TLBMC [27], very few studies have applied this model in the agri-food sector and, to the best of our knowledge, none in the F&V sector.

2. Literature Review

The overall approach followed in this study is based on the business model (BM) concept where the standard, economic-centered BM is innovated and transformed into a sustainable BM through the integration of sustainability practices and concerns. It should be pointed out that there is no exact definition of BM in the literature, but various conceptualizations basically based on the reason for which a BM is being used and the researcher’s theoretical perspective [28,29]. For instance, according to Amit and Zott [30] a BM depicts the content, structure, and governance of transactions designed so as to create value through the exploitation of business opportunities. Johnson et al. [31] proposed a definition of a BM as “creating and delivering value by well connecting four factors: customer value proposition, profit method, core resources, and core producers”. Therefore, it can be stated that BM is a logical description of the techniques through which a business creates, communicates, and gains value with related customers.

Firms and organizations whose focus is primarily on profitability without paying attention to social and environmental issues can limit the achievement of their economic goals [32]. This was the main reason behind the emergence of sustainable BMs as an alternative to traditional BMs, with a focus not only on attaining growth and minimizing financial costs but also on considering environmental and social factors. Sustainable BMs can be conceived as creators of competitive advantage and sustainable value [33], and a contributor to sustainable development. The sustainable BM avoids waste and achieves more financial performance which benefits society, the environment, and the economy [34,35]. Hence, sustainable BMs shape not only a firms’ production and distribution of products and services but at the same time their manner in contributing to the environmental and the social improvement of communities. In sustainable BMs, companies integrate their social, environmental, and economic activities in order to create value for their customers and the whole of society. By following a triple bottom line approach, sustainable BMs consider a wide range of stakeholder interests, allow the embedding of sustainability into business purposes and processes, and can serve as a vehicle to coordinate technological and social innovations with system-level sustainability [36].

In this line, Joyce and Paquin [37] suggested a new BM representation termed the Triple Layered Business Model Canvas (TLBMC), aiming to adopt the three-layer approach in which emphasis is addressed not only on economic but also on social and environmental orientation of the BM. The TLBMC is a holistic managerial tool that combines the economic, environmental, and social concerns, while coherently integrating them in the business system. The TLBMC represents a substantial shift in sustainability innovation aligning consistently the traditional (economic) Business Model Canvas (BMC) proposed by Osterwalder and Pigneur [38] with other two social and environmental layers [39]. The 3-layer structure of the TLBMC is extensively explained in Joyce and Paquin [37]. Each layer has nine standard building blocks. The TLBMC is perceived as a significant contribution to the field of sustainable BM innovation [39,40], and a practical tool with a straightforward learning curve in terms of development, visualization, and communication of sustainable innovations in the BM [41].

Moreover, the TLBMC helps in overcoming the unconventional sustainability challenges through the conceptualization and connection of various types of value creation modes within a BM perspective. The three different layers of sustainability presented by the TLBMC facilitate the understanding and the capture of the interconnections between a business action and its economic, environmental, and social impacts, which leads to creatively presenting more sustainability-oriented and innovative BMs. This model also enables a structured representation of business activities and issues in such a way that they can be more understandable, visible, and useful for business planning.

Other features of the TLBMC are the use of inside-out approaches, which implies starting with the existing BM and then exploring the potential changes and improvements. For impact analysis, the model can use life cycle analysis (LCA) in the environmental layer to measure the environmental impacts through various indicators like CO2e, eco-system quality, human health, resource depletion, and water use. It also uses a stakeholder approach in the social layer to evaluate social impacts using methods such as social-LCA and Social Return on Investment (SROI), and implementation of the ISO 26000 standard for social responsibility (i.e., identification of key stakeholders and mapping with them the boundaries and indicators of economic, social and environmental impact analysis). The perspective of the stakeholder approach is to balance the interests of all partners rather than maximizing gains for only one participant. As for economic impacts, they can be assessed by investment appraisal methods such as Net Present Value (NPV), Life Cycle Cost (LCC) analysis, and profit margins [42].

Admittedly, when applied in practice the TLBMC model should be conceptually adapted to the specific context of each study case, and then empirically validated with the required data. In this study we take both the F&V sector as a whole (meso-level) and a selected company (micro-level) as key units of analysis. We assume that applying the triple bottom line analysis to the whole sector can be useful as a step toward developing more tailored BMs at company level. Although micro-level analysis can be undertaken through several approaches including case studies as explained in the next section, it is worth recalling that most of the agri-food system analyses actually emphasize the meso-level of the system [43]. While the macro-level perspective tends to perceive agri-food transformations as top-down processes induced by techno-economic change at global level, meso-level approaches show that bottom-up change is an option where the focus is on institutional and organizational change as well as collective action [44]. Socio-economic change is particularly important at the meso-level as most agri-food producer and consumer institutions and organizations as well as regulatory systems are primarily operational at the meso-level (sectors, regions). Meso-level institutions mediate between macro-institutional level at which general rules are established and the micro-institutional level within which transactions are organized [45].

3. Research Methods

3.1. Overall Methodological Concept

This study aimed to test the applicability and the pertinence of the TLBMC model in the Spanish F&V industry at sector and company levels, in order to portray in an accessible manner the main business areas suited for potential innovations and improvements in terms of sustainable value creation and delivery. The ultimate goal of the study was to offer options on how the F&V industry can enforce and benefit from sustainability integration into business practices. Empirically, the study was conducted following four phases. It started with a literature review for both the F&V sector and BM literature as seen in Section 1 and Section 2. Then, based on the literature review, BM was conceptualized through the adaptation of the of the generic TLBMC framework proposed by Joyce and Paquin [37] to the specific context of the Spanish F&V sector. Subsequently, relevant data were collected from publicly available online and offline sources. Most data used in this research were gathered from an extensive online search mainly of sector and company websites and reports, online articles, e-books, research project reports, professional websites, and newsletters. Offline sources mainly are traditional paper-based publications including scientific and professional journals, books, and reports. A careful review of the collected data was systematically carried out to ensure that they were appropriate and reliable. Finally, based on processing and analyzing the data collected following the structure of the TLBMC, the three layers (tables) of the model were developed both for the whole F&V sector as well as the selected company as depicted in Section 4.

3.2. Company-Level Analysis

Company analysis assesses how a Spanish F&V enterprise concretely integrates sustainability in its BM with the ensuing outcome on value creation performance. The study aims at providing knowledge on how to manage environmental and social impacts in value creation processes in the company’s BM. It expands from the evidence that introducing sustainability in the process of BM innovation can provide entirely new ways to create and capture value [46]. Making sustainability the central element of the business can uncover new approaches that will explore new sources of value and profit. In this sense, sustainability efforts when introduced to BM innovation contribute to value creation at the same time as they satisfy customer needs and make positive contributions to the environment and society. Therefore, sustainability is needed to create long-term high value [46].

Sustainable practices offer a foundation for companies to have more efficient operations; hence sustainability helps businesses to lower the total cost of their operations [47]. Maletic et al. [48] argued that sustainability practices, indirectly through performance outputs (non-financial benefits), generate performance outcomes (i.e., economic benefits). Moreover, they reported the high significance (i.e., important mediator) of innovation performance in the relationships between sustainability practices from the one side and the financial and market performance from the other side.

In addition, sustainability can be a driver of innovation and competitive advantage. To support more the relationship between sustainability practices and value creation, results from the study of Maletic et al. [48] revealed that sustainability exploitation practices present a positive effect on organizational performance practices, where the measurements of financial and market performance uncover an increase in the return on investment (ROI), sales growth, profit growth rate, and market share during the years of adopting sustainability practices. For quality performance measurement, the results showed a positive return where the quality of products improved, which increased consumer satisfaction. These sustainable practices pushed the innovation performance of the firm, as well as it decreased the environmental footprint of business by increasing the percentage of recycled materials, reducing the resource consumption and the waste ratio, and improving the efficiency of raw material consumption. For social performance, a remarkable increase in employees’ satisfaction and motivation and a decrease in the turnover ratio were proved.

In this perspective, the created and/or captured value through sustainable practices is more than monetary value; it extends to be a sustainable value where it necessarily includes environmental and social benefits. Thus, understanding of how sustainability leads to bringing out opportunities for value creation requires a framework and a focus on BM innovation not only through technological innovation, but across the entire system.

Case study approach.

In company-level analysis, we used a case study approach to describe, explain, and clarify the main characteristics and dynamics of the phenomenon being studied. Case study method is a popular research technique applied in business studies. It stands as a research strategy and an empirical inquiry that focuses on understanding the dynamics that characterize specific contexts. Consequently, a case study is a research procedure in which one case, or a small number of cases are chosen to be studied in their specific context, and the obtained outcomes from these cases are analyzed following qualitative or quantitative techniques [49]. Case study methodology aims to grasp in detail the specific issues within the boundaries of specific environment, organization, or situation with the identification of essential factors, processes, dynamics, and relationships. Hence, its main objective is to conduct intensive research on specific cases such as individual, group, institution, or community [50]. The case study describes real-world phenomena rather than developing normative statements.

In business research, case studies are used with the aim of providing insights into an issue, a management situation, or a new theory [49]. Additionally, a case study is a useful method in situations where the research field is not well known and the researcher is engaged in theory building (i.e., for instance, where the research is based on grounded theory, in which theory is created iteratively from observation or, put differently, where theory is generated from data through the discovery of emerging patterns in data [51]. It represents a flexible research approach that suits a range of various types of research questions. These research questions take the form of “who”, “what”, “where”, “how”, and “why”, and more precisely for case study research it is more likely to be appropriate for “how” and “why” questions [52].

In business contexts, three categories of case studies have been identified according to their design: explanatory, descriptive, and exploratory [52]. The design of a case study is the consistent progression that connects the empirical data with a research question and its conclusions [53]. The explanatory case study answers the questions of “how” and “why”. It can be marked out as the relationship between cause and effect, clarifying the way events take place. Descriptive case study illustrates a thorough description of a phenomenon within its situation. It describes culture and sub-culture and aims to discover the key phenomena and to reach an unbiased, true description of the phenomenon that can be generalized to the common lived experiences of others. Meanwhile, the exploratory case study tries to find answers to the questions of “what” and “who”. Data collection in the latter category usually include surveys and interviews.

Case study selection.

Using a non-random, purposive case selection mode [54]), we chose the AMC Group which is divided into two main holdings AMC Fresh and AMC Natural Drinks. The motivations to choose this Spanish firm was essentially related to its sustainable performance in the Spanish F&V sector. In fact, in addition to an economic layer this business Group moved its attention to environmental and social aspects, which became a significant part of its mission and vision. The fact that this firm operates internationally also relatively improved the data availability.

Founded in 1931, the AMC Group is a third-generation family firm that occupies the third position in terms of Spanish food international sales. It is a leader in developing and licensing vegetable varieties, production and marketing of fruits, flowers, ice-cream, and natural drinks with high value added. The business vision and goal of being an international benchmark in the food industry is manifested through its different activities and approaches that represent its mission and commitment to sustainability, innovation, transparency, and society. The company also seeks through the sustainable process to offer consumers an added-value towards healthier lifestyles.

The Group is present in more than 100 countries in the five continents. In 2019 the Group’s consolidated sales reached EUR 1305 million, with annual turnover of respectively EUR 473 million and EUR 868 million for AMC Natural Drinks and AMC Fresh (the non-consolidated sales of each holding were EUR 645 million for AMC Natural Drinks and over EUR 1000 million AMC Fresh). The Group objective is to produce fresh products, drinks, and natural foods that are healthy, innovative, and meet the requirements of modern and sophisticated customers. The distributed products are developed in a sustainable way and comply with the strictest quality standards and sustainability at world level.

The Group owns more than 3000 hectares of land for its plantations in different continents chosen based on climate and on locations that offer the best conditions for growing and harvesting the exclusive varieties developed by the division AMC Fresh. For the aim of sticking to the group’s commitments, over 3000 farmers and producers who make up the Group’s value chain are guided by qualified agricultural engineers of the company who ensure and provide the necessary technical assistance and advice throughout the production process.

The AMC Fresh is the division that focuses on developing, producing, and delivering superior quality fresh food and products around the world through innovation and technology. It succeeded efficiently with supply chain management with special attention to consumers and retail solutions. This success is preceded by the innovation in fruit varieties with over 100 patented varieties; AMC Fresh is a world leader in grape and citrus fruit innovation through its own bio-technology companies and its own and licensed agriculture (40,000 hectares of own and licensed farming). The division mission is “to advance a new horizon of sustainable fresh food” with a focus on reducing the environmental impact, enhancing health and well-being as well as the respect and empowerment of people.

The AMC Natural Drinks is the leader in Europe in research, development, production, and marketing of refrigerated fruit juices, smoothies, and other natural, innovative, functional, high quality bio-active drinks such as vegetable drinks. This division includes over 20 firms located strategically in various countries where it serves more than 1800 active products in over 50 countries through more than 70 retailers in Europe and Asia. It gives a special emphasis to research in order to innovate and develop new products, where more than 150 researchers and technologists have succeeded in launching more than 400 products in a year. Every launched product passes with an innovative processing, squeezing technology to ensure the maximum freshness, quality, nutrition, and uniqueness. These products are packed in five different strategically located international plants in a diversity of formats. The research not only concerns the product but also the consumers, markets, and trends. Indeed, the understanding of these elements is a preliminary aspect of the company with the aim of understanding which factors reduce the risks when launching new concepts and guaranteeing the targeting of the right consumer.

The AMC Natural Drinks highlights in its goals Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) where there is commitment toward sustainability and the improvement of the five fundamental pillars of the company’s philosophy (innovation, sustainability, health, efficiency, talent). Sustainability commitments include the protection of the environment and the preservation of natural resources by optimizing and controlling every step of the production processes, and the consideration of social aspects working to continuously offer high-quality and nutritious foods to consumers with the aim of ensuring a healthy lifestyle.

In terms of value chain, the Group adopts vertical integration of the activities carried out in the two principal divisions: the AMC Natural Drinks focuses on the innovation and production of natural, healthy fruit juice and vegetable drinks, while AMC Fresh engages in new varieties with research and the growth and marketing of fruits, vegetables, and flowers. Both divisions have a strong customer-oriented approach.

With the aim of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the context of being a sustainable business, the firm continuously invests to adapt new sustainable practices where it implements procedures and managerial measures such as the circular economy, sustainable use of resources, waste prevention through waste management, water reuse, reduction of the use of plastic, and innovation of a plastic packing from the peel of citrus fruits. The continuous work to reduce the business negative impact on the environment through various sustainable practices is giving positive results, where between 2015 and 2019 the Group reduced its GHG emissions by 7.7% in its two plants in Spain and The Netherlands.

3.3. Company-Data Collection and Analysis

In the same fashion as in sector-level analysis, secondary data have been gathered to depict the TLBMC items for the selected company, based on available information about F&V markets and particularly the AMC Group. The collected data have been used to illustrate the three canvases of the TLBMC which have been developed for the selected company to assess the move toward sustainable value creation. Data sources included national and international platforms like Statista, other online databases from national, European, and international sources such as the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, EUROSTAT, FAOSTAT, WHO, OECD, company reports, published articles from different publishing platforms, and conference and seminar papers. The collected data about the company were first reviewed and analyzed, and then relevant information was included in the three canvases of the TLBMC as shown in Section 4.

4. Results

The results test the applicability of the TLBMC to the Spanish F&V industry and the holistic vision that this innovative model offers. Thus, the analysis centers on the sustainability practices implemented in this industry and the benefits received from applying these practices, as well as on the detection of areas where interventions to improve sustainability are needed and/or desirable. The latter refers to one of the major objectives of applying the TLBMC, consisting of identifying the environmental and social impacts, and how to reduce the negative pitfalls and create value for the company, the industry, and society as a whole.

4.1. Sector-Level Analysis

Figure 2, Figure 3 and Figure 4 portray the three layers of the model built on the basis of the collected information about the F&V sector. Overall, findings reveal that sustainable practices in the Spanish F&V sector create positive externalities with positive impact not only on the environment but also on the economic and social prospects for the companies.

The economic layer of the model (Figure 2) provides a structured representation of the economic aspects of the sector’s business system, and the potential interconnections and impacts on value creation. According to the results, some potential innovations and improvements could be explored for instance in the areas of the choice of distribution channels, market segmentation, or enhancing consumer awareness of sustainable attributes to increase sales. In addition, cost control in different areas of production, processing, and marketing of sustainable products would improve the financial situation of participants.

Figure 3 shows the social layer with the different variables, factors, and interrelations for each one of the nine building blocks. Major potential social benefits have been identified for instance in the areas of working conditions, stakeholder commitment, and nutritional and health benefits. Hence innovating and improving these areas will provide highly appreciated social value. Indeed, and as in the other layers, for each potential innovation, costs and benefits should be evaluated systematically.

Figure 4 presents the environmental layer including the risks and opportunities in terms of environmental value. Several areas are suitable for potential innovations and improvements, for example, carbon emissions, soil degradation, recycling, energy and water consumption, waste management, and pesticide/fertilizer management. Undeniably, each component of each layer can be analyzed in much more detail.

4.2. Company-Level Analysis

The company canvases represent the three sustainability dimensions allowing a clear, global and more dynamic vision of the company business with regard to sustainability objectives. Figure 5 shows the company social canvas which is directly related to the social layer of sustainability. It investigates the relationships between the AMC Group and its stakeholders, from suppliers to consumers. This layer aims to analyze the major social benefits and impacts from using sustainable practices. Figure 6 summarizes the economic canvas which represents the classical BMC. This layer focuses on the financial perspective of the Group and how to generate profit while reducing costs. The nine blocks and their items are developed in the canvas. The third layer of the TLBMC is the environmental which is based on a holistic view of the products of the company from an LCA perspective (Figure 7). This canvas is built with the objective of creating more environmental benefits from introducing sustainable practices.

The AMC Group is following a multi-focus approach with the aim of acting as a sustainable business delivering sustainably produced fresh F&V products. In order to succeed in offering these products, the production process is carried out applying innovative sustainable practices. The Group is also focusing on consumers through employing a consumer-centric approach. It works on providing the best experience to the consumer through the value proposition, the certified quality, and the continuous development of products. Taking advantage of the technological advances, the Group provides a platform to facilitate the communication between the AMC Fresh and its consumers; this platform facilities the understanding of consumers, enhances the company growth, and identifies new opportunities.

Another approach emphasizes the retail solutions directed at the retail customers. The Group ensures a flexible BM for each customer. This experience ranges from short-term agreements to long-term partnerships with retailers.

In order to guarantee the best experience for consumers and sustainable production, the AMC Fresh constantly works on developing new varieties. In addition, the AMC Natural Drinks works on innovation in the production process, as well as in packaging where it is working on producing packaging from citrus peels.

The Group is also working on reducing the GHG emissions produced from transportation, processing, and farming. To this end, it applies different actions in order to ensure the transition to being a sustainable business, in particular through investing in reducing pollution and improving waste management.

All these actions undertaken by the AMC Group combine the impact across the three pillars of sustainability. The classical BMC consists of delivering a unique value proposition to the customer, and exclusive experience via the sustainable Fresh F&V and high-quality products. These products are sold almost worldwide through various channels, while ensuring a direct relationship with customers. Innovation is in constant development where the firm continuously develops new products and new ways of production. The AMC Group is largely a sustainable business performing the different production steps with sustainable practices for the purpose of reducing the negative impact on the environment, boosting social benefits, and increasing revenue.

5. Discussion

The results from applying the TLBMC framework to the F&V industry provide multiple insights from financial, environmental, and social viewpoints. For instance, they can assist the study company to identify within each layer the need to act in order to reduce weaknesses and where to innovate. This dynamic is called horizontal coherence [37]. Similarly, by investing more in the aim of reducing pollution, for example, the company applies vertical coherence [37], by combining the consideration of the three BM layers at the same time. This facilitates the identification of new opportunities and where to use strengths to drive business growth. Both horizontal and vertical dynamics stand as a useful tool for interpreting the impact of implementing sustainable practices. As an example, the TLBMC identifies changes after the practices have begun to be used, and the analysis based on the two dynamics identifies how to manage these changes and whether the feedback is positive or negative.

The sectoral perspective carried out helps to obtain the whole picture of the impacts associated with F&V production and marketing, which would be a prior step that supports companies in the sector to embed sustainability concerns in their BMs. It has also been shown that sustainable practices in the Spanish F&V sector generate sustainable value with positive impacts not only on the environment but also on the economic and social status of sector participants. Indeed, sustainable practices can lead to growth in sales and profits since many consumers are increasingly oriented towards sustainably produced products (e.g., organic and other eco-friendly products), while environmental benefits can create further value for F&V businesses, stakeholders, and society as a whole. In addition, social benefits can be generated in several areas such as employment, engagement with public policies and societal concerns, trust, and transparency. Sustainability actions also increase reliability and reputation which are key levers for value creation and competitive advantage.

The TLBMC highlights the business connections within the study company which leads to a more collaborative approach between the functional and departmental perspectives of the management team. As a visual tool, the TLBMC also facilitates the identification and the capture of the changes resulting from introducing sustainable practices to the firm’s BM. It easily allows users to explore the modifications and the impact of these practices. Moreover, the TLBMC qualifies the balance between impacts and benefits across the three axes of sustainability. In the case study, the introduction of sustainable practices such as the carbon footprint reduction generates an increase in the economic cost but also creates benefits in the social and environmental objectives, e.g., reduction of GHG emissions, and fulfillment of consumer needs generating an increase in the firm’s sales and revenue.

Putting sustainability at the forefront of strategic business plans coupled with implementing corporate sustainability, has offered numerous advantages to the study company and its affiliations. This process described in the environmental layer creates a positive return to the environment since it supports the reduction of GHG emissions and waste, responsible use of non-renewable energy, and a biodiversity boost. In addition, reducing the energy and resource consumption leads to efficiency in the different operations of the company, which in turn leads to achieving cost savings.

Reducing waste and being transparent are practices which enhance credibility and build strong relationships with different stakeholders of the company. Sustainable practices lead to building more trust and brand reputation, and they also increase competitive advantage. The strong reputation of the company through sustainable practices and the certification obtained from national and international organizations lead to an increase in sales and improvement in the position of the company compared to competing firms. The fact that the study company is present worldwide provides an idea about the international F&V markets and various types of customers, their engagements, and orientations with respect to sustainable F&V and sustainability in general. The international vocation of the company also assists in capturing national and global differences, which also helps in developing local markets.

Sustainability practices can lead to reduced costs and increased benefits, but they also lead to an increase in the engagement of customers. This engagement leads to greater recognition of company brands and growth in sales, considering that a satisfied consumer plays the role of a communication channel where he/she can promote the product giving a positive feedback. Sustainable practices also can improve consumer health through the development of new varieties and innovative healthy products while ensuring high quality. Providing healthy and tasty products that comply with consumer needs increases well-being. In the same line, the reduction of pollution, GHG emissions, and waste are practices that tend to increase consumer satisfaction. Conversely, implementing more sustainable practices can be a source of increasing production costs, resulting in higher prices. This is a very serious issue as price increase affects the purchasing capacities of many consumers and their willingness to pay for sustainable products.

One point must also be mentioned in relation to implementing and effectively communicating BM improvements, which is both crucial and intricate. In this study it was shown that the key for success relies on the equal importance given to the three layers, and the implementation of the appropriate innovations in the economic, environmental, and social dimensions. Challenges to BM implementation can result in particular from organizational inertia of companies and organizations [55]. Factually, little is known about how companies can successfully implement new BMs in practice [56,57]. In addition, communicating BM improvements is very important as it enables the identification of new, relevant performance measures in relation to the overall value creation process [58]. As in other activities, effective BM communication in the F&V industry needs, inter alia, actions on how companies can overcome psychological barriers (e.g., loss of control), and organizational barriers. BM communication should describe the relationships among the various input and outcome measures related to the total value creation.

6. Conclusions and Future Research

This study aimed to explore the sustainability transition process in the Spanish F&V industry using the TLBMC as a baseline model for that purpose. The TLBMC general framework was conceptually adapted and empirically applied both at sector and company level. As far as we know, this is the first time this model has been applied in the F&V industry, which implies evident interest in this research.

Results at sector level indicate that, overall, sustainability goals can be represented appropriately within the TLBMC framework. This model can be an effective, accessible tool to expand an economic-centered approach of standard BM by developing environmental and social layers. It facilitates the identification of potential innovations and improvements while contributing to promote a business culture where innovation and sustainability are explicitly addressed when developing new BMs. Sustainability innovations are relatively much better introduced and communicated than in the classical model, which can significantly change the value proposition and differentiate the offerings (product, price, service), with the consequent gains in terms of competitive advantage.

At company level, the case study performed dealt with the innovation in the BM of the selected company via the TLBMC to highlight specific sustainability practices in the company. The analysis of the three layers of the model leads to constructive conclusions about the effectiveness of the introduced sustainable practices. The results at this level show that the TLBMC model represents a visual tool that provides a true holistic view of the business from the three different perspectives (economic, environmental, social), portraying the negative impacts of the company as well as the created benefits in terms of value.

The integrated sustainability practices clearly facilitate the shift toward sustainability-oriented BM innovation. The different practices used present positive impacts on the environment, society, and revenue. From the ecological perspective, these practices work on reducing the negative impacts on the environment, including GHG emissions and pollution. From a social perspective, the introduced sustainable practices deal with the different stakeholders, ensuring more transparency and better working conditions as well as further professional growth for the employees. As for the economic effects, sustainable practices help in cost saving and increasing revenue. In short, sustainable practices are applied to reduce negative impacts and increase benefits from the three different perspectives.

The study performed contributes to the literature about the F&V sector as well as sustainability practices and the return they offer to enterprises and the impact on the environment and society. Indeed, entrepreneurs in the F&V sector can benefit from the study to generate more sustainable value. This will not only facilitate the transition to sustainable production, but will also motivate businesses in the sector to innovate in order to move to sustainable BMs.

The findings are empirical and real-life based, which is beneficial for the credibility of the research accomplished. However, the single case study performed remains explorative and cannot provide a conclusive and generalizable assessment. Therefore, further case studies involving cross-comparisons should be conducted in order to obtain more factual outcomes and solid conclusions. Moreover, primary data from direct surveys for the F&V industry representatives and top management of companies should be collected and incorporated in the analysis.

In addition, it is worth noting that the model is challenging to apply in a comprehensive way at sector-level, due mainly to the extremely wide range and the complexity of products and operations, and the limited data for the environmental and social layers since there is no established system for collection and analysis of this type of data. It can be argued that probably the TLBMC would be more suited to smaller functional units (companies/subsidiaries/divisions) with a small number of products. In addition, several intricacies have been encountered when analyzing the social layer as some components were hard to identify and measure, hence there is a need for better tools to examine social impact.

Future research also must include longitudinal analysis to understand better the evolution of the different components of the layers and the whole model over time, and to identify potential patterns in the data. In addition, systematic methods for evaluating sustainability could be explored, such as the ROI model for sustainability proposed by the Green Business Bureau [59]) which tracks corporate sustainability results over four categories: cost savings, increased sales, employee recruitment and satisfaction, and risk reduction. Another relevant issue is how to deal with factor volatility and uncertainty inside and outside the sector and the companies pushing for unexpected BM changes.