“It’s Thursday at noon and I’m still buzzing from all the conference activity over the last three days. I want to thank all of you for your significant efforts to make the conference such a success.”
Stephen Davies
About us
The NBM Conference Series grew out of seminars that took place at Toulouse Business School from 2013 to 2015. The idea was to organize an annual conference discussing the latest developments around business models and how they contribute to societal and economic developments, including sustainability, circular economy, social entrepreneurship, and community-based business.
The first conference took place in Toulouse (France) in 2016, followed by conferences in Graz (Austria) in 2017, Sofia (Bulgaria) in 2018, and Berlin in 2019. The fifth anniversary conference was organized as an online event due to the Corona-crisis. It was hosted in Nijmegen (Netherlands) in 2020. After the first lustrum, Prof. Jan Jonker handed over the Conference Series to the remaining members of the Conference Board.
The NBM Conference Series continued in Halmstad (Sweden) in 2021. It was followed by conferences in Rome (Italy) in 2022 and in the Netherlands in 2023 - this time in Maastricht. In 2024, the conference took place in Donostia/San Sebastian (Spain).
Our Vision & Mission
The New Business Models Community facilitates inter- and multidisciplinary research on new business models and thus supports various organisations to create sustainable value.
“Thank you very much for an amazing event. I have enjoyed the thoughtfully selected places for social events and very high academic quality of key notes and other presentations.”
Ieva Zebryte
Thinking about new business models
Thrilled about high-quality research, we award the best papers annually. These papers show the thematic variety of topics. We selected some best papers and hope you enjoy reading them.
Best paper NBM@Graz 2017: “Translating the Sustainable Development Goals into Societal Value Contributions of Businesses” by Fiona V. Stappmanns & Tabea Bereuther.
Best papers NBM@Rome 2022:
Exploring the implications of the value concept for performance assessment of sustainable business models by Simon Norris. Download Paper
Full Throttle! Engaging Ethnic Minority and Majority Consumers in Car Sharing by Marie-Julie De Bruyne, Katrien Verleye, Hendrik Slabbinck, Saskia Crucke. Download Paper
An offer to help: Impacts of covid-19 lockdown on local sharing economies by Trond Halvorsen, Kine Jakobsen, and Jacqueline Floch. Download Paper
Best paper NBM@Sofia 2018: “How the Leopards Got Their Spots: A Typology of Corporate Responsibility Business Models” by Oliver Laasch & Jonatan Pinkse.
Best paper NBM@Maastricht 2023: “Putting Impact at the Heart of Organisations' Business Models: A Proposed Methodology” by Valentine Georget & Thierry Rayna
Best paper NBM@Berlin 2019: “Circular business models in social housing associations” by Manon Eikelenboom, Thomas B. Long & Gjalt de Jong.
Best paper NBM@SanSebastian 2024: “Decoding Circular Business Models: A Study of Terminological Foundations in Classification Schemas" by Josep Oriol Izquierdo Montfort & Yves De Rongé.
Overview of previous NBM conferences
NBM@Reykjavík 2025
Further information on the 10th Conference on New Business Models will be coming soon!
NBM@Maastricht 2023
The 8th International Conference on New Business Models took place in Maastricht, The Netherlands, in 2023.
NBM@San Sebastian 2024
The 9th International Conference on New Business Models took place in San Sebastian, Spain, in 2024.
NBM@Rome 2022
The 7th International Conference on New Business Models took place in Rome, Italy, in 2022.
NBM@Halmstad 2021
The 6th International Conference on New Business Models took place in Halmstad, Sweden, in 2021.
NBM@Nijmegen 2020
The 5th International Conference on New Business Models took place in Nijmegen, The Netherlands, in 2020.
NBM@Berlin 2019
The 4th International Conference on New Business Models took place in Berlin, Germany, in 2019.
NBM@Sofia 2018
The 3rd International Conference on New Business Models took place in Sofia, Bulgaria, in 2018.
NBM@Graz 2017
The 2nd International Conference on New Business Models took place in Graz, Austria, in 2017.
NBM@Toulouse 2016
The 1st International Conference on New Business Models took place in Toulouse, France, in 2016.
Learn more
Striving for diversity
We - the NBM community - believe that diversity and inclusion A essential to create a thriving, scientific communitiy that drives innovation.
Our conferences are attended by scholars from various disciplines: economics, management, entrepreneurship, innovation, design, policy studies, sociology, and many more.
The NBM Conference Series offers a platform for inter- and transdisciplinary research, giving room for new and innovative research philosophies and methodologies.
Sustainability Commitment
We are committed to improving the sustainability impact of our conferences by:
Choosing conference locations that can easily be reached by foot or public transport
A minimum of printings
Online proceedings and conferencing
Mainly vegetarian and/or vegan meals
Reuse of coffee mugs and water glasses
Special support for young academics
Compensation of CO2 emissions from conference-related travels
As supporters of the Plant Based Treaty, we - the NBM community - have endorsed the call to negotiate a global Plant Based Treaty to complement the Paris Agreement to address food emissions.
It’s all just beginning and we are committed to improving our sustainability performance from conference to conference.
NBM Board
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Romana Rauter
Institute of Environmental Systems Sciences, University of Graz
Romana Rauter is Associate Professor for Sustainability and Innovation Management at University of Graz, Austria. Her research and teaching interests include sustainability innovation, new and sustainable business models as well as strategic sustainability management. Romana has (co)-authored numerous scientific publications in these fields. Currently, she acts as Associate Editor to the journal Business and Society Review. She has been a visiting researcher at the ESCP Business School (Germany), at the Radboud University Nijmegen the Netherlands) and at the IMED Business School (Brazil), amongst others. Recently, Romana became Vice Dean of Studies.
email: romana.rauter (at) uni-graz.at | private website: www.romanarauter.com
Prof. dr. Niels Faber
Centre of Sustainable Entrepreneurship, University of Groningen
Dr. ir. Niels Faber is Assistant Professor of Circular Entrepreneurship at the Centre of Sustainable Entrepreneurship at Campus Fryslân Faculty of the University of Groningen. His research focuses on the organizational aspects of and business models for sustainability and the circular economy. This translates to the following themes: new forms of organizing within the circular economy, transition towards the circular economy, and measuring the progress of the circular economy transition. This has led to a series of academic and professional publications related to this topic.
e-mail: n.r.faber (at) rug.nl
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Maya Hoveskog
School of Business, Innovation and Sustainability, Halmstad University
Maya Hoveskog is Associate Professor in Innovation Management at the School of Business, Innovation and Sustainability, Halmstad University, Sweden. Her research focuses on innovation processes with special interest in sustainability-oriented business model innovation and value creation as well as teaching and learning in higher education. She has has co-authored numerous scientific publications in these fields. Maya has a particular interest in visualization tools and approaches to support the early phases of the innovation process. She collaborates with colleagues from various disciplines (e.g., environmental studies, design studies, informatics, humanities).
e-mail: maya.hoveskog (at) hh.se
Dr. Dorleta Ibarra
Faculty of Engineering, Mondragon University
Dorleta Ibarra is a Professor of Innovation Management and Sustainable Entrepreneurship at the Engineering Faculty of Mondragon University, Spain. Her research and teaching interests include circular and sustainable business model innovation, purpose ecosystems, and the development of business model innovation tools in the context of green, digital and inclusive transition. She has co-authored a series of academic publications on these topics, with works published in indexed journals such as Sustainable Production and Consumption and Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews.
Dr. Abel Diaz Gonzalez
Assistant Professor, Department of Organisation, Strategy and Entrepreneurship. School of Business and Economics, Maastricht University
Abel holds a PhD in Business Economics from the Vrije Universiteit Brussels (VUB). His research focuses on ecosystems for social entrepreneurs, and their supportive function and mechanisms. Part of his research is dedicated to investigating the supportive role and interaction of universities’ main stakeholders, processes and activities within and across the ecosystems of social entrepreneurs.
Abel has acted as a reviewer at various conferences and for journals. He is involved in special issues in peer-reviewed journals and has acted as editor of a book series in the field of Social Entrepreneurship. Abel is also part of the leadership of different international associations, including the International Association for Business and Society (conference chair elected for 2025); Social Entrepreneurship Summit (Co-founder and Co-organizer), and was Conference Chair for the 8th NBM Conference in Maastricht in 2023.
Email: abel.diazgonzalez (at) maastrichtuniversity.nl
NBM Advisory Board
Prof. Dr. Florian Lüdeke-Freund
Chair For Corporate Sustainability, ESCP Business School Berlin
Florian Lüdeke-Freund is Professor for Corporate Sustainability at ESCP Business School, Berlin, Germany. He is a research fellow at the Centre for Sustainability Management (CSM), Leuphana University, and ESCP’s SustBusy Research Center. Florian’s research and teaching deal with corporate sustainability management, sustainable entrepreneurship, sustainable business models, and values-based innovation. As well as publishing numerous journal articles and book chapters on these topics, he is co-editor of several journal special issues (e.g., Business & Society, Organization & Environment, Journal of Cleaner Production, Int. Journal of Innovation Management, Journal of Business Models). Florian founded www.SustainableBusinessModel.org as an international research hub with 25 members from more than 10 countries, and he is an active member of the Strongly Sustainable Business Model Group at OCAD University, Toronto, Canada. He has been a visiting researcher at the Universities of St. Gallen (Switzerland), Stellenbosch (South Africa), and Copenhagen Business School (Denmark). In 2020, Florian was appointed as a member of Germany’s Circular Economy Initiative, led by the National Academy of Science and Engineering.
email: fluedeke-freund (at) escp.eu | private website: www.luedekefreund.com
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Laura Michelini
Associate Professor of Management, LUMSA University, Rome
Laura Michelini PhD, is an Associate Professor of Management at the Department of Law, Economics, Politics and Modern Languages at LUMSA University of Rome, where she teaches Management and Business Model Innovation. She worked for several years in UNICEF, where she was in charge of managing profit/no-profit global partnership. Her main research interests involve social innovation, social business models, sharing economy and corporate social responsibility. On these topics she has authored and co-authored over 50 publications some of which have been published in Ecological Economics, Journal of Cleaner Production, British Food Journal, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly.
She is a member of the Eramus+ project “European Latin American Network in support of Social Entrepreneurs” (ELANET) and WG3 leader in the COST Action "From Sharing to Caring: Examining Socio-Technical Aspects of the Collaborative Economy". She is also a member of the board of the Italian Society of Management (SIMA).
e-mail: l.michelini (at) lumsa.it
Prof. dr. Nikolay Dentchev
VUB Chair of Social Entrepreneurship, Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Nikolay A. Dentchev is Associate Professor of CSR and Entrepreneurship at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium. He initiated the Solvay Business School Chair of Social Entrepreneurship at VUB, with founding partners Close the Gap, BNP Paribas Fortis, and Euroclear. Nikolay is involved in initiatives supporting student and social entrepreneurship for more than ten years. He has (co)authored more than 40 scientific publications, published in various indexed journals such as Business & Society, Journal of Business Ethics, Business Ethics: A European Review. Nikolay serves occasionally as guest editor to special issues in journals such as Business & Society and Journal of Cleaner Production. Nikolay is the co-founder of Equalisi bvba, a social enterprise that commercializes products of vulnerable entrepreneurs, which emerged based on the activities of the VUB Chair of Social Entrepreneurship.
e-mail: nikolay.dentchev (at) vub.be
Dr. Juan Ignacio Igartua
Juan Ignacio Igartua is a Professor of Innovation Management at the Engineering Faculty at Mondragon University. He teaches Innovation Management, Business Model Innovation, and Project Management courses. His research focuses on how small SMEs and community-based organizations address the triple transition (digital, green, and social) and develop innovations and business model innovations for sustainable development. He assists companies and institutions in the field of innovation by engaging in contracts with SMEs and collaborating with regional organizations such as Innobasque, SPRI, and EUSKALIT. He has authored and co-authored over 30 publications, with works published in indexed journals like Research Technology Management, Journal of Management Development, International Journal of Technology Management, Intangible Capital, International Journal of Production Management and Engineering, and Journal of Industrial Engineering and Management. Additionally, he has contributed to eighteen book chapters. He previously led the Technology Transfer Office (OTRI) at Mondragon University, providing researchers with specialized advice in R+D+I, and led the team that designed and implemented the university's collaborative R&D model with companies. He has also served as an expert in several editions of the committee for defining the MONDRAGON integrated corporate innovation model.
e-mail:jigartua (at) mondragon.edu