Peter Bradley’s research while affiliated with University of the West of England, Bristol and other places

This study explores how social enterprises create social and economic value through business models that support ex‐offenders. The work was motivated by a request for help from an entrepreneur wishing to establish a business that supports ex‐offender rehabilitation. The research explored five case organisations that already provided such support, analysing them through a business model framework. The case studies investigated the dual propositions of social and economic value created using various organisational forms, including private companies, charities, and a government body. Findings demonstrate how each organisation utilised under‐valued human resources to address social challenges while maintaining economic viability. The research contributes to social enterprise literature and practice, showing the integration of social and economic value creation, exploring the role of Mission, and explaining the reluctance of some organisations to engage in social value measurement. The findings offer insights to entrepreneurs seeking to sustainably deliver social impact.

This paper reports on a quantitative study of prioritisation of biodiversity amongst small‐ to medium‐sized enterprise (SME) leaders. Existing research indicates that value orientation impacts propensity for pro‐environmental behaviours. However, as biodiversity loss remains inadequately addressed, this study employs the value‐belief‐norm framework to explore how leaders with strong biospheric and altruistic (collectively termed ‘bigger‐than‐self’) value orientations perceive their responsibility for biodiversity loss in comparison with climate change and, using an adaptation of the Global Reporting Initiative standards, how biodiversity is prioritised against other areas of environmental sustainability in their businesses. Surveying 61 SME leaders, primarily in the South‐West UK, it was found that biodiversity is often considered of low priority compared with factors such as energy, waste, materials and emissions. Analysis also indicates that these leaders feel less responsibility for biodiversity than for climate change demonstrating that, even where bigger‐than‐self values dominate, there is a need for higher prioritisation of biodiversity amongst SMEs.

Ecosystem services provided by lowland British floodplains respectively under semi-natural conditions and converted for intensive maize production were assessed. Floodplains across lowland Britain have been extensively disconnected from river channels, depleting habitat for wildlife and other beneficial ecosystem services. Conservation measures are often regarded as costly constraints on economic and development freedoms whilst, conversely, conversion for intensive agricultural production is rewarded by markets despite many often-overlooked externalities. Maize growing has increased in Britain since the 1970s, initially for feedlot production of livestock and now increasingly for grant-aided biofuel production for anaerobic digestion. Comparative literature-based ecosystem service assessments using the RAWES (Rapid Assessment of Wetland Ecosystem Services) approach reveal that lowland British floodplains in semi-natural condition provide a wider range of provisioning services than those converted for monocultural intensive production of maize, in addition to a diversity of regulating, cultural and supporting service benefits that are lost or transformed into disservices when floodplains are converted for intensive maize growth. Benefits and disbenefits of floodplains managed under the two scenarios (semi-natural versus monocultural maize) are presented graphically as an intuitive means to support decision-makers. Monetisation of benefits would be risky, not merely due to uncertainties but as this may skew conclusions and subsequent decision-making towards maximisation of marketed or near-market services, consequently misrepresenting the diversity of values of whole socioecological floodplain systems. Management solutions protective of the societal values provided by floodplain ecosystem may include buffer zoning as a mitigation measure, but a more strategic solution may be zonation of land use based on suitability not only for crop production but recognising the full spectrum of societally beneficial ecosystem services demonstrated by RAWES assessment. A variety of drivers for a changing approach to floodplain farming – statutory, fiscal and self-beneficial – are highlighted, and are generically applicable beyond Britain with context-specific modification.

The institutional setting within which consumption and production occurs has profound influence on preferences and forms of production, and substantially shapes resource throughput of economies, pollution and land use. Institutional economics is arguably the most important subdiscipline of economics in enabling an inter-disciplinary and systems approach to ensure sustainable economy solutions. The purpose and academic contribution of the paper is to conduct the first systematic review of existing institutional economics frameworks that can be applied to explore sustainable development. The scientific value added of the review is to draw out, cluster, compare and contrast: the focus, contribution, use and institutional approaches of studies, as well as sector applicability, and aims of sustainable development addressed; and finally to identify key gaps. Results show that most frameworks can be classed as applying new institutional economics approaches (or similar) and focus on common property or social ecological systems. Most of these frameworks see institutions as rules and often have a strong focus on formal rules. Another key finding is that most frameworks address the environmental aim of sustainable development, but few address all three aims. There was also found to be a lack of frameworks with a foreground focus on the end consumer and downstream supply chains that drive resources use and environmental impact. Classical institutional economics is largely neglected by most frameworks, yet classical institutional economics can inform the cultural shift to more sustainable economies, because of its focus on a wider range of informal institutions.

Economic policies tend to downplay social and community considerations in favour of market-led and business-focussed support. The COVID-19 pandemic underscored the need for greater and deeper social cohesion and local social support networks while highlighting that an overreliance on market forces can create social problems at times of need. Community businesses (CBs) are not for profit organisations that provide services and produce goods where the profit (or surplus) is reinvested back into that community. This article explores why CBs in England responded in a variety of ways to the COVID-19 pandemic, assesses what government policy did to help and hinder their place-based operations, and explores the observed socioeconomics of their age-related volunteer staff churn. Some CBs were ravaged by the consequences of the pandemic and associated government policies with many becoming unsustainable, while others evolved and augmented their support for and services to their communities, thereby enhancing their community’s resilience. We highlight how adjustments to government policies could enhance the sustainability of CBs, making them and the communities they serve more resilient.

Although policy actions are being taken by many governments around the world on sustainable development, the application of institutional econo^gmics to sustainable development is still in its infancy. In the literature, there are a wide range of institutional economics frameworks deployed to explore aspects of sustainable development, but the majority focus on common pool resources or social ecological systems, often with a high focus on extractive parts of the economy, not consumption and upstream provision choices that drive the extraction. The current paper presents an institutional economics framework to address sustainable production and consumption. The research draws on literature, experiential knowledge and theory to construct the framework. The resulting framework leads to an institutional economics understanding of embeddedness for exploring sustainable production and consumption; an extended and wider conceptualisation of value and resources in the light of sustainable production and consumption; An exploration of governance structures (markets and organisations) as value and values articulating institutions in the light of sustainable production and consumption. Less work is conducted at the level of institutional environment, but by exploring literature examples of changes advocated at this level by scholars, it becomes apparent that changes beyond property rights will be required to bring forth sustainable production and consumption. The paper concludes by setting out that the institutional economics approach to sustainable consumption and production entails a ‘cultural shift’ towards more sustainable consumption; innovation in governance structures (for both markets and firms) towards sustainable production (and consumption); alongside changes in the institutional environment (and law) to create a selection environment where sustainable production and consumption can flourish.

The financial well-being of the charity sector has important social implications. Numerous studies have analysed whether the concentration of income in a few sources increases financial vulnerability. However, few studies have systematically considered whether the type of income (grants, donation, fund-raising activities) affects the survival prospects of the charity. We extend the literature by (a) explicitly modelling the composition of sources of income, (b) allowing for short-term volatility as well as long-term survival and (c) testing alternative specifications in a nested form. We show that the usual association between income concentration per se and financial vulnerability is a specification error. Greater vulnerability is associated with dependence on grant funding, not overall concentration. Previous studies showing that concentration of income per se is problematic are picking up a proxy effect. We also show that the volatility of income streams may be an important factor in the survival of charities, but that this also varies between income sources.

This paper presents a framework to enable case study analysis of sustainable development from business models innovation. Increasing economic development can give rise to trade-offs between economic growth and environmental degradation. Business model innovation can help address such trade-offs by refocusing value creation and capture towards less environmentally damaging activities. Business models therefore provide a critical tool in the move towards sustainable development. In this paper a literature review of existing business model frameworks is conducted and gaps found in the definition and conceptualisation of value, alignment with sustainable development, and assessment of social and environmental impacts and goals. More generally, there is a lack of in depth case studies in the sustainable business model literature. A framework is developed to address these gaps and to allow in depth analysis and understanding of the functioning of business models for sustainable development. Development and piloting of the framework made use of literature and co-operative enquiry. The framework of the paper is applied in depth with a unique energy company case study. Application shows economies of scope to be critical to the delivery of sustainable development. The business model framework addresses equity and distributional issues that are key to sustainable development, but missed by current frameworks.

Productivity is the preferred measure of firm-level efficiency and perceived to reflect resource use rates. Semi-structured interviews with restaurant managers in a tourism-dominated low productivity rural area reveal that they are motivated to supply products that they believe in and to sustain a quality of life that meets their needs rather than striving to achieve higher productivity. Pricing strategies, managerial objectives and local market characteristics are found to radically influence the area’s productivity value. An area’s productivity value might not be an indicator of resource use rates or productive efficiency, and could instead reflect resident managers’ motivations towards money and the presence of opportunities to achieve scale economies.