Governing sustainability transition: a collaborative business model case from the Mediterranean blue economy

The maritime and coastal economy is worldwide important in terms of employment in fishery, tourism, transport, nature preservation and energy sectors, and also contributing to food security. However, it is facing sustainability challenges due to climate change, with negative externalities such as increased water temperatures, rise of the sea level, acidification of water, loss of biodiversity, decreased fishery productivity, or extreme weather events (UNCTAD, 2023). Collaborative business models include joint activities of actors from diverse organizations (public, non-for-profit, industry, research), from different positions of the value chain and from different action levels (niche, regime and landscape), who's aim is to co-create sustainable value (Rohrbeck et al., 2013). Those collaborative business models with diverse actors can jointly address sustainability challenges. Our research aim was to get novel insights into collaborative business models contributing to the sustainability transition via a case example from the blue economy. The case of the French competitive cluster ‘Pôle Mer Méditerrannée' was studied, whose main aim is creating links between companies and research institutes to foster sustainable innovation for a blue economy. More than 500 projects have already been labelled, representing €1.2 billion for R&D. The governance model is linearly organised, with different bodies having specific attributions. Collaboration between members takes place via joint projects or networking events. Sustainable value is co-created by members' inclusion, collaboration and support, and via projects reducing environmental impacts. In general, for designing sustainable collaborative business models, a joint vision, innovation capability, well-organised governance structure, and equal participation and inclusion of representatives from different actor groups seem important.