Assessing Lean Startup for sustainable business models: Application of the SAFE framework

Abstract

This paper evaluates the Lean Startup (LS) methodology as a business modelling practice for sustainable innovation, focusing on its ability to support business models that integrate economic, social, and environmental value. To guide this assessment, we introduce the Sustainable innovation practices Assessment FramEwork (SAFE), a conceptual, multi-layered structure composed of a meta-model, a framework, and a two-step diagnostic tool. SAFE enables a structured evaluation of how LS applies sustainability logic throughout the business modelling process. The analysis shows that LS can facilitate business models that are adaptive and responsive to sustainability-related challenges and stakeholder needs. However, it also reveals tensions between LS’s emphasis on rapid market validation and the long-term, systemic orientation required for sustainable innovation. By highlighting strengths and limitations, SAFE identifies opportunities to adapt LS for better alignment with sustainability imperatives, offering a basis for future research and application across other innovation practices, such as the triple layered business model canvas or TBL accounting.

Keywords: Lean Startup, Valueholders, Sustainable business modelling, Business model innovation, Business-society-nature, Stakeholders