Enabling Carbon-Neutral Business

Abstract

The push towards carbon-neutral business models has gained significant traction in response to growing environmental concerns, regulatory pressures, and market demands for sustainability. As businesses explore pathways to achieve carbon neutrality, a multitude of emerging technologies and strategies play crucial roles in this transformation. In particular, the adoption of generative AI, service-oriented business structures, and strategic market activities such as market exploration and exploitation are increasingly being recognized as critical enablers. However, the interactions between these factors remain underexplored, with limited understanding of how they synergize to support the transition to carbon-neutral operations. This study employs a fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to examine how different configurations of generative AI adoption, service orientation, inter-organizational cooperation, market exploration, and market exploitation contribute to achieving carbon-neutral business outcomes. Drawing on survey data from young startup managers and entrepreneurs, our findings reveal multiple pathways to carbon neutrality, highlighting the complexity of the transition process. The study emphasizes that no single factor is sufficient on its own; instead, a holistic combination of technological, structural, and market-based strategies is required. By providing these insights, this research contributes to the academic discourse on sustainability and digital innovation, offering actionable guidance to practitioners and policymakers seeking to facilitate carbon-neutral transformations in business operations.