Conference Programme

This paper addresses the paradox that despite significant corporate investment in sustainability, ecosystems essential for business viability such as forests, water, and biodiversity continue to degrade. We examine how firms can regenerate natural common goods when property rights are fragmented or contested. We develop a conceptual typology of regenerative business models grounded in Sikor and Lestrelin (2017) revised property rights conceptual schema. By disaggregating use, control, and authoritative rights, we theorize how rights configurations condition firms’ business models and their capacity for value creation, capture, and distribution. The typology identifies seven ideal-type models ranging from firm-led regeneration to intermediary and governance-based roles, each linked to distinct value logics. The framework provides managers with a diagnostic tool to select viable regenerative strategies under different rights regimes, helping them align profitability with commons regeneration. We extend business model and sustainability scholarship by integrating locus of governance authority and degree of integration of property rights into theorizing about regeneration, offering actionable guidance for managers confronting this unsolved problem.