Beyond Profit: Sustainable Business Model Innovation in Ireland’s Emerging Seaweed Bioeconomy

Abstract

In the transition toward sustainable economies, niche blue bioeconomy ventures must rethink how they create, deliver, and capture value beyond purely financial returns. This study examines how Ireland’s seaweed-based small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) design and adapt sustainable business models within a context characterised by resource constraints, fragmented markets, and evolving regulatory frameworks. The research adopts a qualitative approach based on eight in-depth interviews conducted across Ireland, including six seaweed processing firms, one regulatory representative, and one sector expert. Using Resource-Based View (RBV) and Dynamic Capabilities (DC) frameworks, the study analyses how firms build, reconfigure, and deploy capabilities for sustainability-oriented innovation. Findings reveal a sector driven by entrepreneurial commitment and market-proximate experimentation, yet constrained by capability gaps, regulatory complexity, and limited institutional support. The paper contributes to understanding how micro-enterprises in the niche food business sectors operationalise sustainability in business models and highlights the need for coordinated policy and innovation support systems to enable scaling in emerging bio-based industries.