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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the diversity of the practice of corporate sustainability, in terms of its drivers, where it features in the organisation structure, and how it is communicated. The authors suggest that what may be failing the global objective of sustainability is its diversification in meaning, purpose and practice.

Data was gathered through a semi‐structured interview process with 11 medium‐to‐large South African organisations. The organisations represented the financial services sector, the mining and industrial sector, and the food and beverage retail sector. The issues questioned included: perspectives on the sustainability concept, the drivers of sustainability actions, internal and external sustainability communications, profiles, and performance and strategies. The questions involved self‐ranking, but also provided for open‐ended and explanatory responses.

The results emphasise that corporate sustainability remains focussed on how organisations manage reputation risk, generate cost savings, and ensure long‐term profitability and competitive advantage. The results imply that corporate sustainability is merely a business agenda to protect organisation profits and economic growth in a manner that is seen to be environmentally and socially responsible.

The results lead to the conclusion that the diversification of corporate sustainability purposes and practices solidifies the self‐interest justification upon which it is based and its largely market‐oriented terms and conditions, leaving enormous potential for unsustainability.

The purpose of this paper is to present the findings of a bibliometric analysis of the evolution and structure of business model research in industrial marketing scholarship during the period between 2011 and 2020 and to discuss potential directions for future empirical research.

Bibliometric methodologies are deployed to objectively evaluate the business model research that has made the most impact within industrial marketing scholarship as well as the prominent scholars and key topics driving the discipline at points in time.

The findings demonstrate the formative but increasing engagement that industrial marketing scholarship has had with business model literature and the limited but increasing degree that business models have influenced industrial marketing literature. Potential directions for the empirical development of business model literature are argued to lie in the areas of collaboration and coopetition by examining the notion of value within the relationships, interactions and/or networks evidenced in European seaports business models.

Bibliometric analysis is retrospective in nature so developments in the literature appear only after some time has elapsed. Different keyword selection when formulating search strings for sampling may have brought some deviations in the analysis.

Research that investigates the link between business models and industrial marketing is still scarce. This paper is among the few that analyze objectively the evolution and structure of business model literature in industrial marketing scholarship from a longitudinal perspective with a particular emphasis on the period between 2011 and 2020.