A Review of Sustainable Business Models for Earth Observation-based Climate Services

The rapid expansion of downstream space activities in the New Space era is reshaping how economic, environmental and social value is created from space infrastructures. Commercial applications of Earth observation (EO), satellite navigation and communication increasingly drive sectoral growth and redefine value chains (Bousedra, 2023; Baber & Ojala, 2024). Concurrently, downstream data‐intensive services – particularly EO based climate monitoring and environmental applications – face growing expectations to contribute to sustainable and responsible business practice, integrating environmental stewardship, social justice and economic resilience. However, despite the acknowledged potential of satellite data to support climate adaptation, mitigation and sustainable development goals, we know relatively little about how sustainable business model innovation (SBMI) concepts and frameworks are applied to downstream space value chains. The mechanisms through which downstream intermediaries, platforms and service providers configure their value propositions, creation & delivery architectures and value capture logics to deliver triple-bottom-line outcomes remain fragmented and under-synthesised. This work-in-progress paper presents the protocol of a planned literature review that aims to systematically map and critically synthesise existing knowledge on SBMI as applied to the downstream space economy, focusing on EO based climate and environmental applications. Building on the triadic conceptualisation of SBMI as sustainable value proposition innovation (SVPI), sustainable value creation & delivery innovation (SVCDI), and sustainable value capture innovation (SVCI) (Shakeel et al., 2020; Bashir et al., 2022), the review will examine business model configurations that transform satellite data into value added services for public and private users engaged in climate mitigation, adaptation and territorial management. Methodologically, this work-in-progress outlines an initial plan to conduct a systematic literature review following Xiao and Watson (2019), using Web of Science and Scopus as primary databases. Recognising the emergent nature of New Space and downstream literatures, the design explicitly acknowledges possible methodological adaptation: depending on volume, diversity and maturity of identified evidence, the protocol may be refined toward a scoping review (Peters et al., 2020; Tricco et al., 2016) or an integrative review (Toronto & Remington, 2020). The paper concludes by articulating expected theoretical and practical contributions – including development of a taxonomy of sustainable business models for downstream EO services – and detailing how the review will be further developed prior to and following the SIMA 2026 conference.