The purpose of this study is to develop a comprehensive methodological approach to assess the sustainability of the e-commerce business model based on the integration of key performance indicators into a single vector of business model sustainability. The proposed vector approach allows for predicting and evaluating the effects of different kinds of measures, identifying and implementing the most effective tools for sustainable e-commerce business development. The methodology of this study is based on correlation, cluster and regression analysis. The scientific contribution of this study is the proposed methodological approach, which not only allows one to analyze business model sustainability, but also to compare companies in a competitive environment to determine the priorities of their functioning to achieve leadership positions on the background of sustainable development. The correlation analysis proved that in modern conditions, both economic and environmental components are significant for business model effectiveness in e-commerce. The clustering of the studied e-commerce companies provided an opportunity to take into account the peculiarities of the studied companies, to group them by similar performance indicators. This made it possible to develop more accurate regression models for each cluster. In this case, there is a correlation between the sustainability vector of the business model of a company and its assignment to a particular cluster. The conducted modeling and determination of the level of business model sustainability allowed for determining a relationship between it and the performance of e-commerce companies in the context of economic, environmental and social dimensions. At the same time, the results show that increasing the sustainability vector brings a company closer to the business sustainability benchmark.

We propose new models for analyzing changes in the value of the company using stochastic discount rates. It is shown that for the majority of the companies under study, local changes in the rate of the company value growth (percentage changes to the previous level) are not explained by the corresponding changes neither in the weighted average cost of capital (WACC), nor in the cash flows. This fact, as well as the research results by J. Cochrane, who proved that discount rates volatility is the main contributor to price volatility, became initial prerequisites for building models based on stochastic discount rates. The work presents three models built on stochastic discount rates, where cash flows are assumed to be growing with a certain trend, and the factors affecting the price of the company are described by stochastic discount factors. These models are alternative in relation to the commonly used traditional cash flow discounting (DCF) models where the free cash flow is discounted through the WACC, or the free flow to capital at the opportunity cost of equity. The first model is used to analyze the dependence of the company value on investments. It uses free cash flow subject to zero growth. The second model uses net cash flow from operating activities plus interest, minus the minimum investment subject to zero growth. The third model uses net cash flow from operating activities plus interest adjusted to taxes. This model requires to estimate the rates of the company downsizing subject to zero investment. The third model is applicable for companies with volatile investments, where it is difficult to reliably estimate free cash flow in case of zero growth. The models are designed for analysis of the factors influencing the value of the company for value-based management. Another application of the models is the evaluation of investment value of the company and the answer to the question of its possible overestimated or underestimated value. The third way to apply this model is the empirical evaluation of the weighted average cost of capital applicable to the company’s investment projects, alternative to WACC, assessed by standard methods.

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