Sustainability advancement requires systemic changes in business networks. Given the complexity of instigating such transformation, power emerges as a central concept. This conceptual study aims to characterise systemic change towards sustainability within business networks by examining power relations among business actors. First, we identify which actors within various networks are seen to have power to drive sustainability change. Second, we analyse how this power may affect the advancement of systemic sustainability changes in business networks. Selected exemplifying cases from refurbished electronics, textiles, shipbuilding, and construction industries illustrate these power relations. The following bases of power are discerned: knowledge, materials, resources, data, technology, and leadership. As a result of their powers, actors (i) may or may not engage in new developmental interaction; (ii) enable or prevent (in coercive or non-coercive sense) the actions of other actors in the business network; and/or (iii) engage new actors into the network or exclude others from the network.  Our study contributes to prior literature on systemic change for sustainability in business networks by bridging change management and IMP research and offers avenues for further research.